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Manchester United vs Swansea City preview

Manchester United vs Swansea City preview ahead of Saturday’s lunchtime kickoff at the Liberty Stadium.

Swansea City vs Manchester United
Premier League 2017-18
19th August 2017, 12:30 pm BST
Liberty Stadium, Swansea

Manchester United Team News & Preview

No new injuries have been picked up since this time last week meaning that the same three players remain our only absentees for tomorrow’s trip to Wales.

Jose Mourinho has confirmed that two of those three, Luke Shaw and Ashley Young, will feature in Monday night’s under-23 game against the Swans.

The only other absentee is Marcos Rojo who is currently sidelined with a hamstring injury.

All three have played left-back under Mourinho but we still have two options for that position in Daley Blind and Matteo Darmian.  The former played against West Ham last weekend and I expect the Dutch international to retain his place in the starting XI this Saturday.

Mourinho doesn’t need to make any changes to the starting lineup that hammered West Ham in our opening game but Ander Herrera could come into the side.  The Spaniard was a substitute last weekend.  Juan Mata could make way if the boss wants to switch to a 4-3-3 formation.

Victor Lindelof awaits his first taste of Premier League action but with Mourinho previously saying the Swede is still adjusting to life in England, Phil Jones could start alongside Eric Bailly once again.

All eyes will be on Romelu Lukaku and Nemanja Matic in this weekend’s televised game after both made fantastic Premier League debuts for us against West Ham.

Predicted Starting Lineup (4-2-3-1): David de Gea; Antonio Valencia, Phil Jones, Eric Bailly, Daley Blind; Nemanja Matic, Paul Pogba; Juan Mata, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Marcus Rashford; Romelu Lukaku

Swansea City Team News & Preview

The hosts suffered a big blow midweek as Gylfi Sigurdsson was finally sold to Everton.  Paul Clement’s side bagged £45 million from the deal but haven’t had time to replace last season’s star player.  The Icelandic’s nine goals were only bettered by Fernando Llorente (15) whilst his 13 assists were 10 more than any other player in the squad.

Llorente remains absent for the weekend meaning Chelsea loanee Tammy Abraham is in line to get another start.  Ki Sung-yueng who also missed last weekend’s game is still sidelined too and Leon Britton is a doubt in the Swansea midfield.

Swansea do have pace up front but we have Antonio Valencia and Eric Bailly to deal with that.  Daley Blind at left-back could face problems up against Jordan Ayew for pace though.

Predicted Swansea Starting Lineup (4-5-1): Lukasz Fabianski; Kyle Naughton, Federico Fernandez, Alfie Mawson, Martin Olsson; Jordan Ayew, Tom Carroll, Leon Britton, Leroy Fer, Wayne Routledge; Tammy Abraham

Swansea City vs Manchester United Key Stats

0 – Romelu Lukaku has failed to score in his last five Premier League appearances versus Swansea City (all for Everton).

4 – The four goals Manchester United scored last weekend matched the number of games we scored four goals in  last season (4-1 at Leicester City).

7 – Jose Mourinho is unbeaten in all seven matches as a manager against Swansea City (W5, D2), winning on all three of his visits to the Liberty Stadium.  Goals from Paul Pogba and Zlatan Ibrahimovic (2) in the first half helped us to a 3-0 victory in this fixture last season.

Swansea City vs Manchester United Prediction

Swansea City have lost a lot of attacking talent since the end of last season with Fernando Llorente injured and Gylfi Sigurddson sold but I won’t deny they have a lot of pace down the wings.

However, this meant nothing at Southampton last weekend as they looked very poor going forward whilst West Ham only had one shot on target all game versus us the following day.

I rate centre-back Alfie Mawson but Romelu Lukaku has the beating of him and Federico Fernandez in that back four whilst Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Marcus Rashford may be the players creating most of the chances for him.

Swansea allowed the most efforts on goal of all 20 Premier League clubs last weekend, though did keep a clean sheet.  I am confident that we’ll be able to break down this defence and score a comfortable victory.

Prediction: Swansea City 0-3 Manchester United