Many fans are beginning to wonder if this could be manager Louis van Gaal’s last game in charge of Manchester United as the pressure piles on the Dutchman to get a result against Stoke City at the Britannia this afternoon.
Mark Hughes Potters will represent a tough match for the Red Devils, with van Gaal needing to pick his strongest team for what is sure to be a very physical encounter.
Stoke City’s Xherdan Shaqiri, Bojan Krkic and Marko Arnautovic represent a real danger to Man United on the counter attack, which means this threat needs to be nullified if United hope to get anything out of their trip to the midlands.
Thanks to his rather abrupt departure from his pre-match conference on Wednesday we have to assume the Dutchman will play the best players he has available, with Matteo Darmian believed to be fit enough to return at right-back, but with no confirmation we are sticking with Ashley Young in that position.
Goalkeeper
No questions here with Spaniard David De Gea the first name on LVG’s team-sheet, for what will be an afternoon where the Dutchman hopes his No.1 can keep a clean-sheet.
Defence
If Matteo Darmian does not return at right-back it will be Ashley Young who starts, while in the middle LVG will go with the returning Chris Smalling and Phil Jones. With the tricky Swiss star Xherdan Shaqiri to deal with on the left side of the pitch we expect to see the versatile Daley Blind be called upon at left-back to deal with the threat the former Bayern Munich star possess
Midfield
Morgan Schneiderlin, Ander Herrera and Marouane Fellaini have to star in this afternoon’s match for United to come away with anything after the non-existent performance the midfield put in during the loss to Norwich. While Anthony Martial and Memphis Depay must use their pace to run at the Potters defence.
Attack
Captain Wayne Rooney came out in support of Louis van Gaal this week, and now needs to back up his words with goals, something United have found hard to come by leaving them in the current mess they are in.
Summary
To be quite honest, as much as we would like to see Manchester United win, so many teams come away from the Britannia disappointed due to the way Stoke City play which has us backing a 1-1 draw at odds of 11/2 with Bet365.
