Manchester United versus Manchester City Community Shield preview – Man United News And Transfer News

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Manchester United will take on Manchester City for the 194th time tomorrow afternoon at 3pm UK time at Wembley.

The Red Devils will be aiming to extend their record of 21 Community Shield wins and bring back number 22 to Old Trafford. It will be the third time the two sides have met in this match, United winning the previous two in 1956 and 2011.

According to manager Erik ten Hag’s press conference United are sweating on the fitness of a few defenders. Leny Yoro and Will Fish are all definitely out of the game after picking up serious injuries on the United States tour.

Tyrell Malacia remains a long-term absentee and is unlikely to play for at least two months.

There are fitness concerns over Harry Maguire, Victor Lindelof and Luke Shaw meaning that United’s only fully fit senior defenders are Lisandro Martinez, Diogo Dalot and Jonny Evans. Problematically only Evans has played any part in pre-season games due to the other two’s international commitments this summer.

Rasmus Hojlund is also out for numerous weeks with a long-term injury problem picked up in pre-season.

Bruno Fernandes, Joshua Zirkzee, Kobbie Mainoo and Alejandro Garnacho also returned to training last week and it will be interesting to see who can start and who will have to make do with a place on the bench.

City have less concerns heading into the match but goalkeeper Ederson is an injury doubt for the game “while Rodri and Rico Lewis are also being assessed ahead of Saturday’s game.”

Like United however, City had numerous stars on Euro 2024 duty so all of John Stones, Phil Foden and Kyle Walker have not played any pre-season, and may be unlikely to take any part in the match.

It will be interesting to see how United set up for this match as they played a very successful containment game last May in the FA Cup final but were aggressive and dangerous on the counter-attack.

Nonetheless, United have been playing a much more possession-based style in pre-season and despite the 0-3 loss to Liverpool, had double the amount of shots as the Merseysiders, so it will be interesting to see how the team sets up tactically in this match in anticipation of the new league season.

While it will be tempting to try out their new style, not many teams take on City at their own game and even European champions Real Madrid tend to sacrifice the ball versus Pep Guardiola’s side.

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