A special 🤭 game is in the offing as past meets present in Istanbul tonight.

Ex-manager Jose Mourinho and ex-Reds Fred and Sofyan Amrabat take on Erik ten Hag's army in match 3 of the Europa League.

This is sure to be one heck of a match.

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Predicted Lineup

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The team shouldn't be that surprising when looking at the amount of absentees.

Evans didn't travel with the squad which means Mazraoui come in for him reverting United to the usual back line of the season. Dalot will move over to left-back.

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The three in midfield are the only midfielders to have traveled for this clash. Mainoo and Mount are both injured and captain Fernandes is suspended after picking up a red card in the draw at Porto last time out.

Will be interesting to see how we play without our skipper.

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The attack remains as it was for the win over Brentford. I believe they worked really well with Garnacho off the left and Rashford on the right.

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Approach

I think the fact that it's an away match makes it a little harder to call because if we were at home, I feel as though we would have had much more of the ball but because it's in Istanbul and at a hostile atmosphere, I'm not sure who will have more of the possession.

Jose prefers to set up more defensively and is happy for the opponent to have the ball and hit on the break but whenever we've gone away from home in the past, that has been our game plan as well.

I still feel as if we may edge the possession but it won't be as dominant as if we were at Old Trafford.

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I'm liking our midfield of Casemiro and Ugarte as I feel as if it is well suited to come up against Fred and Amrabat. Two old school midfielders up against two old school midfielders. Very robust, physical, strong and an ability to cover a lot of ground. This is the area of the pitch where the game will be won and lost.

With Eriksen ahead and Tadic in their attacking midfield, there is quality and experience further forward.

It looks like the two midfields could cancel each other out so it will be down to who wants it more that will tip the balance in either side's favor.

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Without Bruno, it will be a little different as we know he always plays. Given that he's been a bit shite this season, it was about time that he was out of the team, one way or another. Many have been wanting to see how we play without the captain because he has been very frustrating so far. His Hollywood style also doesn't really suit how we want to play as ten Hag is looking to keep possession a lot more.

Having a player who gives it away on the cheap isn't what you want when we're highly likely to come up against a low block knowing Mourinho. One needs patience and rotation of the ball, and not trying to force the issue. Bruno does all of these things and just plays into the opposition's hands.

This is why Eriksen at CAM will be so important because his way of playing is more suitable to what the manager wants. We've also not seen him play this high at all for the Dutchman since Eriksen came to the club two years ago.

This was another change that a lot of people wanted to see as Eriksen is a lot more measured in his game play.

He will be the key to unlocking Fenerbahce.

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And then the front three have more than enough quality to cause Jose's defence a lot of problems. All of Rashford, Garnacho and Hojlund have speed which will be important for those breakaways, and out wide, Rashford and Garnacho have the skill to get us in behind.

I don't believe that that will be the problem though. I think it will be getting them into those positions where they can cause Fener problems because we know how defensive Mourinho can be.

Once we get the chances, we have to take them as we are very wasteful in attack. The 2-1 win over Brentford should've been 3 or 4 considering the chances we had.

Against a stubborn back line, when you have these scoring opportunities, you have to take them as you may not get many.

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Form

It's not been the greatest of start in the EL. In two matches to pick up two draws against Twente and Porto isn't the best especially when one of them was at home (Twente) and the other we were 2-0 up.

It still isn't a train smash as there are 6 games left of this new league phase of the competition giving us enough time to make up for those draws.

But this has left us in 21st position in the league with those two draws. However, hopefully that win on Saturday will give us confidence tonight.

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Fenerbahce

One of the heavy hitters from Turkey, we've had some memorable games against the team from Istanbul in the past.

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Headed by Jose Mourinho, this just makes things juicier because of his history with United. The Special One actually praised his former side a lot and even spoke about how important it is to back ten Hag and give him the stability he never had at the club in order to be successful.

Perhaps Jose is doing a Jose and playing mind games, but we'll take it.

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Fener are seven spots higher than us in the Europa League as they sit 14th after one win and one draw, a draw to Twente.

They've only scored 3 but have conceded 2 which is amongst the lowest in the competition. We have let in 4 goals in our two matches.

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We know what Jose is all about in that he likes to be quite defensive in his approach. Knowing that we struggle to break down tough defences, he will try to frustrate us all the more by sitting deep and putting a lot of men behind the ball.

Counter attacks will be a way for them to get at us. They may not have the most pace on the break but as we don't have the quickest defenders and midfield, it could still cause United problems.

Jose would want the crowd to get behind his side as well. Home advantage is always key even more so when you have an atmosphere like the Ulker Stadyumu. Those hostile grounds isn't where we perform best, which is another angle for Fenerbahce to get at Erik ten Hag's team.

This is why we need to try and quieten down the crowd early on. An early goal would be so important for either team and determining the way the match could go.

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The Turks also have a whole host of well-known and quality players.

Croatian GK Domink Livakovic, Caglar Soyuncu in defence, the aforementioned Fred and Amrabat, Youssef En-Nesyri, Cenk Tosun - formerly of Everton, ex-City striker Edin Dzeko, Allan Saint-Maximim previously of Newcastle and Dusan Tadic who played for Erik ten Hag during THAT Ajax period. There always seems to be one of those somewhere or some connection to ten Hag. He's got several of these connections all over the place.

We do need to be very careful.

Our overall history in Turkey isn't that great. Read about it here.

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Prediction

I've a feeling that we will lose. 2-1 to Fenerbahce because of the ground, having to face a tough team and Jose.

I don't trust our side at all because we know how they can be in that they can drop a disasterclass out of nowhere. The last time we were in Turkey was Galatasaray last season. They are very similar to Fenerbahce. Hopefully that experience caused us to learn and improve.

We are in desperate need of a win though and it's about time that we start to show some consistency. What do you think will happen tonight?

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Background image of player: Alejandro Garnacho celebrates after scoring against Brentford | Image via Manchester United official X (@ManUtd)