Manchester United are back in Premier League action. This rescheduled match sees the Red Devils travel down to the Brentford Community Stadium. Let’s have a look at what we might expect from United’s first Premier League match against Brentford.
Opposition
Brentford come into this game with pretty poor form. In their last 6 matches in all competitions they have only 2 wins and 4 losses. In the League overall they have played 21 matches. Of those they have won 6, drawn 5 and lost 10. This gives them a total of 23 points and puts them in 14th place. Objectively, that isn’t amazing. But for a newly promoted team, and a debut Premier League season they are doing pretty well.
Thomas Frank has tended to stick with a 3-5-2 formation starting with Álvaro Fernández in goal. A back three comprising of Pinnock, Jansson and Ajer. Canós and Roerslev as the wing-backs. And then a midfield three of Jensen, Nørgaard and Janelt. With a strike partnership of Mbeumo and Toney.
Manchester United
Things are feeling really negative with Manchester United at the moment. It feels like we are saying the same things over and over again. There is no control in the midfield. We are making basic errors. We can’t string together passes and work chances to fruition. How much longer are we going to be saying these things before we see a good performance?
Hopefully, this match against Brentford might be the right opportunity for that. It seems that Ralf Rangnick has stopped trying to make the 4-2-2-2 formation work here and has adapted his style to the 4-2-3-1 starting as usual with David de Gea in net. And then Lindelof and Varane could persist as centre-backs although Harry Maguire could make a return here. Dalot and Shaw will most likely return as full-backs.
As much as some people don’t want to see it, Fred and McTominay will probably start as the two deeper midfield players. I just don’t think Ralf sees any genuine upgrades currently in the squad. With Pogba returning to training maybe he can be brought back into the side soon, but this game might be too soon. Bruno in the 10 is in no doubt with some important goals from him last time against Aston Villa. I’d go for Anthony Elanga on the left and Jadon Sancho on the right. As good as we know Mason Greenwood and Marcus Rashford can be, I think both of them haven’t been at their best lately. And a game off could be good for all parties. And then Ronaldo seems to be ready to start again, after a small injury concern.
Score prediction
It’s really hard to tell how United are going to play at the moment. We can have 30 minutes where we look like a proper team who can control the game and be on top. Or we can completely forget how to play football, not be able to string two passes together and concede two goals in ten minutes. So honestly I really don’t know how it’s going to go down against Brentford. I don’t think United are keeping a clean sheet. With the threat of players like Ivan Toney and United’s ability to just switch off in games, I think both teams are getting goals. With that in mind I am going to go for a bit of an out of the blue prediction with a 3-2 United win. I’d love to see Bruno back in the goals, if Ronaldo features I’m sure he’ll contribute and maybe either Elanga or Sancho chipping in as well.