Our predicted Manchester United starting line-up for this evening’s Europa League semi-final away to Athletic Bilbao.
The Red Devils have made the trip over to Spain and will be undergoing their final preparations today ahead of this evening’s first leg of the tie at the San Mames Stadium.
It’s anticipated Ruben Amorim will utilise all the firepower he’s got tonight and in next Thursday’s reverse fixture while making wholesale changes to his XI for the Premier League clash sandwiched between: an away contest against Brentford on Sunday afternoon.
Amorim’s team news for Bilbao
Yesterday, the boss was granted two substantial fitness boosts in the form of Amad and Matthijs de Ligt returning to team training at Carrington, with the former’s recovery well ahead of schedule after it was initially feared back in February that he’d played his last game of the campaign.
Laurie Whitwell claimed the Ivorian livewire was ‘in contention’ to make the travelling squad. Later that day, Amorim confirmed that while Amad and De Ligt won’t be able to play from the off, they could indeed feature off the bench to make their respective comebacks.
United’s long-term absentees are Lisandro Martinez, Diogo Dalot and Joshua Zirkzee. Sidelined youngsters Ayden Heaven and Toby Collyer are ruled out tonight but are expected to be available before the end of the term.
Predicted starting XI
Onana;
Yoro, Maguire, Shaw;
Hailed as a ‘special talent’ by Amorim at the start of his tenure, teenage Leny Yoro has become a mainstay in the squad in recent months, while Luke Shaw made his first start for 14 months against Bournemouth last weekend.
Mazraoui, Casemiro, Ugarte, Dorgu;
Fernandes, Garnacho;
If any player is to be sacrificed to make way for Amad in the coming matches, it’ll likely be Alejandro Garnacho, so he wants to make the most of his minutes while he’s still a guaranteed starter.
Hojlund.
Rasmus Hojlund’s record in Europe (five goals and three assists in 12 outings) is considerably better than in the Premier League (four goals and one assist in 29). A top-drawer display in such a crunch fixture would do wonders for his confidence – and Amorim’s faith in him.
Not at all confident about this, having read an interview with Athletic’s Iñaki Williams. He talks about how special their Club is to them, how strong the bond is between the players; I don’t feel we yet have that level of togetherness. My prediction is we will do ok over there, and screw it up at Old Trafford.
You had a good goalkeeper in David de Gea whose clean sheets record was top notch. However the manager, ten Haag, wanted a footballing goalkeeper. So you got one who can’t use his hands to keep the ball out of the net. Self inflicted damage.
Now that’s just not fair! He DOES use his hands to keep the ball out of the net, unfortunately he then pushes it out invitingly to the opposition’s strikers.
Which is another reason for my lack of confidence about this match: An Onana goof is going to cost us at one goal.
“at least one goal”
Ahh, hmm, hrumph. As I was trying to say before this dumb predictive text changed it: I am completely confident in the lads, think Onana will keep a clean sheet, and we’ll probably win 3-0, or something. Want to be rich? Follow my football tips with big money: AND BACK THE COMPLETE OPPOSITE. Goodnight, and UTFR