Manchester United vs Chelsea FC: Tactical Thoughts & Team News

Manchester United Team News:

Angel di Maria expected to overcome thigh strain that pulled him out of United’s match on Monday against West Brom. Michael Carrick is fit and available for selection.

Wayne Rooney is still suspended and will not be available for the match.

Chelsea Team News:

Front man Diego Costa has a chance of featuring in the game, but his fitness will be assessed today [Friday] and Saturday ahead of the trip to Old Trafford. John Obi Mikel, Santos Ramires and Andre Schurrle are all available for selection and likely to be on the bench. Loic Remy will not be travelling and is unlikely to be available for up to 3 weeks following his groin strain in the match against Maribor.

Cesar Azpilicueta is not available due to suspension following his straight red card in the Crystal Palace match and is missing the first of three matches for the offence.

Provisional squad: Courtois, Ivanovic, Luis, Fabregas, Oscar, Hazard, Drogba, Matic, Willian, Cahill, Terry, Solanke, Cech, Zouma, Schurrle, Ramires, Mikel, Salah, Ake

Credit: NBC Live Extra Stream

Despite having to spend a night in hospital and being forced to train away from the main squad due to concerns surrounding the stomach bug that Diego Costa brought back with him from international duty with Spain, Chelsea’s No:1 striker may be fit enough after all to feature on Sunday.

"“Diego has a little chance,” Mourinho said.“I’m not saying he can (play). I’m saying that we are trying. We will see what happens between Friday, Saturday and Sunday.“Everything happened to him. He was obviously injured and he had to go to the hospital with a viral situation that we didn’t manage to resolve without being in hospital over one night.”"

But whilst it’s (almost) good news for Costa, it’s not so good for Loic Remy who will be out for around 3 weeks after pulling up in the Maribor match just after scoring.

The What, Why & Wherefore:

OK, so Costa looks as though he’s going to get a run out at some point come Sunday. Will he start? Not for me, because I believe Jose Mourinho has faith in his team to get goals from anywhere on the pitch, so I would expect Drogba to be let loose first, with Costa coming on if there’s a problem, or simply as and when the ‘old boy’ starts to flag a little.

More important is how arrogant and full of self belief is Louis van Gaal likely to be?

If as van Gaal has stated this week, that United really can catch Chelsea, then they have to start now. They have to go for the win. But to do that, he’s going to have to push both full backs high up the pitch and leave Blind as the lone holding midfielder.

Jul 29, 2014; Landover, MD, USA; Manchester United coach Louis Van Gaal (center) looks on prior to the match against Inter Milan at FedEx Field. Mandatory Credit: Evan Habeeb-USA TODAY Sports

Nirvana for Oscar, Cesc and Hazard one would think.

Alternatively we could see Fellaini accompany Blind with the Belgian international free to roam forward and look to cause problems for Terry and Cahill. If Fellaini is anything like as motivated as he was on Monday at West Brom, he could pose a problem.

A third option would be to include Michael Carrick and make it a 4-3-3 with Di Maria, Falcao and Januzaj at the pointy end. This would make far more sense to me and gives United the chance to ‘double-up’ in defence, but that would be admitting that Chelsea are indeed the more superior team and that United are happy to let the Blues dictate the pace.

I can’t see that happening.

I just have this feeling that Van Gaal will not…no, more like cannot, let Jose Mourinho upstage him again in the way he did to win the Champions League back in 2010. The former ‘Apprentice’ must not be allowed to best the ‘Master’ again surely?

Mandatory Credit: Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports

The Outcome:

I really do think that if Chelsea stick to the game plan, there is no way Manchester United can score. Di Maria is going to be up against Ivanovic and probably Willian doubling up and eliminating most of any potential threat from the Reds’ main inspiration.

Blind will have to target Cesc, but he’ll be quite happy to do exactly the same as he did at Palace when being man-marked, which is to drag any defender marking him out of the way to let Oscar through on goal.

Hazard is too quick for Carrick (if Carrick plays) and will tie Raphael in knots. Expect Hazard to be told to run and run again at United to get as many set pieces as possible.

Predicted Score: 1 – 3