Strongest Manchester United lineup To Play Against Fulham – Kagawa And Januzaj To Start?

Manchester United host rock bottom Fulham on Sunday at Old Trafford, which must be said, should be a routine outing for the Red Devils. David Moyes’ men come into the clash at the back of a shocking 1-2 reversal at the hands of Stoke City at the Britannia Stadium last week, but know that any further hiccup could seriously derail their ambition to nick a Champions League spot. Fulham, however travel to the Theatre of Dreams carrying a wretched record of conceding the most goals in England’s top flight football. The Cottagers will have to play out of their skins to get anything of this encounter, lest they will be buried within the first half itself. United should look to win convincingly in order to regain their lost panache of steamrolling past teams at will and send their strongest eleven out on park.

So what should be the line up for David Moyes? We here at Soccersouls have the answer for our readers. 

Goalkeeping:

David De Gea should look to muster a clean sheet against a side who just have one goal scorer in their ranks, Steve Sidwell. United have won each of their last nine home league matches against the Cottagers and must look to maintain the record or else bear the ignominy of disdain. Fulham carry very little goal threat which would suit De Gea to notch up a much needed clean sheet at home in front of the vociferous Red Devils faithful.

Defence:

A tearful goodbye looks imminent at Old Trafford come this summer as present club captain Nemanja Vidic is to leave the Premier League Champions at the end of the season, the centre back announced on Friday. The Serbian however should take his place in the heart of the defence with Chris Smalling, the latter who comes to the starting eleven in place of the injured Johnny Evans. Rafael should start in the right back slot and will be using all his pace to terrorize the Fulham left flank and get into crossing positions early into the game. Patrice Evra will surely start in the left back slot, however Alex Buttner might also be thought upon to be given an outing.

Midfield:

This is probably one match in which Moyes should try to experiment with is setup. Micheal Carrick will start as the anchor man in the middle of the park and if I were David Moyes (which I don’t want to be realistically), I would play a 4-1-3-2 line up against a demoralised and burnout Fulham outfit. Playing Juan Mata in the number ten role carries a lot of thought while Shinji Kagawa should be starting these sort of games. Adanan Januzaj can be played on the right as an inverted winger, using all his pace and trickery to cut inside and crate space for wingbacks overlapping on either flanks.

Strike force:

Wayne Rooney and Robin Van Persie will start together and look to covert chances and put the game to bed early on. The England-Holland pair must play with enough freedom now that Mata and Janujaz will be playing the hole and trying to lay balls into their feet. All in all, Manchester United should win this convincingly and hurl Fulham further trouble and despair.