PBP: FAC - Manchester United FC vs Brighton Hove & Albion FC - Mar 17, 2018 [R]

Start Martial, bench Sanchez. He hasn't earned the right to start.

 

I would shuffle the back four to be honest.

Romero

Valencia
Bailly
Jones
Shaw

Matic
McT

Sanchez
Mata
Lukaku
Martial

Bench: Pogba De Gea Young Rashford Lingard Darmian Smalling

 

The team I would like for this weekend:

Romero
Valencia. Bailly. Lindelof. Shaw
McTominay. Carrick. Pogba
Mata. Lukaku. Martial

In defense, wouldn't mind sitting Valencia, but apart of AY, there are no real alternatives (Darmian aside). Lindelof gets the nod next to Bailly: Smalling needs a game off and last I checked, neither Rojo or Jones are fit. Plus, it's time to start giving Lindelof and Bailly together an actual chance.
In midfield, if Carrick is fit, I'd give him the start. Matic needs a break as well (keep him on the bench and bring him on later, if needed to close out the game).
Upfront, I'd definitely sit Sanchez for this. His play has not be up to standard, especially with way too many giveaways. Have him on the bench as well and hope that we can guide a hefty lead, and bring him on then, with less pressure, with the hope he can build his confidence then.
On the left, Martial needs a start but if Jose were to stick with Rashford, I'd really have no issue with it whatsoever.

 

The biggest worry here is that the players will carry a hangover from the Sevilla game, which Brighton could make us dearly pay for as they'll probably come out to play.
As far as the crowd is concerned, you can't ask much from them unless they're given a reason to cheer and be loud. Hopefully, Jose will recognize that and not set things up for an overly timid and boring approach.

 

Jose has confirmed that the same players who were available Tuesday vs Sevilla are in contention for tomorrow, meaning that Rojo, Jones, Blind, Herrera and Zlatan are still out for tomorrow.

 

Martial needs to play.

 

lukaku
martial - sanchez - mata
matic - pogba
shaw? - lindelof - bailly - valencia
romero

 

2 weeks ago, the sky was falling due to the fear that we'd fall out of the top 4 because we were facing Chelsea and Liverpool. Oh well, we won those games, so now the crisis is falling out of the CL.
We can still fall out of the top 4, maybe want to take a bit of interest in the next games.
It will be interesting to see if Pogba starts tomorrow.

 

A more accurate description would be that, 2 weeks ago, people who rightly saw that our form was at grave risk of undoing our season thought that this would manifest itself in our league position, but instead (for now) it's led to us dropping out of the CL in horrendous fashion, and our manager having a meltdown of a presser trying to make out that we need to spend 10 times what middling CL clubs are worth just to be able to compete with them. Or not, as the case was.

 

Kind of like the old days.....says Wikipedia -- you'd say that not making the CL was odd, but there wasn't much strange about not winning the CL.
Didn't make CL -- 2017 (won Europa League), 2015,
Out in Group Stages -- 2016 (out in Europa League Round of 16), 2006
Round of 16 -- 2016, 2013, 2012, 2005, 2004
QF -- 2014, 2010, 2001, 2000
SF -- 2010, 2007, 2003, 2002
Runner's Up -- 2011, 2009
Won -- 2008, 1999

Yikes! I'm channeling Mourinho and didn't realize it. Honestly, all the fans who are offended that Utd didn't make the QF, SF, or won....I remember back in the day when Utd would win in the PL all the time but couldn't progress in the CL. At that time, people hinted that maybe Sir Alex had a flaw in his ability, but they definitely knew that progressing in the CL wasn't a given.

 

Izquierdo, along with Gross, will be the 2 guys to watch. Will have to be careful about Murray: simple rough and tumble type player, but he's been hot lately.
Relieved that Knockaert will not be available for this one.
Gotta have a good and fast start for this one, in order to, as previously mentioned, get the crowd into the game and fully behind the team.

 

Izquierdo will be eaten alive by Valencia, he is physical incapable along with not end product.

I am more worried about Murray against Smalling.

 

Dropping out in horrendous fashion, I said. Nobody expected us to win the thing, but that doesn't mean you don't turn up, that you throw the fixture in the way we binned the league off last season. What are we doing this year, concentrating on 2nd and the FA Cup?

Going out in the round of 16 with this team, with this squad, with this wage bill. Making an average, deeply flawed Sevilla look far superior to us. Not even bothering to target their weak points, or to address their strengths. Not attempting to play like a coherent footballing side. It was the 1st half vs Crystal Palace, the full match against Newcastle.

It was an utterly appalling 2 leg performance, is symptomatic of the problems all the 'sky is falling' posters were raising, and is in no way like the 'old days' under SAF because in most cases there it was either naivety, facing a better club or a comparatively isolated poor performance that did for us. At least we had all the league trophies we'd won to cry into, and genuinely exciting football to stop the tears coming.

 

We're in the wrong thread, so I'll make this short. We drop out often in the CL, it's always horrendous, we've always been a great team so the teams we lose to are always' "lesser". It is what it is.

 

United vs Brighton preview...

www.skysports.com/football/man-utd-vs-brighton/preview/388520

 

Lesser teams like Barca, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich, eh? A nonsense post. It's ok to recognise when things are going shit.

 

Look back to the posts after we lost to Barca in Rome and tell me how many Man Utd fans were fine with it.

 

This will be...interesting.

 

Strange to have the game so late.

 

Chilly and lightly snowy conditions in the north of England. Not enough to call the game off though.
The game being played so late on a Saturday is apparently another trial run of sorts for potential prime time Saturday night games that could be introduced in the 2019/20 season in the league, according to MUTV.

 

Wonder how the players will react...considering Mourinho has come out and said to the world that Lukaku, Matic and De Gea aside...his whole squad is trash.

 

Ohhh. Jose be mad with Pogba and Sanchez. Good.