Man Utd V Leicester Preview – Simon Mack

Manchester Utd vs Leicester City

Saturday 14^th September 2019 15:00

Old Trafford

The foxes Premier League campaign resumes again this Saturday with an away trip to Manchester United.

The media are sure to whip up quite a frenzy around the Harry Maguire vs Jamie Vardy match up as the former city team mates and friends go head to head for the first time since Maguire’s big money move to the Northwest in the summer.

The red devils started the season brightly with a 4-0 home win against Chelsea but since then they have been winless, and draws at Wolves and Southampton straddled a shock home defeat to Crystal Palace, the first ever Premier League victory for the South Londoners against the English football powerhouse.

Despite United’s inferior league campaign record to date compared to the Foxes they have scored a goal more and conceded only one more so far, and it could be said that their fortunes with injuries have also cost them more dearly than their visitors.

Currently lying in 8^th spot in the table (3pts behind 3^rd placed city) united head into this one with hopes of a return to the starting eleven for Frenchman Anthony Martial  and Luke Shaw.  Jesse Lingard, Paul Pogba & Aaron Wan-Bissaka all wound up at home rather than representing their national sides but all three could be declared available for a match that red devil’s boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer will be hoping to win and kick start his spluttering season.

For the foxes Brendan Rodgers has no major injury doubts going into this one with all returning from international duty without concern. His only match day squad related issue remains Wes Morgan’s back complaint, and the city boss can go with Filip Benkovic or use the versatile cover of Christian Fuchs as back up instead.

Rodgers changed the look of his side for the last outing at home to Bournemouth introducing some genuine width with Marc Albrighton and Harvey Barnes in the starting line-up whilst Wilfred Ndidi was the sole holding midfielder in front of the back 4, and this time out he may well add the impressive Hamza Choudhury to the mix to provide some more metal to the city mix in this top 6 barometer battle.

Leicester’s travelling support will be passionate and vocal with their plaudits for centre back Caglar Soyunchu during this one and their new song for the city defensive star is certain to get a loud airing. The city fans will also be hoping to sing the names of Youri Tielemans and Ayonze Perez who have both had steady rather than tree uprooting starts to their seasons.

With the way early exchanges have unfolded Leicester’s hopes of being serious contenders for a top 6 finish have been encouraged, and whilst this match will be a further indicator victory away at Old Trafford may well have some beginning to imagine the foxes chances of ending their league campaign even higher than 6^th spot might just be a possibility.

The bookies and pundits are fairly evenly split on this conventional Saturday afternoon encounter with a fairly level mix of narrow victories predicted for both sides along with an equal number of draws foreseen. What all seem to agree on is the fact that this tie will not end goalless, and given city’s expansive and positive performances to date if united go on the offensive the lethal combinations of Vardy/Maddison/Tielemans/Perez/Barnes /Ricardo could wind up troubling the scorers on more than one occasion.

From a city point of view remaining unbeaten after this one would leave most happy with the weekend’s toil, but given recent form foxes fans and players must all travel north buoyant and positive about their chances of a trip back down the M6 with all 3 points.

Manchester United Predicted Starting XI:

De Gea, Wan-Bissaka, Lindelof, Maguire, Young, McTominay, Matic, Rashford, Pogba, James, Martial.

Leicester City Predicted Starting XI

Schmeichel, Pereira, Evans, Soyuncu, Chilwell, Ndidi, Perez, Choudhury, Tielemans, Maddison, Vardy.