MANCHESTER UNITED v West Brom
West Brom: Craig Dawson injured. Claudio Yacob and Steven Reid could return. Jerome Thomas on loan at Leeds. Captain Jonas Olsson the only PL ever-present this season. On-loan Romelu Lukaku top league scorer with 6 goals. Shane long top assister with 4.
Manager: Steve Clarke.
Away record: P9 W3 D2 L4 F11 A15 -5 Pts11
Away form: L W W L L W
Recent PL meetings at Old Trafford: United 2-0 West Brom (11-03-12), United 2-2 West Brom (16-10-10), United 4-0 West Brom (18-10-08)
Referee: Jon Moss. 24 yellow cards in 9 PL games (2.67 avg). 1 red card and 3 penalties.
Notes
United are unbeaten at home against West Brom since a 3-5 defeat on 30th December, 1978.
United (9/9) and West Brom (5/5) are 2 of only 5 teams to have a 100% win record when leading at half-time.
United have trailed at half-time three times, recovering 6 points. West Brom have found themselves behind at half-time on 4 occasions, losing all 4 matches.
Michael Carrick averages 85.3 passes per match, the second highest in the PL. West Brom’s highest in Youssuf Mulumbu with 52.9.
Shane Long and Peter Odemwingie have 9 goals and 7 assists between them. Wayne Rooney and Robin van Persie have 19 goals and 12 assists.
Away from home, West Brom have conceded an average 18 shots on target. Ironically, at Old Trafford, United average 18 attempts on goal per game.
West Brom are yet to score a goal in the first 30 minutes of games away from home. At Old Trafford, United have scored only 6 times in the opening third of matches.
Score prediction: United 2-0 West Brom
3 replies on “Match Preview: Manchester United vs West Brom”
I see West Brom as a difficult match and we need to win to maintain our lead at the top. We should play the strongest team including Van Persie, Carrick, Valencia, Hernandez and Young. I know Van Perise might be due a rest, but he has become vital, especially as Rooney is unavailable. Welbeck does need a game, but I would be nervous if we didn’t play Van Persie tomorrow.
I hope in terms of fitness the players are in good condition. We have obvious changes like Scholes and Giggs being replaced by Cleverley and Young. I can see Rafeal and Vidic coming in for Smalling and Ferdinand as well. I think maybe one change could be Carrick being rested and Fletcher playing alongside Cleverley. That might bring the freshness that Ferguson wants to the team.
We have an FA Cup game against West Ham and that is the match to leave Van Persie at home and not even make him travel. I think his form in the league is vital for us. The problem has been our defence not being able to keep the goals out. We are never in a position of being 3-0 or 4-0 so we can sub Van Perise off with maybe 20 or 30 minuets left. Lets not mess around now because we need to beat West Brom and Wigan in the next two games. Van Perise will hopefully play in both matches.
………………….De Gea………………
Jones……Vidic……Evans……Evra
Cleverley…Fletcher…Carrick…Young
………….Van Perise…Hernandez……..
………………….De Gea………………
Jones……Vidic……Evans……Evra
Valencia…Cleverley…Carrick…Young
………….Van Perise…Welbeck……..
Hernandez on for Welbeck around the hour mark.
Got a feeling if we’re leading by a decent amount we might see one of the youths get a run