The Manchester United vs Swansea City Premier League match will take place this Saturday, January 11, 2014 (9:30 AM Pacific) at Old Trafford. The Michael Laudrup’s side return to Old Trafford for the second time in a week and will hope to emulate the success they found in the FA Cup victory against a forlorn looking United.
What Now?
So here we go again United fans, this time surely things can only get better? The last 3 games in which United have suffered consecutive 2-1 defeats have come at a serious cost. No FA cup run, the chances of retaining their crown as the champions of England has now definitely evaporated (if there was ever any doubt before), and a serious dent has been placed in their chances of a Wembley final.
Moyes sadly seems very keen to blame the refereeing decisions that have gone against them, rather than just accepting that the squad isn’t anywhere near the standard required to compete this year. He simply must sign a left back and a central midfielder this month, preferably ones that can play in the Champions League.
No Rooney, No Van Persie
Things don’t look like getting any better anytime soon as, in a massive surprise to me, it has been confirmed that Rooney has been packed off somewhere hot to get over his groin strain and Van Persie isn’t going to be ready to feature either. You really would have thought that they would’ve tried everything they could to get these two back, but then if they’re not ready then there’s not much you can do.
Injury Woes
Both sides are going to be missing plenty of their first team players for this crucial game. Swansea have added a couple of players to the injury list they already had last time out at Old Trafford, with Jonathan de Guzman, Roland Lamah and Dwight Tiendalli joining Nathan Dyer, Pablo Hernandez, Garry Monk, Michel Vorm and Michu on the sidelines, leaving manager Michael Laudrup with limited options against the reigning champions.
United have fared no better since last week’s game, they now have Rio Ferdinand (knee), Phil Jones (knee), Marouane Fellaini (wrist), Nani (hamstring) and Ashley Young (shoulder) joining Rooney and Van Persie, whilst Fabio is suspended.
Manchester United Squad
De Gea, Lindegaard, Smalling, Rafael, Evans, Vidic, Evra, Buttner, Valencia, Anderson, Giggs, Carrick, Cleverley, Fletcher, Kagawa, Zaha, Hernandez, Welbeck, Januzaj.
Swansea Squad
Amat, Taylor, Flores, Williams, Britton, Shelvey, Bony, Cornell, Routledge, Rangel, Canas, Pozuelo, Tremmel, Vazquez, Richards, Davies, Zabret.
Manchester United vs Swansea City Prediction
United have never lost in the Premier League against Swansea, having won 4 and drawn one game previously. Bony was a constant threat in the last game and could have scored more if he’d shown some composure at key moments. With the amount of players on the sidelines for both teams, I can’t see this game exploding. United will obviously be nervous as they haven’t lost 4 games in a row since 1961, and that right there is a statistic that none of these players will want to have attributed to them. I think that they will avoid this, but only just. It’s got draw written all over it for me. A very nervy draw.
Prediction: Manchester United 1 -1 Swansea City
Manchester United vs Swansea City TV Schedule
The Manchester United vs Swansea City match will be televised this Saturday, January 11, 2014 on NBC at 9:30 AM Pacific.
