Stoke City is the opponent for Manchester United’s last competition before international break. Then the real meat and potatoes of their schedule commences upon return. Or as United Manager Jose Mourinho called the October schedule, “a poisoned gift.”
Once United return from international break, they’ll have a grueling stretch which includes five games in 12 days. That slate includes matches against Liverpool, Chelsea and Burnley in the Premier League, as well as Fenerbahce in the Europa League and Manchester City in the EFL Cup.
United looked like world beaters last weekend as they walloped the defending champions Leicester City pretty bad this past Saturday.
In their midweek Europa League match, a 1-0 win over Zorya Luhansk, they looked rather blah. They needed Zlatan Ibrahimovic to make something out of the nothing that was a Wayne Rooney touch to get a goal and a result.
They’ll need to be more tuned up for this one on Sunday, as they really need to take all three points from this fixture. At home versus the Potters, the Red Devils are heavy favorites. Bet365 is giving 1-3 odds for a Red Devils win, 9-2 for a draw and 10-1 for a Stoke City win.
Without further ado, here’s The Sports Bank’s Man United starting XI prediction:
Zlatan Ibrahimovic
Anthony Martial Juan Mata Marcus Rashford
Michael Carrick Paul Pogba
Daley Blind Chris Smalling Eric Bailly Antonio Valencia
David de Gea
As always, feel free to post your own Man United starting XI in the comments section below. Speak your mind on the formations and line-ups that are already presented here for your discussion.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, partnered with FOX Sports Engage Network. and News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, currently contributes regularly to the Chicago Tribune’s RedEye publication and Bold Global.
He also consistently appears on numerous radio and television talk shows all across the country. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram and Sound Cloud.