Manchester United are ready to face off against Brighton and Hove Albion on Sunday afternoon in the second matchday of the new Premier League season.
As we wrote in our preview of that match, Mourinho has confirmed that Antonio Valencia, Nemanja Matic and Jesse Lingard are back in training, but remain unavailable. Sergio Romero, Ander Herrera, Marcos Rojo and Diogo Dalot are still sidelined. We also wrote about how Brighton did against Watford in their 2-0 loss at Vicarage Road last weekend, highlighting their mistakes.
Here is what we will be looking forward to on Sunday.
Alexis Sanchez Masterclass
Alexis Sanchez did not have his best match last Friday at Old Trafford. Leicester were brushed aside in the end, but the Chilean’s decent spells of play were usually followed by several mistakes in final third. Most of them were actually produced after Sanchez wanted to do too much too soon. He would get the ball, look up and then try and find Romelu Lukaku or any other player in front of him. This resulted in Sanchez making high risk passes that are easier not to be completed.
However, Sanchez did create a couple of chances for his teammates in that match. It was not all dark and gloom, but there will be plenty of space for him to improve on Sunday. Seeing a stellar performance at the Amex Stadium could be a huge boost not only for him, but also for the whole team, prior to the match against Tottenham Hotspur.
Paul Pogba Shutting Up The Critics
“He’s working extremely well here but I have to say in his defence, write what you want about him, me, please don’t say lies, don’t put him in a situation that people can think he’s not a polite, educated guy, he is. He never had a fight with me”, said Jose Mourinho on Friday during a press conference prior to the match against Brighton.
These two sentences say a lot about the way the media have treated Paul Pogba in recent times. He was often targeted without particular reason, with the rumours like the one mentioned above being started out of the blue, without any concrete proof of it being a possibility. Thus, it would be very fitting for Paul Pogba to shut the critics up with a great performance. He had a great match against Leicester and building on that could also mean that Pogba could be less inconsistent than last season.
A Commanding Clean-Sheet
Eric Bailly and Victor Lindelöf played as centre-back pairing against Leicester and that is expected to be seen once again. They did not keep a clean-sheet, but were very close to doing so, if there would not have been for Jamie Vardy’s oddly lucky goal. But a good performance for these two players would be a perfect way to stop the media writing about Manchester United not signing centre-backs this summer.
That still may come to haunt the Devils, but it is on Bailly and Lindelöf to prove to everyone that they can be the rock of this Manchester United side.
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