Manchester United Hope To Turn Season Around At Bayern Munich

Manchester United return to the Allianz Arena for the first time in over nine years for their opening game in the UEFA Champions League.

Despite meeting 11 times in the Champions League, United have only won twice.

Once at home in the 2009/10 Quarter Finals and in the 1999 Champions League Final at the Camp Nou. This means that United have never beaten Bayern in Germany.

In terms of the group stage, both games will be the glamour ties of the round.

Between Bayern Munich and Manchester United, they are nine-time winners of the competition.

Bayern Munich’s Season So Far

Bayern have certainly started the stronger of the two sides this season.

They sit second level on points with Bayer Leverkusen whom they shared a 2-2 draw on Friday.

Bayern conceded a 90+4 minute equaliser to Leverkusen after scoring late on themselves.

Their new signing Harry Kane has started well scoring four goals in four games.

Despite a good start, all is perfect in Bavaria.

A strange end to last season that led to the German title was followed by a turbulent summer.

Shortly after winning the title CEO Oliver Kahn and sporting director Hasan Salihamidzic were sacked.

They were responsible for the sacking of Julian Nagelsmann and the hiring of Tuchel prior to their quarter-final against Manchester City.

This has led to Thomas Tuchel having more control over transfer than previous managers.

Tuchel has been adamant about signing a new number six as his disagreement over the position of Joshua Kimmich continues.

The Bayern manager believes he is too slow to play six and should play right-back.

Kimmich and Bayern President (Uli Hoeness) do not share this view.

Against Bayer Leverkusen, there was further disagreement between Kimmich and Tuchel.

Tuchel claimed it had been agreed beforehand that Kimmich would subbed off at 60 minutes.

When asked, Kimmich said, “Ask the coach”.

Issues between coach and player intensified when Kimmich made comments towards Tuchel and then refused to talk to the manager shortly after.

After a poor showing in the competition last year, Tuchel will be under pressure to quickly fix Bayern’s fortunes.

Manchester United’s Season So Far

While Bayern’s start to the season has been turbulent, Manchester United have seemingly found themselves in a minor crisis.

Despite a trophy and a third-place finish last season, United have some major issues.

Manchester United’s on-field issues have been overblown so far.

They have won two of their five games.

With losses coming against Tottenham, Arsenal and Brighton.

United will feel aggrieved in all three of the games not to be given decisions at key moments.

Manchester United wanted penalties for a handball by Romero at 0-0 against Spurs and a push by Gabriel at 1-1 on Rasmus Højlund.

Højlund had his goal ruled out against Brighton despite the ball not being clearly out of play.

United, however, were not good enough across all three fixtures to argue they should have taken all the points.

Against Spurs, United could argue they should have been 2-0 up at halftime.

After that, Spurs figured out United’s press and were largely better.

United had similar problems against Brighton.

They had a good first 20 minutes, but Brighton figured out their press leading to them dominating the ball deserving their 3-1 win.

United’s best performance came against Arsenal where they only really deserved a draw.

Offield issues have added to the sense of crisis at Old Trafford.

Anthony having a ‘leave of absence, the Glazers refusing to sell the club, the club’s poor handling of the Mason Greenwood situation and Sancho being banished from the first team have put pressure on Erik Ten Hag’s side.

Predicted Line-ups

Bayern Munich (4-2-3-1): – Ulreich, Mazraoui, Upamecano, Kim, Davies, Kimmich, Goretzka, Sane, Muller, Coman, Kane.

Manchester United (4-2-3-1): – Onana, Dalot, Varane, Martinez, Reguilón, Casemiro, Eriksen, Mount, Fernandes, Rashford, Højlund.

Both sides are difficult to predict ahead of the game on Wednesday evening.

For Bayern, there are a few positions of contention.

At right-back, Konrad Laimer could start for Mazraoui as he did against Leverkusen.

Kimmich could be replaced in midfield if the disagreement with Tuchel is deemed too serious.

This could mean Laimer moves into midfield and Mazraoui starts at right-back.

The next positions up for grabs are the three behind Harry Kane.

Leroy Sane is the most likely starter on the right-hand side as he has four starts out of four and the most minutes.

Coman is the next likely starter on the left-hand side starting three of four not starting the Leverkusen game through injury.

This leaves Musiala, Gnabry and Thomas Muller for the spot behind Kane.

Thomas Müller has started the previous two behind Kane but was subbed before Kimmich on Friday.

Musiala is falling out of favour under Tuchel and the position is more natural to Thomas Müller then Gnabry.

For Manchester United, the two big returns are Raphael Varane and Mason Mount.

Both have returned to training this week.

Without Varane Manchester United are without their best out-and-out defender.

Mount’s return should enable United to relieve Scott Mctominay from his wide role.

If Mount returns he and Bruno will play 10 or right-midfield depending on Ten Hag’s choice.

Ten Hag has limited options available to him due to United’s long injury list.

Kobbie Maino, Aaron Wann Bissaka, Luke Shaw, Tyrell Malacia, Amad Diallo and Sofyan Amrabat are all not training with the first team due to injury.

Predictions

The first fixture between Bayern and United will show early the direction this group will go.

An easy Bayern win will likely show viewers that Bayern will be a comfortable first with United a likely comfortable second.

However, a positive result for United sets them up well for the remainder of the group.

This would mean positive results against Galatasaray and Copenhagen should see them top the group.

Especially because of United’s strong home record against good sides.

Ten Hag’s side has registered wins against Manchester City, Arsenal, Liverpool, Spurs, Chelsea and Barcelona.

The gap between the Bavarian’s and United is smaller than current perceptions.

This Bayern side has had many issues defending against counterattacking football even during Hansi Flick’s time in charge.

Bayern often rely on Alphonso Davies to bail them out.

Upamencano while a quality ball player, often makes mistakes when under pressure.

With United’s strength when transitioning they could certainly cause Bayern problems.

However, due to Manchester United’s issues so far this season it is hard to believe it will all come together tomorrow night.

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