As Manchester United heads to the King Power Stadium this weekend to battle Leicester City, the football world is abuzz about a bizarre posting on the club’s official website that reads like a complaint about the workload of the holiday season. The post tries to make the case that United have it much tougher than their Premier League contemporaries this festive period.
Other than providing a rationale for dropping points before the fact, something Jose Mourinho does in press conferences over and over, it’s difficult to understand what exactly they were thinking in posting that statement.
That posting included the following statement: “The manager has already revealed he lost Antonio Valencia to a hamstring injury at the weekend, due to fatigue.”
So he’s out, as are long term absentees Eric Bailly and Michael Carrick. The status of Marouane Fellaini is quite mysterious, as his knee problem doesn’t seem to be getting any better. Here’s a link to more on that issue.
Mourinho provided an update at his weekly news conference on Friday, stating that both Carrick and Fellaini are out of commission for the entirety of the holiday period.
Mourinho says his side will keep fighting Manchester City for the Premier League title right down to the end, but the odds of catching them are very unfavorable. To even stand a chance, United have to go the rest of the way without laying a single egg again, like they did Wednesday night at Bristol City. Mourinho admitted in midweek that his team just didn’t show up to the office that night.
For Leicester City, injured pair Matty James and Robert Huth will not feature. Wilfred Ndidi returns from a one-match suspension for the hosts.
Odds: Leicester City- 15/4, Man Utd- 5/6, Draw- 27/10
Jose Mourinho press conference: video at this link
MUFC starting XI prediction: go to this link
Prediction: United 2, Leicester City 1
As always, feel free to post your own Man United and/or Leicester City starting XI prediction, as well as your forecast for the final score.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, currently contributes regularly to WGN CLTV and the Tribune company’s blogging community Chicago Now.
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