The United Devils

After a disappointing draw but not a bad performance at the Molineux Stadium, Manchester United will host Crystal Palace in their third game of the season on Saturday. Here's all you need to know:
Teams: Manchester United vs Crystal Palace Date: Saturday 24th August 2019 KO Time: 15:00 GMT Managers: Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Roy Hodgeson Referee: Paul Tierney
Team News: Eric Bailly and Timothy Fosu-Mensah remain sidelined and now Diogo Dalot joins them but the young Portugal international will only be out until after next month's international break.  As for Palace, regular defenders James Tomkins and Mamadou Sakho remain out with long term injuries for the Eagles which means that Martin Kelly and Scott Dann should remain as the starting centre backs unless Gay Cahill is passed fit for his debut. 
Interesting Facts: Crystal Palace are yet to beat Manchester United in the Premier League after trying and failing 20 times (L16 D4) and have not scored at Old Trafford since Mason Greenwood…

Manchester United fans, brace yourselves for a very long season ahead. The team and anything associated with it are disappointing so far.
Manchester United slumped to another disappointing result at St Mary's in which they failed to beat 10-man Southampton and ended the match with just a point, making it five points from four games. United have now failed to secure three points for the third game in a row.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer made three changes from the team which failed to beat Crystal Palace last weekend with Young and Pereira coming in for the injured Shaw and Martial as well as Juan Mata making his first start of the season in place for Lingard who began the game on the bench.
Manchester United took the lead early on in the match thanks to a brilliant strike from Daniel James. But, as per usual, we were beaten just after the break when Southampton levelled the scores through defender Jannik Vestergaard after another Lindelof mistake.
Southampton was reduced to ten men midway…

The feel good factor bubble around Manchester United this season was burst as soon as game week three, as Crystal Palace spoiled United's return to Old Trafford on Saturday. After filling the fans with optimism by accumulating four points from the first two challenging fixtures, the one that was supposed to be 'easy' proved to be the first hurdle. United looked toothless going forward for most of the game, and the defensive errors from previous years came back to haunt them once again in a 1-2 loss.

Here is what we learned from the game:

United lacking the creative spark

We all knew that United needed to bring in a midfielder during the summer transfer window, not only because they lost Ander Herrera and Marouane Fellaini, but also because it was clear as day last season that the team lacked that "it" factor in the creation department. With Juan Mata getting older, and Angel Gomes being on the brink of the first team, but perhaps not quite ready for regular football…

I stopped watching the game in the 84th minute and started writing this article. A few moments later, I heard some noise only to check and Daniel James had equalised for us, unfortunately Palace scored almost immediately afterwards to drown any hope United had of a win. We had a very low intensity game and our lack of creativity is screaming in our faces not to mention another penalty miss. 
Here are the player ratings from the game.
De Gea  4 Was pretty much untested through out the game. Made some great one on one saves and had very little to do about the first goal we conceded. Yeah, we just conceded another goal. Absolute shambles. De Gea definitely at fault here. Reason his rating is as low as it is.
Wan Bissaka 6 His side was avoided by Crystal Palace and he had some great additions to the attack. Just not good enough for today.
Lindelof 4 Was at fault for the first goal we conceded,. But was pretty much untested for the rest of the game.
Harry Maguire 6 Added some calmness into ou…

Photo credit: manutd.com


Injuries sustained in the home defeat to Crystal Palace forced Solskjaer to make changes to the starting eleven, with Young at fullback and Pereira on the wing. Mata was picked to play in the number 10 role, despite the gaffer's vote of confidence in Lingard after his dismal display against the Eagles.
Player RatingsDavid de Gea: 7
Looked more assured than last week and denied Ings with a superb save moments before the Southampton equaliser. 
Aaron Wan-Bissaka: 8
Another solid performance from the young full-back who is fully justifying his call-up to the England senior squad.
Harry Maguire: 7
We know he's good, but we won't see the best of Maguire until he has full trust in the man to his right.
Victor Lindelof: 3
Another poor attempt at a defensive header which led to a crucial goal. Clearly lacking in confidence, which is worrying. Chris Smalling's Manchester United career didn't end for this.
Ashley Young: 7
Slotted into the left-left back r…

