Manchester United meet West Ham at Old Trafford
Louis van Gaal is already having to deal with the word 'crisis' as Manchester United welcome West Ham United to Old Trafford on Saturday.
United have won just once in six competitive games since Van Gaal took charge in the summer and the experienced Dutchman also has defensive worries for the visit of West Ham.
Last week’s 5-3 defeat at Leicester saw United throw away a two-goal lead to lose in the Premier League for the first time and left the 20-time champions with just five points from five games.
Van Gaal is also likely to have a mix-and-match pairing at the heart of his defence as he contends with criticism of the club’s failure to sign a dominant centre-half during the transfer window.
The splurge on attacking reinforcements, though, has reaped dividends after seven goals in the last two games, and record signing Angel di Maria has made an instant impact since his arrival from Real Madrid.
United will hope that, given their defensive travails, West Ham will head north displaying the impotence which has delivered just three goals in their last nine league games at Old Trafford.
West Ham have also lost 10 of the last 11 league meetings between the two clubs, but will go into the game four places above their opponents in the table.
Sam Allardyce’s side are also unbeaten in their two away games this season after following up a 3-1 win at Crystal Palace with a 2-2 draw at Hull City.
Allardyce also saw his team impress in beating Liverpool at home last week as two goals in the opening seven minutes laid the foundations for a 3-1 success.
Andy Carroll’s absence will deprive West Ham of a physical presence to unsettle United’s makeshift defence, but Enner Valencia and Diafra Sakho have the talent to cause plenty of problems.
Team news
Teenage defender Paddy McNair could make his first-team debut against West Ham after Van Gaal's squad was decimated by injury.
Tyler Blackett (suspended), Jonny Evans (ankle), Chris Smalling (thigh) and Phil Jones (hamstring) are all out, which leaves Marcos Rojo as Van Gaal's only fit senior centre-half.
Left-back Luke Shaw is expected to make his debut, but midfielders Ashley Young (groin), Michael Carrick (ankle), Jesse Lingard (knee) and Marouane Fellaini (ankle) are unavailable.
West Ham will be without midfielder Cheikhou Kouyate for Saturday's trip to United.
The Senegal international has been ruled out with a groin injury suffered in the 3-1 win over Liverpool and could be missing for up to six weeks.
Captain Kevin Nolan is back in training following a fractured shoulder but will not be considered at Old Trafford, whilst Matt Jarvis (thigh) is in a similar position.
Joey O'Brien (knee) and Carroll (ankle) are also missing but James Collins is in contention to start after coming off the bench last weekend.
Paul Merson’s prediction:
This game all depends on how Sam Allardyce approaches it. If West Ham go to Old Trafford and have a go at them, like they did at home to Liverpool, then they will cause absolutely loads of problems because United are terrible at the back. If they go there, sit back and try to defend then they will fizzle out and lose, so surely you have to go there and go for them? I hope they do that because they’ll give them a right game. It could go one way or another and that’s why I’m making two predictions for this game!