The winter break is drawing to a close with Manchester United taking a trip to Stamford Bridge on Monday night. The United team have taken a refreshing break to Marbella, Spain to continue their training for the season.

We have definitely had some good news over the two weeks. Scott McTominay has made the trip and is now ready to start the next game after being out of action for almost 6 weeks. Paul Pogba did not join the squad in Spain but has stepped up his recovery in Dubai and “can’t wait to get back on the pitch”. Add that to the existing options of Nemanja Matic who was amazing when called upon, Fred who has been our best midfielder this season, and Bruno Fernandes who has the potential to become our best player in the seasons to come after being named Man of the Match just two days after signing for the club.

This winter break comes at a great time for Bruno as all this time off with the squad will feel like the pre-season he missed. In his first game, Bruno was amazing but the only issue felt was that he wasn’t on the same wavelength as the others or more like the others weren’t on his wavelength. They were having troubles reading his long balls, predicting his runs and couldn’t play to his tempo. 

Options for the Chelsea game: 

The game on Monday night is a must-win for us as we’ve been pushed lower down on the table with Sheffield United and Everton overtaking us last week. I feel Bruno Fernandes holds the key to us beating Chelsea and the game needs to revolve around him. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer needs to hand him a free role and the permission to stay upfront. In Bruno’s first game against Wolves, Solskjaer asked him to play as a number 6 in the second half so that he gets on the ball more often. This proved out to be the wrong strategy because of the lack of creativity up front. 

Against Chelsea, we’ll need a midfield trio of Fred, McTominay and Bruno Fernandes. Fred and McTominay nailing down the defensive part of our game with our Scotsman playing a box to box role and Bruno being completely open to doing anything upfront. Matic could also play after serving his one-match ban. But in this case, we’ll need Fred playing the box to box and Matic being the rock at the back.

Midfield for the Chelsea game: Fred – McTominay – Fernandes