Team v Spurs

3-1 Spurs

Rio and Evans injured

Originally Posted by MJ Ramone

One of them will.
It's not fabrication at all. Fergie can't let go & he doesn't have the faith or courage in his young players to send them out in the big games without an 'old head'

I don't think either of them will. Scholes will be on the bench and Giggs will most likely be saved for Europe. No one seems to look forward to games anymore, very sad to see.

Lindegaard - DDG for me but the team is winning
Rafael - obviously
Ferdinand - top man now
Evans - lucky to have him
Buttner - freshen it up
Carrick - naturally
Cleverley - because it's about time
Kagawa - of course
Van Persie - bored of him now tbh!
Rooney - looked good the other night
Welbeck - superb talent

Originally Posted by Tumescent Throb

Lindegaard - DDG for me but the team is winning
Rafael - obviously
Ferdinand - top man now
Evans - lucky to have him
Buttner - freshen it up
Carrick - naturally
Cleverley - because it's about time
Kagawa - of course
Van Persie - bored of him now tbh!
Rooney - looked good the other night
Welbeck - superb talent

Hmm. Who's playing right/left/centre behind Mr VP?

Originally Posted by Jethro

I don't think either of them will. Scholes will be on the bench and Giggs will most likely be saved for Europe. No one seems to look forward to games anymore, very sad to see.

Where have I said that??
I'm looking forward to the game. Will be great to see Rooney & Van Persie start together for the first time.

My view though is that we've been poor to watch this season & that he doesn't seem ready to give the likes of Kagawa & Cleverley a responsible role in the side & stick with it.

Originally Posted by dragflick

Hmm. Who's playing right/left/centre behind Mr VP?

Welbeck - Rooney - Kagawa
------------RVP-----------

Where have I said that??

Not you, just a generalisation

Originally Posted by MJ Ramone

Where have I said that??
I'm looking forward to the game. Will be great to see Rooney & Van Persie start together for the first time.

My view though is that we've been poor to watch this season & that he doesn't seem ready to give the likes of Kagawa & Cleverley a responsible role in the side & stick with it.

He looked £#%&!ing sharp the other night. Hoping he's seen RVP do the business in his absence and thought he best shape the £#%&! up. If he gets back fit/firing then it could be mint

Originally Posted by Jethro

Welbeck - Rooney - Kagawa
------------RVP-----------

Nah.

Originally Posted by dragflick

Nah.

I think it would be devastating tbh

Originally Posted by Jethro

I don't think either of them will. Scholes will be on the bench and Giggs will most likely be saved for Europe. No one seems to look forward to games anymore, very sad to see.

you can thank saf for that.

de gea

rafael - evans - snoop - evra

nani - carrick - kagawa - ando (scholes 55) - rooney

van persie

DDG
Rafael
Evans
Rio
Evra-a worry against Lennon with his squaring up against players who run at him

Carrick
Cleverley
Anderson-Scholes on after an hour

Nani
Rooney-Give Van Persie a rest
Kagawa

Nani has been off form but he is better on the right and with Spurs playing Naughton there it is a potential weak spot.

a bit more on fletcher

"The great thing about Fletcher the other night was that his enthusiasm was fantastic.

"He played a great part in the victory and in a role different from how we've used him in the past.

"Darren was always the type to get about the midfield players but on Wednesday he sat in front of the two young centre-backs and did a really good job."

http://menmedia.co.uk/manchestereven...d-role?rss=yes


thought he was fantastic in that role tbh, be fantastic to have him back.

ddg
rafael - rio - evans - buttner
carrick
cleverley - fat @#%&!
welbeck - rvp - kagawa

full backs getting forwards for width, front three interchanging as much as poss

Welbeck needs a goal or two. Some of his approach play has been fantastic in recent games, beating defenders quite easily in deeper areas but it has not been happening for him around the box to the same extent.

Fletcher in that deeper role can certainly track runners and do a lot of the defensive work. His strength in the past has been pressing the ball but he needs to be near his best level of fitness to to excel in that style.

He would offer an alternative take on the role that Carrick plays. Not sure he has the rounded passing game to operate in the same distributing role as Carrick or Scholes when they sit deep. Fletcher is not a bad passer of the ball but he does not have the same amount of options as those other 2 when under pressure, loves that patented turn that takes about 15 yards to pull off.

Originally Posted by Tiberian

Welbeck needs a goal or two. Some of his approach play has been fantastic in recent games, beating defenders quite easily in deeper areas but it has not been happening for him around the box to the same extent.

Fletcher in that deeper role can certainly track runners and do a lot of the defensive work. His strength in the past has been pressing the ball but he needs to be near his best level of fitness to to excel in that style.

He would offer an alternative take on the role that Carrick plays. Not sure he has the rounded passing game to operate in the same distributing role as Carrick or Scholes when they sit deep. Fletcher is not a bad passer of the ball but he does not have the same amount of options as those other 2 when under pressure, loves that patented turn that takes about 15 yards to pull off.

i thought his passing was one of the best things about his performance on wednesday. played it first-time whenever he could, looked for the forward pass and because he's mobile and aggressive he allowed cleverley and anderson to get forward with a lot of confidence that we wouldn't get caught out on the break.

Originally Posted by borsuk

i thought his passing was one of the best things about his performance on wednesday. played it first-time whenever he could, looked for the forward pass and because he's mobile and aggressive he allowed cleverley and anderson to get forward with a lot of confidence that we wouldn't get caught out on the break.

It was, but he generally had a lot of space to play in. It is more when the pressing is intense and he does not have that time. Scholes and Carrick have a variety of ways to move the ball on., Scholes with those little outside of the foot deflections, Carrick with his two footed ability.

Just another point, the few times he looked uncomfortable were when he was taking the ball short of the keeper or defenders and he was receiving the ball facing the Utd goal rather than the half turn. Even at the poor level I play at I am coached to see that as a great chance to force a mistake.

Fletcher is more mobile than either of those 2 which can help him create more space but he is not as technically secure. Great to have him back though, he has an understated authority to his play, and Utd surely need more players with that leadership.

Welbeck needs to start making himself more of a goal threat - more shooting, better positioning for balls breaking his way rather than following the defenders in and so on. He'll get more space once he gets that variation into his goal threat. At the moment it's very easy to know that he's basically looking for the give and go and the little threaded ball. He follows up his strikers well enough into the 18yd box but also gets sucked into the 6yd box too easily. That's my theory anyway.

Fletcher in front of the back 4 would be a great alternative to that boring sideways passing mouth breather.

Originally Posted by dragflick

He looked £#%&!ing sharp the other night. Hoping he's seen RVP do the business in his absence and thought he best shape the £#%&! up. If he gets back fit/firing then it could be mint

I think because his injury was a gash (oo-er) then he could still do fitness training so maybe that's helped get him spot on.

ROONEY
RVP --------- .......... VALENCIA
KAGAWA
ANDERSON and SCHOLES
ANY 4 MAN DEFENCE
COINFLIP

I think if its going to work with robin and Rooney then rvp needs to come in from the left, to start with and then a bit of switching in the game.