Manchester United vs. West Brom: Smalling keen for ruthless attacking display

Manchester United will take on West Bromwich Albion in the weekend Premier League clash at Old Trafford on Saturday 7 November. That knowledge of each other will play very heavily into this matchup, and how they use that against one another will be very interesting to see.

Tony Pulis has demanded to know what the Football Association does with the money gained from disciplinary procedures after the West Brom boss was fined £8,000 for improper conduct.

Manchester United have created the fewest chances of any team in the Premier League this season (81) with West Brom the second worst in that regard (82). While his contribution with the ball at feet is more about simple distribution and getting Albion moving forward, his real leadership comes defensively. He is constantly talking to his teammates, organising them both in open play and from set pieces and making sure they employ the game plan Pulis wants to implement.

The obvious pick for this match is Manchester United winning with the Old Trafford crowd at their back, but with how tough this EPL season has been, and how oddly these two teams match up, there’s really no predicting the outcome of this game.

Evans may have considered himself unlucky to be the one leaving United in the summer, with Chris Smalling and Phil Jones hardly pulling up trees when given opportunities at the heart of the defence.

That header also ended a barren run that had seen Van Gaal’s team go 404 minutes without scoring – a streak that had drawn criticism of the tactics deployed by the Dutchman.

United will hand a late fitness test to midfielder Morgan Schneiderlin after he missed the midweek game due to illness but the Frenchman trained today so should be okay to feature tomorrow.

Manchester United come into this game with only one loss in their last ten games in all competitions. Defensively, Evans does most things well.

The striker netted 20 times for Zenit St Petersburg last season and it was the 5th season in a row he had reached double figures for the season including his stints at Malaga and Rubin Kazan before that, which shows that the instincts of a finisher are clearly there.

Wayne Rooney has seven goals and four assists in his last seven Premier League starts against the West Brom. Albion gave up far too much space for Leicester to counter-attack into and Pulis will look to make amends for that on Saturday.

“With my experience and for how long I’ve been in the game, I shouldn’t have waited for the referee”.

“They will be looking for an early breakthrough, and things could get hard for them”. Against the deep-lying system of West Brom it is surely their best hope.