Bournemouth vs. Man U
Venue:Vitality Stadium
Kick off: 12:30PM
Manchester United will look to make it four away wins on the bounce when they travel south to face Bournemouth in the Premier League this afternoon.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s men have enjoyed a desperately needed resurgence since the international break, while Bournemouth will be hoping to rediscover some goalscoring form in front of their own supporters.
Having failed to win an away game in almost half a year, United now have three wins on the road in the space of six days.
Ahead of the October international break, United had won just two games in normal time since April and were two points above the relegation zone.
However, a stellar performance during a 1-1 draw with Liverpool – the first time Jurgen Klopp’s side failed to win a league game in 18 outings – has served as the catalyst for a resurgence in attitude and style on the pitch.
Many accused Solskjaer of lacking the appropriate tactical acumen to cope with a role of such high magnitude, often attacking the Norwegian’s rigid 4-2-3-1 system that seemed to take his attacking players nowhere.
His response since that 1-0 defeat to Newcastle United, however, serves as a strong sign of hope; the switch to a 3-4-1-2 system against Liverpool, for example, prevented the league leaders from accessing their usual passing lanes and left them looking rather lost until the final 20 minutes.
Moreover, the decision to adopt a more fluid 4-2-3-1 against Norwich, with Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial interchanging up front, made a big difference to United’s attacking potential.
Against Chelsea on Wednesday night, moreover, the home side had started to dominate proceedings after Michy Batshuayi’s second half equaliser, prompting Solskjaer to change to four at the back and introduce two energetic substitutes in Andreas Pereira and Martial – a move that changed the shape and feel of the game, laying the platform for Rashford to score the winner through a sublime free kick.
That said, United will know that the task they face is a completely different one against a Bournemouth side that will not give them one inch to play with.
On the other hand, Eddie Howe will be pleased with the position that Bournemouth find themselves in after 10 Premier League games, with the Cherries sitting in ninth.
The hardest thing for any recently-promoted side is to develop a base level of performance that can be exhibited every week, and this is exactly what Bournemouth have slowly but surely done since 2015.
Those teams who fall by the wayside – from Blackpool in 2011 to Fulham last season – can often pull excellent performances out of the bag but ultimately possess an acute air of unpredictability about them, which often leads to the snowballing of bad results.
Through a ruthless and consistent application of an adapted 4-4-2 system, drilled into a core group of players over several years, Howe can count on his team to give a certain level of performance that will, at the very least, take them to 40 points over 38 games.
Bournemouth possible XI: Ramsdale, Smith, S. Cook, Ake, Rico, L. Cook, Billing, H. Wilson, Fraser, C. Wilson, King.
Man U possible XI: De Gea, Wan-Bissaka, Maguire, Lindelof, Young, McTominay, Fred, Pereira, James, Martial, Rashford.