Southampton v Manchester United: Preview and Predictions
By Josh Kingdom
After a narrow defeat in the EFL Cup final, Southampton will want to get revenge on Manchester United when they visit St. Mary’s Stadium on Wednesday evening.
Saturday’s win at the Riverside saw Saints pick up three points for the first time in their previous five matches. Despite only beating already relegated Middlesbrough 2-1, there was plenty of positives to take from the game including top scorer, Charlie Austin making his return to the first team after suffering a shoulder injury in November
As for United, they fell to a 2-1 defeat to Tottenham in the final game at White Hart Lane, which now means a position in the top four is out of reach. The Red Devils will also have an eye on Wednesday 24 May, where they will be taking on Ajax in the Europa League Final.
Why Southampton will win
As mentioned previously, all the Saints players will have fire in their bellies after the 3-2 defeat in the EFL Cup final three months ago. Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s late winner for United, in a close affair between the two sides, securing the club’s 64th trophy in its history.
United will have one eye on their Europa League Final tie in Stockholm next week which means that manager Jose Mourinho will be looking at lots of squad rotation to keep players fresh and to prevent any injuries to key players occurring.
After defeat to Tottenham in the White Hart Lane’s final, United now are unable to make it into the top four, which means that the only way they will be able to enter next season’s Champions League will be via next Wednesday’s final.
On the Injury front, United have seven first-team players either injured or suspended heading into Wednesday’s game, including cup final hero and club top scorer, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and £100million man Paul Pogba who is on compassionate leave following his father’s death.
Why United will win
Any statistician in the country will favour a win for United, with Saints not winning a home game against the Red Devils for fourteen years, where a James Beattie goal two minutes from the end gave Southampton all three points.
Mourinho’s United side have got more points away (34 in 18) than at the ‘Theatre of Dreams’ 31 in 18), meaning Saints will have to be on their game and get St. Mary’s roaring and create an intimidating atmosphere to maximise the chance of a ‘Home Field Advantage’.
Predicted Line-ups
Southampton:
Goalkeeper: Fraser Forster
Defence: Ryan Bertrand, Maya Yoshida, Jack Stephens, Cedric
Midfielders: Steven Davis, Oriol Romeu – James Ward-Prowse, Dusan Tadic, Nathan Redmond
Striker: Charlie Austin
Man United:
Goalkeeper: Sergio Romero
Defence: Antonio Valencia, Eric Bailly, Phil Jones, Daley Blind
Midfielders: Ander Herrera, Michael Carrick – Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Juan Mata, Anthony Martial
Striker: Marcus Rashford
Verdict
I think that this will be a very close game, especially after what we saw at Wembley in the cup final, however, I think the quality of the players in the United team and their away form dominates over Saints so I think they will just pip Saints for an away victory.
Southampton 1-2 Manchester United