The European adventure that was secured in dramatic circumstances last season with the FA Cup win last season is about to kick off for Manchester United.
FC Twente will come to Old Trafford for Manchester United’s first game of the revamped Europa League where they’ll play eight games.
Four home and four away fixtures will decide the standings at the end and United will hope to finish in the top eight of those standings to avoid two extra games to qualify for round-of-16.
FC Twente at home is one of the more winnable games when looking at United’s fixture list but games aren’t won on paper. It is a fixture special for Erik ten Hag too, as FC Twente is the team he supports.
Here’s Man Utd vs FC Twente prediction and analysis as Erik ten Hag strives to win a third different trophy in this third season-
Match breakdown
Manager Joseph Oosting sets up his team in a similar fashion to United, with a 4-2-3-1 preferred where Sem Steijn, their talisman at No 10 can weave his magic.
Steijn has been on fire this season, with six goals and an assist in six league appearances making him the team’s top scorer.
He starts behind Salah-Eddine, Ten Hag’s final debutant at Ajax now thriving at Twente, in what is a multi-pronged attack. Salah-Eddine scored in Twente’s last game, a 5-0 win at Almere so both he and the team will be full of confidence.
Manuel Ugarte should get his first start here and he will be directly up against Steijn so that is a good challenge for him to get to grips with right away.
Twente generally like to dominate possession but they will be fully aware that that is unlikely to happen at Old Trafford so they will have players who can hurt United on transitions too.
For United, the best chance of success is to camp in the opposition half, press high, create turnovers, and dominate territory, much like Ten Hag’s Ajax side used to do.
Inverted fullbacks should strengthen the middle on the odd transition opportunity but this is a game that United should really be stamping their authority on.
Man Utd vs FC Twente prediction
So far, United have fluctuated between fantastic and frustrating as the two extremes of their performance.
They have scored ten goals in two games, and they haven’t scored a combined ten in the rest of the games, a pattern that just isn’t sustainable.
Rasmus Hojlund’s injury return should bring some ruthlessness back in attack and the manager could even trial a striker partnership with Zirkzee.
Some rotation is necessary but he will rest easy knowing that his fringe XI is also looking good due to an improving injury situation.
Expect United to come flying out of the blocks as they seek to put the wastefulness vs Crystal Palace behind then and score an early goal or two.
This could be the perfect game for them to get some momentum and scoring confidence back before a visit of Tottenham in the league.
United in Focus predicts Man Utd 4-0 FC Twente.
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