Chelsea host Man Utd live on Sky Sports Premier League on Saturday lunchtime
Wednesday 30 October 2019 14:47, UK
Manchester United head to Chelsea in the Premier League on Saturday - live on Sky Sports - but should Jose Mourinho attack against his old side? We ask our pundits...
The Portuguese had two spells at Stamford Bridge as manager and the sides have had differing fortunes at the start of this season.
Maurizio Sarri's Chelsea are currently second in the table on goal difference with no defeats yet this season, while Man Utd have stuttered - sitting in eighth - and have lost three Premier League games.
But after an attacking Man Utd comeback against Newcastle saw them win 3-2 before the international break, should Mourinho throw everything forward at Stamford Bridge? We ask the pundits...
In the game against Newcastle, there were no tactics, no ideas, he just threw his forwards on and tried to rescue the game - Chelsea are a different story. The game has moved on from Mourinho but the one thing he knows is how to stifle teams.
His main focus will be to stop Eden Hazard. This will be a defensive set-up with Romelu Lukaku up on his own for periods of the game. There's no way he's coming to Chelsea to play, it'll be a stifling job.
You look at the form and think what chance have Manchester United got? They came back from 2-0 down the other day, but that's just papering over the cracks. Mo Diame missed a sitter from a corner at 2-2, and if that goes in it's a different story.
Fair play for fighting back, but the problem is Manchester United usually turn up in these kind of games, but I've got to go with Chelsea because of Eden Hazard. It's a big football match and again, the managers are going to get their players for 48 hours to work on shape, how to break each other down or stifle the other. It's a bit unfair on the two managers.
I think they need to play Jose's way. When you're 2-0 down, and you've got nothing to lose, it's a different game, completely and utterly. I don't buy into that they should attack, attack, attack. They need to keep it tight against Chelsea - if they turn it into an open game there'll only be one winner.
The best scoreline for you to attack is when you're 2-0 down because there's nothing to lose - you can say 'let's go for it' - but this is Jose Mourinho and whether you like him or not, he has his way of playing and he's not going to change it for anyone. That's his way of getting results.
He knows Chelsea inside out and he'll be exactly the same. He'll want to ensure nothing goes wrong early on because he knows his team is fragile. He knows that if his team go a goal or two down away from home right now, they'll be in trouble.
He will not want to lose an early goal in this game.
I would imagine he'll very much revert to type returning to Chelsea. He won't want to open things up and run the risk of getting smashed so I can see it being a very tight game.
I'd prefer to see him let the talent in his team loose a little bit as they've got enough to go head-to-head with Chelsea but he's a bit cautious and will be pragmatic I'm sure.
Watch Chelsea v Man Utd live on Sky Sports Premier League from 11.30am on Saturday.
