The United Devils

Manchester United travel down south for the fourth game week of the season to the St. Mary's Stadium to take on Southampton. This is the first match of the weekend and a likely mood setter for most Manchester United faithful. After the blunderous game last week that saw us lose to Palace at Old Trafford, we need to pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off and get back to winning ways. 
Teams: Southampton vs Manchester United Date: Saturday 31st August 2019 KO Time: 12:30 GMT Managers: Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Ralph Hassenhuttl Referee: Mike Dean
Teams News:
Manchester United have two major injury concerns for this game. Luke Shaw and Anthony Martial will both miss the trip to the St. Mary's after picking up injuries last week. While it has been confirmed that Shaw will be out for about 5 days, the extent of Martial's injury is still unknown at the moment. This comes as a disappointment because the Frenchman was very good for us in the previous games that he played. To replace them,…

Following the end of the summer transfer window, we can now analyse the squad we have left, and it is easy to see that we have huge problems in our midfield.

Following the January departure of Fellaini and the summer departure of Ander Herrera, we have been left thin on the ground in terms of midfield reinforcements. Both the positions of attacking midfield and defensive midfield are lacking depth and good options for Solskjaer to use. These is leaving the team with a lack of creativity and defensive solidity in midfield.

The current options for Solskjaer in the centre of the park are Pogba, Scott McTominay Fred and Matic. These options show a real lack of strength in depth and quality. Pogba is clearly the best of these midfielders but even he is inconsistent and needs other members of the midfield to help him out. Even with Pogba's quality, we need more from him as on his day he can control the game on his own. Another useful player is Scott McTominay, he might not be technical…

This Friday United U23’s welcome West Ham u23’s to Old Trafford. It is free entry to supporters and United will be hoping for a big turnout for their exciting youngsters. It is another opportunity for some of these players to show what they’re about and prove they deserve to play at Old Trafford on a regular basis, while West Ham’ players should also be up for this knowing they are getting a chance to play at Old Trafford which not many youngsters get to do.
It’s been a great start to the season and a great start under the new management of Neil Wood and Quinton Fortune. It’s been 3 wins out of 3 with a total of 11 goals scored and none conceded so far with the last game, seeing United comfortable 4-0 winners away to Newcastle at St James Park. This game also showed why Tahith Chong and James Garner are well thought of at Old Trafford, with Chong getting off the mark this season and grabbing two goals and Garner continuing his goal-scoring form by grabbing one and making it 4 in 3 game…

The feel good factor bubble around Manchester United this season was burst as soon as game week three, as Crystal Palace spoiled United's return to Old Trafford on Saturday. After filling the fans with optimism by accumulating four points from the first two challenging fixtures, the one that was supposed to be 'easy' proved to be the first hurdle. United looked toothless going forward for most of the game, and the defensive errors from previous years came back to haunt them once again in a 1-2 loss.

Here is what we learned from the game:

United lacking the creative spark

We all knew that United needed to bring in a midfielder during the summer transfer window, not only because they lost Ander Herrera and Marouane Fellaini, but also because it was clear as day last season that the team lacked that "it" factor in the creation department. With Juan Mata getting older, and Angel Gomes being on the brink of the first team, but perhaps not quite ready for regular football…

I stopped watching the game in the 84th minute and started writing this article. A few moments later, I heard some noise only to check and Daniel James had equalised for us, unfortunately Palace scored almost immediately afterwards to drown any hope United had of a win. We had a very low intensity game and our lack of creativity is screaming in our faces not to mention another penalty miss. 
Here are the player ratings from the game.
De Gea  4 Was pretty much untested through out the game. Made some great one on one saves and had very little to do about the first goal we conceded. Yeah, we just conceded another goal. Absolute shambles. De Gea definitely at fault here. Reason his rating is as low as it is.
Wan Bissaka 6 His side was avoided by Crystal Palace and he had some great additions to the attack. Just not good enough for today.
Lindelof 4 Was at fault for the first goal we conceded,. But was pretty much untested for the rest of the game.
Harry Maguire 6 Added some calmness into ou…

Photo Credit: The Daily Mirror
After the disappointing draw at Molineux it was imperative that United got back to winning ways at home to a team that hadn't beaten them for 28 years. Perhaps surprisingly Solskjaer named an unchanged line-up, especially when you consider Lingard's non-performance against Wolves, along with the host of young attacking players chomping at the bit for a slice of first-team action.

Their was heightened focus on Paul Pogba after the horrific abuse aimed at him on social media so it was great to hear the reception from the Old Trafford faithful when his name was read out. Wan-Bissaka would also be under scrutiny after his £50 million move from the Eagles this summer.

When you look at Palace's attacking options, outside of Zaha it's a veritable who's who of underwhelming, non-prolific strikers, so to concede two goals to them at home is bordering on criminal.

