Date: 09/02/2019
K/O: 12:30
Venue: Craven Cottage
Referee: Paul Tierney
TV: Sky Sports Main Event
Early this Saturday, Fulham have the daunting task of being the first side to beat Ole Gunnar Solskjær’s Manchester United, a task only accentuated by the fact that, regardless of who they play at the minute, Claudio Ranieri’s side need to win. Manchester United have bigger opponents on the horizon, with the Champions League tie of PSG to come next week, and will possibly consider this a confidence-boosting warm up.
Despite Fulham’s recent and extraordinary comeback against Brighton, where they came back from two goals down to win the match 4-2, their performance against Crystal Palace last week felt like a major backward step. They travelled to Selhurst Park last week safe in the knowledge that Palace’s major attacking threat, Wilfried Zaha, wasn’t able to play due to suspension and yet they still made it easy for Roy Hodgson’s side, failing to register a shot on target in the entire match (although how Aleksander Mitrovic missed his early headed chance, only he knows).
Fulham seem incapable of learning from their mistakes and unfortunately, Claudio Ranieri seems incapable of sorting out their defensive problems, having overseen little improvement since November. There is also a growing sense of confusion at the club’s lack of major investment in the January window: although they do have a new defender in Havard Nordtveit joining the set-up soon. The failure to identify a new right-back to replace Cyrus Christie is a major oversight which was only accentuated by his disastrous display against Palace on the weekend. Not only was it his inexplicable handball that gave away the penalty to the opposition but an incredible amount of Palace’s attacks came from down the left side, the side Christie is responsible for.
An inability to defend the flanks properly has been Fulham’s weakness all season, not helped by both serving managers’ insistence to play wing-backs in every game. Fulham could really have done with a solid option at right-back and seem to have little option now to choose between two players, Cyrus Christie and Timothy Fosu-Mensah, who are both having poor seasons.
For Ole Gunnar Solskjær, it is nine wins out of ten in all competitions as Manchester United manager, a record of early success that even the most optimistic of fan or pundit did not see coming. He has made it look frighteningly and, for Jose Mourinho, embarrassingly easy; his success has seemed to be oh-so-simple in his clear ability to make the players happier, play them in more natural positions and just sit back and watch them fly on the pitch. Optimism is at a season-high for the club and that PSG tie, which was so dreaded when the draw was initially made, now seems a real opportunity for Ole Gunnar Solskjær to actually make a serious claim for the manager’s role full-time.
It would be a major surprise however if that PSG game distracted or weakened Manchester United before this test against Fulham. After all, despite losing the game, Fulham gave Spurs a really excellent game at Craven Cottage a few weeks ago, with a last-minute header from Harry Winks snatching the points at the death for Pochettino’s side. Fulham can turn up to big games, they can match the bigger teams when they play as a unit and it would be unwise for United to underestimate them, however easy that may seem to be.
Yet what will worry Fulham fans is United’s new-found explosiveness under Solskjær – the devastating nature of their attack-power which has blossomed so quickly under the new manager. So much has been made of Marcus Rashford’s newfound goal-scoring instinct, emphasised by his emphatic strike against Leicester in their last game, and the enthusiasm for him is richly deserved. He has improved more over ten games under Solskjær than he did in three years under Mourinho – his timing of the run, his decision-making, his calmness under pressure are all unrecognisable from simply a few weeks ago. England has been waiting for Rashford to become the real-deal ever since his explosive debut under Louis Van-Gaal; now they are finally beginning to see the potential seriously fulfilled.
Team News
Claudio Ranieri has already made it clear that the two deadline-day signings of Lazar Markovic and Havard Nordtveit won’t be ready to start against Manchester United; making the bench for them is a best-case scenario. Timothy Fosu-Mensah is ineligible against the club that he has joined on loan from, so Fulham will be hoping that Cyrus Christie, withdrawn in the second-half against Crystal Palace with a thigh injury, will be able to play from the beginning. André Schürrle, who was missing from the last match-day squad, will be in contention to start which is a major boost for the hosts.
Manchester United welcome back the defensive duo of Chris Smalling and Marcos Rojo for this game, both of whom would be making their debuts under Solskjær if they were to feature. Bizarrely, Smalling has been out since the last time United played Fulham in a 4-1 victory and fans will be hoping his inclusion may produce a similar performance.
Apart from those two, it is as you were for United fitness wise. Anthony Martial and Paul Pogba have had injury problems in the past few weeks yet both were involved heavily against Leicester – a game in which Pogba produced a game-defining assist – and both should feature against Fulham again on Saturday.
Predicted Starting XIs
Fulham (5-2-3): Rico; Christie, Ream, Odoi, Le Marchand, Bryan; Chambers, Seri; Schürrle, Mitrovic, Babel
Manchester United (4-3-1-2): De Gea; Young, Bailly, Lindelof, Shaw; Pogba, Matic, Herrera; Lingard; Sanchez, Rashford
Score Prediction: Fulham 0 Manchester United 2
Fulham cannot afford to take notice of the size of the opposition in front of them: three points are needed every single week at this stage, with the club eight points away from overtaking Burnley in 17th place with thirteen games remaining. The pressure is mounting and the size of the task ahead of them is daunting. Any game, especially ones played at home, must be capitalised upon.
If they were playing Mourinho’s Manchester United they might fancy themselves to take advantage, but this is Solskjær’s Manchester United instead – a team elevated in counter-attacking potential and composed with a confidence to punish mistakes, mistakes that Fulham will inevitably make. It is hard to back Fulham in any game at the moment but that is especially true of a game like this; it will take a newfound defensive discipline and added-attacking verve from Fulham to even stand a chance against the Red Devils this Saturday.
