Manchester United head to Belgium for Europa League action on Thursday.
It’s a quick turnaround for Manchester United this week. Fresh off the heels of their 2-0 win at Chelsea on Monday, the team heads to Belgium to play Club Brugge in a Thursday Europa League match.
Speaking to the press before a morning training session, manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer wasn’t pleased with the scheduling, saying: “We are not going to get any help, I cannot understand for the life of me why we couldn’t play on Saturday as we play on Thursday again.”
As mentioned, the team had a quick Wednesday morning training session before flying out, and the one player making a much-needed return to practice was Scott McTominay.
United have included Scott McTominay, Victor Lindelof and Axel Tuanzebe in their pre-match training squad for their trip to Club Brugge. Tuanzebe and Lindelof missed the Chelsea match but appear to have recovered from their injuries and the trio could feature in the Thursday match.
Missing from training was Mason Greenwood and Aaron Wan-Bissaka.
A new face at training was Connor Stanley, an 18-year-old winger and another member of the United Academy making an appearance in the first team. He joined the club from Birmingham City in August 2018, at the same time that United signed Reece Devine, and that season Stanley made a breakthrough into Neil Ryan’s Under-18s side at Old Trafford.
Stanley made 11 appearances for the United Under-18s last season and has made a further five this season in the U18 Premier League, providing two assists in 364 minutes of action.
United have experience against Club Brugge, but that was back in 2015 during a Champions League qualifier where United won 7-1 on aggregate, 3-1 and 4-0.
Club Brugge, who started the season off in the Champions League, are a defensive-minded team so this could be an interesting match on Thursday. United have had their troubles against deep defensive teams.
In goal for Club Brugge, Manchester United fans will recognize an old Liverpool foe — Simon Mignolet. It was a rocky six years at Anfield for Mignolet, but the veteran keeper has found a home in Belgium with 19 clean sheets in all competitions this season.
Predicted XI: Romero; Dalot, Jones, Maguire, Williams; McTominay, Pereira; Greenwood, Fernandes, James; Ighalo.
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