Manchester United are travelling to The Hawthorns stadium on Sunday to face West Bromwich Albion for their Premier League fixture. Albion dropped to the relegation spot after their mid-week draw to Liverpool at Anfield, while Crystal Palace came away with a 2-1 win against Burnley.
A reshuffled Liverpool squad could not break the deadlock. Dominic Solanke’s late goal got disallowed by the officials. West Brom stretched their winless run to 16, a record not every fan might want, but the result far more acceptable. Alan Pardew however, will have his hands full in dealing with Mourinho’s men in this fixture.
Manchester United have dropped 11 points below the leaders in the points table and some fans and pundits are writing them off from winning the title this season. But Mourinho is not willing to let up that easy. The Red Devils are hungry for another away win in the hopes of closing in on their noisy neighbours.
Alan Pardew might stick to his formation of 4-2-3-1 instead of switching to a back 3 to replicate Mourinho’s style of play.
Defence
Ben Foster is expected to take his usual spot in between the sticks. He has 5 clean sheets to his name this season eager to get another one in this fixture.
Allan-Romeo Nyom and Kieran Gibbs will be crucial for this fixture from the right and left back positions, respectively and they can look to start ahead of this fixture. However, Pardew might have rotational options after this match with Craig Dawson expected to return after 2 months on the sidelines.
Ahmed Hegazi is predicted to take up the centre back roles alongside club captain, Jonny Evans. Evans will look to impress with a number of Premier League clubs interested in him.
Midfield
The defensive midfield position can be filled up by Jake Livermore and Sam Field. Grzegorz Krychowiak is expected to be given a breather after the hard-fought mid-week fixture. Gareth Barry has returned to the side after recovering from a thigh injury but might not start for this fixture to prevent further aggravation.
Claudio Yacob will be thrilled to start again for this match in the attacking midfield position and take on the Manchester United backline without Eric Bailey.
Jay Rodriguez is expected to replace James McClean on the right-wing with Hal Robson-Kanu on the left. It is still uncertain when Nacer Chadili will return to the side.
Attack
Salomon Rondon might get the nod ahead of this fixture. He has chipped in only 2 goals for the side this season and will be looking to increase that tally on Sunday.
