Here we go again! Manchester United’s final home game of the season comes this Monday evening. Ralf Rangnick welcomes Thomas Frank and his Brentford side to Old Trafford as the Red Devils see yet another disappointing season come to a close. Here is a look at what we could expect to see in this fixture.
Opposition
The Bees come into this game off the back of a very impressive first season in the Premier League. They had a really strong start to the season but looked to tail off in the middle. However, the signing of Christian Eriksen has seen Thomas Frank’s side have a huge upturn in form. In their last six games, they have 4 wins, 1 loss and 1 draw. The loss coming to Leicester and the draw being against Tottenham. Thanks to this resurgence from the Danish midfielder, Brentford look set to finish solidly in the middle of the table.
Thomas Frank has tended to be somewhat flexible in his formation selection this season, often switching between a back three or a back five. I would imagine that he opts for the 4-3-3 formation starting with David Raya in goal. A centre-back partnership of Jansson and Sørensen. Ajer and Henry at full-back. Janelt, Eriksen and Nørgaard as a midfield three. And then a front three of Wissa, Mbeumo and Toney.
Manchester United
The way that this team has been playing as this season comes to an end has been hopeless. The more we see of the way that these players don’t seem to be able to put out a decent performance, the harder it is getting to write about them. The only thing we are getting from these last few games is who Erik ten Hag should not be playing come next season. With this being the last home game of the season, you’d like to think that the players would put on a half-decent performance for the fans who have supported them in what has been the worst Premier League finish for this great club.
Line-up
With that in mind here is how I expect Manchester United to lineup. Ralf Rangnick will no doubt stick with the 4-3-3 formation starting with David de Gea in net. After Maguire is seemingly out for the rest of the season we will no doubt see Lindelof and Varane at centre-back. But for the lack of options, not for any merit we saw against Chelsea we could see Alex Telles and Diogo Dalot as full-backs.
In midfield, again for the lack of options we will no doubt see Matic, McTominay and Bruno Fernandes. Although it will be interesting to see how long Matic can last considering how recently he has played and in such quick succession. As for the forward line, I think we will see Anthony Elanga on one wing and Marcus Rashford on the other. Given his poor performances of late I would not be surprised to see a change here and we could see the likes of Mata or Lingard given the nod from the start with the option to bring on either Hannibal or Garnacho after not too long. And then up top of course it is going to be Cristiano Ronaldo.
Prediction
By all rights Manchester United should beat Brentford. Will they? I honestly don’t know. My heart says probably, but my head says no chance. How sad is that? We are Manchester United, our two biggest and closest rivals are competing for the highest of honours and we’re not even sure that we are going to beat a newly promoted Brentford. I think this could be another one all draw. There is no chance that we are going to keep a clean sheet with the combined threat of Eriksen and Toney and the shambolic defending of this back four. Ronaldo is the only one I can see getting on the scoresheet.