Manchester United will be taking on Swiss champions BSC Young Boys in Bern tonight as they kick-off their Champions League campaign.

The last time United were in European action they limply succumbed to Sevilla and exited Europe’s most elite club competition at the Round of Sixteen stage. Red Devils boss Jose Mourinho can’t allow his team to be anything but ready for this tilt at the title.

Man Utd need to start off well and they need to give their fans something to cheer for, their start to the Premier League season has been pretty mixed and an entertaining, winning start in Europe could be a welcome distraction for everyone at the club.

Now United’s only blemish in the group stages last term came in Switzerland, as FC Basel managed to beat Jose’s men 1-0 at St Jacob-Park. Man United can’t afford a similar defeat to occur this evening.

They come into the encounter after two good away results in the league, so Mourinho and his side do have that to build on.

Top stars like Alexis Sanchez, Paul Pogba and Romelu Lukaku need to turn up and perform. What United really need is a swashbuckling performance that blows away the opposition and makes other teams in Europe sit up and take notice.

The forward line have to create chances and importantly they also need to be ruthless and put away those chances.

In defence, Manchester United have looked vulnerable. The back four need to have a solid outing and show that they can work as a cohesive unit. They’ve so far only managed to keep one cleansheet in their opening five games. In total they have scored eight and conceded eight, that’s simply not good enough!

If Man United want to be taken seriously, both at home and abroad, then they need to start laying down markers and dominating fixtures. They’ve certainly got the personnel to do it.

An issue could be their manager Jose Mourinho. The Portuguese coach is a fine boss and has a fantastic CV but he still needs to find his preferred starting eleven at Old Trafford and get the most out of his squad.

The pragmatic gaffer needs to loosen the leash a little bit, give his side a chance to be more creative and give them licence to go out and attack opponents starting with Young Boys tonight. Maybe just maybe, Mourinho can look at his defensive problems and say that attack really is the best form of defence.

Obviously you can’t treat the Swiss champs likely but you should be thinking that it’s a winnable game and that you can do that with some entertaining football.

Young Boys coach Gerardo Seoane has stated that his team will think about themselves and won’t be overawed by their illustrious opponents:

“We focus on ourselves and of course we’re playing against a very good team. It is a difficult task, but we’ll try to be active. We’ll play with courage. We can’t do that for the whole game, but that is how we want to play,”

In turn, United have to breakdown their opponents and try and boss the match with a high tempo.

With Serie A winners Juventus and Spanish cracks Valencia also in Group H, it could be imperative that Manchester United get off to a winning start in Bern!

Posted on September 19th, 2018 by scott
Filed under: Article