The Manchester United fans here in the Transfer Tavern are looking forward to hopefully seeing their team secure qualification from the group stages tonight.

A home tie against Benfica awaits tonight under the floodlights of Old Trafford and United will be looking at wrapping up what our punters think will a be a very successful season back in the Champions League, if they can secure their name in the hat for the next round with two games to play. Our glass collector thinks, with United fighting on all fronts, early qualification will help Mourinho rotate further down the line when the games come thick and fast.

One man that Mourinho will be hoping to have a good game tonight is summer signing Romelu Lukaku. The Belgian has gone a few games without finding the back of the net after an explosive start to his Red Devils career, he’s still helping the team score goals but the striker will want to silence the growing critics with a top-class performance.

Our Landlord looks at two reasons why Lukaku needs to play out of his skin tonight…

Silence the doubters

Nowadays, if a striker with the kind of price tag Lukaku has doesn’t find the net within a couple of games he’s labelled as a flop, can’t handle the big time etc.

Lukaku has had his fair share of critics in recent weeks despite coming close to scoring or assisting in goals scored. A goal to secure the knockout stage tonight will shush his doubters and nip in the bud any sign of lacking in confidence before it grows too much.

Zlatan on the Horizon

The Swede is inching ever closer to returning to first-team action, much to the delight of our resident Red Devils. Once he’s back in full flow, you can’t see either man being happy to sit on the bench and things are going to hot up quite quickly in the goalscoring stakes.

Lukaku will want to get back in the goal-grabbing swing as soon as possible to make sure he’s still the number one striker in Mourinho’s mind.