vs. ___________________________________________________________ Venue: AXA StadiumDate: Wednesday November 7, 2012Kick-off: 2:45PM EST; 19:45 GMTCoverage: FSC HD; SkySports 2 HD;Super Soccer CH 61; mio Sports 1; streams/P2P ___________________________________________________________ Matchday 4
final travelling 20-man squad via manutd.com: De Gea, Lindegaard; Rafael, Evans, Ferdinand, Büttner, Smalling, Evra; Cleverley, Giggs, Anderson, Nani, Valencia, Carrick, Young, Powell; Rooney, Welbeck, Chicharito, van Persie.
Would like to see 3 'keepers travelling just in case. Unlikely we'll need a third but better safe than sorry and all that. Someone's lunch doesn't agree with them tomorow then we're an injury or a red card away from disaster (in the context of the match, not the group).
If we win here and Cluj doesn't win, we're guaranteed 1st place with 2 games to go, which would be helpful - giving youngsters/squaddies some additional playing time since we're out of Carling Cup.
"rested" according to SAF at the press conference today. a busy period awaits us so it isn't that much of a shock. then again, he hasn't played in the last 5 games. Fletcher was left back with a cold. Smalling may feature tomorrow.
Not really, we could start Lindegard, Buttner, Smalling, Evans, Carrick, Young, Powell Anderson, Giggs, Welbeck and Chicharito
with good reason. as stud said, the reward in terms of rest/rotation/experience for kids we can win by a strong showing tomorrow is much greater than any possible benefit to be gleaned in playing anything significantly weaker than first choice. Of the reserves, I expect Buttner, Anderson and Welbeck to start/feature. We may also see a few minutes for Smalling, but only if the result is safe and probably only 20 minutes or so.
I'd like to see Nani, Ando, Cleverley and Carrick playing together with Rooney and RVP. I don't expect to see Buttner, maybe if we are winning by a lot.
Hope I'm wrong, but I have a feeling we won't win this (tight loss or a draw). It's difficult to not think like you are already through after max points from the first 3 games, and I predict some switching off and complacency by us. Braga on the other hand are going to be really up for this, with us likely to play weak teams in the next 2 games if we win this one....a loss for them would probably see them finishing out of the top 2 at the end of the group stage.
Years gone by, I would buy that. However given how we've approached things this season, I'm actually encouraged. Also, I think we'll benefit from Nani being in the B team so far. He's fresh, he's got something to prove and he's not likely to get rested unless he will feature against Villa on Saturday. If Nani is rested, that means most likely we'll be playing 2 or 3 of the guys who have served us very well this season in attack. Apart from starting Giggs and/or Powell in CM, there's little we can do to field a poor midfield by this season's standards and given our form up top, we should be able to score.
I want to see the likes of Petrucci, Powell & co against European opposition. Win tonight and that is a reality for the last two games.
Maybe. If Fergie goes with his diamond away from home, and we try to get a measure of control, we could sneak a single goal victory....can't see us keeping a clean sheet though, so we'll probably need 2\3 goals.
I think the only approach that hurts us is a cautious approach + diamond. If we play the diamond with attacking players like we have thus far, we'll end up with more/better attackers on the pitch than Braga can either stop or top. If we play 442 gung-ho, we could also get burned but that's unlikely in Europe. If we play 442 conservatively like we did against Arsenal and Chelsea, just through familiarity with the roles and the quality of the attackers we have vs their defenders, and their attackers vs our defenders, there's a good chance we create as many if not more chances than they do and if we do that, we'll win. When you think about it, the approach to ensure that we have more/better attackers on the pitch is actually kinda progressive from Fergie. There are holes to be exploited, but in terms of ensuring that when we create opportunities they fall to guys who can put them away, we've done a good job. But that is a topic for another thread.
what is a bit disappointing is that we completely abandoned the 4-2-3-1 we started the season with. i think it was a bit naive to think that it would be integrated seamlessly and that kagawa would take the epl by storm, but we should have stuck with it a little. now it's good ol' 442 that can transform itself into a 451 (with rooney dropping deep) if we want to protect a lead. i don't think the diamond will ever be regularly used. as presently constructed, i don't see a role for kagawa in this team unless he reinvents himself as an 8. which is too bad.
I disagree. An end to end slugging match will probably favour them, as they need the win way more than us, and our players are likely to put in slightly less effort and urgency. A cautious approach flooding the midfield, silencing the crowd, and wearing them down, is a much sounder approach for a team away from home against a decent team, with a good points total...imo. Anyway, we'll see what Fergie thinks with the line-ups.
With our cautious diamond approach, we've still conceded pretty often. All I'm saying is be sure to play the top attackers if we're using that approach, because if we go down a goal without them, it will be tough to rescue.