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Manchester United face Leeds United again today for the second time in four days.
The Red Devils, without their usual midfield powerhouse in Casemiro and Christian Eriksen, battled against a physical Leeds side at Old Trafford on Wednesday and had to come back from two goals down to pick up a point.
However, according to Opta Analyst, despite not having home advantage in this second leg, United will take all three points this time around.
“The Opta Supercomputer rates Manchester United as favorites to claim their 17th Premier League win over Leeds United on Sunday, equaling Liverpool’s record for wins against the Whites in the competition,” reports the analyst.
“Ten Hag’s side have a 46.3% chance of defeating Leeds at Elland Road, which is almost double the chance of winning at home (26.8%).”
The analyst highlights United’s fruitful history at Elland Road and the fact that, despite Wednesday’s strong performance, Leeds remain winless in eight Premier League games, the longest winless run to date. They are also without a manager.
Winning the game for United will depend on their ability to silence Leeds’ explosive prodigy Wilfried Gnonto, who wreaked havoc at Old Trafford.
As Opta Analyst notes, “Gnonto (19 years 95 days) became the youngest player to score a Premier League goal against Man Utd at Old Trafford since Jermain Defoe (19 years 62 days) with West Ham in December. from 2001.
“In fact, Gnonto was the youngest foreign player to score a goal away from home against Man Utd.
“A lot of Gnonto’s threat comes from his ability to carry the ball and beat opponents with his speed and cunning.
“Despite only playing 716 minutes of Premier League action in 2022-23 for Leeds, he’s already been involved in 12 shots after carrying the ball.”
With Gnonto usually occupying the space between the right-back and right-centre, United boss Erik ten Hag could nullify the effect by pushing Diogo Dalot (or Aaron Wan-Bissaka, depending on team selection) narrower and more deeper than his usual wide attack role, or instructing one of the DMs, probably Fred or Marcel Sabitzer, to cover that gap as a priority.
Ten Hag could well make the changes early on in today’s game after Leeds were able to easily deal with the threat posed by Wout Weghorst on Wednesday.
The introduction of Jadon Sancho and Facundo Pellistri, with Marcus Rashford as centre-forward, caused the Yorkshire side no end of problems and this more mobile and fluid approach could be taken from the start this time around.
If Antony has recovered from the blow that caused him to miss Wednesday’s game, it would not be a surprise to see Sancho start on the left flank, Antony on the right and Rashford in the middle.
If the supercomputer is right, three points could see United move up to second in the table, albeit briefly, with Man City not playing until later in the day. It would also bring them within two wins of league leaders Arsenal.
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