Norwich City vs Manchester United - Neil confident Norwich players are ready

Posted Saturday, May 07, 2016 by PA

Norwich manager Alex Neil is confident his players are ready for the "biggest game of our lives" when they tackle Manchester United at Carrow Road aiming to lift themselves out of the relegation zone.

With just three matches left, the Canaries are 19th, yet only two points behind 17th-placed-Newcastle, who have played a match more.

Norwich kick off the weekend's Barclays Premier League action on Saturday lunchtime, so could leave their rivals playing catch-up, with Sunderland at home to Chelsea while Newcastle travel to relegated Aston Villa.

Another home game against Watford comes next week, and Neil accepts the club are now entering a make-or-break period.

"Any time you are going into big game it becomes your biggest game, anything you have done in your past no-one really cares about any more, it doesn't become important," said Neil, who took Norwich up via the 2015 Sky Bet Championship play-off final at Wembley.

"So this is certainly the biggest game of our lives at the moment because it is the most relevant for us and is going to shape the future for us going forward."

Neil added at a press conference: "Everybody knows the situation, so I don't think it is going to have massive difference in terms of how we would approach the game or they (relegation rivals) would approach the game.

"What it does do is apply pressure to their game, but there will be pressure on that anyway. They will recognise and we recognise that all the teams need to win games to stay in the division.

"There is only two (left) for Newcastle, three for us and Sunderland so we know this is a crunch match for us and we need to try to apply pressure back on the other teams now."

Norwich will monitor defender Ryan Bennett, who has been struggling with a illness, while Swiss centre-back Timm Klose and on-loan Liverpool defender Andre Wisdom (both knee) and Alex Tettey (ankle) are out.

Manchester United's primary aim this weekend is to stay in the hunt for a top-four place in the Premier League - but Louis van Gaal insists revenge is also on the menu.

United are four points adrift of neighbours Manchester City, who occupy the final Champions League place, but have played one game fewer.

Van Gaal believes his Red Devils need to take maximum points from their three remaining matches to stand a chance of jumping the queue, but when they head to Norwich for Saturday's early kick-off there is an additional motivation.

Arguably the highlight of the struggling Canaries' season came in December when they won the reverse fixture 2-1, courtesy of goals from Cameron Jerome and Tettey.

And Van Gaal would be happy to exact a measure of payback.

"We have to win our matches because otherwise we cannot be in the first four - that's the pressure that we have. We have to fight until the end," said the Dutchman.

"They (Norwich) won at Old Trafford, so we have to take revenge also.

"It's always difficult to fight against a team that fights to maintain their position in the Premier League from relegation. That's always very difficult to fight against, but that is not an excuse. We have to cope with that.

"It shall be a very tough game but in spite of that we have to win."

United will be without the suspended Marouane Fellaini for their trip. Ander Herrera and Morgan Schneiderlin are vying for midfield recalls, but Bastian Schweinsteiger (knee) and Luke Shaw (broken leg) remain out.