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00:00Hello and welcome to this special one-off edition of National World Football Talk where
00:06we are going to be previewing the Manchester United against the Rangers Europa League match
00:12on Thursday evening at Old Trafford and what is going to be a truly mouth-watering Battle
00:19of Britain occasion. I'm joined this afternoon by my Manchester World colleague Rich Fae
00:24who is all across United this season. Rich, firstly, what an exciting game. Both teams
00:32in very strong position in the Europa League standings at this moment in time. This could
00:39have a huge implication on where the clubs potentially finish.
00:43Absolutely, I think both teams would obviously favour finishing as high up as possible and
00:47trying to avoid those potential play-off matches, particularly for Man United who every time
00:53they lose, which is quite often at the moment, Ruben Amorim says, we need more time on the
00:58training ground. That's the biggest issue for United at the moment. If they have to
01:01play these extra Europa League matches, that would be a huge blow and it would be another
01:06big fixture pile-up that United really don't need. There is no chance that United are going
01:11to rest players. There's no chance that United are going to go into this game, particularly
01:15after the recent defeat to Brighton, their poor form really all season. There's absolutely
01:20no way United can afford to not go full strength against Rangers. Particularly now that there's
01:26so much discussion between Scottish football and English football, how good would particularly
01:32the Old Firm be if they were in English football? If Rangers came to Old Trafford and beat Manchester
01:37United, that would be a seismic result.
01:41It's going to be interesting, as you say, Man United's home form, it hasn't exactly
01:45been the theatre of dreams of late, has it? I'm right in thinking that's the fourth defeat
01:49in five home games in the Premier League. Rangers will be looking at that. They're coming
01:54into this game on the back of a 5-0 Scottish Cup victory, albeit against relatively low-key
02:00opposition in Fraserburgh at the weekend, but two sides in relatively contrasting form
02:05at this moment in time. In terms of Manchester United, what was the dissection of the Brighton
02:13game at the weekend there, Rich? Where did it all go wrong?
02:17It's just been the systematic failure we've seen for a long time. Reuben Amram has brought
02:21in this well-documented new style, which is basically a 3-5. Well, I suppose it's more,
02:28it depends how you look at it, it's 3-4-2-1. The big talking point is, well, if you want
02:37to implement this form, Amram said, I'm not changing this setup. This is the setup we're
02:42playing week in, week out. No matter who we're playing against, this is the way we
02:45will play. It is irrelevant, basically, obviously, and this is the way we're playing. That's
02:50admirable to an extent, but if by definition the players he's using aren't the players
02:57long-term for his system, it makes you wonder why he's still sticking with it, because you're
03:01teaching a style of play to players who won't necessarily be here in a year or two years'
03:05time. For United, I think they are just stuck in this awkward limbo where they've got an
03:09admirable new outlook that they want to achieve, but in terms of the short-term, you both kind
03:15of say, do you not just need to swallow your pride a little bit, make some tactical tweaks
03:19and adapt to what you were doing earlier in the campaign? Because United actually got
03:22worse since Eric ten Hag was sacked, and no one really saw that coming. We thought that
03:26was the nadir, but they've got even worse. Ruben Amram said after the Brighton game,
03:30this might be the worst Man Utd team in their Premier League history. That is a very bold
03:36claim to come out with, and particularly when he's the man who's overseeing it. But fundamentally,
03:41whether you've got an insight to United or not, everyone knows this is a team full of
03:46wasted talent, and particularly so in terms of the players trying to get rid of this month.
03:52I think that what is also an issue is motivation. It's all about character, this United team.
03:58It was very easy for them to go to Liverpool away, Arsenal away, be underdogs, have that
04:02siege mentality, backs against the wall, set up shop. But in these home games against
04:07Southampton, against Brighton, against Rangers, United will have the onus on them to break
04:12down their opponents, and they are just so bad at doing that. And I think what I'd say
04:17to Rangers, just attack them. Don't be scared of United. Just go for it. Play your game.
04:22You will get opportunities.
