This season just feels like it's been one big, long international break. Since we started back in August there's been a grand total of 3 International breaks. It's not really felt like the season has truly got going but fortunately the international break that we've just had is the last one until March! Yay! No more interruptions! Anyway, enough about international football, it's time to look at the weekends game and the visit of Manchester United.
So how are United doing form wise? Well, unless you've been living under a rock for the past few months you'll no doubt know that Sheffield United are FIFTH in the Premier League. Fifth! I know it's still early days and all but to see my club who three years ago were bottom of League One now mixing it up with teams like Man City and Chelsea is genuinely mind boggling. Combine that with the fact that we're unbeaten in five and are still unbeaten away from home, you can't help but feel a little bit confident that we'll take something away from the game this weekend. Just before the last international break, we played Tottenham Hotspur at their new stadium in what turned out to be Mauricio Pochettino's final game as Tottenham boss. The final result was a 1-1 draw but lets be real here, that scoreline flattered Tottenham. United had multiple opportunities to score alongside the simply atrocious VAR decision that saw David McGoldrick's first Premier League goal ruled offside because of John Lundstram's big toe being offside. I think the fact that we came away disappointed with a point from a perennial top four team and Champions League finalist shows how high this team sets expectations. It was still a cracking result and it improves our record against 'traditional' (ew) top four Premier League teams to five points from a possible twelve. All in all, we all hate VAR don't we? Onto the opposition for this weekend then and it's nobody special. It's only Manchester United, no Biggy. In all seriousness, this is one of the fixtures that I think all United fans were excited to see when we were promoted back to the big time. Although Manchester United are not the tour de force they once were, it's still a team that is packed with incredible talent and should really be challenging for the top four at a minimum. How'd they do in their last game? The Red Devils come into this game on the back of a pretty convincing 3-1 win against Brighton. However, in a game where they had 21 shots on goal compared to Brighton's 6, The Reds only had 42.7% of the ball in a game that was played on home turf. You wouldn't normally associate counter attacking football with Manchester United but it seems like that's how Ole Gunnar Solskjaer likes to set up his team. Who are the key players for the men from Manchester then? Upfront, It has to be Marcus Rashford. The man who burst onto the scene 4 years ago has established himself as Man United's main man upfront and has kept up his early promise thanks to getting 51 goals in all competitions for Manchester. His ability to get in behind defenders could cause United some problems as well as his ability to strike a dead ball. In midfield, Paul Pogba is one of the most polarising men not only at Man United, but in all of football. The World Cup winner has shown glimpses of his abilities that made Manchester pay £89 million to bring him back from Juventus but those glimpses are fleeting and many Man United fans are growing frustrated with his commitment (or lack thereof) to the cause. Don't get me wrong though, on his day, Pogba is a world class performer and should be monitored closely if he does play. In defence it's a homecoming for our own Harry Maguire. Since leaving Bramall Lane, Harry has gone on to prove himself at the top level and is now the most expensive defender of all time. Not bad for a player who was playing against teams like MK Dons at the start of the decade. That's your lot then! How will we do this weekend? I think if we play like we did against Tottenham then we'll be able to make some noise but that will be a little bit tougher thanks to the absence of Dean Henderson and possibly John Egan. Simon Moore and Phil Jagielka will need to have cracking games to keep out a potent Man United frontline. I think they'll be more than capable though. Score prediction, I'm going for a sneaky 2-1 win with Mousse and Fleck bagging. As ever, UTB.
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AuthorHi my name is John and i will be giving my thoughts on the blades matches and all blades related news in this section Archives
November 2022
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