Manchester United travel to The John Smith’s Stadium for the first time ever as they take on Huddersfield Town in the Premier League on Saturday.
United come into the match on the back of a 1-0 victory over SL Benfica in the Champions League, which was their third European win in a row. Rashford scored the only goal of the match, as Mourinho’s team made it nine points out of three games, and already have a foot in the knockout stages.
United’s previous action in the league was a 0-0 draw away at Liverpool, as United managed to get a well-earned draw, which kept them second in the league behind neighbours Manchester City, who tore Stoke City 7-2 apart the same day.
The hosts, on the other hand, have failed to win in their last six matches, and will hope to avoid a third straight league loss, having recently lost to Swansea and Tottenham. The Terriers started the season in style, with a 3-0 win over Crystal Palace, but now are 12th in the league with 9 points after eight games into the season.
In team news, United will be without long-term absentees Paul Pogba and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who are still out indefinitely. Marcos Rojo is expected to be fit in two weeks, while Marouane Fellaini will also probably need some more time before making his return. Mourinho has confirmed that Phil Jones will be ready to play, but thinks it would be difficult for players like Bailly and Carrick to play. The boss was unsure of Rashford’s injury against Benfica but it is expected to be a minor scare only. Also, Henrikh Mkhitaryan could see himself get dropped by the boss after a third poor outing in a row.
Meanwhile, four players of David Wagner’s side have been ruled out with injury, which includes Michael Hefele, Jon-Gorenc Stankovic, Kasey Palmer and Philip Billing. However, the attacking duo of Steve Mounie and Collin Quaner is probably fit enough to play, and can make their comebacks on Saturday.
United have, surprisingly, played Huddersfield 45 times till date, having won 20, drawn 15 and lost 10 encounters. However, interestingly they haven’t met each other in 45 YEARS (!), with United beating them at home 2-0 in the 1972-73 season.
This’ll be a fairly interesting game, and even though United go into the game as heavy favourites, nothing is for sure right now and they have to be wary of the Terriers who’ve proved to be tricky visitors in the league. I’ll put my money on the visitors winning by at least two goals, but again, the course of the match could be decided by the team that manages to score first and put the other side under pressure.