Tomorrow afternoon Crystal Palace travel up to Old Trafford in what will be Ralf Rangnick’s first game in charge. After midweek success against Arsenal he will be hoping to convert that into something of a good run of form.
Opposition
Crystal Palace come into this game with a very mixed bag of form. In their last six games, they have won 2, drawn 2 and lost 2. In the Premier League they have only won 3 and lost 4 but drawns 7 of their 14 games. This gives them 14 points and sits them in 11th place in the league. Patrick Vieira has come in and not really changed too much about the results that Palace have been getting. Although notably they did beat Manchester City 2-0.
Vieira has tended to stick with the 4-3-3 formation, with Vicente Guaita in net. The back four will most likely be Tomkins, Andersen, Guéhi and Mitchell. With a midfield three of Gallagher, Milivojevic, and Kouyaté. And then a front three of Wilfred Zaha, Christian Benteke and Jordan Ayew. I think their main threat will be attacking down those wings with the likes of Zaha and Ayew.
Manchester United
This will be Ralf Rangnick’s first game in charge. He will obviously want to start things off with a win and this could be an ideal game for that. Although we have sightly struggled against Crystal Palace in recent years. In our past 6 matches with them, United have won 2, drawn 2 and lost 2. Rangnick coming in has gotten a lot of fans excited about what he might try to implement in the club in the future. But in terms, of this upcoming game I don’t think we should be expecting and drastic changes from the Arsenal game. That’s not to say that he won’t be working on things, but the complexity of Rangnick’s ideas will no doubt take time to implement.
Picking three points up against Arsenal was crucial in midweek. And if we are to try and salvage this season we cannot afford to drop points here either. Also, it is always good for a new manager to kick things off with a win. The general mood around the club can be defined by a manager’s opening few results. Hopefully, Rangnick can kick things off with a big three points.
Line-up
Trying to predict what Rangnick might go for in terms of line-ups is proving to be a bit challenging. The kinds of formations he has tended to use in the past haven’t really utilised traditional wide players, such as Sancho or Rashford. Although I doubt he will have had the time to work on new formations or anything like that. So I think we will see something slightly familiar with a 4-3-3 or a 4-2-3-1. I think David de Gea will start in net. Alex Telles at left back seems likely given Luke Shaw is still a doubt and Telles has looked good lately. Lindelof and Maguire seems nailed on with Varane still a doubt. And I think Dalot had a good performance against Arsenal and deserves to be given another start.
In midfield, I think we might see some combination of Fred, Donny and Bruno. Of all of the things we have been hearing about Rangnick’s philosophy one of the things that sticks out is that intensity and work rate. And I think that is very agile and aggressive midfield. But with Donny and Bruno in there, we still have plenty of creativity. And then up top, I think Ronaldo will start alongside Jadon Sancho and perhaps Jesse Lingard, or we could see Mason Greenwood. I think Rashford might not start just because he hasn’t looked quite back to his best and Rangnick might want to change things up a bit here.
With all that said, I think United should get the win here. Unsurprisingly I don’t think we are going to keep a clean sheet. But I think we could see some goals here. I’m going for a 3-1 United win. Let’s hope that Rangnick’s Reds can get off to a brilliant start with a good performance and another three points.