MANCHESTER UNITED OFF TO CARDIFF: WHAT SURPRISES AWAITS THE NEW MANCHESTER UNITED IN CARDIFF THIS TIME ?
Cardiff City stadium is this Saturday weekends destination for Manchester United. Cardiff City Stadium! Wow!
What a unique name for a stadium. Unique, in this case, is certainly not implying anything negative. On the contrary, usually stadiums a given a name that reminds people of the time and heritage, Old Trafford, Nou Camp, Anfield. All this stadium have names that in one way or the other projects the idea that the club has some sought of heritage mostly rooted in success. But not Cardiff City Stadium.
Cardiff City Stadium! Might not sound like much to some people but listen closely and you might just perceive the sense of pride and the sense of identity for the Cardiff team that comes with the name Cardiff City Stadium. A club filled with pride and identity always holds the potential to be a club not to be taken lightly during a match. Manchester United will, under normal circumstances, be considered the undeniable favorites to walk out of the Cardiff City stadium tonight with all three points without a doubt. But given the recent poor performances Manchester United have shown plus the sometimes bizarre, all out defensive, strategy Jose Mourinho enforced more often than none during his tenure as Manchester United, who is to say the Manchester United team will not suffer some sought of backlash as a result of a team recently released from the clutches of three back to back to back seasons of poor football? who is to say Neil Warnock will be incapable of stealing a point or more in the midst of Jose Mourinho’s eagerness to retain the ball in Manchester United's own side of the field rather than attacking Cardiff? We did after all witness first hand how weak Manchester United defense is to opponents that hit Manchester United on fast breaks. Manchester City and Valencia are just a few examples of case scenarios that have hurt Manchester United with quick football this season. who is Cardiff City will not be yet another fast break team who hurts Manchester United once again this season? highly unlike right?
True except Manchester United have fallen victims to teams to the team whom the Red Devils were expected to comfortably lay waste to. Teams tend to tighten up and prepare for war when Manchester United come to town and the insatiable appetite of coming out on top which opponents have shown to possess against Manchester United has to be one essential aspect interim-manager Ole-Guuner Solskijier cannot afford to take for granted this weekend.
Unfortunately for the Manchester United squad, any attempt to justify the recent three-game stint of poor result cannot be covered by the disguise of injuries and fatigued manchester united player longer. If memory serves correctly, then we are talking about a team with a healthy Fred Rodriguez, a healthy Juan Mata, a healthy Romelu Lukaku and, yes, a healthy Paul Pogba facing off against teams such as Southampton, Valencia, Crystal Palace and Arsenal( at home) yet Manchester United were able to collect a record of 3 victories, 3 draws and 2 losses in the past eight games. Now in a any other circumstance, this will be considered a streak of good results except this is a streak where the games which Jose Mourinho’s team dropped points were against teams struggling in the Premier League or struggle in the Champions League against teams such as Valencia and Young Boys who appear to be the level of teams one would normally expect Manchester United to beat yet Manchester United struggle to accomplish victory over such teams. a bit puzzling at times.
Two back to back draws against a struggling Southampton side followed by a somewhat slipup performance against a rejuvenated Arsenal team and then a disappointing loss to a Valencia side in the Champions League, whom most expected the recently sacked ex-Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho’s side to defeat, was the concluding result of what has been a very unexpected sequence of event for Manchester United these past 3 weeks. What does this weekends game have in store, let’s dive right in and talk about Manchester United's possible approach this weekend?
Coming into this weekends clash against Cardiff City, the confidence of a good result from Manchester United's camp appear to be sky high during this weekends road game scheduled to take place at the Cardiff stadium. In all honesty, when the topic of Manchester United’s road record this season is placed on the table, Jose Mourinho might not exactly have the most compelling evidence to reassure Manchester United of a drastic turnaround this season and for the Manchester United Board of Directors to reconsider letting go of the Portuguese manager last week. Two victories in Jose Mourinho’s last eight games in all competitions and failure to seal a place in the Premier League tables top spots is not exactly the best way for a manager to show he is changing the club positively. Furthermore, the lack of attacking football played by Manchester United under Jose Mourinho was certainly not the best approach to sealing the complete belief from the fans in Manchester United.
Nonetheless, the new interim manager and yet another Manchester United legend Ole Gunner Solskijier will definitely have a full 30 men squad heading to Cardiff this weekend even after the difficult battle the team went through at Anfield facing Liverpool last weekend. Even with a few of the Manchester United players still present in the clubs injury list, an injury list which was confirmed by Manchester United football club prior to tonight`s match, Interim Manager, Ole Guuner Solskiejer should have enough players in his arsenal to seal all three points against a Cardiff team struggling to stay just above the Premier League drop zone.
Still staying on the case of Manchester United’s injury news coming into this weekends match, recently discharge ex-Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho confirmed during his press conference on Friday prior to Manchester United's big game against Liverpool at the Anfield that Anthony Martial, Scott McTominier, Diogo Dallot, Alexis Sanchez, Mateo Damian, Victor Lindelof, Chris Smalling, Marcus Rojo, and Luke Shaw are all still expected to remain absentees from Jose Mourinho short list of players to make the trip to the Cardiff Stadium due to numerous injuries to the various shortlisted players. Cardiff will bring the fight to the superior Manchester United team tonight but Manchester United will be expected to not only secure all three points on the road in Cardiff but also secure a win while showing a bit of superiority and a bit of swagger in the way the Manchester United manager sets his team up to play tonight.
Recent news coming out of Old Trafford has confirmed that the Board Members in charge at Manchester United have seemingly had enough of Jose Mourinho and therefore subsequently handed the Portuguese manager his termination papers at Old Trafford at the end of the last week's defeat at the hands of Liverpool after yet another dreadful mid-season. New interim Manager Ole-Gunner Solskigier now has the chance to reward the faith shown to him by the Manchester United's corporate executives for this short period of time at least by getting Manchester United close enough to the top 4 of the Premier League table through convincing victories over teams in the bottom half of the Premier League table such as tonights opponents in the struggling Cardiff City team.
Cardiff City will be coming into this weekends match against Manchester United knowing that any point stolen from a more or less depleted Manchester United team at the moment will be huge in keeping the Cardiff team away from the Premier League drop zone. Meaning, Cardiff might opt for a completely solid defensive approach and look to bite at Manchester United on the counter-attack. Manchester United’s top three attacking talisman Paul Pogba, along with Old Trafford new players Andreas Perera and Fred Rodriguez, whom have both quickly made it to Old Trafford favorites list, are yet to be afforded a good string of games together where the trio is all listed in Manchester United's starting IX so naturally, the trio has found the situation of performing well for Manchester United increasing difficult so far this season.
A match against the struggling Cardiff City will be the perfect atmosphere for Manchester United to hand the trio Andreas Perera, Paul Pogba, Fred Rodriguez and a bunch of other players an opportunity to find their rhythm playing together. While rediscovering the importance of Andreas Perera, Paul Pogba and Fred Rodriguez all playing for Manchester United in an attacking sense, Manchester United might start taking one step closer to start heading in the right direction in winning back the favour of the Manchester United fan base for a short while at least. Enforcing good, attacking football policy back into Manchester United football club will play a big role in stirring Manchester United football club back to the part of success in the long term.
