Devil’s Diary: Ronaldo will probably start the season on the bench or What line-up will Erik ten Hag choose?

After a few months’ break, the Premier League is back with the first showdown between London’s Crystal Palace and Arsenal. Manchester United will face the new season on Sunday at 15:00 when they welcome Brighton to Old Trafford, who last time out blasted the Red Devils 4-0. What might the line-up look like when Erik ten Hag takes the field?

Cristiano Ronaldo, Erik ten Hag and all of Manchester United are telling the world that the Portuguese striker does not want to leave Old Trafford. Everyone else, however, is more or less clear that he wants to, which he has also tried hard to do, according to the English media.

This effort continued in Sunday’s game against Vallecano, in which Ronaldo only ran out for the first half and then walked off with several other players. Of course, this is not acceptable, the Hag immediately publicly condemned it, but the fact that the Red Devils have a broken spirit before the start of the season is simply there for all to see.

Of course, this also has to do with the line-up that the home side will field against Brighton on Sunday. In fact, the Daily Mail has come out with the information that the Dutch coach intends to leave Ronaldo on the bench and will prefer the trio of Jadon Sancho, Anthony Martial and Marcus Rashford.

No one can be surprised at this, together this trio has played most of the preparation and if Martial is fully fit, the attacking trident for the start of the season is probably sorted. Although the French striker injured a muscle in the game against Atlético Madrid, it shouldn’t be anything serious and he should be 100% ready on Sunday.

The Dutch coach seems to be tough and absolutely adamant, which will obviously be important in the future as his predecessors led by Mourinho have been very out of touch in recent years. Moreover, if Ronaldo doesn’t want to be part of the team, the club’s management still has plenty of time to turn him elsewhere and bring in possible reinforcements for him.

The centre-back position is also much speculated, with many tipping Varane and Martínez for the starting line-up. However, Maguire played often in pre-season, as did Lindelöf, so personally I wouldn’t be surprised to find this pair on the list. Martínez will probably still need some time to adapt.

I would therefore expect more Varane and Maguire, after all it would be a bit mysterious to put the team captain on the bench right at the start of the season. Or perhaps we are in for a change here as well?

Then we will probably see Malacia and Dalot on the flanks, as the games in pre-season suggested.

As for the midfield, it will most likely be a trio of Fernandes, Fred, Eriksen, with perhaps the Hag opting for a defensive 4-3-3 formation, i.e. Fred, McTominay, Fernandes.

Predicted line-up::

David de Gea
Dalot – Varane – Maguire – Malacia
Fernandes – Fred – Eriksen
Sancho – Martial – Rashford

Brighton are playing very handsome and fast football under Graham Potter, as evidenced by their recent duels. There will certainly be no shortage of good spectacles now too, as the management has managed to keep the team more or less together. It is this interplay that the team from the south of England could benefit from.

Source: Manchester United