Saturday sees Manchester United visit Everton in a matchup of two clubs that are badly in need of getting their seasons back on track. For the Toffees, it was a fast start to the season, but it has since been derailed by consecutive losses to Southampton and Newcastle.
Still without Richarlison for this weekend and winless in their last three, the blue Merseyside club is only three points off the pace of the league leaders, who reside just a mile away across Stanley Park.
Manchester United vs Everton FYIs
Kickoff: 12:30pm GMT Saturday Nov 7, Everton
Team news for both sides: go here
TV Channel: NBCSN
Odds: Everton win +185, Draw +250, United win+140
As for United, they are a shambles right now and manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer could be facing the sack soon. When you get off to the worst league start in just about a half-century, well, you don’t have much job security.
Yesterday saw United lose at Istanbul Basaksehir, as shambolic a result as you’ll ever find. OGS made a few changes to his team for that one, but it was largely a full strength side.
“You wouldn’t see this on Hackney Marshes (in amateur football),” said Solskjaer’s former United team-mate Rio Ferdinand, now a pundit for BT Sport.
“Where is the defending? There is zero organisation. Where is the person organising that? I hope Ole is telling them they are embarrassing him.”
“I hope he is very animated in the dressing room because those players need a rocket.”
Looking ahead to Saturday, one should feel pretty confident that David de Gea, Victor Lindelof and Alex Telles (provided he passes his COVID tests) will (or at least should) all come straight back into the team.
However, it’s still difficult to gauge what direction Ole will go with his lineup, or the reasoning behind the team he picks.
Manchester United Starting XI Prediction(4-3-3) at Everton FC
De Gea; Wan-Bissaka, Lindelof, Maguire, Telles; Pogba, Van de Beek, Fernandes; Rashford, Greenwood, Martial
Prediction: Everton 2, United 2
Early on, Everton looked like they might be the league title sleepers that some pundits thought in the summer. They have since come back down to Earth. As for United, who knows what you’ll get on Saturday.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank, partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “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, Chicago Tribune and SB Nation. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram.