Bruno Fernandes suspended; Maxwel Cornet fit for Burnley; follow Man Utd vs Burnley in our dedicated live match blog; watch free match highlights on Sky Sports digital platforms and YouTube channel shortly after full-time.
Thursday 30 December 2021 21:06, UK
Team news, stats and prediction ahead of Man Utd vs Burnley in the Premier League on Thursday; kick-off 8.15pm.
Bruno Fernandes will be unavailable for Manchester United due to a one-match suspension, after collecting his fifth yellow card of the Premier League season on Monday night at Newcastle.
Victor Lindelof was ruled out of the trip to St James' Park earlier this week due to a positive COVID-19 test the day before the match, and he remains missing. Paul Pogba is still missing with a thigh problem.
This will be Burnley's first game in 18 days after three successive games against Watford, Aston Villa and Everton were called off because of Covid issues.
Ashley Barnes is making good progress from a thigh injury but this game has come too soon whilst Connor Roberts is recovering from a non-Covid related illness.
However, Maxwel Cornet has recovered from Covid and is back training after a thigh injury.
Follow Man Utd vs Burnley in our dedicated live match blog. Highlights will also be published on the Sky Sports digital platforms and the Sky Sports Football YouTube channel shortly after full-time.
Manchester United have always been a club that rival supporters love to hate, especially in the Sir Alex Ferguson days. But there was always an underlying level of respect there due their incredible winning mentality, never say die attitude and ability to function as a team.
This current United side are easy to dislike and hard to respect.
Gary Neville labelled them "whingers" after yet another disjointed display at Newcastle where the core principles of all successful Ralf Rangnick teams were completely neglected. There was no cohesion. No chemistry. No intelligent pressing. It annoyed me watching them.
In two games against Norwich and Newcastle, arguably the two worst teams in the Premier League, David de Gea has been called upon to make 12 saves. To put that into context, Liverpool's goalkeeper Alisson has made the same amount of saves in his last eight games. United remain a team with huge organisational problems.
Of course, the savvy Rangnick could find a solution and United may just go 'bang' such is their frightening level of talent in forward areas but I must make decisions on what the data and my eyes are telling me. And those factors scream to me that United are overestimated with quotes of 4/11 on a home win, equating to a 73 per cent chance of them winning this match. I'd have it closer to 55 per cent on what I've seen at Norwich and Newcastle.
Sean Dyche's men have drawn eight of their 15 Premier League games this season, showcasing a hard to beat tendency but an inability to put teams away. That strong chin added to their excellent organisation skills and the sensational form of Nick Pope at the moment, makes them capable of causing more issues for this frustrating United side.
SCORE PREDICTION: 1-1
BETTING ANGLE: Back the draw (4/1 with Sky Bet)
