PREDICTED XI: Manchester United vs Valencia CF – Rooney Captain

Manchester United play Valencia at Old Trafford in their final preseason match. This match will also signal the Old Trafford debut for the new personnel; Manager Louis van Gaal and players Luke Shaw and Ander Herrera. It will not be the first time in Old Trafford for the three of them having faced United at Old Trafford with their former teams.

Being the last match before preseason, van Gaal will seek to finalise his starting XI for the curtain-raiser vs Swansea. I expect the side to face Swansea to play against Valencia. Van Gaal has already given us a glimpse of his favoured starting XI whilst in America however one has to see whether the players who did not feature in America will be given time to impress vs Valencia. Namely these players are: Adnan Januzaj, Marouane Fellaini, Nick Powell and Robin van Persie. A lot will depend on these players’ fitness levels. Michael Carrick will miss this match as well as a good chunk of early season due to injury whilst Rafael is probably not fit yet.


Starting XI

The following is the starting XI I am predicting followed by some comments.

De Gea

Smalling – Jones – Evans

Valencia – Shaw

Fletcher – Herrera

Mata

Welbeck – Rooney ( C )


Left-Wing-Back Conundrum

In my opinion, van Gaal’s greatest decision is whether to play Shaw or Young on the left flank. The Dutch Manager admitted that Luke Shaw needed to get in a better shape and was doing personalised training session to get him up to the required levels of fitness. On the other hand, Ashley Young, a certain goner at the end of last season, has done incredibly well under van Gaal and has also reinvented himself as a wing back on both flanks.

Injury Doubts and their potential replacements

Smalling, Valencia and Welbeck will feature depending on whether they recuperated from the knocks suffered in America. Should these players not be fit, expect Smalling to be replaced by Tyler Blackett who has been more convincing than Michael Keane. Valencia, would be replaced by Young whilst Welbeck will be replaced by Chicharito unless van Gaal decided to play Januzaj or Kagawa in that role to partner Rooney. Januzaj played almost a full season as a lone striker for the U21 and despite his slim figure, he had impressed coached for being able to hold unto the ball.

Captaincy

Having captained United in their last American outing, I believe that the captaincy is heading towards the former Evertonian. Captaincy could be the tonic to ensure that Rooney’s will have one of his best season’s in a United shirt. I would be surprised if he doesn’t captain the side against Valencia.

Subs and Outgoing Transfers

It will be interesting to see whether Nick Powell, £4million from Crewe will be given a chance by van Gaal. Being back in Manchester it would also be worthwhile to see whether van Gaal will try to include some of our younger players such as James Wilson.


 

Tomorrow’s squad might give an indication of those players that van Gaal is considering as surplus to requirements. Rafael, Chicharito, Nani, Anderson and Fellaini are rumoured to be the players that van Gaal has informed that have no future at Old Trafford. Should they not feature in this match, it would be a clear sign that their next step is outside the door. However, Anderson and Rafael will most probably not feature because of injury.




About Steve Ferguson 886 Articles
Steve Ferguson had taken over & re-branded The Faithful MUFC website back in the summer of 2014 and is now the owner and editor of the site. Steve, from Ashton-Under-Lyne in Greater Manchester, is a 35-year-old life long Manchester United fan, travelling over the globe to see the Reds play. Steve has been lucky enough to be at both the 1999 and 2008 Champions League finals, seeing Manchester United lift the biggest trophy in the World, none more exciting than that faithful night in Barcelona in 99. The website is a blog, but also hopes to deliver the latest Manchester United news from around the internet too, linked up with our growing twitter account which is @TheFaithfulMUFC, give it a follow as we will follow you back as soon as we can.

3 Comments

  1. united marketing strategy is outmoded.
    too much talk with nothing to prove in reality
    just naming players and allowing their market
    prices to rise for other teams to buy. this is real madness

  2. Predicted XI.man utd vs valencia@: De Gea,smalling,jones,shaw,fletcher,herrera,mata,valencia,young,rooney,and januzaj.

  3. i prefer wayne rooney to be man utd permanent captain in the lvg era in ot.

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