Michael Carrick will be taking charge for his first game as caretaker manager as Manchester United take on Villarreal. The Reds face off against Unai Emery’s men tomorrow night at 17:45.
Opposition
Villarreal come into this game with a very mixed bag of form. 2 wins, 2 losses and 2 draws make up their last six results to be precise. In La Liga they have 3 wins, 7 draws and 3 losses to their name, putting them in 12th place. However, they currently sit on level points with United in the Champions League group.
This inconsistent run of form has meant some experimentation from Emery in terms of formation selection. He has tended to opt for a 4-3-3 ordinarily, however we have seen him go for a 4-4-2 at points and even a 4-2-2-2. That being said I imagine he will stick with his 4-3-3 to try and pack out the midfield area, where I expect his team will try and hold possession.
Rulli will retain his place in net. With a back four comprised of Pedraza, Torres, Albiol and Foyth. And then a midfield three of Coquelin, Capoue and Parejo. The front three will no doubt consist of Danjuma, Dia and Pino, with Gerard Moreno ruled out due to injury. I would expect Danjuma to cause some problems for United down their left hand side and create quite a lot of chances as he has done all season for them.
Manchester United
Obviously, the elephant in the room with this game is that it is the first match being helmed by Michael Carrick. The former assistant coach has taken over as caretaker manager with the sacking of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer a few days ago.
Whatever the state of United’s backroom staff and managerial situation, we need to win this game. If we want to try and turn this season around at some point we have to be in the Champions League. It really is as simple as that. If we don’t pick up three points from this game, we make it that much harder to qualify from the group. It wouldn’t be impossible to progress from the group. But we would be making our lives a lot more difficult.
Line-up
It’s almost impossible to predict what Carrick is going to go for. Will he stick with Ole’s 4-2-3-1? Go with a 4-3-3? Or try something completely different? No one really knows. Personally, I’m predicting that he goes with a 4-3-3 to try and combat Villarreal’s midfield possession.
David de Gea will keep his place in goal I’m sure. With a back four of Aaron Wan-Bissaka on the right. I think we might see Eric Bailly partener Maguire in central defence. And then Alex Telles at left-back because of Luke Shaw’s poor performances. I think if we had many other options we wouldn’t be seeing Maguire start for similar reasons.
As a midfield three then I’ve gone for Fred behind Donny van de Beek and Bruno Fernandes. I don’t think we can justify seeing the same kinds of midfields that we saw being selected under Ole. Carrick has to make some changes and Donny van de Beek was a shining light in the dark against Watford over the weekend.
A front three of Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Cristiano Ronaldo should be more than enough to get the job done. Again Sancho looked sharp against Watford and I think he needs to be rewarded for some good performances in what has been a poor team of late.
I expect this to be a tough game with Villarreal having a lot of the ball. If we can use the pace of Rashford and Sancho with the clinical finishing of Ronaldo I think we could get a result here. I don’t expect this to be a comfortable one. I am going for a 2-1 United win. We haven’t been able to keep clean sheets all season so why should we start now. But they have had a problem in converting their chances so I think we could outscore them.