admin Manchester United are home to Brentford in the Premier League today, but there’s a lot to consider at Old Trafford.
Mountain to climb for Mount?
In the summer when four English players moved, Manchester United lost their place in the starting eleven and signed the man who received the lowest transfer fee. Mason Mount is currently absent from the England squad.
Mount wears United’s No. 7 shirt, but he seems to be under its spell for now. Angel Di Maria, Memphis Depay, Alexis Sanchez, Edinson Cavani, Cristiano Ronaldo. His dismal start to his United career was made worse by his omission from the England squad for games against Australia and Italy this month.
The fact that Mount only recently returned from injury is controversial. He played more international minutes in September and October than Aaron Ramsdale, John Stones, Harry Maguire and Kalvin Phillips. He also, like Jordan Henderson, operates at the intensity of the Premier League rather than the retirement home of the Saudi Pro League.
Ramsdale, Stones, Maguire, Phillips and Henderson, most of whom are Southgate’s favorites, are in the squad. Mount was once seen as a favorite to win the title, but it has been almost a year since he last won an England cap. He needs to start his United career today.
Left back change?
Erik ten Hag changed teams in midweek, which contributed to United’s collapse. Although they were limited in some areas, they could have brought back Alejandro Garnacho or moved Diogo Dalot to left-back and Sofian Amrabat into midfield.
Amrabat is not quite as capable of a relief left-back as Kieran Richardson, made infamous by Roy Keane after the apocalyptic defeat at Middlesbrough in 2005, but at the time United Defeat was rare.
A month into his United career, Amrabat is yet to start in central midfield. Ten Hag needs to understand that it is irrelevant that Amrabat played as a left-back for FC Utrecht in the Eredivisie, where defenders are required to play.
Mount has been in decent form this week and his work has been praised by United fans who want him to be more efficient. Ten Hag doesn’t seem to plan on putting Mount on the right side, but that’s something to consider.
Please do not destroy unnecessary records.
If United lose today, they will lose five of their first eight league games for the first time since 1986. In November of that year, Alex Ferguson arrived from Aberdeen.
United have not lost three straight seasons at home since October 1962, when the club was still recovering from the trauma of the Munich air disaster. The last time they lost in the third round at home in a league game was in February 1979.
The last time Brentford won at Old Trafford was in 1937, when Jack Nicholson was born.
