What a load of a nagging wait that International break was! We were on the back of a very excellent result at Newcastle the last time out so the biggest hope, heading into the return of the domestic schedule will undoubtedly be that Manchester United resumes domestic duty from where they left off.
The England players of the squad played later than the rest and yet we still have Chicharito and Valencia to come from South America. It means the manager will have a busy Friday trying to sort out which players are fit and able to take on the challenge of a very fit Stoke side that will be relishing the opportunity to get stuck in.
This is where you ideally hope that the rested players like Scholes and Giggs hit the ground running as they will be fresher than the rest.
On the injury front, we're thankful that so far no injuries have been reported form International duty. There is an outside chance that we'll have Ashley Young and Chris Smalling available for selection on Saturday---confirmation of that will be from the manager's press conference on Friday morning.
The other big headache for the manager should be what formation he'll use for the game. After trying as many options since the start of the season, the only time the performance of the team has drawn praise was last time out against Newcastle. On that day, we didn't have our traditional wingers Young, Valencia or Nani starting. It therefore begs the question if the manager will stick to the diamond formation with a plethora of attackers as opposed to our wing play that usually leaves us porous in the middle. I know in games like this Sir Alex selects basing on outside issues like height to combat the aerial prowess of our opponents.
Ultimately though, we'll be expecting a comfortable home win that should put us in good stead for the UEFA Champions League game with Braga on Tuesday evening.
ONWARDS AND UPWARDS!
Labels: PREVIEWS
