Preview: Manchester United Vs LASK

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by WarrenMenezes

by WarrenMenezes

05/08/2020

In what should be a smooth sailing second leg of the Round of 16 of the Europa League, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has confirmed that he’ll play a side similar to the one in the first leg that we won by 5 goals.

Manchester United have added Ethan Laird and Teden Mengi to the Europa League roster but will miss out on Axel Tuanzebe, Phil Jones and Luke Shaw. The trio are expected to return when the new season commences.

My predicted line-up (4-2-3-1): Sergio Romero continues in goal in the Europa League, having kept 7 clean sheets in 9 games. Brandon Williams obviously plays at left-back because Shaw’s out. But we could also see Fosu-Mensah be given a start instead of Williams. Bailly and Teden Mengi as our center-halves. I’m really excited to see Mengi start tonight; I mean I hope he does. Finally, Ethan Laird at right-back.

Scott McTominay and Fred should be given the nod to play in the middle. It feels like it’s been ages since they’ve played as they were restricted to only small roles in the Premier League. Daniel James, Jesse Lingard and Juan Mata could make up our attacking half of the midfield.

Odion Ighalo will lead the line and could be the star of tonight. He scored a fantastic goal in the first leg and should be able to find the net tonight once again.

I do expect players like James Garner and all to play tonight as Ole will try to give key players rest. This game might not mean much to us and all of us will expect to cruise to the next round unless LASK somehow manage to beat us 6-0.

Manchester United have scored the most goals and kept the most clean in this season’s Europa League. The Red Devils are also one of the favourites to win the competition this year. The last time the team progressed to the quarter-finals we won the Europa League in 16/17 under Jose Mourinho.

Bits from Solskjaer’s Press Conference:
- Going all out, How important is it to win the UEL? The team’s developed all through the season and of course we’re delighted with finishing third, but then next step for this team is getting hands on a trophy. We’ve been to two semifinals, the Carabao Cup and FA Cup this year, we want to go one step further and win something.
- Thoughts on Jesse and where the future lies for him: Jesse is such an infectious lad (in a good way) in and around the group, always in a good mood, even hiding all his troubles, so we know how much it meant to him (goal Vs Leicester) but it also meant a lot to us because we see him every day. Great finish to the season but now it’s about kicking on and now we’re going to see the better side of Jesse because we’ve seen that in training all the time.
- Consider giving senior player a break after securing CL spot? That’s our focus (winning UEL), the players want to play, they don’t want a break, when they’re in and around the place, they want to play and they’re bothering me all the time, ‘I don’t want to rest, I want to play’ so it’s not easy at times to say ‘No! you’re resting.’ But we go into that tournament wanting to win, I hope the players need to win, like I do. For me as a coach or a manager, it’s a different feeling to player, you know you represent so much more than a team.
- Clues on who all start besides Lingard and nature of Shaw and Tuanzebe’s injuries, who’ve been omitted from the squad: Axel started to get niggles early on when we restarted and he had to have an operation on his foot, he’ll be back early Septemberish, same with Luke. They both should be ready when the league starts. Apart from that Jesse will start and the team will not be too different from the one that played the last time against LASK in March.
- Whether United will look for center-backs: We’re always looking to improve the squad. We’ve been very solid at the back. Sometimes, you may be exposed for pressing as high as we’ve done.
- Any concerns with the limited rest before the start of next season? Hopefully we’ll get some help if we get to the end to start a little late, it is what it is and I think this year has been a special one for the whole world. I’ll certainly look after the players and give them time to recharge, maybe a couple of weeks and then we’ll have a quick turnaround.
- How important is it to get the first trophy in building a winning mentality? It’s massive. I think you can see that like when Sir Alex won a trophy for the first time, that was the start of the Premier League era. It started with the FA Cup. Personally, when I won my first trophy as a player, it made me hungrier because you saw the highs of it, saw how much it meant for everyone. As a coach, I first won the league with Molde, that was the first time for the club in the 100 year history. We won it 4 times in like 8 years so it was a big change for that club. For this team as well, if we can get our hands on a trophy, it’s a big step forward.
- How has the football changed since Ole took over: I think every manager has their own style and there’s no right or wrong way of playing football. It’s whatever the manager believes in, that’s the way he’ll manager or coach throughout his career. I’ve been at this club for 11 years as a player, then I’ve been almost 4 years as a coach under Sir Alex at the reserves, then in the first team and I’ve been influenced by those years so my style of football has looked like that. Plus, I’ve had some good times in Norway. We were one of the first teams or countries that really went for a lot of counter-attacking, more penetrational football, risk taking football and you want a mix between both sides. We’re working on pressing high, we’re working on being able to counter-attack and dominate, and we work on all the things.