Manchester United will look to get rid of their weekend woes and bring back their winning form once again as they return to playing Champions League football. Jose Mourinho’s men take on FC Basel in the first round of group stage matches.
While FC Basel will definitely try and field a very strong side when they visit Old Trafford, Man Utd are expected to line up very differently as their Portuguese manager will look to some give rest to a few of his regular first team players.
Here’s Man Utd’s predicted line up vs Basel:
Goalkeeper:
The Argentine was Jose Mourinho’s goalkeeper of choice for the Europa League last season and he will hopefully take on the same duties this time around.
Sergio Romero
Defence:
Jose Mourinho will stick to Antonio Valencia as his favourite right-back while Daley Blind will return to the left-back duties after he was rested for the weekend’s match against Stoke City.
The manager is also likely to try out his second combination in central defence as he would want to give a much-deserved rest to both Eric Bailly and Phil Jones. This means that summer signing Victor Lindelof and out of favour defender Chris Smalling could be the central defender partnership of choice for Manchester United.
Antonio Valencia – Smalling – Lindelof – Blind
Midfield:
Jose Mourinho will most likely go with the very same midfield which won him his first three Premier League games of the season. While Nemanja Matic will play the anchor deep in midfield, the duo of Paul Pogba and Juan Mata will play further up front.
Nemanja Matic – Paul Pogba – Juan Mata
Attack:
Henrikh Mkhitaryan looks to have cemented his place in Jose Mourinho’s starting eleven and will most probably start the match against FC Basel as United’s preferred play maker.
United will most likely rest their biggest signing of the summer – Romelu Lukaku as Jose Mourinho will like to give the duo of Rashford and Martial a try upfront.
Mkhitaryan – Martial – Rashford
Here’s Man Utd’s predicted line up vs Basel:
