The United Devils

Manchester United hosted Feyenoord in the penultimate game of the Europa League group stage. The reverse fixture went the visitors' way in the first match with a scoreline of 1-0, but Manchester United and Jose Mourinho were looking to make amends. Given United's home advantage, Jose Mourinho decided to switch things up in the squad with Sergio Romero replacing David de Gea in goal and Luke Shaw coming in at LB after quite a bit of time out. We also saw Wayne Rooney on the wing along with Carrick in CDM being paired up with Paul Pogba. The highlight of the match however, was the inclusion of new signing Henrikh Mkhitaryan in the starting 11 after what seems like an eternity. The fan favourite got injured at the start of the season, and got very little time on the ball but knowing his caliber, the fans wanted him to be included in the squad for longer periods of time and for this match at least, Jose complied. The first half started in an explosive fashion for Manchester Unite…

After Thursday evening's less than convincing win against Zorya at Old Trafford, Manchester United will be looking to put in a good shift in against Stoke City in the Premier League. With a tough set of fixtures ahead, it is vitally important to enter the international break with another 3 points. A poor start to the season for Stoke sees them at the bottom of the Premier League after being one of the lowest spenders in the Summer transfer window. Every Manchester United fan's ambition for this season is to win the Premier League and currently, only 6 points off the top and only 6 games gone, there is still a chance for us.

Manchester United starting XI: De Gea, Valencia, Smalling, Bailly, Blind, Herrera, Pogba, Lingard, Mata, Rashford, Ibrahimović

In the second minute came a massive chance for Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Pogba slipped in a great ball to him but after choosing the wrong corner, Grant makes a good double save to deny the Swede a great chance.

Our next big chance came …

I just can't believe it! Wayne Rooney has been dropped from the starting XI. After a disastrous performance midweek against Northampton, Rooney is starting on the bench. The pressure around Rooney has been growing particularly over the last few weeks. He hasn't been contributing anything going forward and has been a liability in midfield. He will always be a respected legend but he is not the same player he was 10 years ago and he's not good enough to get in this team at the moment.

After the win at Northampton midweek in the EFL cup, it's so important that we win three points today. Let this be a starting point for the new and improved Manchester United. We need to find our best starting 11 and stick with it for Premier League games.

After a positive first 15 minutes of the game, it looked for sure that Manchester United were close to scoring. The time finally cane in the 22nd minute where Chris Smalling rose highest to get on the end of a delightful Daley Blind corn…

After much a great start to the season with four wins out of four, things were looking great for Jose Mourinho's men. This week, things suddenly took a fall for the worst as we slipped to a disastrous defeat to Pep's Manchester City and then 5 days later, another embarrassing defeat to Feyenoord in the Europa League, a competition which we are expected to win. However, things aren't looking too bad for the Red Devils as a win against Watford this week could put us to 3rd in the League, 2 points behind Everton and 3 behind Man City. This game is most important for the fans, morale is low after two poor performances and it is now time for Mourinho's men to show that this last week was a blip in what could still be a title winning season.

At last, Marcus Rashford is starting a Premier League game! Today's line up looks terrifying. We are finally playing two wingers on the wings, what is going on?! Rashford and Martial will provide us with ecstatic pace and skill on t…

Mkhitaryan is not a winger

With his abject performance against the Citizens, the Armenian is now going to be thrust into the "Dortmund players flop out of Dortmund" narrative. The truth however is simple: he is not a winger.

The player was named the best player in Germany last season, not for his compatriotism with the Kardashians but for his exploits down the middle of the pitch, making vertical runs on and off the ball as most of Dortmund's dynamic attacks and counter attacks went through him.

It remains a wonder why Mourinho signed him only to play him in a position he so notoriously struggled during his early days at Dortmund.

The most promising sign of what he can do came in the first half hour when he caught City defenders unaware with an excellent run – although he was slightly offside – through the middle.

If Mou has no plan to play him there, he might as well put the player out of his misery early on.

