Predicted XI | MUFC vs. Watford (21/11/2015)

GOAL | David de Gea

DEFENSE | Matteo Darmian, Chris Smalling, Daley Blind, Marcos Rojo

Poor Antonio Valencia's time at United may well be up after the latest set back that has seen him ruled out for five months. Love him or hate him however, there's no denying that the 30 year old has been a reliable, loyal servant. He was United's player of the season in 2012, a year after coming back from the serious ankle break he suffered during a Champions League group game with Rangers, and happily played the majority of last season out of position at right back. Still, with the signing of Darmian in the summer his opportunities are now limited to a reserve role while his reputation as a flying winger known for producing incredible crosses from the right (in that United PotY winning season he produced an impressive 13 assists in 22 starts) seems long gone. The young Darmian has indeed been impressive in his first season at United, so he'll look to resume his duties in defense following a one match suspension (replacing Ashley Young at right back). Meanwhile the defensive trio of Smalling, Blind and Rojo will more than likely start their fourth game in a row together.

MIDFIELD | Ander Herrera, Morgan Schneiderlin, Ashley Young

Regardless of our current injury problems (more on that later) we NEED to drop the 2x holding midfielder routine that is, quite frankly, hindering the team. Yes we're incredibly solid defensively, so having only one of Schneiderlin or Schweinsteiger play in that role will expose us somewhat, but it will also free up the often-restricted creative players in the side who have found the effectiveness of their roles limited due to van Gaal's rigid system.



However, the fact of the matter is that we are experiencing a very unfortunate, injury-prone spell; so if there was ever a moment to disrupt the van Gaal "philosophy" that has seen us play a pair of holding midfielders in every game while, unsurprisingly, scoring the least number of goals of the Premier League's top seven clubs, it is for Saturday's match at Vicarage Road that sees us with both our strikers missing along with Michael Carrick and a host of other attacking options.



For me then I would play a 4-3-3 (a formation that was so successfully implemented towards the end of last season) with Schneiderlin playing as the only defensive midfielder in a trio consisting of Herrera and Young on the wings, giving us a bit width and hopefully attacking impetus.

ATTACK | Jesse Lingard, Juan Mata, Memphis Depay

So, here's where the serious problems lie. Just to highlight the severity of our current situation...

• Martial = injured during the match with England on Tuesday (oh how I bloody LOVE international friendlies)


• Rooney = ill


• Wilson = apparently not fit enough to play a full 90 minutes


• Fellaini = injured

So if anyone is looking at my rather imaginative line-up and thinking "what the hell is he on?" now they'll hopefully understand why I would play Mata in the attacking midfield/centre forward role alongside Lingard and Depay. Selling van Persie and Hernandez, while letting Falcao go, doesn't seem like the brightest of ideas now does it?? Ok, letting Falcao go still seems like a no brainer to be fair.

Prediction | 1-1

I really can't see us winning this one unfortunately. We lack the creativity as it is to get at teams and cause them problems, so I can't see us troubling Watford without our most dangerous attacking threat, Martial, out injured.