Manchester United: Two stars may miss Tottenham match
Ander Herrera and Marcus Rashford are facing a race against time to be ready for the Spurs game.
Both of these players are key to José Mourinho’s style, so the Portuguese manager will be hoping that they are available for the huge game on Saturday. They both picked up knocks in the League Cup match against Swansea City, which won’t help the reputation of the unpopular cup. Tottenham and Manchester United are joint second in the league, and this match will help show who is going to be the main contender for Manchester City.
Mauricio Pochettino has opted to utilise a counter-attacking style in big games this season. In previous seasons, he stuck rigidly to a high pressing style with formation changes being the main tweaks. However, he has altered his team’s approach for games significantly this season with this producing results against Real Madrid, Borussia Dortmund and Liverpool.
This presents an interesting question over how he will set up his team for this match. Tottenham are the away team, so it wouldn’t be a surprise to see them play on the counter. Although, Mourinho favours that form of reactive style in big games. Pochettino may elect to surprise everyone by taking advantage of United’s weakness in midfield, so his team can control the game. He has been unpredictable at times this season with personnel and formation tweaks.
Considering the amount of injuries the Red Devils have, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see a defensive setup. Tottenham have struggled against big teams that employ low blocks such as Chelsea. Therefore, it would be a risk for Tottenham, but it would be nice to see one team being proactive. This is unlikely to be Mourinho seen as how stubborn he is, so the onus falls on Pochettino.
Midfield injury crisis?
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Mourinho does like to use excuses in his interviews to take the attention away from him and his team. However, he would be right in saying that United do appear to have an injury crisis in midfield. This will definitely affect how Mourinho sets them up, and they are unlucky to have such a big issue affecting them in a key match.
United have clearly missed Paul Pogba’s influence in midfield. His absence has shown how pivotal he is in dictating play and driving their progression up the pitch. Michael Carrick and Marouane Fellaini are both out as well which leaves Nemanja Matić as the only fit midfielder if Herrera is unavailable. This means that Mourinho will have to use a two-man midfield with a centre-back playing next to Matić. Phil Jones and Daley Blind are the likely choices.
Rashford’s absence doesn’t hurt the team as much because of the options that Mourinho has available up front. Anthony Martial can act as a direct replacement while Ashley Young would be a more defensive option with Matteo Darmian taking the left-back role. Romelu Lukaku, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Juan Mata and Jesse Lingard are all available, so United have plenty of firepower for this match.
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United will have been boosted by the news that Harry Kane is unavailable for the match. He picked up a slight hamstring injury against Liverpool which rules him out. His absence significantly weakens Tottenham due to his pivotal role in their attacking play. This means that Spurs would struggle to break down United if Mourinho opts for a low block.