[Lucky McLuckerson]

....................VS....................

Date - Sunday, May 09 2021
Kickoff Time - 1405 Hrs BST
Venue - Villa Park, Birmingham

League form guide

2. Manchester United WWWWD
10. Aston Villa: WLLDW


Previous Meetings

Manchester United 2—1 Aston Villa

Aston Villa 0—3 Manchester United

Manchester United 2—2 Aston Villa

Manchester United 1—0 Aston Villa

Aston Villa 0—1 Manchester United


All-Time League Record

Manchester United wins: 87
Aston Villa wins: 43
Draws: 39


Pre-Match Pressers

Ole Gunnar Solskjær



Dean Smith





Team News

Manchester United

Anthony Martial, Phil Jones and Daniel James ruled out.

Aston Villa

Trézéguet, Morgan Sanson and Jack Grealish ruled out.


Know the opposition

Aston Villa Football Club (nicknamed Villa, The Villa, The Villans, and The Lions) is a professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham. The club were formed in March 1874, by four members of the Villa Cross Wesleyan Chapel. The four founders were Jack Hughes, Frederick Matthews, Walter Price and William Scattergood. The first match was against the local Aston Brook St Mary's Rugby team. The club were soon playing the modern version of football though and won its first FA Cup in 1887. Aston Villa were one of the dozen teams that competed in the inaugural Football League in 1888 with one of the club's directors, William McGregor being the league's founder. Aston Villa emerged as the most successful English club of the Victorian era

Villa are one of only five English clubs to have won the European Cup, in 1981–82. They have also won the Football League First Division seven times, the FA Cup seven times, the League Cup five times, and the UEFA Super Cup once. At the end of the 2018–19 season, Aston Villa had also spent 105 seasons in the top tier of English football. The only club to have spent longer in the top flight are Everton, with 116 seasons, making Aston Villa versus Everton the most-played fixture in English top-flight football. Aston Villa's arch-rivals are Birmingham City, with games between the two clubs known as the Second City Derby. Historically though, West Bromwich Albion have arguably been Villa's greatest rivals. Villa also enjoy less heated local rivalries with Wolverhampton Wanderers and Coventry City. Aston Villa have been playing their home games at Villa Park since 1897.



Referee

Chris Kavanagh.


Familiar Faces

.​

 

[paulscholes18]

Henderson
AWB Lindelof Maguire Shaw
McTominay Fred
Rashford Bruno Pogba
Cavani

 

[charlenefan]

Team should be...

-----------------Henderson-----------------
AWB--Lindelof--Maguire-- Shaw
-----McTominay-----Matic-----
Greenwood--Bruno--Pogba
------------------Rashford------------------

Subs: De Gea, Tuanzebe, Bailly, Telles, Williams, Fred, Mata, VDB, Cavani

I would have said give Telles a game and save Shaw for the Leicester/Liverpool double header but not after that 45 minutes

 

[Bwuk]

Would go strong for this then look to assess fitness. Start Cavani here, and then rest him till Liverpool.

Henderson
AWB - Lindelof - Maguire - Shaw
McTominay - Fred
Rashford - Bruno - Pogba
Cavani​

 

[RUCK4444]

Would go strong for this then look to assess fitness. Start Cavani here, and then rest him till Liverpool.

Henderson
AWB - Lindelof - Maguire - Shaw
McTominay - Fred
Rashford - Bruno - Pogba
Cavani​

Agree. The lads had a full weeks rest, there was some rotation tonight against Roma, should be fine to go full strength this weekend and reassess after the game.

Have to keep momentum and get ourselves over the line now.

 

[Red Royal]

Think we should go with our normal starting line up. Hopefully Villa without Grealish will fold easy and we can give 30 min breaks to a few of the lads.

Get 3 points here and the games vs Leicester and even Liverpool are slightly less important... the end aim is to get 2nd and win the EL cup.

If we do that, at the end of season we wont worry too much about this week.

 

[always_hoping]

Solskjaer On United's punishing schedule over the next few days:

"It's unheard of. It's made by people who have never played football at this level. It's physically impossible for the players. We have not been dealt a good hand. We are going to need everyone for these four games. It's a short turnaround but we have to be ready."

 

[Bertie Wooster]

At 34, Cavani doesn't seem comfortable playing too frequently, so after 73 minutes tonight I'd only have him on the bench here and start him either Tuesday or Thursday.

