Burnley – Manchester United Prediction & Picks (02.09.2018)

José Mourinho is still on the bench at Manchester United. However, the Portuguese can fly out of the international team in the interland period if Manchester United makes a bad result on Sunday at Burnley.

Burnley:

Burnley did not start the season well. The Clarets were a big surprise in the Premier League last season and that was rewarded with a ticket for the preliminaries of the Europa League. In the last games of last season, the results of Burnley were already a lot less and that trend has dragged Sean Dyche’s team into the new season. The Clarets already played nine games this season and none of those nine matches allowed Burnley to win within regular time.

It was won in the extension of Aberdeen and İstanbul Başakşehir, but Burnley bought nothing for it. The Clarets were eliminated on Thursday-evening in the play-offs of the Europa League. Last weekend, The Clarets lost 3-1 to the Greek Olympiacos Piraeus and on Thursday, the game ended on Turf Moor in a 1-1 draw. A few days earlier, Burnley went hard with 4-2 to visit at Fulham and we can say that this Burnley is not comparable with the Burnley last season. It is now up to Sean Dyche to keep his cool and let The Clarets play as compact as last season. That was the quality at Burnley last year; stop as much as possible and then strike from standard situations.

Manchester United:

That Mourinho is still on the bench at Manchester United is pretty remarkable. Almost everyone starts to hate Mourinho in such a way; from the English media to his own players. Yet Manchester United is a chic club and The Red Devils will not just put a trainer on the street. However, the relationship between Manchester United and Mourinho seems untenable, especially because Mourinho puts everyone in their armor. Where Mourinho was indeed entitled to the nickname The Special One, the now nicknamed The Crying One might be more appropriate.

Anyway: it remains the football world in which we find ourselves. In other words: Mourinho wins this weekend, then he has some credit again. That is exactly what the Portuguese needs after the 0-3 loss against Tottenham Hotspur last Monday. Of course, a club like Manchester United is not allowed to lose 0-3 at Tottenham Hotspur in their own home, but United did not play that bad, especially in the first half. Individual errors, however, caused Manchester United to get a 0-3 score from Tottenham. These mistakes were mainly made in defense and in that respect Mourinho could have used some reinforcements in defensive terms. Burnley-out is in any case the match that the season can make or break for Mourinho.