Manchester United will take on Cardiff City in the Premier League under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer on December 22 and in his first game in charge of the Red Devils, the caretaker manager returns to his old club.
When Is The Match And How To Watch It Live
The match between the two sides will start at 5:30 pm local time and 1:30 am SGT (next day) at the Cardiff City Stadium.
Cardiff City Vs Manchester United Preview
What seemed like an otherwise uneventful game on paper has turned into one rich in context over the last five days.
United sacked their manager Jose Mourinho on December 18 and appointed Solskjaer as the caretaker manager two days later. The Norwegian's job is primarily to steady the ship till the club decides on the next managerial appointment to take over at Old Trafford next season onwards.
As fate would have it, in his first game as the manager of United, Solskjaer returns to his former club – the one that was relegated under his stewardship.
Solskjaer is self admittedly a better manager now and says he has learnt from his mistakes. His primary goal is to make the players enjoy football again and play with the swagger that Manchester United has been traditionally known to do.
One man set to benefit from this change in playing style is Paul Pogba. The World Cup winner is expected to make a return to the starting XI and the Frenchman requires a big performance. The evident tiff between former manager Mourinho and Pogba divided the fan base and experts, hence a good performance from his end will help ease a lot of criticism.
Another person in the bad books is striker Romelu Lukaku, but he will not get a chance to redeem himself on Saturday as he is out on compassionate leave. Alexis Sanchez, on the other hand, will miss the game due to injury.
All the focus ahead of this game has naturally been on United due to their off-field activities but Solskjaer's men must not lose focus of Cardiff who has won four of their last five games at home.
Probable XIs
Cardiff City: Neil Etheridge; Bruno Ecuele Manga, Sean Morrison, Sol Bamba, Joe Bennett; Junior Hoilett, Victor Camarasa, Aaron Gunnarsson, Harry Arter, Nathaniel Mendez-Laing; Callum Paterson
Manchester United: David De Gea; Diogo Dalot, Eric Bailly, Victor Lindelof, Luke Shaw; Nemanja Matic, Ander Herrera, Paul Pogba; Jesse Lingard, Marcus Rashford, Anthony Martial
Global TV Listings:
- UK: BT Sport
- Germany: DAZN
- Italy: Sky Sport
- Spain: Movistar+
- US: NBC Sport
- Canada: TSN
- Australia: Optus Sport
- Bangladesh: Star Sports
