4
Manchester United journey to Villa Park to tackle Aston Villa in what already seems like a “must-win” match for the Pink Devils.
Latest good kind has seen United catapult as much as sixth place however there’s nonetheless a sizeable hole between themselves and fifth positioned Villa. The distinction at present stands at eight factors, so a draw or a loss would nearly definitely condemn United to a Europa League spot already.
Nevertheless, a win would see the Previous Trafford aspect shut the hole to 5 factors and with Villa rocking not too long ago, it could possibly be precisely the factor to knock the wind out of the Birmingham’s sides sails of their push for Champions League soccer.
You will need to word that this season will most probably be completely different, as there’s a good probability that fifth place within the Premier League will bear the fruit of a Champions League spot subsequent season as a result of competitors’s growth from 32 to 36 groups.
Listed here are the storylines that followers will most definitely be mulling over within the stands and pubs earlier than the sport.
Can United take care of Villa’s effective residence kind?
It’s protected to say that this model of United aren’t the finest travellers. Erik ten Hag’s aspect have solely picked up 16 factors from 11 away video games and have solely scored 13 targets in these video games.
Villa, in distinction, are the third finest group at residence within the league and boast a house document of two.55 factors per recreation, having gained 9 from 11 encounters. Additionally they have a powerful aim distinction of +19 at Villa Park.
One glimmer of hope is that they’ve stuttered not too long ago by drawing with Sheffield United and shedding to Newcastle. Additionally they got here out the fallacious aspect of a house match towards Chelsea within the FA Cup on Wednesday, so maybe their residence armour is just not as thick because it was.
Can United exploit Villa’s excessive defensive position once more?
At Previous Trafford on Boxing Day, United made the worst doable begin, going two targets down. Nevertheless, they roared again within the second half with a brace from Alejandro Garnacho and Rasmus Hojlund’s first ever Premier League aim.
A transparent tactic that United exploited that day was Aston Villa’s excessive line, because the fast trio of Garnacho, Rashford and Hojlund all slipped in time and time once more and will have scored quite a few greater than the three they did handle with excessive turnovers and quick break type counter assaults.
With United’s younger attackers in a lot better kind than they discovered themselves on Boxing Day after a productive 2024 up to now, it is going to be attention-grabbing to see if Villa change tactic or if Ten Hag’s males can use Unai Emery aspect’s tactical plan to their benefit as soon as once more.
Can United deal with one other Lisandro Martinez absence?
Martinez has been an enormous miss for the Pink Devils this season. After taking part in 45 video games in his marketing campaign on the membership, harm has restricted the Argentine to 10 matches this 12 months and he faces not less than eight weeks on the sidelines along with his newest medical downside.
Harry Maguire and Jonny Evans have stepped up admirably this 12 months when known as upon, however not even their largest followers may recommend they bring about something near the passing means that Martinez provides to United’s construct up.
Nonetheless, it was Evans’ essential goal-line block within the reverse fixture that impressed United to not go a aim down once more after combating again to 2-2 towards the Villans, and gave them the platform to discover a late winner.
The Peoples Individual predicts that Harry Maguire might be tasked with partnering Raphael Varane in defence and he’ll have to be at his finest to provide United each doable probability of taking residence a a lot sought-after three factors on Sunday night.