This Friday United U23’s welcome West Ham u23’s to Old Trafford. It is free entry to supporters and United will be hoping for a big turnout for their exciting youngsters. It is another opportunity for some of these players to show what they’re about and prove they deserve to play at Old Trafford on a regular basis, while West Ham’ players should also be up for this knowing they are getting a chance to play at Old Trafford which not many youngsters get to do.
It’s been a great start to the season and a great start under the new management of Neil Wood and Quinton Fortune. It’s been 3 wins out of 3 with a total of 11 goals scored and none conceded so far with the last game, seeing United comfortable 4-0 winners away to Newcastle at St James Park. This game also showed why Tahith Chong and James Garner are well thought of at Old Trafford, with Chong getting off the mark this season and grabbing two goals and Garner continuing his goal-scoring form by grabbing one and making it 4 in 3 game…

Following the end of the summer transfer window, we can now analyse the squad we have left, and it is easy to see that we have huge problems in our midfield.

Following the January departure of Fellaini and the summer departure of Ander Herrera, we have been left thin on the ground in terms of midfield reinforcements. Both the positions of attacking midfield and defensive midfield are lacking depth and good options for Solskjaer to use. These is leaving the team with a lack of creativity and defensive solidity in midfield.

The current options for Solskjaer in the centre of the park are Pogba, Scott McTominay Fred and Matic. These options show a real lack of strength in depth and quality. Pogba is clearly the best of these midfielders but even he is inconsistent and needs other members of the midfield to help him out. Even with Pogba's quality, we need more from him as on his day he can control the game on his own. Another useful player is Scott McTominay, he might not be technical…

Manchester United travel down south for the fourth game week of the season to the St. Mary's Stadium to take on Southampton. This is the first match of the weekend and a likely mood setter for most Manchester United faithful. After the blunderous game last week that saw us lose to Palace at Old Trafford, we need to pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off and get back to winning ways. 
Teams: Southampton vs Manchester United Date: Saturday 31st August 2019 KO Time: 12:30 GMT Managers: Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Ralph Hassenhuttl Referee: Mike Dean
Teams News:
Manchester United have two major injury concerns for this game. Luke Shaw and Anthony Martial will both miss the trip to the St. Mary's after picking up injuries last week. While it has been confirmed that Shaw will be out for about 5 days, the extent of Martial's injury is still unknown at the moment. This comes as a disappointment because the Frenchman was very good for us in the previous games that he played. To replace them,…

Photo Credit: The Daily Mirror
After the disappointing draw at Molineux it was imperative that United got back to winning ways at home to a team that hadn't beaten them for 28 years. Perhaps surprisingly Solskjaer named an unchanged line-up, especially when you consider Lingard's non-performance against Wolves, along with the host of young attacking players chomping at the bit for a slice of first-team action.

Their was heightened focus on Paul Pogba after the horrific abuse aimed at him on social media so it was great to hear the reception from the Old Trafford faithful when his name was read out. Wan-Bissaka would also be under scrutiny after his £50 million move from the Eagles this summer.

When you look at Palace's attacking options, outside of Zaha it's a veritable who's who of underwhelming, non-prolific strikers, so to concede two goals to them at home is bordering on criminal.

United started really well, keeping possession and probing a nervy looking Palace bac…

As match day four has now been wrapped up and players have jetted off on international duty, let's take a look at all of the weekend's results and rate the performances of every team:

Southampton 1-1 Manchester United
Chelsea 2-2 Sheffield United
Crystal Palace 1-0 Aston Villa
Leicester 3-1 Bournemouth
Manchester City 4-0 Brighton
Newcastle 1-1 Watford
West Ham 2-0 Norwich
Burnley 0-3 Liverpool
Everton 3-2 Wolves
Arsenal 2-2 Tottenham 


SOUTHAMPTON: 8/10
As far as game plan and achieving your goals go, the Saints did a terrific job this weekend. They were a nuisance to United, despite creating few chances, and they were very solid at the back. The level of their defensive performance should be something they look to build on going forward.

MANCHESTER UNITED: 6/10
United's performance in itself wasn't terrible, but they simply cannot come away from games against Palace and Southampton with one point. It's just unacceptable. The Reds once again couldn't get past a solid back…