The United Devils



Saturday 4th January 2020, Wolverhampton Wanderers host Manchester United in the FA Cup third round at Molyneux in an intriguing encounter. Wolves have experienced mixed fortunes recently in the Premiership. Nuno Espirito Santo’s team head into this game on the back of just two wins in their last six games. Despite their recent poor run of form, the side from the Midlands are still seventh place in the table, just a point behind the visitors, who are fifth-place. Wolves have a recent excellent record in the FA Cup as they reached the semi final last season and lost 3-2 in extra time to Watford. As far as home records are concerned Wolves are unbeaten in their last four matches with three wins and a draw. Their last defeat in the FA Cup at home was against Chelsea in 2017.
The inaugural FA Cup tournament kicked off in November 1871, and was won by Wanderers in the final at Kennington Oval on 16 March 1872. Manchester United have won the FA Cup on 12 occasions - a feat bettered only b…

Manchester United will begin 2020 with a massive clash at the Emirates against a bitter rival in similar circumstances to the Red Devils in recent seasons. Here's all you need to know:

Teams: Arsenal vs Manchester United
Date: 01/01/2020
Time: 20:00 GMT 
Managers: Mikel Arteta and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer
Location: Emirates Stadium
Referee: Chris Kavanagh

Team News:
Arsenal are likely to be without Granit Xhaka who remains ill and Calum Chambers, Rob Holding, Kieran Tierney, Sead Kolasinac and Sokratis remain out. Dani Ceballos could return alongside Gabriel Martinelli and Hector Bellerin.
For Manchester United, Paul Pogba is likely to return after being rested against Burnley with Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Luke Shaw also likely to return to the starting lineup despite excellent performances from Williams and Young at Turf Moor. McTominay is set to be out for eight weeks and will be a massive loss and while Diogo Dalot, Axel Tuanzebe, Tim Fosu-Mensah, Marcos Rojo and Eric Bailly are back in tra…

Photo Credit: planetfootball.com
Marcus Rashford's star is on the rise. 16 goals and 5 assists in 27 games this season is a phenomenal return for a 22 year old, and this despite a barren run in August and September during which he scored just three goals and provided two assists. The knives were out back then with some suggesting that he wasn't fulfilling his early promise, like the Januzajs and Machedas of seasons past. What the naysayers didn't know, or care, about back then was the fact that Rashford played through injury because United were so light up front. Was that selfish, risking further injury whilst knowing that he wasn't capable of giving 100% ? Yes, of course it was, but what else would you want from your star striker?

So, apart from recovering from injury, what exactly is behind this sudden improvement in Rashford's form? To answer this question it is worth looking back at his United career on a season by season basis.

2015/16
In his debut season Rashf…

Fred, our £50m midfielder, was one of just two players that we signed in that audacious transfer window that preceded one of our worst seasons. Fred came in along with Diogo Dalot in that summer owing to severe under-backing on the board's part. While upset and annoyed, we were still quite excited to see Fred and Dalot make it into the first team. On his debut against Leicester, Fred tried elaborate tricks and skills which is unusual for a new signing. As a new signing, you just try to settle down and play the easy passes. Needless to say, Fred's skills were far from impressive as he kept losing possession in our own half and invited needless pressure from Leicester. This review of Fred became a mainstay to his game and often received criticism for just under-performing in general. He soon became a liability and was dropped for long periods with fans calling for him to be sold. The midfield trio of Scott McTominay, Ander Herrera, Paul Pogba emerged and seemed quite undroppabl…

Manchester United went into the New Year with back to back wins against Newcastle and Burnley only to suffer another disappointing defeat to out-of-form Arsenal at the Emirates with first half goals from Pepe and Sokratis making the difference for Arteta in his first win for Arsenal. A big win for Arsenal but many questions for Manchester United who were pathetic on the night.

United made three changes to the side that beat Burnley with Williams, Young and Pereira all out for Shaw, Wan-Bissaka and Lingard. Paul Pogba failed to make the squad after sustaining another injury that will sideline him for four weeks and with McTominay also out for two months, Fred and Matic made the midfield two.

