Sunday brings the Jesse Lingard Cup, I guess you could call it, when Manchester United visit West Ham United. The English attacking midfielder will be desperate to put Tuesday evening’s disaster behind him as quickly as possible.
His errant back pass, which perfectly set up the game-winning goal for Young Boys, was one of those “you got to see it” plays, and not in a good way. Lingard was dominant during his loan spell with the Hammers last season, so this match will be extra special for him.
That, and it was thought he was making a serious push for a starting slot in this side.
In terms of the early team news for United in this clash (we’ll check in again on Friday, and post more updates then) Edinson Cavani is a doubt after not traveling with the squad to Switzerland in midweek.
We probably won’t see El Matador back in action again until next week, and the same might hold true for defensive midfielder Scott McTominay. He’s been missing out due to what’s being reported as surgery for a minor groin problem. So it’ll be Fred or Nemanja Matic being handed a starting assignment on Sunday.
Marcus Rashford is out until at least October while he continues recovering from off-season back surgery.
Meanwhile Amad Diallo and Alex Telles join him as long term injury absentees or will certainly miss out on this match too.
Goalkeeper Dean Henderson and central defender Phil Jones have both finally seen some action now this season, albeit with the U23s, and it came this past Friday.
Henderson, who was the No. 1 for much of the back half of last season, looks set to soon challenge for the starting gig in between the sticks again; maybe, probably. Meanwhile Jones is moving closer towards featuring for the club for the first time since…the Sir Alex Ferguson era.
We kid, we kid. But seriously, dude hasn’t played in forever.
We’ll be back by Friday with the starting XI prediction and more updates/previews for the West Ham game ahead. While midweek was indeed brutal, remember that United are still top of the table in the league.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank, partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America” and “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” has regularly appeared in WGN, Sports Illustrated and the Chicago Tribune.
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