Manchester United are off to a very rough start this Premier League season. With only 21 points from a possible 39, manager Jose Mourinho (who for some reason felt the need to remind everyone of his past European accomplishments, unprompted, on Tuesday night) is doing a job, at least thus far, which is among the worst in recent club history.
You can forget about the league title this season, and going forward they need to pick up all the points they can and when they can in order to secure a top four finish. They are playing a team very close to the bottom of the table in Southampton this weekend, and getting anything less than three points from their trip to the south coast would be considered disastrous.
United have owned this series, especially the matches at the St. Mary’s, as of late. The Red Devils also hold a very decisive edge in history of the matchup, winning 64 of the previous 123 matches. Saints have just 28 victories all time against United. In looking at who might start for United on Saturday, it will be interesting to see who returns to the first 11 this weekend among the astronomically priced trio of players dropped on Tuesday night (Romelu Lukaku, Paul Pogba, Alexis Sanchez).
The Bank MUFC Starting XI Prediction (4-3-3)
Forwards: Anthony Martial, Romelu Lukaku, Marcus Rashford
Midfielders: Nemanja Matic, Marouane Fellaini, Paul Pogba
Defenders: Luke Shaw, Phil Jones, Chris Smalling, Antonio Valencia
Goalkeeper: David de Gea
Manchester United vs Southampton FC FYIs
Injury report: go to this link
Mourinho Press Conference video and quotes: coming Friday
Kick-off/TV: 530 pm (BST), Saturday December 1, St. Mary’s, BT Sport 1
Odds via William Hill: United 88/100 Draw 26/5 Southampton FC 10/3
Prediction: United 1, Southampton FC 0
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, regularly appears as a guest pundit on WGN CLTV and co-hosts the “Let’s Get Weird, Sports” podcast on SB Nation.
He also contributes sociopolitical essays to Lineups.com and Chicago Now. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram. The content of his cat’s Instagram account is unquestionably superior to his.