Man United vs. Sheffield United
Venue: Old Trafford
Kick off: 6:30pm
Having ended an eight-game winless run against Swansea City last time out, Manchester United will turn their attention to the FA Cup on Saturday (today).
Visitors Sheffield United may be a League One club at present, yet in recent years they have been known to play the role of giant-killer.
It did not seem likely a fortnight ago, but Louis van Gaal remains in place as Manchester United manager.
The 2-0 defeat on Boxing Day at the hands of Stoke City appeared to be the end of the road for the Dutchman.
However, he has clawed on and four points from home clashes with Chelsea and Swansea since then have gone a little way to lifting some of the Old Trafford gloom.
While there is still considered to be plenty of room left for improvement, performances were also more impressive in those games. Having had a combined 31 shots on goal over the 180 minutes, it would suggest that Van Gaal has handed his players more freedom in the final third than what has been the norm this season. The focus now, though, will switch to the FA Cup – perhaps United’s best chance of winning a trophy this season. It is a competition that is widely believed to have saved Sir Alex Ferguson’s job in 1990 and there is a chance that it could do the same for Van Gaal, who saw his United side exit at the quarter-final stage last term.
As a club, the world’s oldest cup has eluded the Red Devils since 2004. It means that stalwarts like Wayne Rooney and Michael Carrick may have won the Premier League numerous times and the Champions League once, only to have never got their hands on the FA Cup.
It will come as little surprise to read that the Blades are considered to be the big underdogs to prosper on Saturday evening.
Indeed, a lot of the major bookmakers on the high street have priced up Nigel Adkins’s men as 17-2 shots. Nevertheless, there is plenty of reason for the travelling faithful from Yorkshire to be optimistic. They may have lost at home to Peterborough United last time out, but prior to that they had gone five games without defeat – four of which ended in victories.
As for their recent form in the cups, since 2007 Sheffield United have fallen at the round three hurdle just once. On top of that, since January 2014 they have knocked Aston Villa, Fulham, West Ham United, Southampton and Queens Park Rangers – all sides in higher divisions – out of domestic cup competitions.
Unlike their Premier League hosts, the Bramall Lane-based outfit have already played two ties in this year’s competition. They defeated non-League Worcester City in the first round, before Matt Done scored the only goal of the game to advance beyond Oldham Athletic – a game which saw United’s Che Adams receive a red card for pushing Oldham’s Liam Kelly in the face.
Man United possible starting lineup: Romero, Darmian, Smalling, Blind, Borthwick-Jackson, Carrick, Schneiderlin, Pereira, Herrera, Martial, Rooney.
Sheffield United possible starting lineup: Long, Brayford, Edgar, Collins, McEveley, Coutts, Basham, Hammond, Woolford, Sammon, Sharp.