Manchester United extended their unbeaten run to nine games following their win over Derby County in the FA Cup on Thursday. The Red Devils host rivals and neighbours Manchester City today in the Premier League. United will be confident of getting a good result against Pep Guardiola’s men, having already defeated them twice this season.
United won the reverse fixture 2-1, while also winning the second leg of the League Cup semi-final. A win for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side could see them go level with Chelsea in fourth if they win and the Blues lose.
Let’s take a look at the Manchester United lineup for the crunch game against Manchester City.
Team News
Paul Pogba is closing in on a return, but this game against City will come too soon, while Marcus Rashford is still a long way away from a return.
Three of United’s key men – captain Harry Maguire, right-back Aaron Wan-Bissaka, and winger Daniel James could be doubts for the derby. But, manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer sounded optimistic about the trio’s availability for Sunday’s game.
Despite making a costly error, David de Gea should return to the Manchester United lineup with Romero as the only viable backup.
Ole has gone for the 3-man at the back formation for most of the tough games this season. Even though he has used both 3-4-1-2 and 4-2-3-1 in two games against City already this season, we are backing him to play with an extra central defender once again.
In that case, Victor Lindelof, Harry Maguire and Luke Shaw will form the 3-man backline in the Manchester United lineup.
Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Brandon Williams will be the two wing-backs in that case while Diogo Dalot, Eric Bailly, Phil Jones and Axel Tuanzebe will be on standby for the above positions.
Such a system will see a number of options to choose from for Ole in midfield which might result in the exclusion of Scott McTominay who returned from injury not too long back.
We expect Fred and Nemanja Matic to be stationed in central midfield with Bruno Fernandes operating in a free role ahead of them in the Manchester United lineup.
Anthony Martial will start as one of the two strikers, while Daniel James – who has been effective in counter-attacking situations against big teams – will play alongside him. If James is not fit, Mason Greenwood should start, while Odion Ighalo’s brace against Derby County in the FA Cup will give Solskjaer a selection headache upfront.
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