United and Inter need Europa League boost
MISFIRING Manchester United and an Inter Milan who have fired coach Frank de Boer can take a welcome boost from the Europa League in matchday four of the group phase tonight.
The epic group phase of 12 round robin pools of four teams is remarkably close so far with only Zenit, Ajax, Shakhtar Donetsk and Schalke 04 eyeing qualification for the knock out round with wins tonight.
Much has been made of United’s 37 shots without a goal against Burnley at the weekend, the failure to hit the ground running of £89 million ($116.4 million) signing Paul Pogba and the sorrowful sight of Zlatan Ibrahimovic shorn of his confidence.
United take on Turkish side Fenerbahce having thumped them 4-1 last time out as Pogba scored twice ahead of a derby boost with a 1-0 League Cup win over Man City.
“Two days ago he was the worst player in the Premier League and 48 hours later he’s phenomenal,” said manager Jose Mourinho at the time of the French midfielder, who is struggling to live up to his price tag.
Feyenoord and United are level top of Group A on si x points, while t he Turks, led by Dick Advocaat and featuring a Robin van Persie who scored at Old Trafford t wo weeks ago, have four points.
United defender Marcos Rojo felt the Burnley game could be seen as a positive
“Obviously, against City, we got the victory, and the last match, versus Burnley, we had 37 chances. A goal would have been the icing on the cake,” he said.
“We are getting to the level where we can play as a team. We are playing with a great intensity, throughout the whole of the match.”
Rojo is set to start and with fellow defenders Eric Bailly and Antonio Valencia injured, German veteran midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger has made a shock return to first team training.
Inter Milan beat Southampton 1-0 away last time out but had been a dis- aster up to that point and on Wednesday they sacked De Boer.
The first-team squad will be ta ken over prov isiona l ly by Inter’s yout h team coach, Stefano Vecchi, who will be on the bench for the game against Southampton.
They sit bottom of Group K behind leaders Sparta Prague and the Israeli side Hapoel Be’er Sheva, who stunned Inter 2-0 at the San Siro.
All this bodes well for Southampton, level second in the Group on four points. Claude Puel’s side were well beaten by resurgent Chelsea at the weekend but earned a deserved 1-1 draw with Manchester City the week before.