Patrick Rees
After facing a Derby defeat against the cross-town rivals Manchester City, the Red Devils will now fly to Netherlands to play their first Europa League fixture of the new campaign against the Eredivisie side, Feyenoord.
The Devils steeped on to the turf of Old Trafford with all hearts out last weekend, but failed to deliver the promises against the rivals and this resulted in a 2-1 Derby defeat. The Citizens completely dominated the game in every area and never gave Mourinho’s men a change to exploit their half.
Ibrahimovic scored the only goal for the Devils and this led the manager to assess his squad yet again, for the bigger fixtures. Players like Pogba, Fellaini and Mkhitaryan utterly failed to deliver the form they were expected to, and now the manager will be hoping to get a win out of the next fixture.
But the Dutch giants are no easy task. Looking at their recent form, they are well capable of giving United a run for their money as they have scored 15 goals in their last five games and have conceded just two.
Recent Form:
Feyenoord
Win 3-1 vs Den Haag (H)
Win 4-1 vs Excelsior (H)
Win 1-0 vs Heracles (A)
Win 2-0 Twente (H)
Win 5-0 Groningen (A)
Man United
Loss 2-1 vs Man City (H)
Win 1-0 vs Hull (A)
Win 2-0 vs Southampton (H)
Win 3-1 vs Bournemouth(A)
Win 2-1 vs Leicester (H)
Feyenoord vs Manchester United Team news:
The Devils do not really have a major injury concern, but the recent reports have suggested that the 21-year-old defender, Luke Shaw is set to miss the trip due to his hamstring injury. He picked up the injury in United’s 2-1 Manchester derby defeat to City on Saturday afternoon and Jose Mourinho is now likely to use Argentina international Marcos Rojo for his first start of the season instead.
Ironically, Shaw had his leg broken when United played at PSV Eindhoven in the Champions League group stage last September. His leg was broken by a bad tackle by Mexico international Hector Moreno which went surprisingly unpunished by the referee.
Furthermore, a huge transition is expected in the lineup as the manager will be looking to experiment amongst the existing players. According to the reports from the Guardian, Marcus Rashford is likely to start the game as the manager has recently told that he has a bright future at the club.
“For me the next big game is against Feyenoord and the next game [Rashford] is going to play. That is the only thing I can say,” Mourinho said.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic has been prolific if a little stodgy in his movement so far and Mourinho suggested he may even choose to play both strikers through the centre in future. “Wide man or we play with both, which we can do perfectly like we did against Hull.”
Predicted Lineup for Manchester United:
Goalkeeper: David De Gea
Defenders: Darmian; Bailly; Smalling; Rojo
Holding Pair: Schneiderlin; Herrera
Attacking Trio: Mata; Rooney; Rashford
Striker: Zlatan Ibrahimovic
Key Facts:
- Feyenoord’s last 24 fixtures have ended in 20 wins, 3 draws and just 1 defeat!
- 5 wins out of 5 in the league see’s them top of the Dutch table.
- United’s defeat to City at Old Trafford ended a 4 game winning streak.
- Feyenoord have never beaten United in a competitive match.
Head to Head:
04/11/97 – Feyenoord 1-3 United
21/10/97 – United 2-1 Feyenoord
Prediction:
As mentioned earlier, United might see a great transition in the squad as many players might face the bench if Mourinho tends to rotate his squad, but one thing is for sure; the defence is going to be the tightest area in the squad. Be it Bailly-Blind or Bailly-Smalling, Mourinho will manage to keep a hold on Feyenoord’s attackers.
Looking at the recent goal-scoring form, Feyenoord do have an upper hand in the game but given the fact that what Jose is up to, Manchester United could well cut the comedy for the Dutch side. A tough encounter is expected, but we do feel that United will come out as a winner.
2-0 United
