Manchester United vs. Chelsea 26/11 [R]

Anyone expect Rooney to play a central but deeper role, maybe coming back on one of the DM's?

Will Fergie go with 4-4-2 normal or 4-4-2 Fletcher or even 3 in the middle?

 

Odds are against the 4-4-2. (Check out the 4-4-2 thread for possible reasons why.)

I've seen some teams attack Chelsea by putting a player directly on Makelele so that he cannot dictate tempo and start attacks.

 

Which is an incredibly intelligent strategy considering he is their fulcrum and dictates everything they do.

 

I dunno, Essien has been seeing a lot more of the ball lately, so its not like they wont have a plan B. As long as Rooney stays away from the wings, then I dont see why he shouldnt play like stated above.

I originally thought that Rooney sitting on their DM would play right into their hands, as it leave Saha all alone (initially) upfront against Terry and Carvalho. Then Im sure Essien, and Makalele have some tricks up their sleeve to wind up Rooney. I dunno.

 

Judgement day

We win we'll be serious contenders..I think our wing play which we so dearly depend on will be the factor if we win or not. Basicly we need to take every chance and pin them down not allowing Ballack or Lampard to control the center of the pitch, and staying away from Esien so we can basicly pick them apart. I'm confident we'll challenge their deffence well with our wing play seeing as they seem weak and easily beatable.

2-0 United

Ronaldo, and Rooney

 

Im not a big fan of either club, but im quite excited about this matrch. That being said however, i think it is going to be a 0-0 or maybe a 1-1 draw.

If i had to pick a winner tho, i would have to go with Man U. 2-0 or 2-1

 

A draw is good also I'd have to say we maintain a 3 point lead and that counts, but a win at home is a must to really get this premiership runaway on

 

Just thinking about this...

I am starting to think that Fergie will play this one safe and go 4-3-3/4-5-1. We dont have any options to come off the bench and significantly influence/change the game. If we go a goal down, we cant make any changes to help us change the game. Going a goal down to Chelsea, having to chase the game isnt something our team will look forward to doing. Thats just a thought.

Then again, we are at home. Im so curious.

 

Chelsea are going to be very strong down the middle, and if they have an Achilles' heel then its probably going to be exploiting one of the fullback positions. This is not to say that Boulahrouz/A.Cole/Geremi are poor at defending, but that just seems to me the softest portion on the Chelsea shell and we need to put pressure there to make it crack. As far as trying to exploit Chelsea through the middle goes, it wouldn't be easy since Makelele will have the two central defenders well protected, and Essien will most likely give Scholes and Carrick a tough time. Add that to the fact that they'll have both Lampard and possibly Ballack in the centre, and it would seem to me that one of their main strategies will be to put pressure on both Scholes and Carrick. In doing so, they'll both have little time on the ball and won't be able to control the tempo of the game as they've been able to in previous games. It will be very important that we channel our attacks through our wingers and fullbacks.
If I were Fergie, I'd probably stick to a 4-4-2, albeit a lop-sided one with Giggs playing more centrally:
----------------VDS------------------
Neville----Rio------Vidic--------Evra
---|---Carrick----Scholes----------|--
---V--------------------<=Giggs---|--
--Ronaldo<=====>Rooney------V--
---------------Saha------------------

Rooney should essentially be given a free role, allowing him to drop deep and help out in the midfield battle as well as supporting Saha upfront. If Ronaldo switches flanks to the left, then Rooney could play as a wing-forward on the right - drifting out if the space is there, or coming in more centrally to apply pressure on Makelele should Chelsea have possession of the ball.
Giggs should play a role similar to what he did last season, except in a more attacking capacity. Nonetheless, he will be charged with ensuring that Evra's left flank is well protected.

 

The key to this match, by an absolute mile, is going to be scoring first. IF we can do that, it will force Chelsea to open up a bit, in which case we can make this a shootout of sorts. If Chelsea open the scoring, it's game, set, and match as far as I'm concerned because they are the ultimate lead protectors and will be doubly motivated to protect a lead in a 6-pointer like this match.

 

Rooney was awesome best left winger on the planet.

 

What's interesting here is that many assume that Chelsea will just line up in a 4-2-2-2.

If I were Jose I'd line up like this:

------------Cudicini
-------Carvalho----Terry
Bhoularouz---------------A.Cole
------------Makelele
-------Essien------Lampard
Robben-------------------J.Cole
------------Drogba

Simple as that. It's a system that we don't have the personnel to handle outright, it's worked against us before, and they have the ability to really oppress our style with it. You can forget our FB's charging forward for example, and the midfield becomes an incredibly hard place to play through.

The egos of Shevchenko and Ballack can be easily placated, afterall, this is one game out of a 70 something game calender for them.

