AZ Alkmaar vs Man Utd preview, predictions & possible XIs

Manchester United will be looking to make two wins in the Europa League when they travel to AZ Alkmaar on Thursday.

AZ Alkmaar vs Man Utd

Competition: Europa League

Venue: Kyocera Stadium

Date: Thursday, 3 October 2019

Kick-off: 7:55 PM EAT

The Red Devils have been struggling for consistency in the Premier League under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer this season, and will be looking for three points over the Cheeseheads after their opening 1-0 win over Astana.

Arne Slot’s side have been performing very well in the Eredivisie this term and currently sit third, but after a 2-2 draw in their European curtain-raiser against Partizan, they will need to pick up wins in these formative stages of the competition.

AZ had to navigate through three sets of Europa League qualifiers to get to the group phase and still find themselves third in the Dutch top-flight, just a point shy of table-toppers Ajax and PSV. Oussama Idrissi has already found the back of the net six times in the league.

Oussama Idrissi provided more assists in the Eredivisie last season than any other AZ Alkmaar player (6).

Predicted XI: Bizot; Sugawara, Vlaar, Wuytens, Wijndal; Koopmeiners, Midtsjo, De Wit; Idrissi, Stengs, Boadu.

Mason Greenwood has had a wonderful September, scoring in back-to-back games on his Europa League debut against Astana, then in the League Cup against Rochdale. He scored his first United goal with his only shot on target against Astana.

Solskjaer revealed that Anthony Martial will not be fit in time to face AZ on Thursday as the Frenchman continues to recover from a hamstring injury. Aaron Wan-Bissaka has not recovered from the tonsillitis that kept him out of the Arsenal clash on Monday.

Paul Pogba was ruled out with a recurring foot problem.

Axel Tuanzebe was drafted in for the 1-1 draw at Old Trafford, Phil Jones will also miss out after sustaining a knock against Rochdale in the League Cup last week, as will Timothy Fosu-Mensah, Luke Shaw and Eric Bailly.

Diogo Dalot and Angel Gomes could return for this match after the duo were both unavailable for the last two outings.

Predicted XI: Romero; Dalot, Tuanzebe, Rojo, Young; Fred, Matic, Lingard; Greenwood, Mata, Rashford.