Tomorrow night Manchester United host Burnley at Old Trafford in the Premier League. This game comes off the back of a couple of shocking performances from the Red Devils and things need to start improving soon. Let’s have a look at what we might expect from this fixture.
Opposition
Burnley come into this match with pretty poor form. From their last 6 matches they have only 1 win which came against Brentford, 4 draws and 1 loss to Newcastle. In the league overall they have played 15 games. Of those 15, they have only won 1, drawn 8 and lost 6. This gives them a total of 11 points and puts them in 18th place. Considering how long Burnley have managed to stay in the Premier League, since their promotion, this situation is pretty worrying for them. And surely they will need to turn things around if they want to be staying in the top flight.
In terms of their line-up Sean Dyche will definitely be sticking with the 4-4-2 formation. There were questions over whether Nick Pope was out with Covid, so we could see Wayne Hennessey lineup in goal. As a back four we will most likely see Lowton, Tarkowski, Mee and Taylor. And then in midfield, Gudmundsson and McNeil will most likely start on the wings. With Westwood and Brownhill looking to start in the central midfield areas. And then a strike partnership of Wood and Vydra.
Manchester United
After two really poor performances from Manchester United in the last two games something really has to change. I think a lot of us would like to see some sizable changes in the starting XI compared with the last game. But whether that is possible with certain players still potentially recovering from Covid is a different matter. And whether Rangnick will make these changes is another question.
In terms of predicting the lineup Ralf will no doubt try and stick with the 4-2-2-2. David de Gea has been our saviour in recent games and will retain his place in net. I think we are going to see Maguire and Varane as the centre-back pairing. I think we could see the return of Luke Shaw at left-back purely from a rotation point of view with games coming thick and fast. And then at right-back I think Rangnick will stick with Diogo Dalot.
In the midfield I’d hope that we don’t persist with Fred and McTominay. I think Matic could come in useful in this game. With the height and physicality that Burnley can have. Matic could be useful here, as well as his ability to make a pass through the lines. If we don’t see Donny van de Beek get a game here then there really is no hope for him. In those two wide areas I think we have to see Sancho on the right. He has been our only player who looks like they’re able to genuinely create anything. And then on the left we could see Rashford given that Bruno is suspended because he has had 5 yellow cards.
And then up top, it has to be Cavani and Ronaldo. Cavani looked electric when he came on for the second half against Newcastle. Both of those two playing together should cause plenty of problems for Burnley’s defence. I have a feeling though that this is going to be a really tough game. Burnley are defensively pretty solid and well drilled. So they could prove tough to break down. I don’t see us keeping a clean sheet either. With that in mind I am going for a 2-1 United win. It’s going to be tough and probably a horrible watch, but hopefully we can come away with all three points.