PREDICTED XI: Burnley vs Manchester United

Burnley v Manchester United; Predicted line ups and stats.

Burnley starting X1; Arfield, Mee, Jones, Shackell, Marney, Trippier, Ings, Taylor, Jutkiewicz, Duff.

Manchester United starting X1; De Gea, Jones, Smalling, Rojo*, Fletcher, Cleverley, Valencia, Di Maria, Mata, Rooney, Van Persie.

Barclays Premier League
Burnley v Manchester United
Saturday 30th of August 2014
Turf Moor
Kick Off 12.45 pm.

Previous meetings, P 120, United W – 57, D – 19, L – 44.

Match Official: Referee Chris Foy, Assistants; M Mullarkey, M McDonough, Fourth Official; M Clattenburg.

Top goal scorers last season:

Burnley; Ings (21) Vokes (20) Arfield (8) Kightly (5) Barnes (3).

Manchester United; Rooney (17) van Persie (12) Welbeck (9) Mata (6) Hernandez (4).

Top goal scorers this season:

Burnley; Arfield (1).

Manchester United; Rooney (1) Mata (1).

Manchester United last met Burnley in the league in August 2009, where the Clarets ran out winners courtesy of a 19th minute goal by Robbie Blake.

Burnley have lost both their opening League matches being defeated at the Liberty Stadium 1-0 by Swansea City and in their opening league match suffering a 3-1 loss at the hands of Chelsea. To compound Burnley’s miserable start to the season, which is almost mirrored by Manchester United, they also exited the Capital One Cup in Round Two, in midweek losing 1-0 to Championship side Sheffield Wednesday.

Manchester United are performing little better in either the League or the Capital One Cup, also losing to Swansea City 2-1 and performing in a flat lack lustre manner at the Stadium of Light drawing 1-1. Aggravating the uncertainty with club, Louis van Gaal changing 10 players from the match against Sunderland to be crushed 4-0 by Milton Keynes Dons, midweek past also being dumped out of the Capital One Cup at the Second Round stage.

Burnley: Key Facts,

Sam Vokes one of Burnley’s key players and goal scorers last season is unavailable for selection, due to an anterior cruciate ligament injury.

While Vokes and Danny Ing’s  are in the spotlight through their goal scoring feats (57% of Burnley’s goals) Jason Shackell signed in 2012 from Derby at centre of the Clarets defence along with Kieran Trippier ex Manchester City trainee at right-back are important cogs in the Burnley team. The two defenders and leaders featured in the Championship team of the year in 2013-14.

Highlighting the possible lack of squad depth and quality available to Sean Dyche, Burnley have spent a meagre £3.5m (net) on new players in 2014-15. If the Burnley manager maintains his philosophy of a pressing game and physically runs the players into the ground, the lack of investment in the pool of players at his disposal, could see opportunities for rotation to Dyche not an option.

Burnley had a fantastic defensive record in the Championship last term, losing only 37 goals in 46 matches, and being beaten on only 5 occasions all season, in so doing registering 93 points on the league board. The points tally Burnley accrued would have seen them win the Championship in the 6 of the last 7 seasons, rather than runners up behind Leicester City.

Burnley similar to most football clubs have raised the price of a season ticket at Turf Moor this campaign by the astronomical amount of 50%, with apparently built into the savage increase a deposit of £100 (reportedly) on a down payment for a 2015-16 season ticket. The sayings that springs to mind ‘Make hay while the sun shines’ – ‘Don’t bite the hand that feeds you.’

Sean Dyche had this to say on Manchester United ahead of the match “There is a bit of a hoo-ha about Manchester United at the moment. I don’t see it like that. I look at the players they have got, the club they are. I’m not thinking they are going to come here and – by some miracle – not be strong. They will certainly be strong.”

Burnley are currently trying to bolster their ranks, looking at Manchester United’s – Nick Powell, ex United youngster Zeki Fryers out of favour under new manager Maurico Pochettino at Tottenham Hotspurs. Sean Dyche is currently monitoring several players to bolster his squad, mainly the Championship for players that will add additional quality to the players available for selection.

Manchester United: Key Facts,

United have been successful against Burnley in winning 5 of the last 6 competitions however suffering a defeat at Turf Moor 1-0 on the last occasion when Burnley were in the Barclays Premier League season 2009-10. Burnley failing to register a goal in 5 of the 6 matches.

In stark contrast to Burnley’s minuscule transfer investment in 2014, Manchester United are reported to be close to  securing the signatures of both Arturo Vidal from Juventus and Daley Blind from Ajax at a combined cost of £50m. If United were to pull of both these signings the club’s outlay in the year 2014 alone would be in excess of £223m. Both these World Cup stars would add the muscle, experience and finesse to United’s under-tooled defensive aspect of the team.

The Daily Mail report on United’s recent signing Marcos Rojo and the likelihood the Argentinian featuring on Saturday, Louis van Gaal’s defensive concerns could deepen after it emerged that the Premier League are yet to sign of on Marcos Rojo’s transfer, partly because of Sporting Lisbon’s involvement with funding group Doyen.  Rojo moved to United for £16million eight days ago but has not yet played for Van Gaal. It had been thought that obtaining a work permit was the only delay in his registration being ratified but Sportsmail understands that the Premier League are still processing the paperwork associated with Doyen’s claim to 75 per cent of the transfer fee.

The delay would need to be overcome by 12.00pm on Friday if Rojo is to be eligible for the important encounter with Burnley at Turf Moor on Saturday afternoon. It is uncertain whether that will prove the case.

United have Marouane Fellaini, Michael Carrick and new summer signings Luke Shaw and Ander Herrera not available for selection, due to injury.

We will hopefully see for the first time Manchester United’s magnificent signing Angel Di Maria, which should allow Juan Mata to do his creative dangerous work in a more central role, both of whom should provide the balls for Rooney and van Persie to finish with the goals.

The match is totally sold out.

Which players would like to see in the line-ups?




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.

1 Comment

  1. Whats going on with our good coach. Pre-season was fantastic with the same resources. Season starts we worse than Moyes. May you please drop Rooney on midfield. He has got character, he is a hard worker with Wellbeck. We may not need so many Players anymore. Janzaj, Willson and Vanpersie can make a good attacking force. Rotten midfield causes strike-force and defense to be blamed. The heart is not pumping good hey. Its not the head or the tail. Check the heart. I love my club

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