It's here! Possibly the biggest game in the history of the Premier League. The eyes of the world casting their eye on Old Trafford for Jose v Pep, Manchester United v Manchester City. Jose Mourinho made two changes to his Manchester United team changing both wide players. Jesse Lingard and Henrik Mkhitaryan replacing Anthony Martial and Juan Mata to exploit the space in behind the City lines with their direct running. The height difference between the two teams was notable too with Manchester United boasting a very tall lineup compared to the lineup of Guardiola's team.

The first half began as you would expect with Manchester City dominating the ball. However what was not expected was the disorganized nature of Manchester United's play. The back four were being pulled all over the place, the City players were finding all sorts of space in between the defensive lines. The City players were everywhere and United simply could not cope with it. That soon showed when a pinpoint…

Chelsea just won their match against Burnley meaning that they have kept a hundred percent record so far into the season, they stood top of the league before our match and to match them we needed defeat Hull City to also match their record under this fine new era of optimism and opportunity. Hull city have started this years campaign on a high, beating their 2 previous opponents, one being the champions, and with many comparing them to last seasons Leicester.

The first half was average for United. The big name players like Wayne Rooney or Paul Pogba seemed constrained in midfield not being able to find that similar freedom that they had against Southampton. However Zlatan Ibrahimovic rose to the occasion and caused the most irritation to the Hull defenders. They're were plenty of chances for him that he created from thin air however it wasn't meant to be, especially the back heel kick even though it was offside. Mata drifting in to the centre is proving difficult for Rooney as…

Ever since Real Madrid began on a path that would later rob the football transfer market of it’s dignity, the shirt sale has over the years become more or less the only point of argument for fans of clubs that spend ridiculous sums of money on acquiring the world’s best players or in some cases the most overrated.

The case of Pogba has seen the subject of player shirt sales elevated to ridiculous heights by Manchester United fans. How else can they justify their club paying such an amount for a player not yet the the finished product? 

Now trim off the speculations, dig for the facts and learn that the myth couldn’t be farther from the truth.

The anticipation leading up to Manchester United's first home game of the 2016/17 season has been at fever pitch to say the least. It almost feels like the good old days.

Jose Mourinho continues to say all the right things in stark contrast to his two predecessors, United's ambition is back where it should be. United fans having high expectations is acceptable to Jose and of course, for a team of United's stature, it's only right.

Mourinho has this week suggested that Paul Pogba is the best midfielder in the world. He has though, gone at pains to say that winning the ballon d'or may be a step too far for Pogba given the necessity of a 20+ goal haul this year to secure the prize. Whilst talking up the talent of our (current) iconic Frenchman, Mourinho has tried to temper expectations at this early stage of the season. Prior to kick-off, it remained to be seen whether Pogba would live up to the hype in his first game. The fact remains, the anticipation feels at its hi…

As beginnings go, the opening weekend of the new Premier League season was cinematic, having on display the very elements that make it the most followed club sport league in the world.

Although, it is never advisable to attempt predicting anything that will stretch over much of the season from the opening games, but there were still little lessons learnt that faintly suggested certain developments that might unfold from the "title challengers" over the course of the season.

Leicester City - a different PL this time

Leicester's 2-1 loss should have made more headlines than, say, Ibrahimoviç's debut goal, but in truth, no sane person would bet on them successfully defending their title - finishing the campaign in the top four even, seems like a lot of ask.

In sports, you get what you deserve. The Foxes won the League because they deserved it, along with every extolment but the "what ifs?" still remain and they will be answered this term.

No longer will they experi…

Today marked the start of the Mourinho era with a win against Bournemouth. No Pogba, the £89 million man. No Smalling, the rock in our defence. But the long awaited debut of Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Eric Bailly

The first half wasn't the greatest of starts for United and seemed very cagey as players from both teams tussled for the ball and it seemed like United couldn't keep the ball for more than 2 minutes without losing it and couldn't string 3 together passes. Bournemouth played with the one striker upfront with Bournemouth's record signing Jordan Ibe giving him regular service. A notable highlight was Blind's desire to keep his place in the team, with Chris Smalling available for the next match, with a very solid performance alongside Eric Bailly who was making his Premier League Debut. Even though Bournemouth seemed the more dominant side in the first half, it was Juan Mata who broke deadlock after a woeful mistake from the oppositions captain. Mata was sharp an…

