Preview: Swansea vs Manchester United

Swansea vs Manchester United
Premier League
Sunday, November 5, 2016
Liberty Stadium

The feedback to the last match preview for Fenerbahce was received with some…disagreement as it was deemed that a similar performance against Burnley wouldn’t follow in Turkey.

Well it did. Plenty of possession, against opposition which is happy to to sit back and wait for their chance.

Burnley sat back quite a lot, and they almost seemed trapped trying to counter-attack United, but Fenerbahce weren’t overawed, and they executed their plan superbly.

Of course Sow’s goal was outstanding, but Fenerbahce could’ve had more than two goals on the night and United looked out of ideas on the night.

The Red Devils now face 19th placed Swansea, and it’s completely up in the air what to expect from Jose Mourinho’s side.

Similarly to when David Moyes took charge of United and his former side Everton blossomed under Roberto Martinez, Mourinho will undoubtedly have sees his former side Chelsea demolish Everton 5-0.

At the moment, Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal and Manchester City (possibly Spurs) are all superior to United in almost every aspect.

With every one of those sides you can identify a style, their tactics for the game and most importantly, they look like proper teams.

On Thursday night, that wasn’t what we saw in United’s performance nor for most of the season. Some players, such as Luke Shaw, looked scared to even run with the ball.

With changes expected for the game against Swansea, it’s even harder to predict what kind of performance we should expect from Mourinho’s side.

Ander Herrera is suspended and Paul Pogba will most likely miss the game through injury, so chances are Marouane Fellaini and Morgan Schneiderlin will be the midfield pairing.

Jesse Lingard could return after not being in the match day squad on Thursday night as could Chris Smalling, with Zlatan Ibrahimovic likely to come back into the starting line-up.

Mourinho needs to decide what this United is to do when they attack. There doesn’t seem to plan, especially when you watch the attacking performances of City and Chelsea.

They have a plan, a freedom, which United don’t seem to have.

It does look sometimes that every aspect of United’s attack has to go through Pogba or Ibrahimovic.

If Mourinho was brave, he’d drop Ibrahimovic after his disappointing performances as he’s done with Wayne Rooney, he’d bring Rashford in the middle and give him a go as the star man.

Swansea won’t be an easy test despite their league position. With their new American manager, Bob Bradley in charge, he’ll be getting his ideas across to his side and with home advantage, they could just put in the performance that increases the pressure on Mourinho even more.

Team news

Pogba is set to miss out for United after picking up a leg injury in the loss to Fenerbahce.

Herrera will miss the game through suspension with Antonio Valencia and Eric Bailly the only other major injuries for Mourinho to consider.

Mourinho will also be serving his one-match touchline ban.

Swansea’s Jefferson Montero could return for the Swans after overcoming a calf injury and defender Kyle Naughton is fit after recovering from illness.

Predicted line-ups

Swansea: Fabianksi, Naughton, van der Hoorn, Mawson, Taylor; Fer, Cork, Routledge, Barrow; Sigurdsson, Llorente

Man Utd: De Gea, Darmian, Smalling, Rojo, Shaw; Fellaini, Schneiderlin, Lingard, Mata, Rashford; Ibrahimovic