Manchester United face Leicester City this Saturday as the Premier League returns after the international break.
It is once again time for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer to prove the doubters wrong. This is where Ole seems to show his resilience to the pressures of the job. However, it will not come easy against a Leicester side who beat United in the quarter-final of the FA Cup last season and lift the trophy.
But United has all the pedigree to secure all three points at the King Power Stadium if they perform to their full capabilities.United failed to beat Leicester City on all three occasions last season as they lost 2-1 at Old Trafford and drew 2-2 at the King Power in the league. As stated they lost in the FA Cup going down to a 3-1 loss.
It is a big game for both teams for different reasons, United could secure top place, even for a brief time if Liverpool fail to beat Watford, with a win whereas Leicester could slump to 16th place if results go against them.
Leicester City’s Form
The former champions do not come into this game with a great record in the league so far. With the trials and tribulations of early Europa League games coming thick and fast the Foxes have only two wins to their name. The wins came in August against newly promoted Norwich City and a shaky Wolverhampton Wanderers.
It is safe to say that they have not found their stride in the league yet but in the previous two league games against Burnley and Crystal Palace they have found the back of the net twice on each occasion, therefore, showing that they still have an eye for goal.
However, in their last game against Crystal Palace, they failed to hold onto a two-goal lead at Selhurst Park meaning they have failed to win in the Premier League for four games.
The same has to be said for their form in Europe. They currently have one point after two games and threw away another two-goal lead against Napoli before losing 1-0 to Legia Warsaw.
Foxes Team News
The success has been going forward this season with the main man Jamie Vardy still amongst the goals. With six goals to his name in seven games this season. He will always be a constant threat and a menace to the United backline.
Alongside him will more than likely be Kelechi Ihenacho. The former Manchester City man found real form last season and proved he had what it takes to compete at the top.
However, despite the success in finding the net recently only four teams have created fewer shots than Leicester, so United needs to be wary of a clinical Vardy.
Brendan Rodgers will more than likely set up in a 4-4-2 formation allowing him to play with the two main strikers and put the two centre-backs under pressure. However, he has played a 4-3-3 at times in the league allowing him to play the exciting talents James Maddison and Harvey Barnes on the wings.
However, with United’s injury crisis at centre-back with Harry Maguire and Raphaël Varane both ruled out with injury you could expect Rodgers to make sure Vardy has support in making himself a thorn in the side of Ole’s men.
Defensively this year Leicester have been poor and the summer signing of Jannik Vestergaard has not solidified the defence as easily as Çaglar Söyüncü did when he arrived at Leicester following the departure of Maguire.
Despite the shaky form of Rodger’s side, Leicester will always have the capability to make things difficult for United. He himself will start to feel the pressure sitting so low in the Premier League.
You do have to go back to 21st September 2014 for the last Leicester win at the King Power but we all remember the score of that game (5-3 if you have erased that day from your mind) and we all know that Leicester will never roll over!