04:23Yeah, that's a good point. I think in particular, Rangers have kind of rejigged their kind of
04:29the way that the style of football under Philippe Clamont, who's obviously under a
04:34fair degree of pressure at this moment in time, given that they are so far behind Celtic
04:37in the Scottish Premiership title race. But the one thing that has certainly worked for
04:42Rangers is a kind of revamp of their attacking style, if you like. They have been adopting
04:49for a more, rather than a slightly defensive formation, where he kind of plays with two
04:57midfielders. He's opted for one and kind of playing one more as a number 10. So you've
05:02got kind of a relative four attacking options available to him. Yanis Hadji has been in
05:08terrific form of late. Vaslav Cherny, who's unknown from Wolfsburg, probably Rangers player
05:14of the season so far. And in hindsight, Gaman, he's probably the most informed striker in
05:19Scottish football at this moment in time. One player that will certainly intrigue Rangers
05:25supporters, and you know who I'm going to say here, Amit Diallo. He's been in a seriously
05:31impressive form of late. What have we made about his career resurgence, would you say,
05:37to this point? Because at one stage when he was on loan at Rangers, it looked like his
05:43kind of career was stagnating almost. Obviously still relatively young, but the progression
05:50he's made over the last 18 months in particular has been staggering.
05:54Yeah, I would say that that sort of that loan move to Rangers, it might have come too early
05:58for him, but it was alarming. You know, we remember the timing that had said, we want
06:01to send him to a British club. We want him to have that physicality, want him to get up to speed
06:05with what he can expect when he eventually gets to the Premier League. And yeah, his time at
06:10Rangers, he scored that goal, it was like a tapping in a win. I can't remember who it was
06:14against, it was like sort of St Mirren or Ross County or someone. It was quite an inconsequential
06:18goal, it felt like, and then his playing time dropped. He came back, had the Sunderland spell,
06:22which really catapulted them back to sort of first team frame. But under Eric Ten Haag,
06:28he just didn't really fit. He wasn't Ten Haag's man. Ten Haag obviously spent lots of money on
06:32Anthony, someone who's expected to leave United by the time they've played Rangers, so he wouldn't
06:36be involved, we expect, and sold permanently in the summer. They also had Garnaccio. United were
06:41playing a 4-3-3 under Ten Haag, so it was Garnaccio, Rashford, Fernandes playing for the
06:47sort of attacking roles. And then the Maggio changes just reinvigorated Amad. It really was
06:54a fresh start for him. He started off at wing-back, really shone brightly there. United scored so
07:00early on in Amad's first game against Ipswich, that was all created by Amad Diallo. And it's
07:05just been an upward trajectory from there. He's advanced from being a wing-back now to one of the
07:09two advanced midfield players, and he's become United's talisman. New contract,
07:14Hat-trick against Southampton last week. And he really is United's player of the season by a
07:20country mile at this moment in time. And he's the player who, if he doesn't make something happen,
07:24there's no one else who's really doing it. So when Rangers fans watch him, they'll be like,
07:28oh, why did we not get to see this Amad Diallo? I'm not sure exactly what it's down to. Maybe
07:33it's confidence, maybe it's extra maturity. It is a long time ago now, that Rangers loan spell,
07:37he's come on leaps and bounds since then. And yeah, he is the Manchester United talisman.
07:42He's the one who, if United are going to get a positive result on Thursday night,
07:45you can almost guarantee it'll be Amad Diallo who's scoring or assisting to make that happen.
07:52Yeah, and that's probably Rangers' weakness, Rich. This season, defensively, all over the place,
07:57they've been plagued a lot by injuries to key players, particularly in the centre-half positions.
08:05They have brought in Rafael Fernandes on loan from Lille at the tail end of last week,
08:12Portuguese under-20 international, who's been struggling for game time in the French top flight.
08:18So it'll be intriguing to see if he plays a part at Old Trafford. I think Philippe Clement
08:26won't be making wholesale changes at this moment. He did keep a couple of key players back,
08:33and rested at the weekend there, the likes of Václav Cserny,
08:37Hamza Igheman, were all left on the bench. But rather importantly, he had Leon Baloghain
08:42and James Tavernier both returning from injury in recent weeks, who've been two talismanic figures
08:47really in the heart of the Rangers back lane. Tavernier played the full 90 minutes against
08:55Fraser Burr at the weekend, so that'll be vital minutes into his legs after a recent layoff.
