Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Community Shield: Where it will be won and lost
PREMIER LEAGUE champions Leicester City and FA Cup winners Manchester United go head- to- head on Sunday in the season’s traditional curtain-raiser, the FA Community Shield (5pm).
The Wembley showdown will give us further insight into whether Jose Mourinho’s revamped United side are good enough to challenge at the top of the table in the nine months ahead.
It will also offer a few clues as to whether Claudio Ranieri’s Leicester have what it takes to repeat their remarkable title triumph from last season. Ahead of the big match, we take a look at a few areas where it will be won and lost. Ahmed Musa v Eric Bailly and Daley Blind Leicester had no qualms about breaking their club transfer record to sign Nigeria forward Musa for £16m from CSKA Moscow and he has already dazzled in pre-season.
Musa certainly possesses the pace and potency to trouble a United backline that fans will hope is just as watertight as last season, when they conceded the joint- lowest number of goals in the league.
Daley Blind is likely to partner new £ 30m signing Eric Bailly, who has looked decent in pre-season and models his game on Old Trafford legend Nemanja Vidic.
However, with their defensive partnership still in its infancy, Leicester will hope to trouble them with the pace and movement of Musa, Riyad Mahrez and Jamie Vardy. Wes Morgan v Zlatan Ibrahimovic It hasn’t taken Zlatan Ibrahimovic too long to make his presence felt at Old Trafford with all and sundry talking about his aura and in-built will to win.
But, as we all know, pre- season is merely the phoney war and tomorrow we’ll start to get an indication as to whether Zlatan can boss Premier League defenders with the same authority we’ve seen previously in Italy and France.
Leicester captain Morgan, one of the most consistent performers in the league last season, will be more than willing to give the Swede a baptism of fire and puncture that ego a little.
There are plenty of observers who believe Ibrahimovic will struggle in the English game. We’ll get quite a few clues here. Robert Huth v Marouane Fellaini Remember the meeting between these two at Old Trafford at the tail end of last season? The aggressive confrontation between Marouane Fellaini and Robert Huth that saw the German tugging the Belgian’s hair and getting whacked by an elbow in return.
Both received a threematch suspension for their penalty area tussle, which made even more headlines when Louis van Gaal compared it to “sex masochism”.
They could meet again at Wembley though it isn’t a certainty that Fellaini will start for United, with Mourinho possibly preferring Morgan Schneiderlin.
If they do both start, however, be prepared for some more grappling whenever there’s a corner or free- kick. Danny Drinkwater v Wayne Rooney There has been plenty of speculation over Jose Mourinho’s intentions for his captain Wayne Rooney and where exactly he will play on the field.
Rooney was probably expecting to spend this season ticking over in midfield, but Mourinho has already publicly stated that he sees him in a forward, scoring role.
But the arrival of Ibrahimovic pushes Rooney back into the No 10 position and that will likely bring him up against Leicester’s formidable defensive midfielders Danny Drinkwater and Andy King on Sunday.
The Foxes may have lost N’Golo Kante to Chelsea but there’s still plenty of bite in that midfield to give Rooney and his colleagues plenty to think about. Claudio Ranieri v Jose Mourinho This will be, Mourinho hopes, the first of many big occasions during his time at Manchester United and he’ll be keen to send out a statement to the other title contenders ahead of the big kick- off.
The imperative for Mourinho is to banish the dull and conservative football of the Van Gaal era to memory and restore the win- atall- costs mentality of the Sir Alex Ferguson reign.
For Ranieri, this will be an important occasion to demonstrate that Leicester are not one- season wonders and they have what it takes to sustain another challenge towards the top of the table. – Daily Mail