"To have a chance, we have to play with a good team, knowing that two days later we have to play in the Premier League."
So spoke Jose Mourinho on Wednesday and within his almost-paradoxical statement lies the problem of betting on Premier League teams in the Europa League.
Certainly at this stage, the competition is rarely deemed more important than a domestic match for the English sides and with United's forthcoming fixture being Chelsea away on Sunday, you'd imagine something will have to give.
When you also consider United come into the game off the back of a high-intensity clash at Anfield on Monday night and also have a looming EFL Cup derby with local rivals City coming up next week, you can see Mourinho will likely have been planning to rest several of his top players for this clash.
When he changed most of his side in this competition against Feyenoord last month they were beaten, while even with a stronger line-up they only just scraped past Zorya Luhansk last time out.
magista obra cheap At least there are story arcs to grab some interest - it was against these opponents that Wayne Rooney scored a hat-trick on his United debut 12 years ago, while Robin van Persie returns to Old Trafford after a rather subdued departure in 2015.
superfly v black uk Betting angles are harder to find, thought. Fener's form is somewhat indifferent so even a much-changed United side should fancy their chances, although whether you'd want to back them at 4/7 is open to question.
One angle could be to side with a player my colleague David John mentioned in his preview of Monday's game, Jesse Lingard.
As it turned out, the youngster was one of those to make way for the more defensive system that Mourinho employed to the desired effect.
He'll likely be one of those to return and having got himself into some good positions of late, could be of some interest in the goalscoring markets (11/4 any time, 8/1 first).
sale superfly v black The same can be said of Paul Pogba (29/10, 15/2), who appears to be settling into a more advanced role now, although he would appear less likely to be involved.
cheap hypervenom phontam In any case, I can see this being another low-scoring affair - like the Zorya game - and frankly I'd rather look elsewhere in search of profit.
After seeing Inter Milan humbled for a second time in the Europa League three weeks ago, I was getting quite excited about getting a good price on Southampton beating them on matchday three.
They'd still be priced up too much on name and reputation and not enough on form, was the theory.
Unfortunately, Inter's results have gone from bad to worse, while Saints' impressive run has continued apace and they are now unbeaten in seven, having won five of those.
So instead of getting 5/1 or even more, as I'd hoped, the visitors are no bigger than 11/5 to win in the San Siro which is short enough.
Southampton's defence has been watertight while further forward Dusan Tadic and Nathan Redmond have been flourishing and helping Charlie Austin grab the headlines.
cheap tiempo legend v Austin, a player who has scored goals consistently at every level he's played at, has now netted seven times in his last six games.
But despite that, and a huge game for the club up next, boss Claude Puel has suggested that Austin - and some of his other first-choice players - won't be involved on Thursday night.
