Pressure is starting to mount on Manchester United and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. After a good start to the season, the team have been hit by a poor run of form, losing 3 out of their last 4 matches and failing to score in the last two matches despite having a combined 55 shots and 10 on target.
Injuries to Harry Maguire and Luke Shaw against Aston Villa, and Aaron Wan-Bissaka’s red card against Young Boys appear to have weakened the backline significantly before the Villarreal game in the UEFA Champions League.
The like-for-like replacements for the players are Victor Lindelof, Alex Telles and Diogo Dalot, however Eric Bailly could get a chance as well. Could Solskjaer possibly opt for a change in formation and go for a three-man defence? While not impossible that does feel very unlikely.
It will certainly be interesting to see how Solskjaer sets his team up for this game. It is one that they will be under quite some pressure to win.
Manchester United Predicted XI vs Villarreal
Here’s how we think Ole Gunnar Solskjaer will line Manchester United up when they face Villarreal in the UEFA Champions League tonight:
David de Gea
Diogo Dalot
Victor Lindelof
Raphael Varane
Alex Telles
Fred
Scott McTominay
Mason Greenwood
Bruno Fernandes
Paul Pogba
Cristiano Ronaldo
Other than the defence, the rest of the team does look familiar. And this game could very well rest on how this defence performs.
Dalot has been impressive in recent times, but Telles is coming off of an injury which kept him out of action for a while. Varane and Lindelof have not played a lot of football together either.
In the middle of the park, Solskjaer could opt to stick with the duo of Fred and McTominay. While some questions have been raised about them in recent times, we all know what they bring to the pitch. Up front, it is a forward line that has become familiar ever since the arrival of Ronaldo in the summer.