Bompastor confirmed Melvine Malard will not be fit enough to face her former club, while Mayra Ramirez and Manaka Matsukubo remain out. A late decision will be taken on Nathalie Bjorn, who is expected to travel with the squad to the North-West.

Both sides go into the game off the back of disappointing results. The Blues were held to a 1-1 draw by Aston Villa at Stamford Bridge despite dominating the contest and creating plenty of good chances. Man United, meanwhile, were beaten 2-1 at London City Lionesses.

As well as looking ahead to this weekend's game and how her side will respond, Bompastor reacted to the Ballon d’Or awards, including the news Hannah Hampton could retain her Yashin Trophy.

Here is a summary of the best moments from Bompastor’s media conference…

On Hannah Hampton being nominated for the Ballon d’Or Goalkeeper of the Year this week…

‘She's a big asset, for sure. She's been playing well. My first season, she was unbelievable. We struggled a little bit more as a team last season, and we conceded more goals, but she’s one of the best in the world. I have already said that a lot.

‘The way we want to play, she's a big asset, with the quality she has as a goalkeeper in possession, out of possession. So I'm really happy to have her in my squad.’

On how her players have responded to the Villa draw…

‘I'm pleased with the answer from the players on the pitch. I'm not concerned about how good we are training. I think the intensity, the desire, the mindset is there in terms of working hard, trying hard. We need to reflect and be honest with each other in terms of what we are missing right now, but also not being too hard on ourselves.

‘We need to find the balance between playing beautiful football and having control in most of the games, but also trying to find a way to put the ball in the net and score some goals.’

On what the focus is on for the Man United game…

‘We need to keep the confidence and keep working hard. I spoke after the Villa game about the mentality, the mindset. It's a huge part of being ruthless in the box. That game could have been easily 3-0 half-time, and we need to have that mentality when we have the opportunities to kill the game after 45 minutes to do that.

‘This week I was coaching the players in the final details: around timings of the runs in the box, being in the right zones, what type of crosses do we want to deliver, what are the connections between the crosser and the players who are making the runs in the box.

‘It’s just for me to reinforce those messages, to coach them on the pitch, and make sure we get them right on the game on the weekend.’

On whether it’s a good time to play Man United…

‘No. My view is more to say it's always a difficult ground to travel to and to play at Man United, with the fans being hostile. They have a really good team.

‘They lost on the weekend, so I think they will come into this game with the desire to win the game. They are playing at home so yeah, it will be a difficult game for us again.’

On the possibility of Lauren James playing as a number nine…

‘That's one of the options I have right now. We played LJ a lot in that position last season because we had a lot of injuries there. She helped the team a lot playing that position.

‘When you talk about LJ, she'll bring the creativity on the pitch. She was the one who was able to score the goal on the weekend. She created a lot of opportunities.

‘My job is to make sure she's performing at her best level but also, to find ways for us as a team to be able to create many situations with her and, sometimes, without her. It's difficult to only rely on one player, and we are more predictable if we rely everything on one player. But when she's at her best, I think she's one of the best players in the world.’