Manchester United vs Everton Match Preview

By: Ryan | November 20th, 2009

Alright well I promised it so here it is: Manchester United vs Everton preview (fancy pictures included):

This match marks the return of the EPL after one hell of an international break. We saw Russia fail to qualify for the World Cup in 2010, and Ireland being ~~cheated~~ defeated out of a birth. Tomorrow, at 17:30 GMT (12:30 EST) United will take on Everton, who sit mid-table through 12 games, while united are in 3rd, behind Arsenal and Chelsea.

Previous Match Form:

Everton
W L D L L

Nov 8 (W): West Ham 1 – 2 Everton
Nov 5 (L): Everton 0 – 2 Benfica (Europa League)
Oct 31(D): Everton 1 – 1 Aston Villa
Oct 27(L): Tottenham 2 – 0 Everton (League Cup)
Oct 25(L): Bolton 3 – 2 Everton

Manchester United
L D W W L

Nov 8 (L): Chelsea 1 – 0 United
Nov 3 (D): United 3 – 3 CSKA Moscow (Champions League)
Oct 31(W): United 2 – 0 Blackburn
Oct 27(W): Barnsley 0 – 2 United (League Cup)
Oct 25(L): Liverpool 2 – 0 United

While United have not been as dominant defensively as we were last season (Pod People, we will take our Rio back now, thanks kindly), United played well defensively versus Chelsea. I’m expecting a natural 4-4-2 feel for tomorrow’s match, something along the lines of:

VDS
Rafael-Brown-Vidic-Evra
Valencia-Fletcher-Anderson-Nani
Rooney-Berbatov

However, there has been a lot of off-the-pitch action recently surrounding United, which may affect the performance of players. I highlighted 5 of the “biggest” issues (in my own personal humble opinion) coming into this match:

Injuries, Injuries, Injuries

Both teams have had their fair share of injures, but in my totally biased opinion ours will be more important in regards to the result of the match. Our main injuries come in our defense line, with Fabio and Rio both ruled out, but O’Shea and Johnny Evans have both picked up “knocks” and Sir Alex called them doubtful. Besides the obvious implications, this also means no “battle of the afros”. The good news? Vidic is back and healthy, having played 75 minutes for Serbia this past week in a friendly. It will be interesting to see what kind of defensive options we will actually have available tomorrow.

How will the Irish Rebound ?

It would be naive to think that that “The Hand of Henry” is not still burning fresh in O’Shea and Gibson’s minds. If O’Shea is able to go tomorrow, we all need to hope that he has not only forgotten the aforementioned event, but also rocketing a golden chance over the bar from six yards out that would have all but sealed Ireland’s ticket to South Africa.

The Circus that has Become Manchester United

Between Sir Alex’s criticism of officiating and the recent remarks by Nani and Ben Foster, United look like they could have too many distractions off the field. As with any sport, it can become very hard to be productive on the pitch when mentally, you are thinking of all these off-the-field issues at hand. And in case you had not heard, Sir Alex will be in the dugout for this match due to some crazy rule that will allow him to be present during this match, but missing Portsmouth and Tottenham. It will also be interesting to see how much playing time Nani gets, seeing as history has shown us SAF tends not to put up too much with his players bad talking him to the press. I expect him to start and play most, if not all of the game, but will the trend continue as other players become healthy.

When will we see vintage Mikey Owen ?

Let’s be honest, Owen has not been in the form he is capable of. Obviously he’ll need time to get back into that form, considering the past two years he has been either injured, or arguably just as bad, at Newcastle. Owen has shown sparks of what he used to do on a regular basis, the question is how much time does he need to find his form, and if he does, who will Sir Alex pair with Rooney up top ?

Pappa Wazza

Speaking of Rooney, he played well against Moscow, just after the birth of his son. Now that he’s had more time at home with the tyke, will we see visible signs of those sleepless nights that come with having a kid. Obviously having a son is not going to affect Rooney on the pitch, but he does have just one goal in the past nine fixtures. Look for Rooney to get back on pace by netting (at least)one against his boyhood club.

Those are some of the burning questions in my mind, obviously there are more issues that we face coming into this game. Regardless, I’m going to start predicting the results of the game (because I’m American and predicting the future is what we do), and for this I see a confident 2-0 Win for United at Old Trafford; goals coming from Rooney and Valencia. What does everyone else think ?