By David Hobbs
October 13 2005

After a whole week of World Cup Qualifiers, it's back to Premiership business for Manchester United as they travel to Sunderland's Stadium of Light on Saturday.

Sunderland v. Manchester United
Barclays Premier League
The Stadium of Light
15th October, 2005 

After a whole week of World Cup Qualifiers, it's back to Premiership business for Manchester United as they travel to Sunderland's Stadium of Light on Saturday.

However, United players such as Wayne Rooney, Rio Ferdinand and Ruud van Nistelrooy will have to wait until they jet out to Germany in the summer as they still have club duties with United.

Sunderland have made their worst ever start to a Premiership campaign and are one of eight clubs to have managed just one Premiership triumph so far this season.

However, despite struggling, Mick McCarthy will not be playing conservative football and will go for the jugular. He admitted: "We'll be playing 4-4-2. There's no point sitting back and letting all their best players come and attack us. I won't be changing the way we play. 

"Manchester United won't come here and sit back and there's no reason why we should against them. They'll come here and expect to win.

"They still are, despite Chelsea's current domination of the Premiership, one of the biggest, if not the biggest, clubs in the world.

"They'll have that swagger, that self-belief, that confidence - they are Manchester United and are a very good side."

McCarthy's positive attitude also seems to be rubbing off on his players as on-loan right-back Justin Hoyte, from Arsenal, added: "The lads are going into the game with no fear and believing that we can get a good result."

Team News: 
With Gabriel Heinze a long term absence at left-back, the midweek injury to Kieran Richardson while on international duty with England will come as a big blow to United. The extent of Richardson's injury hasn't been revealed yet, but is due to be made public soon.

"Kieran had to stop training after 45 minutes on Monday and the same thing happened on Tuesday," said Sven Goran Eriksson earlier this week. "He was very keen to stay involved but we are qualified and we told him it was better that he should find out what the problem is, otherwise he would have been on the bench or on the pitch."

Therefore, young defender Phil Bardsley is likely to be pushed to right-back and John O'Shea to left-back.

Paul Scholes and Cristiano Ronaldo could be restricted to places on the bench, like at Craven Cottage, as Ji Sung Park and Ryan Giggs earned rave reviews against Fulham.

ManUtdWeb Prediction:
An away trip to Sunderland is never easy, but the game is a must-win for United and I'm backing them to do so.

David Hobbs - Webmaster
[david@manutdweb.com]