It's things like this that make all the formational talk on our side redundant. They have the squad to change or 'surprise' we have to play a team and a system that is ready for any variation of what we expect so the onus is on us somewhat to get it right, not them.

The fans will scream for the DW4-4-2, but without a DCM the system I put up for Chelsea could literally rip us apart...

I think our 4-4-2 is something to hold in reserve, it would be naive to start the game with it as it's a system that commits us solely to attack and has no counter-counter to their invariable counter-attacks.

They never come to play football or outplay us, they come to drain the life out of us and then hit on the breaks and it works. We should use smarts of our own and not let them play in that manner for once. It'd be very interesting to see them try and attack properly like ourselves or Arsenal commit to.

I'd love to see them go a goal down early so that their slow central pairing gets exposed as the team slowly revs up to 'all-out attack' in any open game I think we win, but if we play into their hands we could get done, handily.

What concerns me is that this probably opens the door for O'Shea

It's hard to say which was this game will go. If we play as cagey as they do it could be decided on a set-piece or an error. I'd think that's what decides it myself. I'd say they have the advantage going into this 47-53 or some-such, but that can quickly be turned over if the crowd is up for it and gets the team pumping, early.

 

Which they will undoubtedly be... Feel the Trafford ROOOOAAAR!

 

Extremely unreliable rumours that Rio is injured:
http://www.manchesterunited.vitalfootball.co.uk/article.asp?a=39082

If it turned out to be true, it could be a killer blow for us.

On another forum there is news that Peter Kenyon has downplayed Uniteds greater profile and fanbase compared to Chelsea on Sky Sports News.We only got our history from the Busby babes & the Munich crash, and Chelsea are "more dynamic" a brand. Chelsea are better positioned to grow because they are a London club.

What a cock!

 

Ok I've finally cooled off after the nightmare night. I say....ATTACK ATTACK ATTACK!

--------------Ronaldo
--------------Rooney
---Giggs---Scholes----Carrick----Fletch

---Evra----Vidic-------Rio-------Neville

--------------VDS

We need Fletch in midfield to make us more solid, and to help cover the wing positions properlly, something Ronaldo doesn't do very well. Yet we still need the pure penetration and unpredictability of Ronaldo so we put him central. We drop whoever it was playing for us as striker. (who was it again?) With this formation we win 5-0.

 

Why No Saha?

 

Chelsea's strength isnt up front, or the back 4.
It's Maka and Essien. How they play determines if chelsea win or not.

A player like micheal carrick might not be effective in this one, but Ronaldo absolutely will. He will rip ashley cole apart one on one every tie he gets a chance. Also i think United need a Rooney and Saha to be at there best.

i dont think there are going to be alot of goals in this one.
1-0 either way

 

Agreed their central midfeilders will really be what we have to shut down. IF we do that their basicly out of amo... I want to see Ronaldo cut Bhoularouz, or Cole like Robby Keane did durring Totenham's game

Attacking will win us the game, and its an effor every player must contribute to. So either we bunker in or we give them a hell of a fight.

 

http://youtube.com/watch?v=LOU32D6aeWE

If Ronaldo had 1% of whatever made Keano tick, he'd get some revenge on the prick. provided that we're ahead mind you. I'd fooking love it. but he's a tulip so that won't happen

 

If it were up to me Fletcher would play RM and Giggs would come off the bench... I'd have Rooney trying to keep Makelele from distributing out of the back.

Even if Chelsea has a plan B its going to involve either Essien or Lampard sitting deep to get the ball and that will mean they wont be in our half of the field.

 

I think Ronaldo will have a good game... Ronaldo has ways of getting back at nasty players. It usually involves making them fall on their ass or perhaps dribbling them a few times or even the nutmeg. I'd not bet against Ronaldo making Bholarouz look retarded 4 or 5 times if he starts.

 

We need to pile up the midfield, yet we also need Ronaldo and Giggs on the same pitch. What is Saha gonna do against Terry+Carvalho+Makelele? If we play him we'll have to play Ronaldo on the wings which means defensively, the wings will be weakened, and against that Chelsea defense, who knows which Saha will show up. So we could end up with weakened wings and weak attack. If we play Ronaldo centrally though, he can cause all kinds of havoc with his dribbling, running etc. Just put him on a free role. Then we'll have Fletch on the right to give us more of a foothold in midfield. With his super workrate, careful passing, and good crossing we'll that much more solid.

---------<-------Ronaldo-------->
Giggs---------------V--------------
-----------------Rooney
--------Scholes--------------Fletch
------------------Carrick

Evra------Vidic-----Rio------Gazza

-----------------VDS-

 

I want it to happen sooooo badly