De Gea, Wan-Bissaka, Lindelof, Maguire (c), Shaw, Matic, Fred, James, Lingard, Rashford, Martial

The first half began with a United attack and Rashford got off an early shot to test Bernd Leno but after that, Arsenal were rampant. Kolasinac charged down the Gunner's left, played in by Aubameyan…

It certainly wasn't quite the response Ole Gunnar Solskjaer would have hoped for after the disappointment at Arsenal midweek, as his side failed to register a shot on target and drew 0-0 away to Wolves in the third round of the FA Cup on Saturday.

Alongside that rather shameful statistic, the Reds midfield also completed just two tackles at the Molineux in a game that was not really worthy of a thorough analysis. It was the definition of a stalemate.

Though the performance was a bit dire and toothless, there are some positives to take away from the fixture. Brandon Williams was once again excellent. Game after game in which he features, the 19-year-old Englishman continues to knock on the door of becoming the first choice left-back. It almost feels like a matter of time now before it becomes a reality — sooner rather than later.

In-form Wolves winger, Adama Traore, came into this game in red hot form fuelled by his outstanding performances in the Premier League in recent weeks, a…

Manchester United were looking to end off the Festive period and 2019 in grand style with back to back wins in the Premier League. Manchester United are unbeaten in their last 10 Premier League games against Burnley (W6, D4), their only loss coming in their first meeting in August 2009.The Red Devils navigated through a tough test at Turf Moor to take all three points against Burnley and win a hard-fought encounter 2-0. This allowed Man Utd to close the gap on fourth placed Chelsea to just one point and put more pressure on the Londoners whose own campaign has seemed to falter in recent matches.  Solskjaer made four changes to the side that beat Newcastle on Boxing Day most notable absentee was the French talisman Paul Pogba who is being rested as he continues to get back to full match fitness. The most satisfying statistic was the first clean sheet kept in 14 games.

The Red Devils looked comfortable in the first half with Marcus Rashford’s shot hitting the outside of the post with a g…

Disappointing game! Manchester United visited the Wolves' home after an abominable loss at the Emirates last weekend.

The FA Cup was our real shot at a trophy this season. After 2 losses in a row, I can understand if you guys are feeling so low. Anyway, the sorrowful rant aside, let's consider how the action happened and wherever it  probably went wrong.
First Half  United dominated the opening stages however they had no answer to Wolves’ deep and well-organised defensive position. The visitors tried heading in the right direction although the real threat came at the half hour mark in form of a Marcus Rashford effort from thirty yards out (that John Ruddy gathered with ease).

Wolves were comfy within their own half and started to search out their feet in the final third. A Ruben Neves shot from close range was controlled by Sergio Romero. A few moments later, Diogo Jota volleyed straight at the United goalkeeper.

Their best chance came shortly before the interval. A Neves pas…

Manchester United traveled to The Emirates and fell to a 2-0 defeat against Arsenal. Their first defeat in the Premier League since being managed under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer but despite the defeat,
Manchester United posed some threatening moments that would and should have brought a different atmosphere and a different outcome if they had been more clinical in front of goal. And With Lukaku and his teammates not being able to find the back of the net despite being just only a few yards out in front of goal, it makes the defeat much much worse for United fans.

Goals from Granit Xhaka from distance and a penalty from Emerick-Aubameyang was enough to hand Man United their first PL defeat in 2019. 

But here are some brief talking points in their away defeat against Arsenal.

Arsenal V. Manchester United. What We Learned.

Luke Shaw, Best Player Of The Night For United.

Although Man Utd took a step backwards in their defeat against Arsenal, Luke Shaw put in a real shift for his side. Shaw set …

Manchester United have beaten Newcastle United 4-1 at Old Trafford with goals coming from Anthony Martial, Mason Greenwood, Marcus Rashford. After an embarrassing performance against Watford a few days ago, United have bounced back with a strong commanding win on Boxing Day. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer lined the team up in a 4-2-3-1 with the usual backline of Aaron Wan-Bissaka, Victor Lindelof, Harry Maguire, and Luke Shaw playing in front of David De Gea. In midfield, Fred and McTominay played in a double pivot with Paul Pogba only fit enough to start on the bench. Marcus Rashford, Andreas Pereira, and Mason Greenwood started in attacking midfield and Anthony Martial spearheaded our frontline. 
It felt like it was going to be another one of those days after United went 1-0 down to Matty Longstaff who scored the winning goal against us in the reverse fixture as well. Despite dominating possession and mostly playing in Newcastle's half, we somehow found ourselves trailing after the first …