Manchester United CAN beat Juventus – they just need to attack from minute one

Manchester United only seem to start playing their football in the second half of games. This won’t work against Juventus in the Champions League if our last matchup was anything to go by.

Under Jose Mourinho this season, Manchester United have looked lackadaisical in the first half of games. This has led us to going 1-0 and even 2-0 down before the half-time whistle has even sounded.

On some of these occasions, we have managed to turn things around in spectacular fashion, as we did in the 3-2 comeback against Newcastle United and the 2-1 comeback against Bournemouth this weekend.

However, this risky tactic hasn’t always worked out – most frustratingly when we went 1-0 down to Juventus at Old Trafford last month in the Champions League. Although the players did wake up after Dybala’s early goal and started to play better football, it ultimately wasn’t enough.

Now we face the Italian giants again on their own turf, and we can’t afford to make the same mistake twice.

Going even just 1-0 down in the first half at Allianz Stadium could open the floodgates and lead to an absolute battering. However, this doesn’t mean we should put 10 men behind the ball from the get-go and hope for the best.

No, United need to attack from minute one. The reason why we conceded in our last matchup was because we simply sat back and invited pressure from Juventus instead of playing on the front foot. If we don’t press them constantly we’ll just be letting them play their football. We need to dictate the rhythm of the game instead, and to do that, Mourinho needs to instil his players with the confidence to play attacking football away from home.

Anthony Martial has been on fire this season, having just scored in his fourth consecutive Premier League game with his strike against Bournemouth on the weekend. Instead of making him defend for 90 minutes against Juve, Mourinho should give the Frenchman the freedom to get at their defence from the beginning.

Yes, Giorgio Chiellini and Leonardo Bonucci are arguably the two best defenders in the world right now, but if any group of players could get at the ageing Italian defenders, it would be our collection of young, tricky wingers.

Martial, along with Marcus Rashford, Alexis Sanchez and Jesse Lingard, have more than enough energy and pace to force Chiellini and Bonucci into making errors – but they won’t be able to do this if they’re not allowed to cross the halfway line.

Let them play their football from minute one, Jose, and maybe – just maybe – the Red Devils will cause an upset against the Old Lady in Turin tonight…

Catch Juventus vs Manchester United on Wednesday 7 November at 20:00 GMT.