It's going to be tough to predict, as there's so many ways to approach this nightmare set of fixtures. For the first game I'd probably go very strong and hope to get a win that would set us up for the even harder games when fatigue will be even more of a factor. We don't want to lose rhythm, form and confidence with four, albeit understandable, winless games in a week, so go strong and try to get the 3 points v Villa..

Henderson
AWB Lindelof Maguire Shaw
McTominay Fred
Rashford Bruno Pogba
Greenwood

 

[ThehatchetMan]

Out of the three games this game week, this is the most important one for me.

We are pretty much assured top 4 now in the league and due to the EL final and busy week, we do need to rest some players.

However we are now 24 away games unbeaten in the league, 3 off Arsenal's record. So for me Villa and Wolves are the big games because we still have something to play for.

 

[FootballHQ]

How come you subbed Shaw early? I presume AWB went off due to him being on a yellow. Seeing all the Telles love has got my hopes up a bit there.

I can remember 18 months back El Ghazi giving Brandon Williams a really torrid 10 minutes at Old Trafford but he then got injured, nice goal from Anwar v Everton but incredibly inconsistsnt player when he starts.

We played very well at Everton but I don't half hate this fixture. Still if we score first I think we'll get a draw.

 

[slored1]

I imagine we will do something like:
Henderson
AWB-Lindelöf-Maguire-Shaw
McTominay-Fred
Greenwood-Fernandes-James
Rashford

Pogba to come off the bench and start vs Leicester.

 

[ClaytonBlackmoorLeftPeg]

How come you subbed Shaw early? I presume AWB went off due to him being on a yellow. Seeing all the Telles love has got my hopes up a bit there.

I can remember 18 months back El Ghazi giving Brandon Williams a really torrid 10 minutes at Old Trafford but he then got injured, nice goal from Anwar v Everton but incredibly inconsistsnt player when he starts.

We played very well at Everton but I don't half hate this fixture. Still if we score first I think we'll get a draw.

shaw and AWB came off to rest them. It was clearly pre-planned.

 

[The Oracle]

Out of the three games this game week, this is the most important one for me.

We are pretty much assured top 4 now in the league and due to the EL final and busy week, we do need to rest some players.

However we are now 24 away games unbeaten in the league, 3 off Arsenal's record. So for me Villa and Wolves are the big games because we still have something to play for.

I'm from the school that recognises Liverpool as the big game.

Ending Liverpool's hopes of Top 4 - meaning they won't attract the best players; and ultimately stops them from winning the European Cup for at least one season...

Outweighs a meaningless league away record (of course it's nice, but it's not important in the grand scheme of things).

 

[horsechoker]

I kind of miss Martial now, he's been bad but having some fresh energy could serve us well. I'd also utilise Dan James for one of the next games.

 

[Pexbo]

I kind of miss Martial now, he's been bad but having some fresh energy could serve us well. I'd also utilise Dan James for one of the next games.

Spoiler

 

[charlenefan]

I imagine we will do something like:
Henderson
AWB-Lindelöf-Maguire-Shaw
McTominay-Fred
Greenwood-Fernandes-James
Rashford

Pogba to come off the bench and start vs Leicester.

I kind of miss Martial now, he's been bad but having some fresh energy could serve us well. I'd also utilise Dan James for one of the next games.

James is injured

 

[horsechoker]

Spoiler

James is injured

Well I've been destroyed.

*scurries away with tail between legs*

 

[ThehatchetMan]

I'm from the school that recognises Liverpool as the big game.

Ending Liverpool's hopes of Top 4 - meaning they won't attract the best players; and ultimately stops them from winning the European Cup for at least one season...

Outweighs a meaningless league away record (of course it's nice, but it's not important in the grand scheme of things).

I'm the same mate, Liverpool is always the biggest game of the season for me too.

But with this fixture schedule we now have we can't afford to put out our strongest XI for every game and having seen Liverpool/City claim so many records in recent years, it would be good to claim one back for ourselves.

In 20 years I won't remember beating Liverpool but I will remember our record.

Beating Villa and Liverpool however would be the perfect outcome.

 

[Godfather]

Is Grealish ready for Villa?

 

[DWelbz19]

How come you subbed Shaw early? I presume AWB went off due to him being on a yellow. Seeing all the Telles love has got my hopes up a bit there.

I can remember 18 months back El Ghazi giving Brandon Williams a really torrid 10 minutes at Old Trafford but he then got injured, nice goal from Anwar v Everton but incredibly inconsistsnt player when he starts.

