United take on another London club in match 2 of the 25/26 Premier League as Ruben takes his Reds to Craven Cottage to face fellow Portuguese Marco Silva.
Both sides with contrasting starts as Fulham picked up a decent point away to Brighton whilst United suffered defeat at home to Arsenal. Silva and Amorim will both be looking for victory and as we know with our club, if we don't get the W here, the knives will be out.
Predicted Lineup
Already a change in goal. Whether necessary or simply because Onana is the no 1, it will be the Cameroonian back in goal. Amorim made it clear post the Arsenal game that he hadn't dropped Onana and that it was more down to the good performances of Bayindir in pre-season and the fact that the usual first-choice had been injured without playing a minute whilst on tour, as to why the Turk was picked last Sunday.
It had nothing to do with Onana being shite and United perhaps looking for a new goalkeeper. Nothing to do with that 😅.
I see no reason to change the back three as well as all of Yoro, De Ligt - who was a standout - and Shaw all performed superbly to keep a strong Arsenal attack quiet.
Dorgu to remain as LWB but a change on the right. I've brought in Amad because I feel as though we can afford to be a little more on the front-foot in this game compared to Arsenal although we were the dominant side in that game which perhaps caught everyone by surprise not least United which probably caused Amorim to start Dalot for his defensive abilities over Amad.
The Ivorian also came on and made a big difference to us going forward which will help the team as well.
Casemiro and of course Bruno to continue in midfield. Ugarte looked like he was playing for the Gunners in one of the worst cameos you'll ever see while Mainoo is a player who doesn't seem much in favour with the manager at the moment and indeed, is difficult to see where he best fits in this team. Another place on the bench for the youngster.
Cunha and Mbeumo HAVE to start again as along with De Ligt, they were two of our better players. We look a much better outfit with them in the side and ahead of them should be Sesko to make his full debut. It's hard to drop Mount as he was surprisingly decent last week. However, as Sesko has had more time to train and get up to speed, is an actual striker and we can be more attack-minded in this game, I see no reason as to why he won't start.
Approach
Honestly, do the same things we did against Arsenal only with scoring a couple of goals of course and not cocking up at the back.
I believe that how we played last Sunday was exactly how the manager wants his team to play. The press was high and in the main, effective; we won the ball back quickly; had high amounts of possession; didn't force the issue too much although there were times when we looked panicky; while there were a lot of long balls, a decent portion of them were accurate and were a means for us to get in behind a usual solid Arsenal defense; and defensively, we kept them quiet all game.
All that needed to happen was to test David Raya more and not make silly mistakes.
Form
We've played one and lost one. Not the best start to a new campaign however, I'm sure you know pretty well that the last time we lost the opening game, what happened 🤷♂️.
United do have a strong record against Fulham as well. We've only lost one game against them in the last 16 years in the league. That came in February 2024 at Old Trafford. This also means that we haven't suffered defeat at Craven Cottage since 2009 when we lost 3-0.
Another record for Amorim to break 🤣.
Looking at the recent results though, you will see that it is usually quite close between the sides. The last time any side won by more than a goal in the league was back in 2019 when Paul Pogba and Anthony Martial led United to a 3-0 win at the peak of 'Ole's at the wheel' football.
What a time that was *reminisces* 😢.
Fulham
As mentioned, Silva and co got a decent draw at Brighton who are not an easy side to face. That point put them in 9th while United are in their favourite position of 15th 😐.
I guess we did ask for consistency 🤷♂️.
In that1-1 draw at the AMEX, Fulham had more shots and more possession than the Seagulls which is a diffuclty thing to do considering how they play.
Last season's fixture between the Cottagers and United was one of the most boring games you'll see as it was late on a Sunday night. Clearly, no one wanted to be there at such a time. Thankfully for us though, a 78th minute deflected effort by Lisandro Martinez gave us the 1-0 win.
No butcher to bail us out this time but will that type of performance be welcomed again even if we win?
A big blow for Silva is the absence of defender Antonee Robinson. The American has a knee injury that will keep him out for some time. Other players on the sidelines include Ryan Sessegnon, Timothy Castagne, Harrison Reed and Sasa Lukic.
Despite these misses, they still hold a whole host of talent such as Adama Traore, Alex Iwobi, Emile Smith Rowe, Calvin Bassey (hopefully bro has tighter shorts IYKYK 😉), Joachim Andersen and former Red Andreas Pereira. More than enough quality to punich us.
It is too early in the season to truly know what Full of ham are all about but one thing's for certain, they will give us a game.
Prediction
Tbh, if we play like we did last week, I see no reason why a win isn't on the cards. Playing like we did against a strong Arsenal side who did next to nothing should be good enough to beat most teams in the league like Fulham.
The next step for this team is to be consistent. We know that this is something they struggle with. Being the favourites for a game is also an area of weakness. I urge you to read what skipper Bruno and manager Amorim said after our win over Villa at the end of last season. Should we not perform at Fulham, those comments could explain a lot.
However, inspite of this pressure of favourites tag, I do believe we'll get the job done. I think that despite defeat last week, we'll build on that performance and be too good for Fulham, but not without difficulty.
1-2 United. Sesko to get on the scoresheet.
Calvin Bassey | Image via Fulham official X (@FulhamFC)
Bruno Fernandes | Image via Manchester United official X (@ManUtd)