Will the trophy remain at Old Trafford?
Tonight, we begin our Carling Cup title defence against Premier League club Wolves at Old Trafford. While Carling Cup remains a lowly 4th on our priority list, its significance is mostly related to the evaluation of how our young players are performing. Last year, the likes of Danny Welbeck, Darren Gibson and the Da Silva brothers put in sparkling performances in our successful run to the title. We will be hoping for more of the same this season as well.
Wolves, under Mick McCarthy, managed to stem the rut which they had found themselves in by registering a win over Fulham on Sunday. They will have two key returning players in Sylvan Ebanks-Blake and winger Michael Kightly. Interestingly, Ebanks-Blake had scored for us in the same competition in 2005. Mick McCarthy has vowed to use an attacking 4-4-2 formation in order to take the game to a young United side.
United will be looking to the likes of Kiko Macheda and Danny Welbeck to put in sterling performances in order to send a warning to our regular strikers. Michael Owen is expected to partner Macheda up front with Welbeck getting a role on the right. The left flank will hopefully be handed out to Tosic with Darren Gibson and Michael Carrick patrolling the midfield. Carrick, in particular, will be under the spotlight after a string of lacklustre performances. Let’s just hope he starts regaining his form because an in-form Michael Carrick will be very beneficial for our squad. Brown and Evans are expected to be our center backs tonight with Gary Neville on the right of our defence and Fabio/De Laet on the left. Kusczcak will be the man between the sticks for us and if he turns in a good performance, expect him to start against Stoke over the weekend. With Foster’s horrible performance on derby day, may be some competition will buck up his goal-keeping.
All in all, this might not be a game for the flashbulbs but its importance can not be under-estimated seeing as it provides a glimpse of our future stars.
Kick Off: 2000 GMT
Prediction: 3-0 to United
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am verry 4 red devil according 2 how our fan call us.devils pls keep it up looking up 2 u 4 dis season.i always said i (believe)