Manchester United vs. Galatasaray prediction: Champions League odds, picks

Things are not going well for Manchester United.

The Red Devils are 3-0-4 (W-D-L) in the Premier League, lost their opening match in the Champions League and now find themselves in a must-win spot against Galatasaray on Tuesday. 

That shouldn’t be a big deal for a club the size of United and it is a big favorite to beat Galatasaray at Old Trafford, but with the way things are going it’s hard to feel confident this will be a straightforward contest for the Red Devils.

Manchester United vs. Galatasaray prediction

(3 p.m. ET., Paramount+)

The biggest concern for Manchester United is that, well, it has a lot of problems.

It isn’t just one thing that’s going wrong for Erik ten Hag’s side out of the gates.

The Red Devils are struggling defensively, missing key players through injury and suspensions and not generating a lot of scoring chances.

You could forgive the Red Devils for being suspect defensively if they were buoyant going forward, but they rank 11th in the Premier League in non-penalty expected goals for, 13th big scoring chances created and ninth in expected threat.

Those numbers paint them as a mediocre side right now.

We all know that this team has too much talent to stay at this level all season, and they should improve when they get healthier, but those are long-term outlooks.

The ground-level view right now is that United just isn’t very good, making it very vulnerable as a big favorite, even at home.

We just saw that come to fruition over the weekend when the Red Devils were upset by Crystal Palace, 1-0, in the Premier League.

Palace closed as a +487 underdog in that match, which makes it pretty peculiar that Galatasaray is sitting at +600 for Tuesday’s showdown at Old Trafford. 

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Sure, you can make an adjustment for Galatasaray traveling to Turkey, but this is a very talented team with familiar faces all over the lineup.

An attacking group featuring Hakim Ziyech, Wilfried Zaha, Mauro Icardi and Dries Mertens is more than capable of giving United plenty to think about Tuesday. 

The Bet: Galatasaray +600 (Caesars)