Freelanders cant really do offroading! They are good for snow or mud where conditions are slippery but the ground is leveled...as they hardly have any suspention travel. They are soft roaders.
They breakdown often and are expensive to repair; spares in Pk are only available at Sigma; organisation of highly incompetent jackasses and thieves!
I would personally go for manual, at least I cant drive it hard with worrying about breaking the fragile autobox.