Manchester United have never gone four years without being crowned champions of the Premier League and after three miserable years, finishing 7th, 4th and 5th, they would be looking to keep things that way which does seem possible under three time Premier League champion, Jose Mourinho. New Management Jose has already had a major impact on the team by making a few world class signings and winning the FA Community shield with the club. He, in his own words, wishes to make the team, "his team" and United fans all over the world would simply love that.  After a devastating last season with Louis Van Gaal, it is taking quite some time for Jose to establish his style of play with the team because the ideas that were set by the Dutchman were applied for two years and have become habitual for the players, however, we have seen some sort of a change in the basic tempo of the game at times in pre-season, as well as the fact that the wingers and wing backs have started taking more ris…

After just missing out on Champions League football for the coming season, it would not have been surprising if we found it hard to sign some top quality players in this summer transfer window. After all, who would want to move to a club that is not playing football at the highest level. 
However, Manchester United are still considered as one of the best and biggest clubs in the World and it is clear that under the leadership of Jose Mourinho, we will be at the top again very soon.

Our first, and maybe most important signing of all, was Jose Mourinho who replaced Louis van Gaal as manager of Manchester United. After last season’s disastrous Premier League campaign, it was clear that a major change was required. Our manager had lost faith in the club. Our fans want us to be back at the top as soon as possible, and Louis van Gaal’s “process” was clearly taking too long to come into effect. After Sir Alex Ferguson left the club, we haven’t had a winning manager at our club. Jose Mourinho…

Finally it's here, Jose Mourinho's first competitive game as Manchester United manager and the chance for him to get his first trophy under the belt. Standing in the way, last seasons Premier League champions Leicester City who themselves were looking to continue the winning momentum from last season.

The first half was a rather cagey affair with both teams still very much in pre season mode. United dominated the ball in a similar way to last season. While Leicester were taking a direct approach with long balls for Jamie Vardy to chase, an ugly but effective tactic as we all learnt last season. One notable highlight was how effective Eric Bailly was in dealing with what Leicester threw at him, he showed he has the pace and most importantly the defensive awareness to deal with the challenges of the Premier League. The breakthrough came after a nice passage of play resulting in Jesse Lingard running through the Leicester lines through on goal to put the FA Cup winners ahead. Lin…

Wayne Rooney's testimonial match put two of his clubs, Manchester United and Everton, up against each other at Old Trafford. The proceeds of this match are to go to 4 charities that the Wayne Rooney foundation is involved in. While the cause of the match was indeed quite noble and honoured an extravagant player for both clubs, the match itself was boring and lacklustre. The game started off with United on the front foot, a few attacks led to a seemingly defensive Everton side under some pressure, however, it lacked the spark that we saw in the Galatasaray game. By the 10th minute, both sides had been introduced to the ball and it was a game of tennis, with the ball happily bobbing about in both halves one by one, it was by the 15th minute when United decided to put their foot on the gas, however lightly. We could see a development in the game from that point, where Manchester United started dominating the game, constantly launching attacks and passing the ball around quite well. …

After the departure of Louis van Gaal, the players will all be eager to try and impress new manager, Jose Mourinho. The manager has made it no secret that he will only settle for the best. We are carrying lots of deadweight in our squad at the moment and after our new signings, it is clear that the manager will want to cut down the first team squad. Nobody has a secure place in the squad and everyone will have to work for their place. 
Marcos Rojo – After signing last summer, we are still unsure as to what his best position is; left back or centre back? He has been given the chance to shine in both positions but he has shown that he is not Manchester United material. Always looking uneasy on the ball and backing out of tackles; this is not what we want in a defender. To be perfectly honest, I would much prefer Borthwick-Jackson in left back as Rojo is nothing but a liability. There is only one solution: SELL

Daley Blind – Despite his obvious lack of pace, Daley Blind is arguably our …