09:01Rangers defensively, at times this season, have conceded goals far too alarmingly,
09:08and that's where I'm intrigued to see. Likewise, United seem to have been conceding a lot of goals
09:15as well, Rich. Would you say that that has been a real concern for Ameren?
09:22Yeah, I think the two biggest issues in that regard are that they concede very early on in
09:26matches. So again, if Rangers are up for it at the start of either half, they could really catch
09:30United off guard. And it's United are so, so vulnerable now from set pieces, it seems that
09:36almost every other goal they concede comes from a corner or a free kick. So again, that could be,
09:41I don't know how Rangers are from set pieces, but that could be a real area of vulnerability
09:46for them to exploit. And the other interesting fact is, you know, Southampton, six points in
09:52the Premier League, they could go down as the worst ever Premier League team. They really
09:56could threaten that. They dominated United last Thursday night. So I honestly don't think that
10:00Rangers should be too concerned about their own defensive frailties, because we saw Southampton
10:04come to Old Trafford, and yes, they collapsed by the end. But for 75 minutes, they were well
10:09on course and would have been worthy winners, actually. And against Brighton, United had one
10:13shot on target, and that was from the penalty that Bruno Fernandes scored. So this is a team
10:17who are an absolute mishmash at the moment. They are low on confidence. The manager doesn't really
10:23know what he's doing. And in terms of changes for Thursday night, there might be a couple just
10:27to freshen things up. United made three changes against Brighton. Lissandro Martinez will come
10:32back into the defensive line. You'd expect to be him, Haren Gwai and Matthijs De Ligt.
10:36You will then have Dalot, Maserati on the wings, probably Mane and Nugate, and it will be Fernandes,
10:43Ahmad and Ivo Zirkzee or Hoyland. So Rangers know what to expect, and that was what was so damning
10:48as well about the weekend. Fabian Herzog and the Brighton managers after the game, we knew exactly
10:53what to expect from Manchester United, and they exploited it. If Rangers do their homework,
10:57they could have a very fortunate night on Thursday. And that's the exciting thing, I guess. Rangers
11:02always seem to raise their game for these Thursday night Europa League occasions. I thought in
11:07particular the game against Tottenham back in early December, they showed real signs to be
11:14encouraged. I thought they kind of nullified Tottenham's threat, particularly in the forward
11:19areas, the likes of Sawn and the other kind of creative options. Finally then, Richard, I just
11:26want to touch on how special an occasion this will be, a Battle of Britain at Old Trafford. Very
11:32rarely occurs. What do you think the atmosphere will be like inside Old Trafford for this? I know
11:37Rangers have sold out their allocation of 3,700 tickets, so it's going to be a really great
11:44occasion. It'll be amazing. It'll be immense. There's been some very good away follow-ins in
11:48Europe this season at Old Trafford. Isaac Alkmaar, Bodo Glimpt both brought lots of fans as well. It
11:53was really noisy. Rangers are going to turn up a notch. It is going to be, you know, so there's
11:59going to be a real nice sort of bite in the air. There's going to be that little bit of venom,
12:02that tenacity that's required. And again, it'll be that test of character that United have failed
12:06under so often this season. Rangers can be a point to prove they've got nothing to lose against
12:11this Manchester United team, and they've got a whole lot to gain. And that's why it's so compelling
12:15as a match. It's going to be the must-watch match of all European football this week,
12:21even though it's the Europa League. Yeah. Push you then for a score prediction, Rich. What are we
12:25seeing? I mean, once United turns up, I wouldn't be surprised if we saw a score draw. I think both
12:33teams have these vulnerabilities at the back. Both can get goals. And I just hope it's a really
12:38good contest. I'm hoping it's a high scoring, maybe two-all, three-all. Who knows? It's my
12:4290 minutes, Rangers. It's going to be brilliant. Fantastic. Well, stay tuned for all the action
12:48on Thursday night across Manchester World and Glasgow World.
13:03you