Man Utd vs Everton Preview

By Dara O'Brien, published on 02/10/21

After United’s thrilling late win in their crucial Champions League fixture against Villarreal, next up for the Red Devils is a league matchup away to Everton. Despite the three points accumulated by United on Wednesday, there’s no getting away from the fact that we have been on a poor run of form recently; one that we’ll be looking to put an end to later on. As a fan looking forward to watching the game, there will be a few things for you to keep an eye out for that I’ll illustrate in this preview.

Firstly, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has made some interesting comments in his press conference regarding the scheduling of fixtures that his squad have been faced with. United have been penned in to kick off this week’s round of Premier League fixtures, despite being in the minority of teams to have played in Europe in midweek. Ole has questioned this decision, saying,

“Us and Chelsea played Wednesday night, we could have easily played Sunday and the Liverpool - Man City should have been a Saturday one. Common sense might not be so common unfortunately”

Funnily enough, Ole said something very similar last season in regards to the same subject, after a midweek match in Europe proceeded by a victory against (yep, you guessed it) Everton.

Ultimately though, Ole is right here. United –and Chelsea– have been given two fewer days of rest than the likes of Liverpool and Man City. As Ole said “common sense might not be so common unfortunately”

Now I think it’s time to discuss the starting lineup. Following the injuries sustained by Luke Shaw and Harry Maguire, the back 4 looks once again to be depleted. We saw the effects of this in full force vs Villarreal, although with the return of Aaron Wan-Bissaka we should see Wednesday’s main source of defensive problems disappear with Diogo Dalot. The centre-back partnership is more than likely going to be that of Raphaël Varane and Victor Lindelöf, with Wednesday’s goalscorer Alex Telles starting at left-back, and Wednesday’s Man of the Match in David De Gea starting in goal.

Going on to my next point, I think that there is a very good chance that we will see Nemanja Matic start in midfield today. Everton are currently averaging just over 42% possession this season, and Everton aren’t exactly known for their intense pressing abilities either, affording the time and space that Matic both needs, and excels in. The fact that this is the final match before a two week international break gives Ole even more reason to play Matic.

Assuming that Matic does play, I think it’s likely that Paul Pogba will be the one that laces up next to him in midfield. Both are exceptional at breaking down low-blocks, such as we have seen from Everton this season.

In attack, I think that ideally we would be able to play the same front four that we saw appear against Villarreal in midweek, however due to the fixture congestion I think that is unlikely. What I think is more likely though, is that we see a change of Jadon Sancho making way for Jesse Lingard to enter the starting XI. Sancho’s fresh legs and supreme skill could well be the difference between one point and three should we need a goal with him coming off the bench. Outside of this change, I think we will see three of the four attackers that played against Villarreal feature again tomorrow: Bruno Fernandes, Mason Greenwood and Cristiano Ronaldo.

If Ole and I’s team selection intellect happen to be intertwined, then the XI we will see start out today’s match will be seen below:

Now that we have an idea of the starting 11 that we might play, what can we expect from our opposition? Well, Everton are missing some crucial players such as Seamus Coleman, Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Richarlison and Andre Gomes. Because their first and second choice centre-forwards are unavailable, there’s a very good chance that we’ll see Salomón Rondón leading the line for The Toffees tomorrow. And with all due respect to Salomón Rondón, he shouldn’t be posing any real threat to our defence, especially to a defender as experienced as Raphaël Varane (hopefully I haven’t just given Salomón newfound football ability by saying that).

All in all, I think we should be capable of controlling both possession and the tempo of the game, all while keeping a clean sheet. Without their main goal threat in Calvert-Lewin, we should be capable of keeping that clean sheet, and with our quality in the final-third, we should also be able to break them down a few times after hopefully controlling possession.

Expect a lot of possession for United, especially for the (potential) midfield of Matic and Pogba, who have a big job in trying to break the block of Everton down. You can also expect plenty of width provided mainly by Mason Greenwood looking to get himself into 1v1 situations, and Luke Shaw’s overlapping runs, thus creating plenty of crossing opportunities and the ability to utilise Ronaldo’s incredible aerial ability.

To finish off my preview, I’ll give you my score prediction.

I’m going to say (and hope) that it will end 2-0 to United, with Mason Greenwood and Cristiano Ronaldo getting themselves on the scoresheet.