We played very well at Everton but I don't half hate this fixture. Still if we score first I think we'll get a draw.

Least there's no Rooney anymore. Loved a goal against Villa

 

[LawCharltonBest]

Is Grealish ready for Villa?

Even if he’s not, nobody misses a Man Utd match unless they’re nearly dead. He’ll play. It’ll be his stage, his World Cup Final

 

[Devil may care]

Is Dan James fit?

 

[Berbasbullet]

Is Dan James fit?

Yeah he’s a decent looking chap.

 

[Devil may care]

Yeah he’s a decent looking chap.

 

[groovyalbert]

Henderson

AWB
Maguire
Lindelof
Shaw

Mctominay
Matic

Mata
Fernandes
Pogba

Rashford

 

[bsCallout]

Wow these fixtures are mad. Punishment for fans preventing the game going ahead.

I'd go full strength against Villa, we want to try to get points as early as possible.

 

[lost7]

I would go full strength this game, then rest as many players as possible against Leicester and then full strength again vs Liverpool.

Would only rest Cavani against Villa because he's never played 2 games in three days and we want to avoid injuries at all costs.

Also, these 3 games will bey key for VdB and Telles to show they can be valuable players in the squad, as they'll definitely get at least 90 minutes at some point

 

[Deery]

I’d play Cavani it’s important to keep him in the goals and on form..

 

[Ballache]

--------Henderson---------
AWB-VNL-Bailly-Shaw
---------McT-Pogba-------
Mata-----Bruno-----Rashford
-------------Cavani-----------

All in for this, win this one and we can rotate for Leicester and go full strength vs Liverpool.

 

[darko]

You play your best side with the win putting you seven and nine points above Leicester and Chelsea respectively with twelve points left to play for minus the points they pick in their next match with nine points left for them to play for.

 

[Cantonagotmehere]

Spoiler

Hahahahahhaa

 

[ShinjiNinja26]

I’d go with a strong line up and try and get top 4 mathematically sewn up as soon as possible. That way we can just play rotated sides in the remaining league games and fully focus on the EL final.

 

[Josh 76]

I’d go with a strong line up and try and get top 4 mathematically sewn up as soon as possible. That way we can just play rotated sides in the remaining league games and fully focus on the EL final.

Totally agree

and play the strongest team against the scousers

 

[Gandalf Greyhame]

How come you subbed Shaw early? I presume AWB went off due to him being on a yellow. Seeing all the Telles love has got my hopes up a bit there.

I can remember 18 months back El Ghazi giving Brandon Williams a really torrid 10 minutes at Old Trafford but he then got injured, nice goal from Anwar v Everton but incredibly inconsistsnt player when he starts.

We played very well at Everton but I don't half hate this fixture. Still if we score first I think we'll get a draw.

Clearly you aren't aware of what happens when United go a goal down away from home in the 20/21 season.

 

[lex talionis]

If Cavani feels he can play, we have to play him. We can rest him for Leicester.

 

[MyOnlySolskjaer]

Someone needs to create a better green screen for Ole.

 

[BorisManUtd]

Is Grealish ready for Villa?

No, only starts with training this weekend.

Henderson, AWB, Lindelof, Maguire, Shaw, McTominay, Fred, Bruno, Rashford, Pogba, Cavani. Think that is our starting 11 vs Villa, even though Rashford isn't as effective from right wing.

 

[Gandalf]

Full strength here, u18s against Leicester and then full strength for the dippers. Feck Liverpool and the PL.

 

[RedCurry]

No way we start Cavani for this one. We are actively managing him playing minutes and we should be able to get the job done without him against Villa.

 

[Gator Nate]

I think Ole somehow figures a way to navigate this stretch without overly weakening the team.

Henderson
AWB - Bailly - Maguire - Shaw
McTominay - Fred
Greenwood - Bruno - Rashford
Cavani

Subs: Pogba - Matic - Van de Beek​

I know the howls about Bailly against Roma, but this isn't Roma fighting for an outside chance in a tournament format. Villa are about as stuck in the middle as you can get. Literally, the only thing they can play for now is the increased payout for league places.

Formation morphs from halftime. Cavani off at half , Bruno at 60', Rashford at 75'.

Save Lindelof for the next two matches and stick DeGea behind them for one. Williams and Telles will each get a start somewhere, but not at the same time. Matic will get a start; so will Donny. We'll see some earlier subs than usual.