United started really well, keeping possession and probing a nervy looking Palace bac…

After a disappointing draw but not a bad performance at the Molineux Stadium, Manchester United will host Crystal Palace in their third game of the season on Saturday. Here's all you need to know:
Teams: Manchester United vs Crystal Palace Date: Saturday 24th August 2019 KO Time: 15:00 GMT Managers: Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Roy Hodgeson Referee: Paul Tierney
Team News: Eric Bailly and Timothy Fosu-Mensah remain sidelined and now Diogo Dalot joins them but the young Portugal international will only be out until after next month's international break.  As for Palace, regular defenders James Tomkins and Mamadou Sakho remain out with long term injuries for the Eagles which means that Martin Kelly and Scott Dann should remain as the starting centre backs unless Gay Cahill is passed fit for his debut. 
Interesting Facts: Crystal Palace are yet to beat Manchester United in the Premier League after trying and failing 20 times (L16 D4) and have not scored at Old Trafford since Mason Greenwood…

Ironically as many receive their GCSE results today, this new article will look at the matchday results and rate the performances of all 20 clubs out of ten. Here are the matchday results:

Arsenal vs Burnley: 2-1 Everton vs Watford: 1-0 Southampton vs Liverpool: 1-2 Brighton vs West Ham United: 1-1 Norwich vs Newcastle: 3-1 Aston Villa vs Bournemouth: 1-2 Man City vs Tottenham: 2-2 Sheffield United vs Crystal Palace: 1-0 Chelsea vs Leicester: 1-1 Wolves vs Manchester United: 1-1
ARSENAL: 8/10 Arsenal are looking a lot more comfortable at the back even without Kieran Tierney but have only faced Newcastle and Burnley with no disrespect. Lacazette and Aubameyang are looking very dangerous and could both easily get 20+ goals this season. However Liverpool are going to be a tough challenge for the Gunners and one I expect them not to come out victorious from. 
BURNLEY: 6/10 While they did lose, they gave a good account of themselves and made it difficult for Arsenal at the Emirates. From what Burnley…

Manchester United were left with a sour taste in their mouth as they were forced to settle for a 1-1 draw after a quite dominant display away at Wolves on Monday night. 
Despite coming away with a point from a ground in which United faced many problems over the last year, the result felt much like a defeat for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s men who put in another solid performance, particularly in the first half, and were a Paul Pogba spot kick away from securing all three points at the Molineux. 
There were a lot of questions about how United will approach this game. Will the Reds sit back and hit Wolves on the counter, or will the team utilise the effective high press in order to retain the ball and take control of the game? 
For the best part of the 90 minutes, it was the latter. United looked very comfortable for most of the game, enjoying a lot of the possession and creating some promising half chances. In minute 26, the best chance of the first half was buried by United’s new (old) No.…

Image taken from standard.co.uk
David De Gea - 6.5 A quiet night tonight for the United keeper apart from having to pick Wolves equalising goal out of the back of the net and a shot that hit the post and ricocheted back off his arm for a corner.
Aaron Wan-Bissaka - 7.5 Another very good performance from the young English full back nothing got past him down United’s right and was often involved in the teams attacking play.
Victor Lindelof - 7.0  In the main Victor defended well today apart from one sliced clearance in the first half. Would have been disappointed not to be organised enough to deal with Wolves well worked corner for the equaliser.
Harry Maguire - 7.5 Harry defended well today and linked up well with Lindelöf again as a central defensive partnership. Maguire’s passing tonight was exemplary.
Luke Shaw - 6.5 After a comfortable first half, Luke found it difficult coming up against Adama Traore in the second half and all of a sudden started to look sluggish.
Scott Mctominay - 7.0 A ten…

Manchester United returns to action on Monday evening in a game against Wolves. Wolves have been a bogey team for theRed Devils as, since their promotion last season, United have failed to beat them in all three matches with a draw at Old Trafford and back-to-back defeats at the Molyneux. 
This game is undoubtedly the biggest test for United in the season so far, here's all you need to know: Teams: Wolverhampton Wanderers vs Manchester United Location: Molyneux Stadium
K-O: 19th August 2019 20:00pm BST
Managers: Ole Gunnar Solskajer and Nuno Espirito Santo
Referee: Jonathan Moss

Team News
Manchester United are likely to miss Sánchez due to lack of match fitness, Bailly due to his long-term knee injury and Fosu-Mensah due to a knee injury sustained whilst on loan at Fulham last season. Wolves team is all available as they do not have any injuries or suspensions but may rotate after their 4-0 win in the Europa League on Thursday.

Team Stats:
Wolves lost none of their three games against Ma…

Romelu Lukaku has left Manchester United to join Inter Milan as Antonio Conte finally gets the manhe wanted two years ago when he was Chelsea boss. There was competition for his signature but the Nerazzurri ultimately won out over rivals Juventus. With Ed Woodward unable to finalise a deal for Paulo Dybala, Mario Mandzukic or Inaki Williams, and the transfer window now closed, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has to stick with what he has in his squad until January at the earliest. Here is a look at the options he is likely to go with.

Anthony Martial through the centre If pre-season is anything to go by, it looks like Anthony Martial is going to be used through the middle this year. The Frenchman has predominantly played on the wing since joining the club from Monaco but, just like Thierry Henry did at Arsenal,