Mourinho Aiming to Build on Good Start
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Manchester United travel to South Wales on Saturday afternoon to take on Swansea City in the second round of matches in the Premier League.
Having suffered disappointment in the Premier League last season, the pressure is on Jose Mourinho to challenge for the title this season and at least finish inside the top four places. Defensively last season they were very good, only Tottenham Hotspur had a better defensive record.
However, it was in the goal scoring department where Manchester United lacked and they made a good start to the season by scoring 4 goals against West Ham United at Old Trafford last weekend. It was the perfect start to the season for the Red Devils.
Not only did they win the match 4-0, new signing Romelu Lukaku scored 2 goals on his Premier League debut for the club and Paul Pogba also got on the score sheet. This match that last season could easily have ended in a 1-1 draw.
Swansea City struggled at the bottom of the table for much of last season but managed to escape relegation under the guidance of Paul Clement.
In fact, Swansea finished 7 points clear of the drop zone in 15th place and would probably be happy with the same outcome this season if truth be told.
Swansea started their 2017/18 Premier League campaign with a 0-0 draw at Southampton. The hosts had the better chances to score but Swansea held firm and claimed a very good point. Having conceded 70 goals in the Premier League last season, it was a good confidence boost to keep a clean sheet away from home in the first game of the season.
Swansea won their last three home league games last season and have lost one of their last eight at the Liberty Stadium. The only defeat came against title chasing Tottenham Hotspur and there were good wins against Southampton, Leicester City, Everton and West Bromwich Albion.
Manchester United struggled away from home towards the end of last season, especially as attention turned to the Europa League.
There were 0-0 draws at Manchester City and Southampton plus a 2-0 defeat at Arsenal and 2-1 loss at Tottenham Hotspur. Prior to this run of games, Manchester United were unbeaten in ten away Premier League matches, winning eight of them and Mourinho will be hoping to return to that kind of form this season.
Looking at the potential team news and Swansea will be without Gylfi Sigurdsson who has joined Everton this week. Ki Sung-Yueng and Nathan Dyer are out and there are still doubts over Fernando Llorente.
Manchester United are without Luke Shaw, Ashley Young and Marcos Rojo who are long term injury absentees. Mourinho is likely to stick with the team which started the 4-0 win over West Ham.
Swansea have won two of the last three matches between the teams at the Liberty Stadium but this is a different Manchester United. It’s a team which look capable of scoring goals and expect them to get at least two more and maximum points in this game.
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