Heat on United to step up

MANCHESTER United will be looking to put an end to their frustrating run of form when they play against Atalanta in the Champions League at Old Trafford tonight.

After adding Cristiano Ronaldo, Jadon Sancho and Raphael Varane to their squad this season, this was supposed to be the campaign where United re-established themselves as a giant of English and European football.

That has not yet happened and there appear to be several flaws with the Red Devils team, as seen in their 4-2 mauling by Leicester City last weekend. They are without a win in their last three Premier League games and have already lost ground in the early season title race.

United have come under criticism from fans and analysts in recent weeks for lacking an identity.

Reuters tracked down manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer who said he might have to make tactical changes to improve the balance of his team and arrest their poor form.

“Lately, we have not been in great form. We might have to change. Do we need more legs in there? What do we need?”

Solskjaer backed his players to respond against Atalanta, although he does not expect an easy game.

“Every game is important in the league and the Champions League is hard. They’re big games, all of them. Leicester away is as big a test as Atalanta at home,” Solskjaer said.

“We’ve got to dust this off, maybe make sure we come in again, we have fresh minds, looking at themselves in the mirror. I look myself in the mirror, and make sure we perform again,” he told Reuters.

On paper, United have a better squad than Atalanta and will also have home advantage. They will expect nothing less than a win against the modest Italian side.

However, should they lose or draw, further questions will be asked about

whether Solskjaer is the right man to lead the Red Devils. Serial winners Antonio Conte and Zinedine Zidane have been linked with potential moves to manage United. Both Conte and Zidane are unemployed, having parted ways with Inter Milan and Real Madrid respectively at the end of last season.

In another game tonight, Chelsea will look to rectify their defensive flaws when they host Swedish club Malmö at Stamford Bridge. The Blues have a quality side but they required a masterclass performance from goalkeeper Edouard Mendy to earn them a 1-0 win over Brentford last weekend.

The Senegal goalkeeper was somewhat of a surprise signing by Chelsea early last season but has since established himself as one of the best goalkeepers in the Premier League due to his good positional awareness and commanding presence between the sticks.

Chelsea will be looking to retain their Champions League crown and win the Premier League this season for the first time since 2017. In another interesting match, fallen European and Spanish giants Barcelona will host Ukrainian side Dynamo Kyiv at the Camp Nou.

This season is not about winning for the Blaugrana but rather rebuilding and learning.

Their last Champions League game was a 3-0 mauling at the hands of Benfica. Even by the current standards of the Barcelona team, that performance was a shocker and proved beyond any reasonable doubt that there is a gulf in class between Ronald Koeman’s side and the best teams in Europe.

In the absence of Lionel Messi who has since joined PSG, 18-year-old central midfielder Pedri and forward Memphis Depay are required to pull the strings for Barcelona.

While these are bad times for Barcelona, Depay has shown good signs as he has so far scored four La Liga goals since joining the club from Lyon this season.

Interestingly, Depay’s four league goals for Barcelona means that he has now scored as many league goals as Eden Hazard has for Real Madrid, with the Belgian having linked up with Los Blancos in 2019. German giants Bayern Munich will be looking for an away win against Benfica as they look to win a second Champions League crown in three seasons.