Grimsby Town head coach David Artell has revealed his game plan as he prepares his side to welcome Manchester United to Blundell Park tomorrow night.
The Mariners have enjoyed an excellent start to the season, having not tasted defeat in all six of their games in all competitions so far. A 1-1 draw with Accrington Stanley on Saturday did see them drop to fourth in League Two, but all eyes are now on their clash with the 20-time English champions.
This will be the first meeting between the two teams since 1948, with a sold-out crowd expected. Despite the gulf in divisions, United will be wary of an upset against a team which seem to have forgotten how to lose.
Ruben Amorim’s woes at the helm at Old Trafford have been well documented. Since replacing Erik ten Hag last November, he struggled to get the team to adapt to his formation, eventually securing a 15th placed finish. This was their worst league position of the Premier League era, and their lowest since suffering relegation from the old Division One in 1974.
Artell Excited To ‘Test Ourselves Against The Very Best’
Whereas Grimsby are in excellent form, their opponents travel to Lincolnshire looking to avoid embarrassment. Having spent close to £200 million this summer, they are still searching for their first win of the campaign having lost 1-0 to Arsenal on the opening day before drawing against Fulham on Sunday.
Despite that, Artell was full of praise for the three-time European Champions, claiming they are a squad full of word class players. Speaking to Grimsby Live, he said:
“It’s a brilliant test, and we want this to be a great platform for the players, but hopefully not the pinnacle of the season or their careers, because there is so much more we want to achieve and we want them to achieve.
“I’ve not got internal questions about the players about what they’ve done in the last week to prepare for this game because they’ve shown their professionalism across the board so far.
“We want to play with freedom, both in attacking and defending sense and stick to our principles, no matter the opposition and whatever the result, we’ll come in and know that we gave it our all.
“This game is all about testing ourselves against the very best. They played well against Fulham and against Arsenal; they were outstanding, so these are world-class players, and our players can test themselves against it, which for me is exciting.”
Writer’s View
This may not be the Manchester United of old, but this still represents a huge fixture for Grimsby. David Artell will be confident that his players have enough quality to at least cause Ruben Amorim some headaches, whilst the former Sporting Lisbon boss will be keen to get his season up and running with a comfortable win. However, he has already admitted that he will heavily rotate, which could benefit the Mariners. Few expect an upset, but it isn’t completely out of the question.
