Match Preview : Norwich City VS Manchester United

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Sunday afternoon will see Manchester United travel to East Anglia to take on the Canaries for the first time since 2016.

Manchester United’s woeful away form was rectified midweek in a 1-0 win against Partizan. Ole will be hoping to continue in the same vein with a win over Farke’s Norwich City.

How Do Manchester United Look?

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Due to the fixtures being in close succession, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s pre-match press conference was done immediately following the Partizan Belgrade game.

Speaking to the press Ole explained why his hand was forced to persist with the 3-5-2:

I think injuries have made us get into the position where the performances didn’t come and we had fit centre-backs, good centre-backs and quality centre-backs. It made it easier to go to a back three against Liverpool and again in Serbia.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer

My view on the 3-5-2, 5-3-2 or 5-2-1-2, however you choose to interpret the formation it does suit this Manchester United team. Against the likes of Liverpool, its implementation is a stroke of genius. The back 3 centre-backs contained their front 3 whoo are extremely dangerous in transition. On the flip side, setting up with 3 at the back against FK Belgrade seems like unnecessary respect to a side that were going to sit back. It resulted in us not really getting men forward. Against a team like Norwich, although they are potent going forward, they’re defence is their weak spot. We would be fools not to exploit that and get a couple goals.

Before the game on Thursday, the manager confirmed that David De Gea will be rested for the trip down to Carrow road. He also added that Paul Pogba is not expected back anytime soon. Nemanja Matic and Luke Shaw were in Dubai completing recovery work, they aren’t expected back for this fixture either.

Opposition: Norwich City

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Daniel Farke’s side after a promising start to the season with some good home performances against the likes of Manchester City and Chelsea, sit 19th in the league. Norwich City’s problems haven’t necessarily been in the goal-scoring department but in keeping the ball out of the net. Coming into this weekend, Norwich were tied with Watford for the most goals conceded in the league this term. Last time out Farke’s side were on the wrong end of a home humiliation against Aston Villa, who put 5 past them in a 5-1 victory for Villa.

The yellows’ fortunes defensively don’t seem to be on the turn as injury problems at the back persist. The likes of Timm Klose, Christoph Zimmermann, and Grant Hanley are all out with long term injuries.

Teemu Pukki caught the eye of many as he was voted player of the month for August in the Premier League. However, the Finnish striker has failed to find the back of the net since their victory over Manchester City in September. However, players have a strange knack of finding form against Manchester United in recent years. So, Slabhead you know what to do…

Key Stats: Norwich City VS Manchester United

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• None of the last 12 Premier League meetings have ended as a draw. Manchester United have won 9 and lost 3 since December 1993.
• Norwich City could be the first promoted side since Wolves and Portsmouth in the early naughties to beat both Manchester clubs in the same season.
• Teemu Pukki was involved in eight goals in his first 5 Premier League games. Since he is yet to contribute to a single goal or assist in the last 4 fixtures.
• Manchester United have lost their last two Premier League games against promoted sides (Wolves and Cardiff) last season. They haven’t lost 3 top-flight games in a row to newcomers since November 1960.

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Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has been heavily criticised by fans for his comments suggesting Manchester United have to be ‘at their best to have a chance’ against Norwich. For a Manchester United manager to come out with that sort of defeatist nonsense is disgraceful in my opinion – in essence, he’s saying the game swings in their favor. my issue with it is that it sends out the wrong message to the players. As fans, even though Norwich were pummeled at home last week, we know that Manchester United are terrible at the moment. That being said, this is Norwich City vs Manchester United, if we don’t win, I am going to go as far as to say Ole is not the right man to lead this rebuild.