Stretford End: United And You

Preview: Manchester United Vs Southampton

13/07/2020

Manchester United could move into third with a win against Southampton tonight. Chelsea and Leicester City suffered shocking defeats in Match Day 28 and United could capitalize on their failures to nick into a Champions League spot.

Phil Jones and Axel Tuanzebe continue to remain sidelined for the Red Devils while their opponents Southampton will be without Moussa Djenepo, Sofiane Boufal and Yan Valery. Centre-back Jannick Vestergaard will be assessed before today’s game.

I’m going to predict an unchanged line-up which will see us play the same eleven for the fifth successive game, a 4-3-3: David de Gea in goal, covered by a defensive unit of Luke Shaw at left-back, Victor Lindelöf and Harry Maguire at centre-back and Aaron Wan-Bissaka at right-back.

Paul Pogba, Nemanja Matic and Bruno Fernandes continue in midfield. Paul Pogba finally scored in United’s 3-0 victory over Aston Villa. Both Bruno and Pogba have been complementing each other beautifully and Pogba deemed Matic as his ‘mentor’ who instructs him what to do during the game.

United’s mercurial forwards in Marcus Rashford, Anthony Martial and Mason Greenwood complete our attack. Solskjaer hinted that Greenwood might not be dropped due to his fantastic performances. The 18 year old scored a solid one against Villa and could be a thorn for the Saints tonight.

Manchester United will be brimming in confidence after cruising past Aston Villa in a 3-0 victory. The result stretched our unbeaten run to 17 games in all competitions and 10 games in the PL. Meanwhile Southampton shared a point with Everton in a 1-1 draw. Danny Ings scored his 19th goal of the season and will be a threat for Ole’s men as the 27 year-old has a good record against the top 6 this season.

The last few times whenever clubs above us in the table have slipped, United too have taken the fall. The Red Devils will have to keep their feet on the ground and treat this game like a big one. Southampton have been on a decent run and have played some good football. The Saints have picked 7 points of 9 in their last three games which include big results against Manchester City (1-0) and Everton (1-1).

Bits from Solskjaer’s Press Conference:
- OGS thoughts on Jack Charlton’s demise and memories: A legend of football. A gentleman. I’ve watched Norway play Ireland in the World Cup 94. He’s always so passionate while speaking and it’s sad to hear (about his demise).
- Greenwoods focus: At that age you’ve got so much energy. You’ve got no fear. You just go and want to play football. If we have a day off he’ll go and play football with his mates. I’m not worried about Mason this season. We’ve just got to look after him and of course in his whole career. He’s a fantastic boy to work with. He loves playing football and at the moment he gets results and rewards for his hard work.
- Has Greenwood surpassed expectations? Not really. We know what he’s capable of and we always trusted him to be a part of this squad and chip in with performances. Of course we see that every day, I’ve seen since I came to the club 18 months ago. He’s just a natural footballer and when you put natural good footballers with better footballers that he’s used to playing with, that will just create more opportunities to show his qualities. The club they know what they’re doing when they’re educating people and the players.
- Benefits of playing the same eleven: There’s so many things you need to consider when you manage a team and of course there’s a squad. We got players here that are chomping at the bit that want to play. But you got players who are in their rhythm and keep on playing well, so there’s less work on the training ground. There’s loads of decisions that are to be made but they make it easier by playing well and performing well and looking after themselves. So if we don’t get too many injuries, there’s no reason to change too much when you are doing well.
- Planning for next season: There’s quite a lot of planning going on. When do we start the league?  That is obviously determined by how far we go in Europe. So you can’t really decide the training program. There’s so many small decisions and of course transfers that’s sometimes out of our hands as well because if the team is going well, what do we need, what do we not need, you get injuries, so that’s just a way of working in this job, that you always have to plan for different scenarios. But now the uncertainty of dates, how much holiday we can give them, how next season will look like? It’s still up in the air.
- CL qualification will have a dramatic effect in the short term? I don’t think it’s like a dramatic decision. I don’t think the club would panic or suddenly go crazy with plans that we’ve already talked about for the years to come. You have to have a long term plan but of course short term plan, maybe some decisions will be easy to make if you get to the CL.
- Does it feel like Utd of the old days? If we were challenging for the trophies maybe I would say but now it’s just to keep developing the culture, keep doing the right things, keep going one game at a time. We’ve just got to go one game at a time, one day at a time in the training ground environment and the culture. We keep on pushing because every day is a chance to either break or make the culture.
- Southampton: First of all, Southampton’s a very fine football club with tradition and you can see it’s a proper football club. I didn't expect Ralph to get sacked because I have followed his time there and you know what he’s doing. I’ve got huge respect for the way that both the club and they have turned it around, they have … call it German aggressive, rock and roll style of football, direct, it’s high energy, it’s  hard work but it’s difficult to play against. If you want to be a part of his team, you’ve got to be able to run 10-12k, you’ve got to be able to sprint. We watched a few games and I really enjoy watching them. Its high entertainment and high energy all the time.
- Entertaining football: It’s about winning of course it is because you want to win trophies. But it’s also about our fans and the way we approach the game, the way we approach football, that we play with pace, power, no fear, take risks and we’ve got players who’ve got quality. That’s just the DNA of the football club. I’m happy when we score goals and don’t concede but it’s always being built on a strong foundation.