What Do Fans Want to See from Manchester United's Trip to Swansea?

Manchester United are struggling. However it is dressed up, whatever the reasons, however the Jose Mourinho project is destined to end—in a blaze of glory or just ablaze—things are not going well at the moment.

An away trip to Swansea City should not have this much pressure on it, but here we are. Anything less than a win on Sunday will feed into the narrative of a mini-crisis. And as artificially inflated as that sense might be, United can ill afford to drop many points if they hope to finish in the top four, let alone mount an unlikely Premier League title challenge.

With that in mind, we asked fans on Twitter what they hope to see from the performance. Let's take a look at some of the responses.

"

@UtdRantcast win. regardless of the performance. Just get them 3 points and go home.

— Dr. Marvin (@borkarabhijeet) November 4, 2016"

This is the bottom line. Being seven points off fourth—and five points off fifth behind some good teams, being well managed—is not a good look at this point in the season. Whatever else happens, Mourinho needs to pick up points from winnable fixtures.

Swansea sit in 19th place in the league. They have, however, mustered a few decent performances since Bob Bradley took over as manager in early October. Liverpool were pretty fortunate to leave south Wales with all three points back on October 1, the defeat costing Francesco Guidolin his job. Arsenal were a little lucky to earn all three points from the Swans' visit to the Emirates Stadium on October 15.

Stoke City's 3-1 win over Bradley's side on Monday was pretty convincing, but still, with United in the form they are, they cannot afford to take Swansea lightly. Those three points are vital.

Ah, goals. Remember goals? The Red Devils have not scored a league goal in over a month, with 0-0 draws against Liverpool and Burnley and that 4-0 drubbing at Chelsea's hands coming since. But there are clearly goals in the side, as evidenced by the 45-minute four-goal feast against Leicester City and the 4-1 win over Fenerbahce.

Under former manager Louis van Gaal, goals were also a problem, though the underlying causes of the lack of end product looked markedly different. Mourinho's side is playing with plenty of attacking intent—particularly at home—but the strikers, Zlatan Ibrahimovic in particular, have been profligate.

Indeed, if United can indeed muster "a Burnley performance" and Zlatan Ibrahimovic takes his chances, there will be little to worry about. However, United's away performances have generally been less impressive than those at Old Trafford. The showings on the road against Fenerbahce, Watford and Chelsea could all be categorised as embarrassing given how poor they were.

"

@UtdRantcast 2 goals. No goal conceded. Character and a bit of passion.

— FourFourRED (@FourFourRED) November 5, 2016"

It is interesting to see passion and desire cited by so many people. It would clearly suggest this is something fans feel strongly about. There have certainly been games in which this has looked lacking, though that is a subjective take.

The players' heads obviously dropped at Chelsea, and the latter part of that game saw them seemingly going through the motions—once they went 3-0 down, they essentially downed tools. At Fenerbahce, things were not a lot better.

At home, it has been different—there was no lack of endeavour, effort or commitment against Burnley, for example. But whatever the reality of what the players are giving is, it is clear there are plenty of fans who remain unconvinced by the levels of those precious intangibles on display.

When Mourinho took over in the summer, defensive organisation seemed likely to follow. Yet that has clearly not been the case so far. There have been some unfortunate injuries, certainly, but there have been way too many individual errors from back-four personnel.

Indeed, so many of United's defensive lapses have come from lone players that it is hard to hold Mourinho accountable for much of this. Defensive organisation was hardly the problem when Chris Smalling made mistake after mistake against Chelsea or Daley Blind allowed Kevin De Bruyne to ghost past him in the Manchester derby back in September.

But good defensive performances have been at a premium, and it is easy to see why fans want another.

This is a tricky subject to assess. There have been games, or at least periods in games, when United's plan has looked clear. But generally, when things have been going less well it has been difficult to assess what the Red Devils are under Jose Mourinho

Are they a possession-oriented attacking team? Are they a counter-attacking unit? Neither defines them so far.

At their best, they have been a muscular and skilful unit, capable of carving out plenty of chances. At their worst, they have been a stuttering mess, easily overwhelmed. A well-executed game plan would go a long way toward showing there is some improvement happening.

Ibrahimovic's form has been a massive part of the problem of late, but he is still getting plenty of chances. It would seem reasonable to hope he will start firing again—this is not a Radamel Falcao-type situation. Ibrahimovic does not look shot; he just looks surprisingly short on confidence.

He perhaps needs a rest, though with an international break following this game, he will surely start in Swansea.

If Mourinho could truly get United to play without fear, a huge percentage of his job would be done. The Red Devils have often played like a team burdened by the weight of expectation in recent years. Self-belief is a vital missing ingredient.

Received tactical wisdom has changed so much in football over the past few years. Playing a genuine two-striker system would border on revolutionary now. United do, though, have at least some of the personnel to implement such an approach.

Paul Pogba and Ander Herrera could probably bear the load in a midfield two. Ibrahimovic and Marcus Rashford could be a match made in heaven. It is not likely to happen, but it would be intriguing to see.

Now, it should be stated here that Michael Carrick could be benefiting a little from the phenomenon whereby a player who is not all that involved with an underperforming first XI grows in reputation with every game he misses—think Gareth Barry at the 2010 World Cup. In truth, over the years, United have been bad with Carrick in the side plenty of times.

But when he has played this season, he has had a steadying effect on United's midfield. He has sort of made the whole team make sense. And given the opposition, it would make plenty of sense to try him in the Premier League here. He still has plenty to offer, and Mourinho could do a lot worse than to give him a game.

While it would be a lot of fun to see Axel Tuanzebe and Timothy Fosu-Mensah given a first-team run-out, it seems remarkably unlikely that a beleaguered Mourinho would turn to youth in his time of need. 

Of course, having asked on Twitter, not all the replies were serious. Here is a round up of the best of those less serious responses. Incidentally, it is just possible that Bleacher Report's Karl Matchett is not a United fan:

"

@UtdRantcast Park the bus. Young and Rashford playing as full back basically and scrape a 0-0.

— Charlie Autie (@AutieCharlie) November 4, 2016"

"

@UtdRantcast lots and lots of dabs pic.twitter.com/If9nBghU7q

— JOSHUA (@JoshuaGraham93) November 5, 2016"

But back to the serious answers...

Here we have, in essence, what United's hardcore support wants. Not miracles, not all-conquering, earth-shattering performances every time the team runs out. Just the basics done well.

Results will be what they will, but the simple message in "play for the shirt" has, at its heart, all the club's most dedicated fans ever want from their team.