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Newcastle vs Manchester United – Match Preview

Newcastle captain Fabricio Coloccini, winger Florian Thauvin and defender Kevin Mbabu are all doubtful to face Manchester United through injury.

However, midfielder Jack Colback is expected to return to the side after recovering from a hamstring problem.

Manchester United midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger is out after suffering a knee problem against Sheffield United.

Morgan Schneiderlin, Michael Carrick and Ashley Young were not involved at the weekend and could all return.

Editor’s Note: Out of the cup and defeat in the last 3 league matches means it hasn’t been the best of starts to 2016 for Newcastle and Steve McClaren they play host to a Manchester United who used their get out of jail free card to progress to the F.A. Cup 4th Round on Saturday.

They were dumped out of the cup by Watford on Saturday and that means the wait for silverware continues for at least another year but now the thoughts for the rest of the season will turn to survival.

Newcastle find themselves in the drop zone again after being in the midst of 4 games without a win in the league with the last 3 coming as defeats. Those 3 defeats haven’t registered a single goal with the main culprit being Alexsandar Mitrovic whose criminal finishing has been the root cause as to why Newcastle haven’t at least been picking up a point or two for their efforts. They will look to rectify this situation before a sell out crowd at St James Park for the visit of Louis Van Gaal’s side.

Louis Van Gaal has Wayne Rooney to thank on Saturday after his late Penalty diffused a pretty toxic atmosphere at Old Trafford but only just. The fact it wasn’t even a braying crowd by the end but more sarcastic cheers says how much patience has been lost by the United faithful failure to win against Newcastle would no doubt turn up the pressure on Van Gaal even further.

United looked pedestrian on Saturday and although Sheffield United came for a draw the fact that they didn’t really have a plan to break them down said a lot for Van Gaal’s stewardship and was symptomatic of their season so far.
A win for United could take them level on points with Spurs for at least 24 hours as they look to get back in the Champions League places

I think Newcastle are devoid of goals so the onus will be on United to be on the front foot, whether they are capable of doing that under Van Gaal is another thing but after the performance on Saturday there’s no way they can serve that up twice in the space of the week, can they? Maybe being away will suit United better as more of a counter attacking unit and the fact that Newcastle can’t hit a barn door at the moment should point to a United win but frankly this season who knows. I’ll go for an away win though.

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