Two sides who will definitely admit that their start of the season has been a failure. Manchester United are in absolute turmoil with Mourinho losing his dressing room while Valencia have only picked up their first win just this weekend, yes it took them until the end of September to win. Man Utd are in better position in Europe however as they won their opening match at Young Boys while Valencia lost at home to 10 men Juventus. You’d have to say that Valencia must get something out of this, but as for United this is a must win simply for the fact that this team is without any confidence and for Mourinho well, every bad result is a step closer to being sacked.
Key Facts
Man Utd have only won 1 of 4 home games this season. Opening night win against Leicester. Since then they lost 0-3 to Spurs, drew 1-1 with Wolves and lost to Derby on pens in the cup.
Man Utd have only kept 2 clean sheets in 9 games. None of those clean sheets were kept at home.
Man Utd have conceded 14 goals in 9 games in all competitions. 12 in 7 league games.
Romelu Lukaku has not scored in 4 games in a row now, despite that he’s still United’s tied top scorer with Pobga in all competitions with 4 goals.
7 of 9 Man Utd games this season had over 2.5 goals.
Going forward, Man Utd haven’t been that bad. 15 goals in 9 games and they only failed to score in one game.
Manchester United have made their joint worst start to their league campaign this season.
Man Utd have lost 1 of their previous 18 UCL matches at home in the groups.
Man Utd have never lost to Valencia in UCL in 6 meetings.
Valencia have only won 1 of their 8 competitive games this season. Most recently away at Sociedad.
7 of 8 Valencia’s games had under 2.5 goals.
Valencia have kept 3 clean sheets in their last 5 games.
Not one Valencia player have scored more than 1 goal this season.
Valencia have only scored 5 goals in 8 games.
Valencia have 1W 6D 3L record in their visits to England.
Team News
Manchester United: United have got quite a few injury concerns. Firstly, Lingard is out, then Herrera, Rojo and Ashley Young too. We should expect now Valencia start at RB again after being benched a couple of times. We should still see Pogba in the starting line-up regardless of the bust up with Jose and another poor performance on the weekend, at the end he is one of their best players this season which says a lot about Man Utd as a whole. During the weekend, we saw Alexis be completely left out, while Martial started but got subbed off quite early in the 2nd half for Rashford who scored which may have earned him a starting spot, but we’ll see. Fred should return into the line-up over McTominay who was strangely used at CB. We’ve seen a lot of strange tactics from Jose this season, he may come up with something questionable again, but we’ll have to wait and see.
Valencia: Santi Mina and Ferran Torres are the only definite absentees for Valencia, meanwhile Jose Gaya is back in training and could feature. Valencia have gotten most of their key players back now after they had a long injury list before the game against Juventus. One position that intrigues everyone is strikers. With Gameiro getting the winner against Sociedad, Batshuayi and Rodrigo also there it’s going to be a headache for Marcellino on who to partner up front. It was Michy and Gameiro during the weekend, but surely Rodrigo has to feature in a match this big? Elsewhere, don’t expect any serious changes by Valencia.
Betting Tips and Predictions
We’ll be totally honest on this. Manchester United players have quit on Jose and we should see more turmoil happening in this match. Valencia X2 at 2.20 and even a win at 5.60 with low stakes does hold a ton of value for this match. Even though Valencia went winless in 7 to start the season, they did pick up a very impressive win away at Sociedad which is one of the tougher away days in Spain and that game should seriously have boosted them. Valencia will play with desperation and we simply don’t think United players care that much. Jose has drained the confidence all out of his team, their record at home is shocking with teams like Derby and Wolves coming here and literally outplaying them. BTTS at 1.85 is worth the look too, United will get one, but defensively they will get done a few times. We’re looking at cards overs too given the magnitude of the game, this is pretty much do or die for Valencia already. We’re looking at a 1-1/1-2, preferably the latter result here.
Match Odds (TonyBet)
Manchester United Win – 1.70
Draw – 3.75
Valencia Win – 5.60
KICK OFF – 2nd October 2018 – 8pm UK Time
