Yes, we travel to a country that doesn't agree with us. Spain has always been a sort of bogey place for United as we struggle whenever we play any opponent in that country.
I guess that the positive is that it isn't one of the heavy hitters like Madrid or Barca with all due respect to Sociedad which means we have a chance but what will give the Spaniards confidence is knowing that we lack it, are shit and that this competition is make or break for us and that could put pressure onto United.
They are also at home which could give them more of an advantage. This was always going to be a difficult game but it will be much harder than we think.
Predicted Lineup
It's much easier to predict the lineups because of all the injuries yet even still, I get these teams wrong 90% of the time.
But that predicted XI is probably the best Amorim can go with given his absentees. Remember, no Chido Obi because he is not listed in the Europa League squad. That could be a problem. No Maguire and Ugarte as well as the pair are out injured. Of course 😑.
This will mean that Hojlund will have to start up front and hope that he can find some form. We also can't afford for him to get injured because he is our only striker as Zirkzee is more of a number 10.
A back three of Yoro, De Ligt and Mazraoui as Dorgu comes back into the side as he is only suspended domestically. Dalot to move to the right.
Casemiro to come in for the missing Ugarte and I also believe Garnacho will return to the starting XI after being put on the bench last time out. A front three of the star boy, Zrikzee and Hojlund.
Will that side be good enough?
Approach
I think at this point when looking at where we are, just get through. I know this is the first leg but for this game, tie and hopefully future ties, performance doesn't really matter because we absolutely need to win.
Whatever Amorim wants from his team, clearly they cannot do it or the message isn't getting across to them. I weirdly think these players are trying but a lot of them are not the quality we need.
United weren't actually too bad against Fulham but we ended up losing all the same. However, if we can show some of what we showed in that FA Cup tie then I do believe there is a chance for us to get something out this game.
What we have to do though, is take our chances. There were quite a few especially towards the end of the 90 minutes where we could've won it thanks to a good amount of clear goal scoring opportunities but being wasteful in the final third is what resulted in that penalty shootout defeat.
This has been an issue all season in that while we don't make good chances when we do, we fail to take them as we are very careless. Bruno is the only player who is displaying any form up front and he isn't even playing as high up as he possibly can.
The skipper has 5 goals and assists in his previous five games and is no surprise that he is our top scorer this season with 10 goals.
As much as I criticize him, I cannot deny that we would be way worse without him, and we're terrible now.
Trying to keep the San Sebastian crowd quiet is something else we'll have to do. We know how we struggle at hostile atmospheres and with our low confidence, the fans will try to play on that which could give the Sociedad players extra energy when stepping out onto the pitch.
Getting that first goal is all important.
Form
Our form in Europe is actually not that bad. We won our last five games in a row and in the Europa League, United are unbeaten. In fact, we're the only team that is unbeaten in all of Europe.
Crazy to think, isn't it?
Our last game was a 2-0 victory over FCSB in our final match of the league phase. Goals by Dalot and Mainoo got us the win which was kind of necessary as had we not gotten the 3 points, there was a chance that we could've fallen out of the top 8.
We've also managed to beat Sociedad on our last two occasions. While this was at the Juventus Stadium, it was a 4-0 win for United and then when we did travel to the Reale Arena two years ago, a certain Garnacho scored his first goal for the club assisted by his idol Cristiano Ronaldo.
Hopefully we can carry this form on against them.
Real Sociedad
The Spaniards had to go through the play-off round to get to the round of 16 as they finished in 13th in the league phase.
During this time, they've won four, drawn one and lost three scoring 13 and conceding 9 with a total of 13 points.
Their home form is actually quite good as Sociedad have won three of their four this season. Their only defeat was a 2-1 loss to Anderlecht.
In La Liga, they are 9th with 34 points from 26 games. More than that, with their 13 scored in the league phase of the EL, they've also only scored just 23 in La Liga which is 0.9 goals per game.
Their goal difference is also -4 which means they don't score too many and that we have a chance.
Their play-off round was the opposite to their goal scoring woes as they managed to beat Midtjylland 7-3 on aggregate.
Prediction
Is it stupid to think that we will get something out of this game?
Because we are so awful and there is no expectation on us, I feel like we will get a positive result.
1-1 is what I'm going for.
I think I'll be happy with that. At least we'll have something to take back to Old Trafford, although we are terrible at home.
Background player image: Noussair Mazraoui | Image via Manchester United official X (@ManUtd)