When you realise that Pogba has always thrived alongside this type of player (a deep-lying, assured partner in central midfield), throwing Carrick into the fold seems like the logical solution. That’s what big clubs are all about. Henrikh Mkhitaryan has missed the last two games with a thigh injury suffered on worldwide duty with Armenia and Phil Jones is out with a knee problem. Both they and Mourinho need this appointment to work; the stakes are now very high.
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“OK, Watford scored three goals and Manchester United scored one, but that doesn’t mean Watford were the better side”. Michael Carrick too his likely to feature in the game, with his last start coming in the Community Shield game against Leicester.
The Times has now confirmed that Shaw suffered a slight groin tear during that league game but he played on in an effort to help his team reverse a losing skid. Those you drop will be miffed and those who come in will be under pressure.
But his lack of mobility makes United predictable and easy to defend against and Mourinho must be tempted to play the sharper Ander Herrera or a natural holding midfielder such as Morgan Schneiderlin to allow Paul Pogba more freedom to get forward. “Or should he be playing at all?” former England captain Alan Shearer wrote in The Sun after United’s 3-1 defeat at Watford on Saturday.
Mourinho singled out Luke Shaw for criticism after Sunday’s loss, claiming he had been drilling his defence to close the gaps to Watford’s wing-backs and had not seen that play out on the pitch.
Rooney needs only four goals to surpass Bobby Charlton’s United scoring record of 249 goals, but his first-team status is more fragile than ever. He didn’t defend or get back quickly enough.
“We are the favourites in this game and we have to deliver, all due respect to the opponent because, despite being in League One, Northampton Town has already knocked out a Premier League side like West Brom”.
Get 4/1 enhanced odds on Man United to beat Northampton on Wednesday night. The bad news is that he is on a hiding to nothing: only winning and playing well will do. I can’t recall any of my managers singling players out in public, and only very rarely in the dressing room.
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“I can take him out”. Far from it – we outclassed them in every regard, I think everyone knew that.
