The United Devils

Finally, all the transfer talk is over (despite a somewhat underwhelming window), and it is now time for the football to do the talking as Manchester United are set to take on Chelsea in a big Premier League opener at Old Trafford on Sunday. 

United enjoyed a positive pre-season, going undefeated by winning all six of their preparation games (5W and 1 on penalties). Despite the seemingly never ending speculation about the ins and outs, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's men looked quite impressive in pre-season, and gave the fans some reasons for optimism with the style of play that was implemented over the summer. In addition, United also managed to address the most important hole in the squad by adding two quality signings in Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Harry Maguire to solidify the defence. And while failing to replace some players further up the park, United do seem to be in better shape mentally and physically in comparison to this time last year, and with the emerging youth players set to be g…

Photo Credit: Evening Standard


Finally, after all the rumours, speculation, ins, outs, hashtags and cancelled phone-ins, Matchweek One of the 2019/20 Premier League got underway at Old Trafford. For us fans, the questions today centred around the starting line-up and whether Maguire could comfortably walk into the first team with no pre-season, which version of Pogba would turn up, and who would score the goals in Lukaku's absence. All of those questions and more were answered, which left the red two-thirds of Manchester ecstatic, for this week at least. Player RatingsDavid de Gea: 8
Effective when called upon. Not at fault for the two shots that hit the post, commanded his area well and dealt superbly with Chelsea's long range efforts. There is no doubt that his confidence has been bolstered by United's new look back line.
Aaron Wan-Bissaka: 9
Not a technically flawless display, but for a 21 year old making his full debut in a game of this magnitude he was simply awesome. …

Image taken from AM Point TV
So today was the day, the start of the new season where every team has new hopes and dreams. For Manchester United the hope for their first game would have been to get off to a winning start. The dream would have been to beat Chelsea convincingly and get Old Trafford rocking. Today was the day for that United dream to come true...
First up today for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s men was Frank Lampard’s Chelsea, probably an unknown quantity at the start of this season. A team that is under a transfer embargo with a man in charge that has limited managerial experience. They are a team that doesn’t lack quality however and no doubt will still be in with a good chance of pushing for a top four position come the end of the season.
The early stages of the game saw Chelsea start the brighter, worryingly for United Chelsea looked much sharper and brighter than they did and were unlucky not to take the lead when Tammy Abraham saw his effort crash off the post. Chelsea then h…

With the transfer window on the verge of closing, I am going to be looking at the squad available to Ole and how I think he can utilise it:
Formation: Ole has commonly
used a 4-2-3-1 throughout all of pre season and so it should come as no surprise that this is what I will be using to layout the team.

Goalkeeper: This position picks itself. David De Gea has been one of the best goalkeepers over the last few years and even though he had a blip last season, he is undoubtedly the best goalkeeper at the club and will save us on many occasions as he has done in the past. Romero has also been reliable as a backup option and I am sure he will look good and sharp on the occasions he is needed.

Defenders: The defence is fairly straight-forward as both new signings Maguire and Wan-Bissaka go into the right back and centre back positions. The left back position obviously goes to Shaw who although was our POTY last season, will look to improve himself as an attacking outlet. The main point of di…

Manchester United returned to action on Sunday for the first time in the 2019/2020 Premier League season and enjoyed a 4-0 win over bitter rivals, Chelsea. Here is what we learned from the game.
Ole deserves time Manchester United have sacked coaches over the past 4 years. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, as it stands now, is a fan favourite (mostly) and also a supporter of the club. Given that he has shown since his arrival in December last year, he surely deserves time and backing. His man-management, tactics and training methods are reaping bountiful gifts so far and he needs time to improve further.
Forget the price, Harry Maguire was needed Last year, Manchester United conceded goals mainly because of poor defending. It was clear this season that we needed some new faces in the backline. Harry Maguire's composure and leadership qualities plus his physicality and clever play are what United needed and his arrival so far is paying off his world record fee. United still have a problem of sta…

