Manchester United’s great return to the Champions League didn’t go off as planned, the English club travelled to Eindhoven but were beaten by a PSV side, despite dominating the Dutch team. The result might have come as a shock, but there was more bad news for the team as they saw Luke Shaw being taken off after a nasty double leg break which effectively ended his season.
Shaw was one of their best players this season but Manchester United have to brush off their defeat as they now look forward to taking on German club Wolfsburg. The Wolves currently lie fourth in the Bundesliga and will be looking to inflict more misery on Manchester United.
The Red Devils though will be looking forward to this clash after having done extremely well in the league campaign so far. After a slow start, the club now top the league standings as they look to reclaim the Premier League crown and bring back the glory days. Wolfsburg are probably the toughest side in the group for United and we look at what the team from Manchester need to do in order to beat Wolfsburg.
The young gun up top
The basic idea for Manchester United should be to keep things pretty much the same. In the game against Sunderland, it took them a bit of time to break down a dogged defence and that is something that they would face in front of their home crowd.
Wolfsburg will come with the idea of not wanting to lose the game and they would be a little wary of the youngster that Manchester United paid huge money for, Anthony Martial. The French striker has been a revelation, despite his price tag, he already has scored thrice in the league this season and should be in for a shout out to play alongside Wayne Rooney at the top of the attack.
While many doubted his ability to play and adapt this quickly to the league, Martial has proved he fits in just perfectly at United. Wayne Rooney also had a slow start to the season but he also got on the score-sheet against Sunderland and should be looking to score a goal or two against Wolfsburg.
The midfield would have to work extremely hard against Wolfsburg who might have lost the services of Kevin De Bruyne but they brought in an able replacement in Julian Draxler, who scored for the club in their opening Champions League tie. Draxler could be the X factor for the Germans and whether it is Schneiderlin or Schweinsteiger playing in the defensive role, they would have to keep an eye out on the young German attacker.
Wolfsburg though aren’t the most prolific in attack having only scored 10 goals in their seven Bundesliga games, they are a hard working side though and their manager Dieter Hecking will drill the defence really well to ensure that Manchester United do not break them easily.
This match could decide the fate of who tops the group, Manchester United will be looking to get a maximum from this game and anything less than that would give them a huge mountain to climb in their quest for Champions League glory.