Manchester United v Valencia preview: Ashley Young, Jesse Lingard ruled out

Jose Mourinho will be hoping to get Manchester United back on a positive footing against Valencia on Tuesday (kick-off 8pm), after a turbulent week for the manager.

United have made their worst start to a league season for 29 years and the pressure on Mourinho intensified following a limp 3-1 defeat at West Ham United.

In addition to the 3-1 reverse at the London Stadium, United have lost to Brighton and Tottenham and were knocked out of the Carabao Cup by Derby on penalties.

However, United are top of Group H in the Champions League after beating Young Boys in their opening match and Mourinho thinks a return to European competition can help the confidence of his team.

"A Champions League week is always a good week, even if you expect a difficult match, a difficult opponent," Mourinho said.

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"Everyone wants to play Champions League, not everyone can do it. So we are here and we have the chance to play a big match. So, big match, big week."

Meanwhile, Valencia have also found life tough domestically this season.

They picked up their first win of the season at Real Sociedad on Saturday after drawing five of their first six La Liga matches.

Marcelino's men are third in the group after losing 2-0 at home against Juventus.

Team news

Jesse Lingard, Ashley Young, Ander Herrera and Marcos Rojo all are unavailable for Manchester United with injury.

Young started the defeat to West Ham while Herrera and Lingard did not feature and Rojo has a long-term injury problem.

Jose Gaya is back in training for Valencia after missing the weekend victory with injury but Santi Mina and Ferran Torres remain absentees.

Kevin Gameiro found the net on Saturday and he's likely to partner on-loan Chelsea man Michy Batshuayi up front.

Opta stats

• Manchester United have lost only once in eight previous meetings with Valencia in all competitions (W2 D5), and never in the Champions League (P6 W2 D4 L0), with this their first encounter in this competition since December 2010, a 1-1 draw at Old Trafford.
• Against no other side have Manchester United faced in the Champions League more often than Valencia without ever losing (six games, level with Bayer 04 Leverkusen and CSKA Moscow).
• Valencia have only won once in 10 visits to English sides in the Champions League (D6 L3), a 1-0 win over Liverpool at Anfield in October 2002.
• Manchester United have not lost back-to-back home Champions League games since March 2013 when Alex Ferguson was in charge.
• Manchester United have lost just one of their last 18 Champions League group stage games at Old Trafford (W12 D5), a 1-0 defeat to CFR Cluj in December 2012. They have won eight of their last nine such games since that defeat (D1).
• Valencia have lost each of their last four Champions League games, their worst ever streak in the competition. Only two Spanish clubs have ever lost 5+ consecutive games in the history of the competition - Real Sociedad (five in October 2013) and Villarreal (seven in December 2011).
• Just one of Valencia's last 17 Champions League group stage games has ended in a draw (W8 D1 L8), a 1-1 stalemate against Bayern Munich in November 2012.
• Manchester United midfielder Paul Pogba scored as many goals in the opening game of this season's Champions League against BSC Young Boys (2) as he did in his previous 37 matches in the competition combined.
• Pogba has been directly involved in four of Manchester United's last six Champions League goals (two goals, two assists), including all three this season (two goals, one assist).

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Charlie's prediction

There are such big problems at Manchester United. No one knows who the leader is. Jose Mourinho is trying to be but he is unconvincing, while Pogba Pogba has his group, who are against the manager.

For the first time in his career it seems Mourinho doesn't know what to do and how to actually play. He's never doubted himself like this before, even when it was going wrong at Chelsea. If I was him I'd drop Pogba, Anthony Martial and Alexis Sanchez and tell them to stay at home. But he cannot do that, he does not have the options to replace them. So, he's got to try and deal with it and it is clearly negatively affecting everything at the club. Against Valencia, they need a good start being at home, because the crowd will get frustrated after 20 minutes if it's not right.

CHARLIE PREDICTS: 1-1 (6/1 with Sky Bet)

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