After the disappointing results from their clash with Manchester City last weekend, United had yet more disappointment as they exited the League Cup after throwing away their 2 goal lead to lose against Brighton. In their final outing before the extended international break, they face off against 20th placed Fulham, a favourable clash against a team yet to pick up a win, but means anything except a dominant display will bring huge pressure.

In our preview of the game we are going to take a look at the team news coming into the game including our predicted XI for this one, we will have a look at some of the key battles and players to watch and then of course we will make a prediction for how this one could play out.

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Team News

After rotating the squad mid-week against Brighton, I would be expecting Carrick to put out his strongest possible XI knowing how important this game feels given the recent results.

United will return with their strongest and most experienced XI with Lammens returning, Shaw taking over at left-back depending on fitness and Martinez and Maguire swapping out for the younger Yoro-Heaven partnership. Kobbie Mainoo will likely return to the midfield duo alongside Tielemans while the front line will see Mbeumo back in for Lacey despite his impressive display.

The main question mark for this team selection will be in Benjamin Sesko, as the centre forward started mid-week, but was withdrawn and has some injury question marks. As a result, it’s likely Carrick will return to the Cunha false-9 role and Rashford will probably keep his place on the left of the attack.

Predicted XI: Lammens, Shaw, Martinez, Maguire, Dalot, Mainoo, Tielemans, Rashford, Fernandes, Mbeumo, Cunha

Key Battles

In the battles between attack and defence, United’s front-line are yet to find consistent form, and so it will require a more cohesive and physical battle as they face off against Bassey and Affengruber, while from a defensive setup, Maguire and Martinez will need to eliminate mistakes against the impressive Garcia and King who have lots of potential and can cause the defence problems as they lack in speed and agility compared to the Fulham attack.

Given the links around a move in recent years, it could be interesting to see how United deal with Antonee Robinson, and given the criticism for failing to recruit a left-back this summer, a good performance from the American could add a huge pressure on the board of United as fans will ask about what could have been.

Prediction

Manchester United will surely head into this clash knowing they need to put in a decent showing, and so they should be looking at a very quick start to the game. If they can take an early lead, they showed mid-week that they can double up and put the game out of reach, however in contrast to the mid-week clash they will surely be focussed on seeing out the lead and maintaining a clean sheet after conceding 7 goals in the league so far and failing to shut out any opponent in any of their 4 Premier League games.

Fulham 0-2 Manchester United

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