Welcome to Action Network's Premier League team previews, where our soccer experts will break down each and every Premier League team ahead of the season, which starts on August 11. Here is our take on Manchester United.
Premier League Season Preview – Manchester United
Manchester United are starting to build something under Erik Ten Haag and every move they made this summer were important steps to him implementing his possession-dominant build up style that made his Ajax teams so good.
It truly sounds so simple, but I cannot understate how drastic of a change it is switching from David de Gea to Andre Onana. The problem that existed for United last season was not that de Gea was a bad goalkeeper, but rather he's just a shot-stopper by nature and isn’t good with the ball at his feet. That meant when United played good pressing teams, they were forced to exclusively play the ball long from goal kicks and play a majority of their matches in transition.
Onana was Ten Haag’s goalkeeper at Ajax and is incredible with the ball at his feet. Manchester United will have much more game control and be able to build out of the back. They also went out and got Mason Mount to play as their number six in a 4-3-3. Casemiro is such a good defensive midfielder that it will allow the former Chelsea star to get forward often with Bruno Fernandes putting a ton of pressure on the opponent's back line.
Another thing that United had problems with last season is they were too reliant on Marcus Rashford to score all of their goals. Rashford scored 17 goals and created 18.8 xG. Anthony Martial, Jadon Snacho and Antony combined for 16 goals. Something had to change if United were going end up being an elite offense that competes with Arsenal, Manchester City and Liverpool.
They went out and got arguably the best young striker on the market in Rasmus Højlund from Atalanta. Højlund’s potential is a blend between Erling Haaland and Harry Kane. He is only 20-years-old but his positioning in attack is incredible. For Atalanta this season he received 11 progressive passes per 90 minutes, which was the highest mark among strikers in Europe’s top five leagues. He also averaged a little over 6.5 touches in the penalty area per 90 minutes. He was only a 0.47 xG per minute striker, but he will allow Rashford to play on the left in a 4-3-3 where he is at his best and will give Manchester United another option in attack to take the pressure off of Rashford.
Betting Pick
The price on Manchester United to finish in the top four or the title isn’t good enough but there is a pretty crazy price on Bruno Fernandes out there. Fernandes finished last season with eight assists, but led the Premier League with 17.8 xAssists, which is insane underperformance and essentially bad finishing from the Manchester United front line. Now he has Højlund up top and Mount alongside him, so it will give him more options for assists.
At a price of +1200 to lead to the Premier League in assists, I simply can't pass it up.
Pick: Bruno Fernandes Most Assists (+1200 via BetRivers)
