On Wednesday evening United will find themselves in a unique position: needing to bounce back despite winning our last game.
The collapse against Coventry City was so catastrophic, the margins by which we scraped through so small, that Ten Hag and most of our players came away from the tie looking worse than before the game started.
United welcome bottom club Sheffield United to Old Trafford on Wednesday evening, and needless to say, a convincing win and good performances are minimum expectations.
One win in seven has left the Reds in seventh place, behind Newcastle on goal difference, and in real danger of either missing out on European football altogether, or the ignominy of qualifying for the Europa Conference League.
The permutations of European football qualification are complicated, but essentially, United will probably need a 6th-place finish or to win the FA Cup to make it into the Europa League, which is probably better than nothing. 7th will mean the Europa Conference League, which is definitely not.
Forget Champions League qualification – it’s not going to happen.
We’re where we are due to recent poor performances against Bournemouth and Brentford, mixed in with the naivety of losing to Chelsea in injury time and dropping points at home to Liverpool, and then there is Sunday’s FA Cup debacle. United just need to beat Sheffield United, move on quickly and win again at the weekend.
Whilst the Blades are bottom of the league, they do have some quality and are fighting for their lives. The last time this fixture was played at Old Trafford (in 2021), they beat United 2-1. Defeat for United would be 5 league games without a win – which would be the first time that’s happened since 2019.
Manchester United Team News
Another game, another set of injury concerns – the story of United’s season.
In his press conference Ten Hag cast doubt on the availability of Marcus Rashford, but said Alejandro Garnacho should be fit, after both picked up knocks against Coventry. Bruno Fernandes apparently injured his hand but should be OK, whereas Scott McTominay looks unlikely to be fit.
There was no update on Jonny Evans, Willy Kambwala or Sofyan Amrabat at the time of writing, so Casemiro may end up partnering Harry Maguire again.
United continue to be without Victor Lindelof, Tyrell Malacia, Lisandro Martinez, Luke Shaw, Raphael Varane and Mason Mount.
Manchester United Predicted Lineup
Onana;
Dalot, Casemiro, Maguire, Wan-Bissaka;
Eriksen, Mainoo, Fernandes;
Garnacho, Hojlund, Antony.
Sheffield United Team News
Sheffield United’s Oli McBurnie and Gustavo Hamer are doubts after picking up knocks against Burnley this weekend.
Tom Davies, Rhian Brewster and Daniel Jebbison are back in light training, while Jack Robinson has a chance of returning from injury.
Form Guide
Manchester United Premier League form: DDLDWL
Manchester United form (all competitions): WDDLDW
Sheffield United Premier League form: LLDLDD
Sheffield United form (all competitions): LLDLDD
Prediction
It’s becoming increasingly difficult to predict United games, but after the shocking collapse at the weekend you would expect a reaction. Clean sheets are hard to come by for United at the minute and with Sheffield scrapping for their lives, we can see them scoring, but expect United to prevail in a low-scoring game.
Predicted score: Manchester United 2-1 Sheffield United
