Strongest Possible Manchester United Line Up To Face West Bromwich Albion – Rashford And Martial As Attackers

Manchester United seems to be breathing fresh air with 4 wins in the last 4 matches and on the same points as cross city rivals Manchester City even though with a game less in hand. They would want to continue their fine form into Sunday’s game where they travel away to the Hawthorns to face West Bromwich Albion. This match lays an ample amount of importance on United’s top 4 bid and Mr Louis Van Gaal would want to make sure they keep their dreams alive.

Goalkeeper: David de Gea

The Spanish keeper put on one of his finest performance of this season against Watford and seemed to be buzzing after the match with his side’s clean sheet. He looked fresh, sharp and agile, all of which was kind of lacking in the Arsenal game. He will definitely be seen shouting at his defenders and trying to organise his defence in a way that the Baggies fail to break it.

Defenders: Guillermo Varela, Daley Blind, Marcos Rojo, and Timothy Fosu-Mensah

Van Gaal made a couple of changes to the back four against Watford by starting young Timothy Fosu-Mensah at left back and starting Marcus Rojo at Centre back and he is likely to retain the same back four considering the fact that he was extremely happy with the defence post the Watford win. Both Fosu-Mensah and Rojo seemed to have a weak start against Watford but showed immense growth as the game progressed.

Daley Blind always seem to be a starter in Louis Van Gaal’s team given his versatility and wide vision of passes and it won’t be a shocker if he still gets a start even though he had a rather dismal performance against Watford. Guillermo Varela seems to be loving life as a right-back considering the amount of game time he is getting and he definitely has been living up to the challenge with a string of good performances in the last 3 matches.

Midfielders: Morgan Schneiderlin, Ander Herrera, Memphis Depay, Juan Mata and Marcus Rashford

This seems to be the best thing going on for Van Gaal. His mid-fielders of late have really started to know each other’s game. The Herrera-Schneiderlin partnership at central midfield has slowly started to show us a combination that might be leading to something good. There is absolutely no doubt about the 3 attacking mid-fielders. Memphis was good last match if not great; Mata stepped up to the captain’s armband and gave a stellar free-kick. The right attacking winger seems to be a fun challenge for Van Gaal though. Against Watford, in the first half he played Martial in that role and in the second half he interchanged him for Rashford. Once being assigned on the right, Rashford showed us a brilliant performance. For 10 minutes he absolutely dominated the opponents in the final third. It only makes sense for Van Gaal to start him on the right.

Striker: Anthony Martial

Without a shadow of a doubt, it should be the Frenchman who should start in that lone striker role. It’s up to Van Gaal to make sure that Martial adapts to that role as quickly as possible given the fact that he has played a major amount of time out on the wide right or left. But having seen his performances in the second half against Watford and also in the matches in the recent past where he actually played upfront, it doesn’t seem to be a major problem for Van Gaal as Martial did show good signs of adaptation to the role.