Bailly impressed midweek against Luton
Team news is always greeted with both anger and celebration, such is the strength of every football fan's opinion. But Manchester United fans appeared, well, united in their dismay at their starting XI for Saturday's Premier League match against Brighton.
The point of contention that had so many fans fuming was Victor Lindelöf's inclusion after what can only be described as a horror show against Crystal Palace in United's first league game of the season.
United lost the game 3-1 to Crystal Palace, and were outfought and out-thought all over the pitch. Lindelöf played a role in all three of Palace's goals, most significantly the last two, giving away a penalty (the handball rule is a joke, tbf) and allowing Wilfried Zaha to get the better of him for the third.
Meanwhile, Eric Bailly impressed for United in their Carabao Cup tie against Luton midweek, prompting a lot of United fans to make the case for the Ivorian starting ahead of Lindelöf in the league alongside captain Harry Maguire.
The team news announcement today had those fans rather livid. The team, for context, is: De Gea; Wan-Bissaka, Lindelöf, Maguire, Shaw; Matić, Pogba, Fernandes; Greenwood, Martial, Rashford.
"That CB partnership is never the future, totally need to buy a CB if Bailly isn't trusted," tweeted streamer and United fan Andy Goldbridge.
"The way Ole was talking about Eric Bailly in the press conference yesterday, I thought he was going to start. Very disappointing, but let’s hope that it doesn’t backfire," tweeted another fan.
https://twitter.com/TheSaItIsHere/status/1309803281368186881
https://twitter.com/markgoldbridge/status/1309804929503068160
https://twitter.com/Vintage_Utd/status/1309803401358774275
https://twitter.com/AminuPak8/status/1309808999953502208
Some even went as far as saying Bailly is the club's best central defender.
https://twitter.com/UTDTrey/status/1309806459857797120
Whether Bailly is the better defender or not is a matter of opinion and is hard to judge based on how little he has played over the past year. But what is certain is that Lindelöf cannot afford to have another bad game against Brighton.
