Out of the other side of the recent tough run of fixtures, and off the back of a win against Crystal Palace in Ralf Rangnick's first match in charge, United travel to the south-east of England to face bottom side Norwich as the Saturday evening kickoff. It took until gameweek seven for the Canaries to even pick up a point on their return to the top flight having won the Championship last season, with two single-point hauls coming at once - both goalless against Burnley and Brighton respectively.
Norwich didn't pick up their first win of the Premier League campaign until their 11th outing in the competition, gaining three points on the road to Brentford. The victory against their fellow newly-promoted side wasn't enough to convince the Norwich board to keep manager Daniel Farke onboard after the horrific start to the season, with Dean Smith promptly taking over after his own sacking from Aston Villa. Don't forget, the new man at the helm of Norwich has already beaten United this season with his former side.
Smith managed to build on the win that closed out Farke's reign, beating Southampton on debut at Carrow Road. A further two draws for Norwich left them four matches unbeaten, with only a pair of defeats over an eight match period. Last weekend, however, the regression from consecutive defeats continued as Smith's side lost 3-0 away to Tottenham.
Norwich's tally of 10 points at present leaves them level with Newcastle and Burnley (who have a game in hand), with a 7-0 loss to Chelsea exacerbating the goal difference issue that sees the Norfolk side at the foot of the table. Saturday night's hosts haven't been helped by the fact they have failed to score in a league-high nine matches this season.
United will have the opportunity to move fifth with a win at Carrow Road, at least for now given Tottenham's prospective games in hand after postponements due to weather and now a multitude of Covid-19 cases. Since the loss to Watford that saw Ole Gunnar Solskjaer sacked, United have gone five matches unbeaten; likely, the fielding of a full strength team against Young Boys in midweek would've seen four of those matches (and the most recent three) wins.
United could win three matches in succession for the first time in the league this season against Norwich, bidding to keep consecutive clean sheets in the competition for the first time since a run of four between February and March this year. However, United haven't beaten a newly-promoted side in any of their last four attempts.
United haven't faced Norwich since beating them 2-1 at Carrow Road in the FA Cup post-lockdown in late June 2020. Earlier that same season, the reds comfortably overcame the Canaries 3-1 at the same venue before winning 4-0 at Old Trafford prior to the pandemic. Norwich ended up finishing that season considerably down at the bottom of the Premier League, falling back down the Championship immediately having had three years out of the top-flight.
Norwich have lost eight of their past 10 meetings with United in the league, with the reds coming away from Carrow Road with 11 wins in the past 13 meetings over all competitions.
Paul Pogba is still out for United, with comments from his agent Mino Raiola suggesting, "We have many offers for Pogba, including a contract extension proposal - we'll see what's best for him.”
Rangnick confirmed (regarding Pogba), "We spoke over the phone on Tuesday. He was still in Dubai, he is expected to come back today and then we get to know each other in person on Sunday.”
There was discontent about his rehabilitation taking place abroad: “At my former clubs I always tried to ensure that we had the player here so that the rehab can take place in-house. So far as I can tell the medical department is really good, very good with many different approaches towards rehab. I would personally not want players to do their rehab abroad, but I said the decision on Paul was taken before I arrived. In the future I have already spoken to the medical team and I want players to stay here and not go elsewhere.”
“He told me he is getting better but, obviously, he is still not fully fit. From what I have heard so far, it will take another couple of weeks until he can train again. And then he has been out for quite some time, so then it will take another couple of weeks to get him match-fit. In the first instance now, it is important he gets fully fit in order to be able train with the rest of the group and then we have to develop him physically and technically to also be fit to play in the Premier League."
The manager also stated, “I wouldn't say he's not worth keeping but, of course, players have to want to play and stay for a club and a big club like United. Let's have him come back, get fully fit and training with the team, then we will see where we stand. If a player doesn’t want to play for club like United, it doesn't make sense to convince him to change his mind. This is such massive club, with fantastic support, I don’t think anyone at the club should try to convince a player to stay.”
Raphael Varane is to miss out for United again, though Rangnick that he is "very positive" that the Frenchman will return to action in the coming weeks having resumed training within the past week. "We need to make sure he stays fully fit for the next couple of months," the manager said, "so we don't want to rush him too much."
Anthony Martial "will not be one of the players available" due to a continued knee issue, with Nemanja Matic doubtful with "sort of a cold". Aaron Wan-Bissaka is also poised to be absent after being stretchered off at fulltime against Young Boys - it is thought that he suffered a reoccurrence of the hand injury sustained against Chelsea in addition to a knock on his knee. Conversely, Edinson Cavani could feature for the first time since the draw to Atalanta in early November.
Smith expressed some concern around Covid-19: "We have a couple of Covid related issues that we are waiting on results for, I can't let you in on any names at the moment but it's three or four players."
Furthermore, Brandon Williams is ineligible to face his parent club. Sam Byram and Mathias Normann are unavailable, whilst Todd Cantwell is fit to feature.
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