Mauricio Pochettino has yet to take his first training session at Manchester United, but reports suggest he already has a clear sense of who fits his plans. The Argentine is due to begin work on Wednesday, Nov. 18, leaving just four days before United travel to Anfield to face Liverpool next Sunday.<\/p>\n
With so little time to assess the squad in person, it is hardly surprising that he may lean on prior impressions. According to The Telegraph, Marcus Rashford is a player Pochettino has \u201calways loved,\u201d while Bruno Fernandes, Kobbie Mainoo, Carlos Baleba, Amad Diallo, Patrick Dorgu and Luke Shaw are also thought to be among those most likely to benefit from the new manager\u2019s backing.<\/p>\n
There is, however, an immediate complication. Rashford, Baleba and Shaw are all injured at present. There is hope the England pair can recover before the end of the international break, but Baleba\u2019s hamstring problem, suffered in the dramatic win over Roma, is likely to delay his first appearance under Pochettino.<\/p>\n
Fernandes is a particularly interesting case. During United\u2019s search for a new manager, some reports suggested candidates were wary of the dressing room\u2019s unruly reputation. Fernandes, as captain, did little to quiet that perception when he publicly criticised Michael Carrick\u2019s tactics against Como.<\/p>\n
The Portuguese playmaker objected to Carrick\u2019s instruction not to press and instead ran around on his own, to the wider detriment of the team. That may not trouble Pochettino, whose reputation has been built on a high-energy pressing approach that could suit Fernandes.<\/p>\n
Mainoo, meanwhile, has reportedly earned Pochettino\u2019s approval despite questions over his energy and endurance that were raised by Ruben Amorim. The new manager is said to value the midfielder\u2019s control in possession more highly than any physical reservations.<\/p>\n
Another familiar principle should arrive more quickly: overlapping fullbacks. Pochettino used that pattern at Southampton, where Shaw thrived, and later at Tottenham Hotspur, Paris Saint-Germain and the U.S. Dorgu could be especially important on the left because of his athleticism and attacking instincts. Shaw, whose attacking threat has declined, could even be used as a centre back to support him.<\/p>\n
Pochettino may already have favourites, but Gary Neville believes he will be just as decisive with the players he does not want. \u201cI actually remember going to see him at Tottenham in his very early days,\u201d the eight-time Premier League champion told Sky Sports News. \u201cHe had a whiteboard in front of him in his office with all the players\u2019 names on little markers and he actually moved a group of players over to the left-hand side of the board and said: \u2018These are the ones I know I need to get rid of. These are the ones I know I can work with and build around.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s got to identify that very quickly at United and I\u2019m sure he will do that. He\u2019s more experienced now than he was when he was at Tottenham.\u201d<\/p>\n
The challenge, of course, is not only identifying the unwanted players, but finding a way to move them on.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Pochettino may already trust seven United players, but injuries and squad culling complicate his start.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22467,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1083,179,2019],"tags":[59,180,182],"class_list":["post-22468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-man-utd","category-manchester-united","category-manchester-united-news","tag-featured","tag-player-news","tag-transfers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22468"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22468\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}