Man Utd face a crunch clash against Newcastle United at Old Trafford on Saturday evening, with Jose Mourinho desperate for all three points.
The Red Devils are winless in their last four games in all competitions, while they continue to languish in 10th place in the Premier League table after an inconsistent start.
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As they continue to fall further off the pace, Mourinho will be fully aware of the need to get back to winning ways and quickly, with the Mirror noting how unsteady his position at Old Trafford is said to be currently.
In turn, he’ll hope to get the right reaction from his team against Rafa Benitez’s side, and it’s suggested as seen in the probable XI below, that the Portuguese tactician will avoid taking risks and go with an experienced and familiar starting line-up at Old Trafford.
Whether that’s a good thing or not remains to be seen, as the attacking trident of Alexis Sanchez, Romelu Lukaku and Marcus Rashford haven’t delivered to this point and will need to rediscover their goalscoring touch quickly to avoid United’s problems from getting bigger.
While they offer physicality, pace and movement, are they doing enough for United from an attacking sense to win games? On the basis of recent performances, the answer has to be no, but time will if that changes this weekend.
Nemanja Matic and Fred starting could give Paul Pogba more of a licence to attack, while it’s a settled back-four which was used against Valencia in midweek and for the most part was able to nullify their threat with the midfield arguably the bigger issue.
The line-up below seemingly offers the best balance for Mourinho, but as noted by the Metro, club legends have been far from impressed with the players during the current struggles too. In turn, the United boss can only do so much. Whatever team he puts out to play against Newcastle must provide the right response for him and collect all three points.
Probable Man Utd XI: De Gea; Valencia, Bailly, Smalling, Shaw; Fred, Matic, Pogba; Sanchez, Lukaku, Rashford. (via the Daily Star)