United travel to Southampton this weekend hoping to put behind the defeat suffered at PSV on Tuesday night, and to build upon the victory against Liverpool last weekend.
United have not had the best of times away from home recently, with defeat at Swansea followed by the reversal on Tuesday night. Van Gaal himself acknowledged this at his press conference this afternoon and noted “We’ve already noticed we lost against Swansea and PSV Eindhoven. In the Champions League it is important that you do not lose those away matches. We have time and also matches that we can improve in that way and we shall.”.
Wayne Rooney returns to the squad after missing the last two games with a hamstring injury. With the lack of attacking options at the manager’s disposal, you would expect him to be straight back in the starting line up. More importantly United will be hoping he can discover the knack to score goals on a regular basis to help his team maintain the strong start they have made so far.
What remains to be seen is will Martial get his first start in the premier league, According to Ander Herrera, Martial offers something to the team that others can not, and he was quoted on Man united website as saying “I think he is a player who has some qualities that the rest haven’t got. So I think he can run into the spaces when the midfielders look forward. We are always going to find him because he’s very quick, very mobile, so I think he is a very good player for us and is going to give us different options.”
Van Gaal has reiterated on many occasions patience will be required with Martial and said at his press conference today “I have to judge him every week, whether I can use him….My decision will be taken based on the training sessions.”
This is an intelligent and measured approach from the United manager, as it is important to keep the pressure of such young shoulders, and it would surely be counter productive to make Martial feel, he is the only option United have to score those goals that are required.
