On Sunday 28th November Manchester United travel down to Stamford Bridge to take on Chelsea. Michael Carrick will remain in charge for this game with reports suggesting that Ralf Rangnick will be at the helm by the Arsenal game.
Opposition
Chelsea are looking really strong. Thomas Tuchel has them absolutely flying. They have 5 wins and 1 draw in their last 6 games. In the Premier League of the 12 matches they have played, they have won 9, drawn 2 and only lost 1. The strange thing is that some of their performances haven’t been amazing but they keep churning out results.
Tuchel has stuck with a 3-4-2-1 formation for a while and will most likely do the same against United. Mendy will be in net. With a back three of Rudiger, Silva and Azpilicueta. Marcos Alonso and Reece James will most likely be the wing-backs, with the injury to Chilwell. With both Kovacic and Kante out, I’d expect Jorginho and Loftus-Cheek to start as a midfield two. With Mount and Hudson-Odoi playing just off the striker. Former Manchester United man, Romelu Lukaku will be hoping to play against his former club. However, Tuchel has hinted that he might only feature from the bench with a look to Timo Werner starting.
Manchester United
There might have been a case to made for United switching to a back three, to try and match Chelsea. But with the Maguire suspension and Varane still injured. I don’t think we really have the personnel to be trying that. So I would imagine that Carrick sticks with the same kind of formation that he used against Villarreal with that 3 man midfield.
David de Gea in net goes without saying. Aaron Wan-Bissaka on the right. Lindelöf and Bailly at centre-half with Maguire and Varane both out. And I would imagine that Alex Telles retains his place at left back. I think Fred and McTominay will both start. Although we could see McTominay in that slightly deeper role with Fred playing more as a number 8. And then Bruno alongside them.
The front three picks itself really. Jadon Sancho on the right, Marcus Rashford on the left and Cristiano Ronaldo up top. I think the key thing to try and win this game will be disrupting their build-up in midfield. The likes of Jorginho are crucial to the way that Chelsea play. If Fred and Bruno can disrupt those penetrative passes that he will look to make we could create some chances. The key thing then will be clinical finishing in front of goal. When you’ve got the firepower of Rashford, Ronaldo and Sancho that hopefully shouldn’t be too much of a problem.
With all that said, I am not confident going into this game. I really don’t expect us to come away with much. I don’t like being this negative, but I think if we got a draw we’d have to be happy with that. Hopefully we can try and contain them, or more likely hopefully we can try and outscore them to put three points on the board. We can hope.