Manchester United vs Fulham
Barclays Premier League
Sunday 9 February, 2014
16:00 KO (BST)
Old Trafford, Manchester
“Rene is coming back. I would have liked him to stay but he chose to go on his own. He took over at Fulham and changed the staff around there. It happens at football clubs. I’m looking forward to seeing him on Sunday.” – David Moyes.
“We want to get back to winning ways because there aren’t many games left this season and we have got to finish in the top four. That is the real challenge for us now. We need to finish the season on a bit of a run and with confidence. We need to lead into the new season on a bit of a high.” – Darren Fletcher.
Starting XI from: David de Gea, Anders Lindegaard; Rafael da Silva, Nemanja Vidic, Chris Smalling, Alex Buttner, Patrice Evra; Antonio Valencia, Adnan Januzaj, Ashley Young, Ryan Giggs, Darren Fletcher, Michael Carrick, Tom Cleverley, Shinji Kagawa, Juan Mata; Danny Welbeck, Javier Hernandez, Wayne Rooney, Robin van Persie
Doubts: Rio Ferdinand (knee), Phil Jones (concussion)
Unavailable: Nani (hamstring), Jonny Evans (calf), Marouane Fellaini (groin)
Top scorer: Wayne Rooney, Robin van Persie (9)
Most assists: Wayne Rooney (9)
Home record: P12 W6 D2 L4 F16 A10 Pts20
Home form: L L W L W W
Home record vs Fulham: P38 W32 D4 L2 F85 A29
Fulham (20th)
“It will be brilliant going back to Old Trafford. It has been such a special club for me and still is. I’ve got a lot of friends there and I will enjoy every moment of it. For us it’s another game against a very strong opponent where we’ve prepared very well. We need to get our act together and hopefully we can get something out of it.” – Rene Meulensteen.
Starting XI from: Martin Stekelenburg, David Stockdale; Sascha Riether, Fernando Amorebieta, Phillipe Senderos, Brede Hangeland, Kieran Richardson, Dan Burn, Johnny Heitinga, Elsad Zverotic; Steve Sidwell, William Kvist, Scott Parker, Derek Boateng, Mesca, Damien Duff, Clint Dempsey, Giorgos Karagounis, Ashkan Dejagah, Pajtim Kasami, Lewis Holtby, Alex Kacaniklic; Darren Bent, Hugo Rodallega, Muamer Tankovic, Kostas Mitroglou
Doubts: John Arne Riise (hamstring)
Unavailable: Matthew Briggs (hernia)
Top scorer: Steve Sidwell (5)
Most assists: Damien Duff (3)
Away record: P12 W3 D0 L9 F8 A28 Pts9
Away form: L L W L L L
Last five meetings at Old Trafford
United 4-1 Fulham (26-01-13)
United 3-2 Fulham (25-08-12)
United 1-0 Fulham (26-03-12)
United 2-0 Fulham (09-04-11)
United 3-0 Fulham (14-03-10)
Officials
Referee: Kevin Friend.
The 42-year-old official has taken charge of 11 Premier League matches this season, brandishing 40 yellow cards and 1 red card. He has awarded 3 penalties. Was last at Old Trafford for United’s 4-0 win over Norwich in the League Cup back in October.
Assistants: P Kirkup, R West.
Fourth Official: Roger East.
Notes
United have only ever lost 2 matches at home to Fulham – the last coming in 2003.
Wayne Rooney has scored 12 goals in 19 matches against the Cottagers.
Should he feature, Ryan Giggs will face Fulham for a club record 21st time.
Fulham have failed to score a goal in 6 of their last 8 fixtures away from Craven Cottage.
United have won the last 11 matches between the two sides at Old Trafford.
United have kept clean sheets in 5 of the last 6 home matches against Fulham.
Fulham have scored 7 goals from corners this season – the second-best record in the division.
United have won their last 10 matches against teams in the bottom six of the Premier League.
Fulham have lost 7 of their last 8 away matches.
Robin van Persie has scored 6 goals in his last 7 Premier League appearances.
United 1/5 Draw 11/2 Fulham 14/1
RedMancunian predictions
Jack (@jackkholt): United 3-0 Fulham
Sam (@CenterSneak): United 1-0 Fulham
Craig (@CraigNorwood): United 1-0 Fulham
Jay (@RFFH): United 4-0 Fulham
Mark (@mdhzk3): United 4-0 Fulham
Nick (@ManUnitedYouth): United 3-1 Fulham
One reply on “MATCH PREVIEW: Manchester United vs Fulham”
i guarantee utd will not play well at all… why because it will be 6 defensive players and 4 attacking!
de gea
rafael rio evans evra
mata carrick jones janujaz
rooney RVP
thats what i bet will be played…and it will be horific!! outrun in the middle and struggling to get forward… either a way a disgraceful SIX dfending… FOUR attacking in the outfield!
what we should play is
de gea
rafael smalling jones evra
valencia mata kagawa janujaz
rooney RVP
or for the more conservative
de gea
rafael smalling jones evra
carrick
mata kagawa janujaz
rooney RVP
either way a MINIMUM of FIVE attacking players!