Right then, back once again. Tomorrow night, Old Trafford plays host to Thomas Tuchel’s Chelsea side. This should ordinarily be a huge fixture. However, with the state of the league table and the collapse of the Red Devils this season, this game doesn’t really carry a lot of weight. A win for us, however unlikely, could see us closer to top four but realistically that is not something we are going to achieve this season. With that in mind here is a look at what we might expect to see as Thomas Tuchel takes on his former mentor Ralf Rangnick.
Opposition
Tuchel has the Blues carrying on pretty much a consistent run of results. Despite a disappointment in the Champions League quarter-finals, and the loss to Arsenal they are doing pretty well. Considering the chaos surrounding the ownership of the club, I think Tuchel is doing very well to carry on performing to a relatively consistent standard. In their last 6 games across all competitions they have 4 wins and 2 losses. In the league they look set to finish 3rd, sitting 5 points ahead of Arsenal having played one game less than their London rivals. A win for them here would no doubt cement that 3rd place finish.
With that in mind here is how I expect them to line up tomorrow night. Tuchel has tended to stick with the 3-4-2-1 formation, starting with Mendy in goal. A back three of James, Silva and Rudiger. With Alonso on one wing and Loftus-Cheek on the other. A midfield duo of Kante and Jorginho. Mason Mount will no doubt operate in that number 10 position. With the two up top being Kai Havertz and Timo Werner.
Manchester United
This is getting really tough now. Honestly it feels pointless going into these games. Right now as a United fan nothing on the pitch is worth getting excited about. Unless we were going to see a complete academy side fielded, it feels pointless. We know that none of these players care, there are probably only one or two who will actually put in a bit of a shift. And that in itself is a testament to where we are as a club right now. We’ve got fans on social media praising Scott McTominay after a very mediocre performance against Arsenal simply because he gave a good post-match interview. What is that about? Now, I like Scott, he seems to care and carry himself well and is generally available for most games. But let’s get it right, he is having a poor season and last weekend was no different. I just think we could all do with this season being over.
Line-up
I’m sure that Ralf Rangnick is as sick of some of these players as we as fans are, and no doubt he will have a lot of information to pass on to Erik ten Hag upon his arrival at the Theatre of Dreams. That being said he still has a job to do and has to field a side to face Chelsea tomorrow evening. I would expect Ralf to stick with the 4-3-3 formation. David de Gea should return in goal, after putting in a few big saves against Arsenal. Harry Maguire is reportedly unavailable, so I would expect Lindelof and Varane to both start. As for the full-back situation, Alex Telles had a pretty poor performance and should probably be dropped. So I wouldn’t be too surprised to see Dalot on one side and Wan-Bissaka on the other flank.
In terms of midfield, both Fred and Pogba are out. As such, I would imagine that we see Matic alongside McTominay and Bruno. That is unless we get a full performance from someone like Hannibal, although I don’t know how likely that is to see him from the start. I would imagine that we see Anthony Elanga and Marcus Rashford out wide, with Jadon Sancho reportedly not available for selection. Again that is unless we see someone like a Garnacho feature. And then up top, I have no doubt that it will be the main man Cristiano Ronaldo.
Score prediction
This is not going to be a good evening for Manchester United fans. Nothing about our performances, this year, let alone in recent weeks suggests we are going to turn up against the third best team in the league. I don’t usually like being so negative in my predictions. I like to have a bit of hope. However, this team has found a way to suck that hope out of me and a lot of fans. We are more than likely going to lose, if we got a draw great, if we by some miracle won amazing, but knowing United this season we would beat Chelsea then lose to Brentford next week and still end up finishing 6th of 7th.