{"id":655370,"date":"2025-12-26T06:26:50","date_gmt":"2025-12-26T06:26:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/655370\/"},"modified":"2025-12-26T06:26:50","modified_gmt":"2025-12-26T06:26:50","slug":"how-man-united-should-line-up-vs-newcastle-in-boxing-day-premier-league-fixture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/655370\/","title":{"rendered":"How Man United should line up vs Newcastle in Boxing Day Premier League fixture"},"content":{"rendered":"

Manchester United welcome Newcastle to Old Trafford this evening as they look to return to winning ways in the Premier League.\"ManchesterManchester United are looking to return to winning ways when they host Newcastle on Boxing Day(Image: Getty Images\/Pick the Team)<\/p>\n

Manchester United return to Premier League action tonight for the only Boxing Day fixture in the division with Newcastle the visitors to Old Trafford. United<\/a> will be hoping they can get a win following the defeat to Aston Villa on Sunday. The loss meant the Reds missed the chance to move up to fifth in the table, but due to playing before everyone else this weekend the opportunity is still there.<\/p>\n

Ruben Amorim will be without Bruno Fernandes<\/a> and Kobbie Mainoo<\/a> for the fixture. Harry Maguire and Matthijs de Ligt are also missing but could return next Tuesday against Wolverhampton Wanderers. Casemiro is available having served his one-game suspension.<\/p>\n

MEN Sport has asked their United writers to pick their team for tonight’s fixture under the lights.<\/p>\n

Tyrone Marshall<\/strong><\/p>\n

United’s squad is desperately stretched again and there are very few options available to Amorim<\/a> to mix things up. There will be a temptation to bring Lisandro Martinez back but it’s Leny Yoro’s place that is vulnerable and the question has to be whether Martinez can play on the right, so for now that back three remains unchanged.<\/p>\n

Diogo Dalot and Patrick Dorgu are the only available wing-backs. In midfield, it has to be Manuel Ugarte in the deep role and then Casemiro next to him, but it’s not a combination that inspires. Newcastle will fancy winning the midfield battle as they so often do against United.<\/p>\n

There aren’t many attacking options either, so Mason Mount, Matheus Cunha and Benjamin Sesko go again. Cunha is at least in magnificent form at the moment.<\/p>\n

\"TyroneTyrone’s Manchester United XI to take on Newcastle on Boxing Day<\/p>\n

Steven Railston<\/strong><\/p>\n

Martinez was good from off the bench last weekend, but he played in midfield. I would stick with the same back three, although I would make a big change in midfield for this festive game.<\/p>\n

Ugarte is well below the standard required and I would give Jack Fletcher a chance to start alongside Casemiro. Ugarte was poor again at Villa Park and we’ve seen enough of him to suggest he’s not at the level required.<\/p>\n

Fletcher’s cameo was encouraging and it would be exciting to see what he can offer from the start.<\/p>\n

Steven’s team.<\/p>\n

Jack Flintham<\/strong><\/p>\n

What will be concerning Amorim going into this game is who will be providing the creativity next to Casemiro. That’s why moving Mount<\/a> back should be tempting for United this Boxing Day.<\/p>\n

Replacing him in the No.10 role in this scenario would be Joshua Zirkzee<\/a>. The Dutchman has struggled at United but his better performances have come when he has played in a deeper role and not been asked to lead the line.<\/p>\n

Otherwise, it should be the same team that did little wrong at Villa – other than not winning.<\/p>\n

\"Here'sJack’s team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Manchester United welcome Newcastle to Old Trafford this evening as they look to return to winning ways in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":655371,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8813],"tags":[45878,748,393,4884,2465,423,26709,11492,101,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-655370","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manchester","8":"tag-boxing-day","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-manchester","13":"tag-manchester-united-fc","14":"tag-manchester-united-fc-team-news","15":"tag-newcastle-united-fc","16":"tag-premier-league","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115784453199702696","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=655370"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655370\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/655371"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=655370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=655370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=655370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}