Distorted by their opening day defeat to Brighton, Manchester United are travelling to the Community Stadium in Brentford in order to refigure the start to the new season.
Manchester United went down 2-1 against Brighton to begin the 2022/23 campaign while Brentford fought back from two goals down to secure a draw against Leicester.
BRE vs MUN Match Details
Date: Saturday, 12th August 2022
Time: 17:30 (BST)/ 22:00 (IST)
Venue: Community Stadium, Brentford
BRE vs MUN Match Preview
Manager Thomas Frank unleashed Joshua Dasilva on the hour mark from the bench to rescue Brentford from an opening day loss against Leicester the responsibility he took in full. Down by 2-0 in an awful start to their season opener, the Bees needed inspiration that was provided by star striker Ivan Toney pulling one back to set the stage for the 23-year-old to level up matters with a spectacular strike four minutes before the end. It was not like their first ever Premier win to start off last season but the result is reminiscent of their spirit and togetherness in the team. Brentford finished eleven points clear of the drop zone in 13th place which can be defined as hugely successful considering they were one of the clubs predicted to suffer relegation in their first top-flight season after 74 years. Much of the fight to prevent the drop happened because of one man, Christian Eriksen who joined the club on a six-month contract after leaving Inter in January due to his heart condition. The midfield orchestrator has moved on to Manchester United this summer despite efforts to keep him at the club but Brentford are a side that can attract a cluster of future stars. Youngsters like Kean Lewis-Potter, Aaron Hickey and Mikel Damsgaard have been signed while experienced campaigners like goalkeeper Thomas Strakosha and Ben Mee also arrived in this transfer window. The aim for the Bees is certainly to avoid the relegation fight in the new season and with their absorbing football project want to stay in the top division for longer. A wounded Manchester United team are the visitors for their first home game of the season where they collected most of their points and halted the top sides in the league. The concern will be their poor record against the Red Devils having lost both the fixtures against them the season prior with conceding three goals in both and scoring only once. Brentford are winless in the last six meetings with United since beating them twice way back in the 1936-37 campaign which is a major worry.
Erik Ten Haag’s era at Manchester United got to the worst possible start with a 2-1 defeat to a familiar enemy in Brighton inflicting the blow at Old Trafford. Pascal Gross, who has now scored 6 goals against his favorite opponent United, picked up a brace in a chaotic first half for the home side. All the good vibes of the preseason results and the romanticism of a new tactical genius in the dugout got evaporated in that opening game with old issues plaguing the team again. Ten Haag’s thinking of placing Christian Eriksen in a false number nine role on his United debut, somewhere the Dane hasn’t played in his senior career, backfired massively but fair to him he didn’t have a centre forward to line up in the game with Cristiano Ronaldo lacking in match fitness and Anthony Martial injured. The goal they scored in the second half was the virtue of an own goal from Brighton’s mistake to clear out the ball from a corner. The defence was in shambles again even with Lisandro Martinez making his debut at the back. Adding the result to their abysmal recruiting business, less bothered owners and drawing interest in players like Marko Arnautović and Adrien Rabiot has been enough for fans to show extreme measures of backlash. It keeps piling the pressure on blameless Ten Haag whose major decision for the second week running is to deal with Ronaldo’s situation. He has stressed he is counting on the Portuguese despite his want of leaving the club while asking for the management to bring in more new faces to assist his new philosophy to implement. In search of short-term solutions, United are missing standard signings in the market accustomed to a club like this stature. The only hope for the manager is now to find a rhythm in this current squad and bounce back from the opening day defeat. Any further downfall against Brentford, whom they carry a decent record against but haven’t won in their last six away games in the Premier League, will jeopardize the team’s position further by the team rivals Liverpool visiting Old Trafford the next weekend.
BRE vs MUN Team News
Brentford are without defender Kristoffer Ajer sustaining a knock and winger Sergi Canos suffering a hamstring but both are expected to be fit at the end of this month while Ethan Pinnock remains a long-term absentee. Dasilva played a massive role for his side by scoring a stunning equalizer coming off the bench in the opening game so it won’t be a surprise if manager Thomas Frank have him from the start against Manchester United. New exciting signing, Mikkel Damsgaard is willing to make an appearance this weekend to announce himself in the Premier League.
For Manchester United, Erik Ten Haag will still not have Anthony Martial back in time for the trip to Brentford having missed the season opener with a hamstring injury. The Frenchman is joined by other remaining absentees, Brandon Williams and Facundo Pellestri, on the sidelines. The manager will fidget on the same decision that became the major talking point of the opening weekend whether to start wantaway star, Cristiano Ronaldo. In the absence of a proper centre forward, he is likely to get the start as Ten Haag doesn’t want to repeat the mistake of fielding Christian Eriksen up top. The Portuguese’s match fitness is still an issue that constrained him to a second-half appearance in the defeat against Brighton only to turn the game around which didn’t happen. That should be the only change in the team with Scott Mctominay dropping out following a miserable outing in the loss. Eriksen and Bruno Fernandes will operate as creative number eights keeping Fred in the holding midfield role despite being ineffective in the position. The back four of Dalot, Maguire, Lisandro Martinez and Luke Shaw remain the same.
BRE vs MUN Predicted lineups
BRE: Jose Raya; Aaron Hickey, Pontus Jansson, Ben Mee, Rico Henry; Vitaly Janelt, Christian Norgaard, Joshua Dasilva; Bryan Mbuemo, Ivan Toney, Yoane Wissa
MUN: De Gea; Diogo Dalot, Harry Maguire, Lisandro Martinez, Luke Shaw; Christian Eriksen, Fred, Bruno Fernandes; Jadon Sancho, Cristiano Ronaldo, Marcus Rashford
BRE vs MUN Head to head
Bruno Fernandes’s strike in the ninth minute of the game and two second-half goals from Ronaldo and Raphael Varane sealed a comfortable 3-0 victory for Manchester United back in their last meet back in May while the Bees managed to score in the clash at their home but faced the similar faith.
BRE vs MUN Dream11 Team Prediction
GK: Raya
DEF: Henry, Jansson, Martinez, Hickey
MID: Da-Silva, Eriksen, Norgaard
FW: Fernandes, Toney, Ronaldo
Captain: Bruno Fernandes
Vice-captain: Ivan Toney
Christian Norgaard ended the last four games of the previous season for Brentford with three goal contribution including a goal and two assists.
Christian Eriksen will be facing his old team having contributed to five goals in 10 starts for Brentford last season. The former Spurs player also created 30 chances for the Bees.
Bruno Fernandes has three goal contributions against Brentford last season with two assists and a goal.
Ivan Toney opened his account in the first game of the new season against Leicester. He has seven goal contribution in his last seven home games for Brentford.
