Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur are due to face off in the Premier League on Saturday and one particular reunion will be at the centre of the top-flight clash
Bryan Mbeumo and Thomas Frank worked together last season but are rivals this weekend(Image: George Wood/Getty Images)
Tottenham’s Premier League meeting with Manchester United this weekend will see manager Thomas Frank reunited with Bryan Mbeumo for the first time since the two men took different paths over the summer. Frank explored a move for Mbeumo after replacing Ange Postecoglou at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, only for the Cameroon star to opt for United.
Last season, Frank and Mbeumo were two big factors as former club Brentford finished 10th in the league. Mbeumo top-scored with 20 goals, the best single-season return of his career, while Frank shook off the loss of Ivan Toney to secure a comfortable mid-table finish.
Since moving to Old Trafford for up to £71million including add-ons, Mbeumo has established himself as a regular threat. He has five goals from 11 appearances in all competitions, four of those in the league, and his former boss Frank isn’t surprised.
“Of course I’ll step out of my role at Tottenham. When you work with a player for six years, you get a close relationship,” the Danish coach said.. “To see him develop from being a young man, 19-year-old when he moved to London and Brentford and left six years later, going into one of the biggest clubs in the world with all that focus and the way he stepped up.
“For me, looking from the outside, maybe a little bit biased, I think he’s been their best offensive player. He can create, he can score, he works hard, he’s a team player. He’s the perfect example, in my opinion, for a player what I call about attitude, confident but humble. He’s a top player.”
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Mbeumo goes into Saturday’s match fresh from winning the Premier League’s Player of the Month award for October. He is United’s first recipient of the award since Bruno Fernandes in March, and the first Cameroonian to win it since Joel Matip of Liverpool back in 2022.
This weekend marks the first meeting between United and Spurs since the Europa League final in May. On that occasion, Spurs came out 1-0 winners to secure Champions League qualification while ensuring their opponents have no European football this term.
“We have different characteristics in our team but we also have a lot of players that played last year. So we are a better team, we play better, we understand the game better,” United boss Ruben Amorim told reporters when asked about what has changed since that final.
“I think we are more confident. We reached that final confident that we could win because we were doing well in Europe, but in this moment we play with a different confidence.
“We managed better the moments of the game, but if you remember that game they had that [one] shot on the goal, they won the game. I expect a different game, that we can play better but also to have a little bit of luck to help us win the game.”
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