Louis van Gaal will be on a quest for his first competitive win as Manchester United manager when they visit promoted Burnley in Saturday’s Barclays Premier League early afternoon kick-off.
The Dutchman has only managed one point since the start of the English League season, coming away at Sunderland last weekend after their opening league loss to Swansea at home. Van Gaal then featured a second-string side in the midweek, as the Premier League giants were humbled out of the Capital One Cup in the second round 4-0 at lower league Milton Keynes Dons.
Midfielder Angel Di Maria is in contention to make his debut following his £59.7m British transfer record signing from Real Madrid, but fellow new recruit and countryman Marcos Rojo has yet to receive his clearance on a work permit and may have to wait until after the international break to make his first appearance.
Shinji Kagawa (concussion) joins a host of injured United players unavailable for the trip to Turf Moor. Others are Chris Smalling, Luke Shaw, Ander Herrera, Marouane Fellaini, Michael Carrick and Jesse Lingard.
I am confident I will succeed here but I need time. We are building up a new team…Louis van Gaal, on Man United’s poor start to the 2014/15 season.
Burnley as well have had a poor start on their return to the top-flight. They lost on the opening weekend 3-1 at home to Chelsea and were edged 1-0 away at Swansea. Nicknamed the ‘Ginger Mourinho’ in East Lancashire, manager Sean Dyche will start a host of players rested for the League Cup defeat by Sheffield Wednesday in the midweek.
The ‘Clarets’ will be without Cameron Dummigan (hip) and Sam Vokes (knee) will be resting their hopes on last season’s Championships player of the year with 26 goals Danny Ings.
United all the way