Image Credit: manutd.com
Manchester United's 2019/20 pre-season tour was, from a results perspective, a very successful one, achieving 5 wins and 1 draw resulting in victory via a penalty shoot-out. However, there is a lot more to pre-season than just the results. What have we been working on? What have we learnt? What has gone well and what still needs improving?
Results Manchester United 2-0 Perth Glory Manchester United 4-0 Leeds United Manchester United 1-0 Inter Milan Manchester United 2-1 Tottenham Hotspur Manchester United 1-0 Kristiansund BK Manchester United 2-2 AC Milan (5-4 pens)
Goalscorers 3 - Rashford 2 - Martial, Greenwood 1 - Lingard, Mata, Garner, Gomes, Jones
Assisters 2 - Pereira 1 - Wan-Bissaka, Pogba, McTominay, Chong, Young, Mata, Matic, Martial
In terms of using pre-season to trial run tactics for the new season, there were three specific things that stood out this year. The first of which was our formation, a 4-2-3-1 system. This formation utilises a 'dou…

Manchester United finished their preseason tour unbeaten. Marcus Rashford and Jesse Lingard were on the score sheet for the Red Devils before winning the game on penalties Here are the player ratings from the game:
Starting Team: David de Gea: 7 Had a pretty solid performance with two impressive saves. He had no chance with Suso’s incredible first-half strike and saved the crucial penalty in the shootout.
Aaron Wan-Bissaka: 7 He proved that he is a a good attackers as he provided some dangerous deliveries. Had a great game overall.
Victor Lindelof: 6 Uniteds defence was exposed on many occasions by  AC Milan. Was unlucky to have Milan’s second goal deflecting off his back. He needs a great partnership with Maguire.
Marcos Rojo: 6 His starting was a bit bizarre. Leaves us with questions regarding the futures of Chris Smalling and His. He had a hot-headed performance in Cardiff but was a reliable overall.
Luke Shaw: 6 Seems Lukaku's speed leak on Twitter stirred up some emotions in him. …

Image: Nick Pasquet
Manchester United concluded their pre-season tour by visiting the Principality Stadium in Cardiff to take on Italian giants AC Milan. I was fortunate enough to be able to attend the match live. For a pre-season match, the atmosphere was fantastic, with 65,000 fans attending, most of them supporting the Red Devils.
Starting XI: De Gea, Wan-Bissaka, Lindelof, Rojo, Shaw, McTominay, Matic, Pereira, Mata, Rashford, Martial
As has become the norm throughout this pre-season, United lined up using a 4-2-3-1 system. On this occasion, McTominay and Matic acted as the double pivot, Pereira played from the right, Mata in attacking midfield, Rashford on the left and Martial up front. Although there was not quite as much front four rotation as there had been in previous matches, there was still some evidence of this tactic being in use. The most common rotation was between Martial and Rashford as both are capable of playing on the left-wing and at striker. Martial spent more t…

On Tuesday night Rotherham United host, the newest participants Manchester United’s U23’s in the now renamed Leasing.com Trophy, previously known as the Checkertrade Trophy. This is United’s u23’s first competitive game in this competition since declining the opportunity to participate last year, when the format of introducing the U23’s of Premier League teams first began. United have been handed a very stern test in the group stage of the Leasing.com Trophy, with the group consisting of League One side Doncaster Rovers, who suffered Playoff semi-final defeat last season and are known under the guidance of ex-West Brom manager Darren Moore. Also, Lincoln City who have been on a great run in the last few seasons consisting of 2 promotions in last two seasons and a magical FA Cup run the previous season all under the stewardship of the Cowley brothers, Finally, as previously mentioned the last team being Rotherham United, starting the season back in League One after relegation from the C…

This Friday the 16th of August, United U23’s host Reading u23’s at the Leigh sports village. This is the first home game of the season for Neil Woods men, and he will be hoping his side are able to continue where they left off from last Friday and pick up another 3 points.
It was a great start last week for the newly appointed manager and assistant manager, Neil Wood and Quinton Fortune, respectively. After playing their first game in the Leasing.com trophy and coming out 2-0 winners against League one side Rotherham United, Neil Wood then took his side to West Brom and even without big names such as Angel Gomes, Tahith Chong, and Mason Greenwood. United was able to run out convincing winners and brushing the midlands side aside by 5 goals to nil.
At this moment there are four promising young players who first-team manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is keeping close to his first-team squad and they are: Gomes, Chong, Greenwood, and Garner. While it was the latter, who at 18 years old is the …