Manchester United -v- Liverpool
Premier League
St Mary’s, Southampton
Saturday 27 August 2022, KO 12:30 BST
Manchester United travel to St Mary’s in the Premier League on Saturday to face Southampton. The South Coast club have won one, drawn one and lost one in the league season season and still above United at this time. Erik ten Hag’s United will be seeking their second victory of the season.
The losses against Brighton and Hove Albion and Brentford brought United to a new low this season resulting in a brilliant performance against Liverpool at Old Trafford on Monday, taking all three points an leaving Liverpool winless in their opening three matches.
United unveiled Casemiro ahead of the match on Monday and his debut will be long-awaited, even though his signing came about pretty quickly. United needed a defensive midfielder like him and the improvement should be shown almost immediately.
Manchester United – Form, Goals Scored & Assists
Liverpool 2-1 W, Brentford 4-0 L, Brighton and Hove Albion 2-1 L, Rayo Vallecano 1-1 D, Atlético Madrid 1-0 L, Aston Villa 2-2 D
Goals: 1 – Own Goal, Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho
Assists: 1 – Anthony Elanga, Anthony Martial
Southampton – Form, Goals Scored & Assists
Cambridge United 3-0 W, Leicester City 2-1 W, Leeds United 2-2 D, Tottenham Hotspur 4-1 L, Villarreal 2-1 L, AS Monaco 3-1 W
Goals: 4 – Che Adams, 1 – Joe Aribo, Dominic Ballard, Kyle Walker-Peters, James Ward-Prowse
Assists: 1 – Adam Armstrong, Armel Bella-Kotchap, Moussa Djenepo, Sékou Mara, Lewis Payne, James Ward-Prowse
Previous Meetings & Connections
United and Southampton have met 46 times in the Premier League with United winning 28 matches, drawing 11 matches and Southampton winning seven. United have scored 98 goals, winning four penalties, scoring two. Southampton have scored 52 goals, winning one penalty, missing it.
United have kept 12 clean sheets with Southampton keeping six. Discipline has been an issue in this fixture with United players shown 64 yellow cards and one red card and Southampton players shown 74 yellow cards and three red cards. United need to continue what they showed against Liverpool.
Luke Shaw, Danny Wallace, Danny Higginbotham, Joe Jordan, Mark Hughes, Morgan Schneiderlin and Andrei Kanchelskis have all played for both United and Southampton over the years. Shaw is the only current player for United to have played at St Mary’s.
Team News
Manchester United will be without Victor Lindelof and Facundo Pellistri for the visit to Southampton on Saturday. It is not yet known what is happening with Brandon Williams, who has not played during pre-season and is currently not training with the first team.
Casemiro is expected to make his debut for United against Southampton. Whether that is in a starting position or from the bench remains to be seen. I would expect to see the Brazilian start this match as he will be eager to get going and should be fit enough.
Southampton will be without Valentino Livramento for the visit of United to St Mary’s this weekend. The club will have French full-back Romain Perraud available this weekend after overcoming his injury. The Saints will have to be up for the challenge that United will bring.
Predicted Manchester United Starting XI – 4-2-3-1
De Gea;
Dalot, Varane, Martinez, Malacia;
Casemiro, Eriksen;
Sancho, Fernandes, Rashford;
Martial
Predicted Southampton Starting XI – 4-2-3-1
Bazunu;
Walker-Peters, Bella-Kotchap, Salisu, Perraud;
Ward-Prowse, Lavia;
Aribo, Elyounoussi, Armstrong;
Adams
Match Prediction
United played well against Liverpool and despite being 2-0 up pundits and journalists seem to be obsessed with United and remain unconvinced despite the best showing for the squad this season. The Liverpool match could not be further away from the matches against Brighton and Brentford.
Ten Hag will be seeking the best from his team in this match and a win will be the result that is much needed, which could see United rise up the Premier League table, at least until the remainder of the matches are played – United kicking off first on Saturday.
With the players in this squad, the match against Liverpool should be the barometer for this United squad this season and should be the minimum standards expected from this team. Anything less and the players would not be working hard enough.
Southampton 0-3 Manchester United
Written by John Walker
