Manchester United -v- Fulham
Premier League
Old Trafford, Manchester
Friday 16 August 2024, KO 20:00 BST
Manchester United welcome Fulham to Old Trafford for the opening Premier League match of the 2024/25 season. Erik ten Hag’s side will look to overcome the penalty defeat to Manchester City in last weekend’s FA Community Shield at Wembley, which saw Alejandro Garnacho score for United.
United have done well this summer in signing Joshua Zirkzee from Bologna, Leny Yoro from Lille and do far both Matthijs de Ligt and Noussair Mazraoui from Bayern Munich. Yoro will miss the first three months after suffering an injury against Arsenal in pre-season. Which was a massive shame.
Rasmus Hojlund will have support this season from Zirkzee, but the Danish international will also miss the start of the season though injury, but he should be back in September after the first international break of the season, which is not all that bad. It will be great to see him back.
United – Form, Goals Scored & Assists
City 1-1 (7-6) L, Liverpool 3-0 L, Real Betis 3-2 W, Arsenal 2-1 L, Rangers 2-0 W, Rosenborg 1-0 L
Goals: 1 – Alejandro Garnacho
Assists: 1 – Bruno Fernandes
Fulham – Form, Goals Scored & Assists
Hoffenheim 2-0 W, Sevilla 2-1 L, Benfica 1-0 W, Watford 6-1 W, Queens Park Rangers 4-0 W
Goals: None
Assists: None
Previous Meetings & Connections
United and Fulham have met 34 times in the Premier League. United have won 24 matches, drawn six matches with Fulham winning four times. United lost at Old Trafford in this fixture last season, losing 2-1 with Calvin Bassey and Alex Iwobi scoring either side of a Harry Maguire consolation.
Ten Hag’s side will need to get the better of Fulham, who will be up for getting back to back victories at Old Trafford, which will start their season in style. Fulham finished 13th in the table last season, with United falling outside the European places and their lowest ever in the Premier League – eighth.
Andreas Pereira, Dimitar Berbatov, Andy Cole, Louis Saha, Edwin van de Sar, Paul Parker, Kieran Richardson, Ryan Tunnicliffe, Chris Smalling, Tim Fosu-Mensah, George Best and Charlie Mitten have all played for both Manchester United and Fulham during their careers in the game.
Team News
Manchester United: United will start the season with no fully fit left-back with both Luke Shaw and Tyrell Malacia out of action. Harry Amass is not deemed ready for the first team, so it will be interesting how Ten Hag overcomes this in the first Premier League match this season.
Ruled Out: Luke Shaw, Tyrell Malacia, Leny Yoro, Will Fish and Rasmus Hojlund.
Suspended: None
Close to Returning: Victor Lindelof and Harry Maguire
Fulham: The Cottagers will start the season with a full squad, which will heighten their chances of performing a second victory over United at Old Trafford in successive visits to the Theatre of Dreams. United will need a better start in the Premier League than in recent seasons.
Ruled Out: None
Suspended: None
Close to Returning: None
Predicted United Starting XI – 4-2-3-1
Onana;
Mazraoui, De Ligt, Martinez, Dalot;
Mainoo, Casemiro;
Amad, Fernandes, Garnacho;
Zirkzee
Predicted Fulham Starting XI – 4-1-4-1
Leno;
Tete, Bassey, Diop, Robinson;
Reed, Cairney;
Traore; Smith Rowe, Iwobi;
Jimenez
Match Prediction
United will need to start the 2024/24 Premier League season in good form to get points on the board and try to change their fortunes from the start of the season as in the past, this is one of the areas where United have gone wrong. A lot has changed at United this summer, which is a good thing.
Ten Hag has been joined by Ruud van Nistelrooy and Rene Hake as assistant managers and the hierarchy of the club has changed with Sir Jim Ratcliffe overseeing things with Omar Berrada as the CEO, Dan Ashworth as the sporting director and Jason Wilcox as the technical director.
This should give United a better direction with the Glazers no longer holding the club down and footballing men in charge of the footballing decisions. Of course, it is on the pitch where the answers are found and United will need to find them as a new era fresher the air on the trial to glory.
Manchester United 3-1 Fulham
Written by Paul
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