Manchester United News: Red Devils change training location ahead of Manchester City clash
- The United team trained at The Cliff instead of the usual ground at Carrington.
What's the story?
Just hours before kickoff, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer called for a light training session at the club's old and former training ground, The Cliff. Currently, training sessions are held at Carrington.
In case you didn't know...
Going into the match, Manchester City are fighting for the title whilst Manchester United are competing against Arsenal, Tottenham and Chelsea to finish in top four this season. The Red Devils were on the receiving end of a shocking defeat to Everton last weekend at Goodison Park. Fortunately, the rest of the top four contenders did not do particularly well either with Chelsea drawing with Burnley and Arsenal losing at home to Crystal Palace.
Solskjaer's team have a slight advantage given that City's key midfielder, Kevin De Bruyne has been ruled out of the match after suffering an injury whilst playing against Tottenham. Given United's current form, fans would still be worried over the result of the derby clash.
The heart of the matter
With the change in location, the manager would be hoping that his players can deliver the result on the pitch. Many former stars such as David Beckham, George Best and Duncan Edwards once trained on the ground.
However, Sir Alex Fergurson felt that the training ground did not meet the demands of an elite football club playing in the EPL. Thereafter, the club started to train at Carrington.
United have lost six of their last eight games in all competitions. Surely Solskjaer must be finding some means of injecting a positive spirit to the team and inject a revival among the players. Hopefully, their trip to The Cliff will pay off when they face City tonight.
What's next?
A win for United could see them overtake Arsenal, depending on the result of Arsenal's tie against Wolves which will happen at the same time as the Manchester derby. If City were to get all three points, they would retake the pole position in the table standings and leave Solskjaer's hopes of a top-four finish in serious doubts.
Published 24 Apr 2019, 19:31 IST
