vs Competition: English Premier League Matchweek 27 Venue: Emptyhad Stadium, Manchester Date: Sunday 3rd March 2024 Time: 15:30 (GMT) 10:30 (ET) 7:30 (PT) TV: Sky Sports (UK) Peacock (USA) fuboTV (Canada) Referee: Andy Madley VAR: Stuart Attwell Man Utd Next Fixture: EPL: Man Utd v Everton Sat 9th Mar 2024 12:30 Would have been tough anyway, but with the injuries too ...
From losing to Fulham last minute to beating NF last minute. That Sunday training session may have paid off. Tenny has shown he can squeeze these lemons, sort of. Difficult to get a positive result for this one though. So long as we don't allow them to run away with it and show something, make a game of it, that will be enough for me.
in the name of science i'd be curious to know what percentage chance the forum members think we have of winning this. i'd wager ~5% personally
Depends on EtH tactics - but yeah pretty low chance as above for sure. This is a game (even more so given it is away) that needs him to go back to playing two #6s - otherwise they will kill us in the middle of the pitch. So if he sticks with playing two high #8s and our frequent huge gaps in the middle we are proper effed and will be a humiliation. Will never happen but would be interesting to see Cas / Amrabat as pair of #6s with Mainoo playing #8. Would need to go kind of back 3 to facilitate. We actually did this a bit against Forrest and EtH said as much in his post-match. First half we had various people dropping back alongside Cas in our 3-2 build up and in the second half we switched to it almost always being Amrabat inverting from full back in there as another #6. Obviously not a good comparison for the City game in that we had good possession v Forrest and definitely will not have much v City. City don't use the width much though - so Amrabat could play as a narrow LB coming more into midfield and Dalot could play as a narrow RB coming into make it more like a back 3. Would leave Mainoo free to try and pick up and disrupt KDB.
He needs to take a page out of Ole's book, and just play a dense low block and boot the ball through to Rashford/Garnacho over and over again; and just hope one of them scores on a 1v1.
Whenever I see a question like this, I immediately want to go against the grain. It's my personality. We have a 95% chance of winning.
A low block is the right approach, but ten Hag is in a pickle. He has to show he's the right manager to Ratcliffe if he's to keep his job. This is the game to take that gamble IMO. There is a compromise to how ten Hag can play with two 8s. He can drop a forward, go with a front two of Rashford and Garnacho/Antony, play Bruno and McT as eights, with Mainoo and Casemiro mopping up behind them. It can work like this if Bruno tends to drop back a bit more and McT gets forward to act at times like a third attacker. Really we can't change the shape too much, it would still be like a 4-2-3-1, but with Scott sometimes acting as a CF and Rashford slotting wide to his more comfortable role. We defend in 4-4-2. A big key will be our cynicism and physicality. We can't let Haaland and KdB have a go at us. We need to frustrate with cheap fouls and be physical. Casemiro, McT and Maguire (Evans?) are capable of containing them if we play that way. We'd have to revert back to very direct approach when in possession, even if that means high turnovers. We can score, but it's far from given. Bruno can score from speculative and spectacular efforts (Luton scored two such goals). McT has an eagerness in front of goal to get on the end of chances and he can bundle it home. Rashford and Garnacho have that pace to get behind the defense when City are higher. Moments of class from Mainoo or whoever can make the difference too.
Man City team: Ederson, Walker, Stones, Dias, Aké, Rodri, De Bruyne, Bernardo, Foden, Doku, Haaland. Subs: Ortega Moreno, Kovačić, Álvarez, Gómez, Gvardiol, Akanji, Nunes, Bobb, Lewis. Man Utd team: Onana, Dalot, Varane, Evans, Lindelöf, Mainoo, Casemiro, McTominay, Fernandes, Rashford, Garnacho. Subs: Bayındır, Kambwala, Ogunneye, Amad, Amrabat, Collyer, Eriksen, Forson, Antony.
In the blue corner for #MCIMUN! 👊🩵XI | Ederson, Walker (C), Stones, Dias, Ake, Rodrigo, De Bruyne, Bernardo, Foden, Doku, HaalandSUBS | Ortega Moreno, Kovacic, Alvarez, Gomez, Gvardiol, Akanji, Nunes, Bobb, Lewis#ManCity | @etihad pic.twitter.com/9HBTctqtXJ— Manchester City (@ManCity) March 3, 2024 Starting in the red corner! 🔴#MUFC || #MCIMUN— Manchester United (@ManUtd) March 3, 2024
Sometimes this dribble out the back nonsense is too much. Just hoof it 60 yards down and reset. Better than a turnover at 30
Rash will get a second. He has had a couple of close ones. They are playing better than I expected. The early goal helps.