Claudio talks to Sky! “They can change eight, 11 changes, anything on the pitch. They have a lot of champions. But we are ready for the battle, to try to show our football. I hope we can make our fans happy at the end of the match. Schurrle gives us experience and intelligence. We have to move the ball quickly, and forward. We have to be compact and press. We have to be calm, very fast and quick!”
A quick peek behind the scenes. And you have to say that United’s gear pairs well with the tiling at Craven Cottage. A slight shame about those bottles of squash, sitting there all orange, yellow and purple. An isotonic blight on an otherwise very satisfying composition.
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Ole speaks to his old team-mate Gary Neville on Sky. “A couple of changes had to be made. Marcus Rashford has had a dead leg against Leicester, Victor Lindelof is a slight concern but hopefully he’ll be OK for Tuesday. Chris Smalling and Phil Jones did really well against Aleksandar Mitrovic last time, and we felt this is going to be a fight in the box with him so we put them in there. When we came in, we were way behind top four. So if you get the chance to take the three points and jump in, see what happens with City and Chelsea tomorrow, it’s an important game for us today. We have to stand up and be resilient, it will be tough today. There is no complacency. There is no secret to playing football: you have to enjoy yourself, and you need good players that are able to express themselves. Work hard, stay together. It’s simple.” It’s a simple set-up for the self-aware Neville, who cracks wise that “it wasn’t simple for me at Valencia when I tried that!” Hearty laughs and slaps on the back, and the old pals are off their separate ways.
Both teams have had a nice week off to relax and recuperate. Fulham come off the back of a 2-0 loss at Crystal Palace, and make two changes to the team named for that one. Luciano Vietto and Andre Schurrle take the places of Tom Cairney and Cyrus Christie, both of whom drop to the bench.
Manchester United make six changes to the team selected for the 1-0 victory at Leicester City, with PSG on Tuesday night no doubt in mind. Diogo Dalot, Chris Smalling, Phil Jones, Juan Mata, Romelu Lukaku and Anthony Martial are in; Ashley Young, Victor Lindelof, Eric Bailly, Jesse Lingard, Alexis Sanchez and Marcus Rashford step down.
The teams
Fulham: Sergio Rico, Odoi, Le Marchand, Ream, Bryan, Chambers, Seri, Babel, Schurrle, Vietto, Mitrovic.
Subs: Ryan Sessegnon, Kebano, Cairney, Ayite, Christie, Zambo, Ramirez.
Manchester United: de Gea, Dalot, Smalling, Jones, Shaw, Herrera, Matic, Pogba, Mata, Lukaku, Martial.
Subs: Bailly, Sanchez, Rashford, Lingard, Young, Romero, McTominay.
Referee: Paul Tierney (Lancashire).
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Preamble
This is Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s 11th match as interim manager of Manchester United Football Club. So far during his astonishing reign, United have won nine games, and staged a late two-goal comeback in the other fixture played. It’s fair to say they’re on a roll; relegation haunted Fulham, who have lost four of their last five Premier League matches, have it all to do this lunchtime.
As if current form doesn’t paint a bad enough picture for the Cottagers, the head-to-head record is an appalling sight as well. They’ve lost eight of their last nine matches against United to an aggregate score of 25-7. In the Premier League era, they’ve lost 19 times to the Red Devils, winning just the three. They’ve already been whacked 4-1 by them this season, and that was when the shackles were very much still on, during the miserablist reign of Jose Mourinho.
None of this bodes well for Fulham. But then nobody expected Burnley to get so much as a point at Old Trafford a couple of weeks ago, and look what happened there. Claudio Ranieri’s side may be 19th in the table, seven points adrift of safety, but their recent home form offers a little hope: they’ve won two of their last three in the Premier League, and the other match was a tussle with another in-form top-six team, Tottenham, lost only in the final minute.
But United will be strong favourites to continue their assault on the Champions League places. Another Ole-inspired win here will take them ahead of Chelsea and into the top four, at least for a day. Who’d have thought that was achievable a couple of months ago?! Any sort of result for Fulham would feel even more precious, given their predicament. Here’s to a tantalising tussle on the Thames. It’s on!
Kick off: 12.30pm GMT.
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