Opposition Q&A: Southampton
As you probably already know, United take on Southampton in the EFL Cup final at Wembley on Sunday afternoon.
How better than to gear up for the game than to quiz a Southampton fan about the tie?
We talked to ReadSouthampton.com editor Luke Osman. Here’s what he had to say…
1) Before we get stuck into the cup questions, tell us how your season is going as a whole – are Saints fans happy?
On the whole, it’s pretty split really. A lot of people are content with the mid-table positioning and with the cup final, but others are quite underwhelmed. I’m in the middle but if I had to place myself in either of those categories, I’d be in the latter.
The Europa League was a massive disappointment and so far the league has been really poor. I feel like we’ve been worse than what our league position suggests, and we needlessly threw away the FA Cup.
However, with that being said, the EFL Cup final is a massive thing for us and I’m delighted we’re there. It’ll be a good day out.
2) Your cup run to reach Wembley was fantastic and United fans were doubly happy when you saw off Liverpool – are you confident going into the game?
I think it’s always a little bit difficult heading into cup finals. There’s always a sense of apprehension but that’s always coincided with excitement. I’m quietly confident but it’ll be extremely tough!
3) What do you think of United’s season so far, and what kind of finish are you expecting for the Red Devils?
I think that on the whole it’s been a good campaign. You’re in all four competitions at this stage of the season and I reckon that’s a good achievement in itself. The run of form recently has been highly impressive and with world class players like Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Paul Pogba, anything can happen.
I can see you finishing in 4th still, just ahead of Spurs and Liverpool. It’ll be tight though!
4) Your only previous League Cup final appearance was a 3-2 loss to Forest at the old Wembley – does this lesser cup final experience within the squad worry you at all?
To be honest, I think we’ll thrive from it. We’ve got a good mix of young and experienced players and there are plenty there that have big-game know-how. Take Ryan Bertrand for example; he’s one of our senior players and he was chucked into a Champions League final with little experience to his name, so I think we’ll be okay in that sense. Anything can happen in cup finals.
5) Give us an insight into your XI for tomorrow – do the Saints have any big injury concerns or player definitely ruled out?
We’ve been riddled with injuries all season, and we’ve got a fair few out. Jeremy Pied, Alex McCarthy and Matt Targett are all still out, and our top scorer Charlie Austin is still injured sadly.
The biggest loss is of course our best player though – Virgil van Dijk. I’m gutted he won’t be leading us out at Wembley and we’re a lesser team without him. Claude Puel is going to assess Sofiane Boufal and Martin Caceres today [Saturday] to make a judgement as to whether they’ll play a part tomorrow, and I’m hoping and praying that the former in particular gets the nod. He’s a quality player.
Prediction – Forster; Cedric, Stephens, Yoshida, Bertrand; Romeu, Davis, Prowse; Redmond, Gabbiadini, Tadic
6) Who do you see as the biggest threat from the United squad? Bear in mind that Mkhitaryan is out.
It has to be Ibra. Without doubt, you have several top quality players, but against our centre-backs and given the ability of him, I think he’s definitely the biggest threat. He’s a world class player and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t worried about coming up against him again!
You saw what he did to Jose Fonte and Virgil back at Old Trafford at the start of the season, so we know what he’s about and how capable he is.
7) There has been chatter this week of Rooney wanting to move to another PL club in the summer. Would you take him at Southampton?
100%. Obviously it’d be unrealistic based on the financial side of things, but I still rate Rooney highly. I don’t get why he’s on the receiving end of so much stick. I think he should be appreciated a bit more.
8) Give us a score/goalscorers prediction for tomorrow!
I’m going to put my neck out on the line and say that we’ll win 1-0. Nathan Redmond to score the goal!
————————————————————
You can follow Luke on Twitter below: