Next Sunday, 14th of September 2014, a clearly underachieving Manchester United will take on QPR at Old Trafford for round 4 of the English Premier League, on a match that the home side desperately needs to win.

It is really make or break time for Manchester United if they really want to aspire to something different from what they achieved last season at the English Premier League. The Red Devils’ new boss, Louis Van Gaal, brought in new ideas and a different game style to the team, but he definitely needs more time to get things back on track as the ghosts of a recent past keep taunting both the players and supporters.

United again failed to find the way to victory when they visited Turf Moor last week and not even the newcomer Di Maria was enough to provide a different flow to the team’s game. At the end of the match, Louis Van Gaal told the media that the Red Devils did not do enough to win the match and expressed his disappointment towards another draw. The first clean sheet of the season wasn’t enough to please the Dutch manager that wants his team to be more accurate in front of the goal.

For the next match against QPR, there are some good news for Van Gaal, who will be able to use the Argentinean defender Rojo, now that he has been given is work visa. On the other hand, the Dutch manager is not yet certain if he may rely on the contribution of Radamel Falcao, since it seems that all the necessary paperwork regarding his loan move is not yet fully processed.

United’s injury list is also quite significant. Carrick, Rafael, Lingard, Herrera, Fellaini, Shaw and Smalling will most certainly miss next Sunday’s match since they are still recovering from their respective injuries.

As for QPR, Harry Redknapp’s boys returned to wins the day their boss abandoned the somewhat compromising 3-5-2 style in favour of a more versatile 4-3-3 approach, thanks to a goal from Charlie Austin.

QPR started the season on a very slow pace with three consecutive defeats, two for the English Premier League against Hull and Spurs, and another one for the Capital One Cup at the hands of the modest Burton Albion from the English fourth tier.

Last week’s win against Sunderland, though, might be the catalyst QPR needed to get back on track and if they managed to cause an upset to a nervous United at Old Trafford next Sunday, they could eventually sweep all the negativity from the first three matches under the rug.

The last time both sides met at Old Trafford was back in 2012, and United granted a 3-1 win back then. Despite their less impressive moment, Manchester United are favourites to win the next Sunday match.

Manchester United

Stats: W-1 L-2 D-2

Recent Form - DLDLW

QPR

Stats: W-1 L-4 D-0

Recent Form - WLLLL

Possible Line-ups

Manchester United (3-5-2) – De Gea - Rojo - Jones - Evans - Young - Valencia - Fletcher - Di Maria - Mata - Rooney - Van Persie

QPR (4-3-3) - Green - Caulker - Ferdinand - Hill - Isla - Phillips - Barton - Faurlin - Mutch - Fer - Austin

Prediction

Manchester United 2 QPR 0