PBP: EPL - Stoke City FC vs Manchester United FC - Sep 9, 2017 [R]

Can't wait until the international break is over.

 

This is the one international break I detest the most. Way too early in the season and a momentum killer.

 

Sparky has signed Kevin Wimmer from Tottenham for £18mil.

www.bbc.com/sport/football/41079784

 

I'd drop Martial for Rash for this one.

I'd put a midfield of three with Herrera in there.

 

If don't see any point in discussing matters until we know what the international fallout is.

 

I was gonna say, may as well pencil in Jomes in our injuries column now.

 

TBH, he should always be penciled in.

 

Martial to start because he is not picked for International duty.

 

Kid is always getting undeserved chances.

 

i'd be curious to see mourinho give one last go to mata in the middle and mkhi on the right. mata is way too slow out wide.

 

Also bears remembering that this will be the week when we start with the 2 games/wk routine. We can start seeing the rotation starting to really get in place then.

 

We haven't beaten this lot at the Britannia for too long. Would be a real sign of progress if we win this, and win comfortably at that.

 

As long as he's going to stick with the 4-2-3-1 or whatever varant of that formation, I don't see much change in how he'll line up those 2.
They really seem to have the freedom interchange their positions a lot over the course of the game and their position is more nominal than anything else.

 

Fingers crossed that international duty doesn't decimate the squad going into the resumption of league play.

We not only have to continue beating mug clubs like West Ham and Stoke, we need to run up the score for goal difference while we can. If we're in a comfortable position in January-February in terms of goal difference we start slowing games down to grind out 1-0 wins to preserve fitness for the mass of fixtures in all comps.

 

Imbulla leaves Stoke on loan for Toulouse.

www.bbc.com/sport/football/41111211

I remember when he was signed to them with great fanfare. Really appeared to be made for the Prem also...

 

"We are ready - no excuses."

Fighting talk from @AnderHerrera ahead of our trip to Stoke. 👊 https://t.co/UOyLliyTzc #MUFC pic.twitter.com/JG7f42UOGH

— Manchester United (@ManUtd) September 6, 2017

 

Herrera should start this one. We need him ready and match fit for the tougher games. I wouldn't be opposed to 3 in the middle.

 

Agreed, completely.

There's no disputing the wisdom of three straight wins to start the season but we would do well to deploy a player like Herrera to create havoc against a bus parking Stoke side.

When we're up 3-0 in the 75th minute we can bring on Fellaini to close it out.

 

I think it's pretty fair to say that Stoke at the Britannia (a venue United has visited with mixed results as of late) will be the toughest test the team will face so far.
I'm of 2 minds about who to play and how they'll line up, especially with the CL tie vs Basel just a few days later. But it seems that playing 4-3-3, with Herrera back ought to be the right move. Subsequently returning to the 4-2-3-1 vs Basel at OT.
Just not sure how strong Basel are these days: used to be a solid team in the recent past, so I'm curious to how it will play out.
As much as I would take another blowout vs Stoke, I can't see it happening at all and will be happy getting out with any kind of win.

 

The bench warmer can pipe down.

 

Same as the last game please. We can make changes mid week.

 

Stoke have some injury problems. But even absent that it shouldn't be a close match. It may turn out that way, but the gap in quality between the two starting XIs is massive.

 

This game starts a period of 7 games in 22 days going through the end of the month, so the whole squad will start getting some utilization.With 3 fairly important games in 8 days (this one, CL opener, Everton home) followed by a minnow cup game it will be our first big indication of how much Jose intends to ride a "first 11" vs. rotating freely. Very interested to see what he does.