Manchester United dealt double defensive blow ahead of meeting with Newcastle United on Wednesday
Newcastle United host Manchester United at St James' Park on Wednesday night with an 8:15pm kick-off live on TNT Sports.
The two teams couldn't be much further apart on the Premier League form table, with the Magpies just one place above the bottom side, Tottenham and Manchester United only behind their closest rivals, Man City.
The fortress that was St James' Park has become a visitors centre, open to all to come and do as they please, as Newcastle have lost all four of their last domestic games at home.
It's a stat that is less than ideal to say the least, and Newcastle need to find something to cling to ahead of Wednesday to build confidfence and yesterday, it looked as though we had something.
Manchester United had two key defenders come off injured on Sunday
Manchester United saw off Crystal Palace 2-1 at Old Trafford yesterday, but picked up a couple of casualties as Luke Shaw and Harry Maguire were both withdrawn at different points during the game, giving Newcastle fans a bit of hope that Michael Carrick would have to change things up and potentially disrupt the rhythm of his side.
Unfortunately for Newcastle, Carrick confirmed after the game that both players were actually feeling ill and are likely ot be fine for Wednesday.
"He (Shaw) just wasn’t well. He was ill. We’ll see how he recovers. Hopefully it’s not too bad. We’ll see with Harry. Hopefully, he’ll be ready for Wednesday. I thought the boys who came on did really well for us and we needed it.”
Man United won't sit in a low block, which could give Newcastle a chance
We shouldn't be having to rely on opposition sides picking up injuries in order to beat them anyway, but it would have been nice to give us a little bit of hope.
This is going to be another one of those games that it's going to be hard to muster any enthusiasm for, as the deck just seems so stacked against us after Saturday's performance.
Our one glimmer of hope here is that Man United aren't likely to sit in and play a low block, which could leave them more open, and that's when we can actually play. We demolished them at St James' Park last season, we know we can do this.
