Manchester United Restarted Season Preview, Best Starting XI

Another milestone in Project Restart was reached today when the FA announced the upcoming fixture schedule! It’s been about three months since we’ve seen live football in England, but the light at the end of the tunnel is very bright now.

With that in mind, let’s continue our restarted season previews, complete with a best potential starting XI. Up next is Manchester United.

Next Match: June 19 at Tottenham Hotspur, at Norwich City in the FA Cup quarterfinals June 27

Current Position: United are fifth in the table, three points behind Chelsea for the final UCL qualifying position, looking really good in the Europa League.

Transfer Noise: It’s all about Jadon Sancho, he’s the man. If they can’t get him, then there is a series of winger targets they’ll look at who are more cost-effective. Jack Grealish is a top target too. Odion Ighalo has extended his loan deal. Go here for the All-Transfer Rumor XI and Optimal XI with key players retained and top targets added.

Got Healthy from the Very Long Break: Leading scorer Marcus Rashford is now fully fit, after a long layoff due to a double stress fracture in his back. Paul Pogba has only seen limited action this season, and hasn’t featured since Boxing Day, due to chronic foot injuries. However, he’s 100% fit now.

Season Goals: Getting back into Champions League, and they have three, yes, three routes to get back there. Yes, this is unheard of before. They can win the UEL tournament, which many believe they will. They can leapfrog Chelsea for fourth and then maintain that position.

Or they can stay in fifth, then if Manchester City loses their appeal of their two season Euro ban, United would then slot in. Unprecedented stuff.

Keys to Reaching those Goals:

Sky Sports did an analysis of the run-in’s schedule strength and United have it easiest of all. In looking at average opponent position in the table, and the Red Devils have the most accommodating. This will be the first time we’ve seen Pogba and Bruno Fernandes playing together.

The team is undefeated since Fernandes’ Red Devils debut on Feb. 1 and he leads the team in most of the major statistical categories. Can Pogba and Fernandes coalesce? They kind of bring the same thing to the table, so how will they get on and find complementary, instead of competing roles?