Next Saturday, 17th of January 2015, an inconsistent Manchester United will travel to Loftus Road to measure forces with QPR for round 22 of the English Premier League, on a match of the utmost importance for both sides who are currently desperate for points but for completely different reasons.

The somewhat shaky win over Yeovil for the FA Cup last weekend was some sort of a prologue to Manchester United’s home defeat against Southampton. The Red Devils were pretty uninspired on their home match against the Saints last Sunday and ended up conceding their fourth defeat of the season and losing the third place of the EPL table to Ronald Koeman’s men. A second-half goal from the Serbian maestro Dusan Tadic was enough to sink United’s adrift vessel that never found a way to reach safe harbour against a well organized Southampton side that seemed to have prepared the match at Old Trafford meticulously.

The Argentinean star Angel Di Maria returned to United’s starting line-up, pairing with Robin Van Persie up in the front, but he failed to upset the Saints tight defence line and ended up by being substituted on 72’ minute of the match by the Belgian midfielder Marouane Fellaini. Like Di Maria, Manchester United looked particularly uninspired on Sunday and, although they created some excellent goal chances during the second-half, they never looked capable of changing the course of the match.

Next weekend’s match against QPR is of paramount significance for the Red Devils who cannot allow any more slip ups if they still want to secure a place among the top five this season and a win is almost mandatory. For that particular clash, Louis Van Gaal is not yet certain if he will be able to rely on the contribution of Ashley Young, who is still recovering from injury.

As for QPR, after a somewhat positive period last month, the London team returned to their usual inconsistency and have not won any single match of this new year so far. Their agonizing home defeat against Sheffield United last weekend for the FA Cup opened deep breaches in the team’s fragile structure and had a negative effect on the players’ motivation levels. QPR didn’t manage to bounce back from such defeat and ended up by conceding another defeat this weekend at the hands of Burnley at Turf Moor.

Despite their recent home defeat against the Saints, United are firm favourites to win the Loftus Road match but they will certainly need to dig deep in order to clinch the desired three points.

QPR

Stats: W-0 L-3 D-2

Recent Form - LLDDL

Manchester United

Stats: W-2 L-1 D-2

Recent Form - LWDDW

Possible Line-ups

QPR (4-4-1-1) - Green - Caulker - Dunne - Hill - Isla - Fer - Henry - Barton - Vargas - Zarate - Austin

Manchester United (3-5-2) – De Gea - Jones - Rojo - Smalling - Blind- Carrick - Mata -Di Maria - Rooney - Van Persie - Falcao

Prediction

QPR 1 Manchester United 2