Manchester United will host Everton at the Old Trafford, Sunday. If Louis van Gaal and his men want to make it to the UEFA Champions League in the next season, they will have to yield positive results from almost all their remaining games from now on.
The Red Devils will be up against a scratchy Everton. They are 13 points adrift off the top four. Last season, they had finished in the 11th position, and this season too they are staring at a bottom half finish.
United should be wary of Romelu Lukaku who has found the back of the net 18 times in this season of the English Premier League (EPL).
"We always have a game plan. We have trained that plan today [Friday].Lukaku, yes, but we have very good defenders in Smalling and Blind," Van Gaal was quoted as saying by the official website of Manchester United.
"I think that every club in the world is comparing strikers and, when you score a lot of goals, you are also a potential candidate for the clubs," he added, when asked if Lukaku deserves to be on the big stage."
"Football is like that. When you give the result, what we want to expect of a striker is scoring goals and giving assists and, when he does that at the highest level, in the Premier League, then he is very interesting."
It is not like Everton are not scoring goals. They have scored 51 goals in this season, but their defence have let them down after having conceded 41 times in this season.
With such kind of a defence, lads like Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial are going to trouble the John Stones, Leighton Baines and others. It will be a real test of character for these defenders against an inexperienced yet challenging United front-line.
"Obviously you want to respond from any defeat and we weren't happy with the manner in which we lost against Arsenal," Baines told Everton's official website.
"We haven't given the fans the results they deserve [at Goodison] but we hope to continue our good away form at least and get another win and finish the season strongly."
"It's a tough game but it's a good chance for us to bounce back."
The Toffees have lost only one away game since October and that is something they will be counting on. They also await Manchester United or West Ham in the FA Cup semi-finals.
A win against the Red Devils away from home will be a major boost for Roberto Martinez and his men in blue.
Where to watch live:
Manchester United vs Everton is set to start at 3:00 p.m. GMT (8:30 p.m. IST, 4 p.m. BST, 12 p.m. ET). Live TV coverage of the match in India will be on Star Sports 2 and HD2,while the match can also be watched via live streaming online on Hotstar and Starsports.com.
Manchester United vs Everton will be shown live in the UK and Ireland on Sky Sports 1 and Sky Sports HD 1,while the match can be live streamed on Watch Sky Sports.
NBCSN will broadcast the Manchester United vs Everton EPL game live in the US, while the action can also be live streamed on NBC Sports Live Extra
Australia viewers can watch the EPL game live on Fox Sports 4, while the online live stream options are on Fox Sports On Demand and Foxtel Play.
