A few more games and our first choice 11 will be clear

Originally Posted by atticusgrinch

Playing both Matas? Brave move imo.

#Spanish 10's matter.

Originally Posted by Mr_Ed

DDG
Tony V, Bailly, TBC, Shaw
Herrera, Pogba
Mata
Miki, Mata, Martial
Zlat

Bit light defensively and TBC could be Jones?!?!

Actually it's still not clear is it

Carrick needs to be in there, at least against the better teams and away from home. Probably in place of mata or Herrera. But other than that, looks good.

Originally Posted by browser

has to be Rooney Or Mata in the ten role with pacy wingers alongside. Mata has probably been our most consistent performer this season but Rooney's game last night was the best 'in the hole' performance :BigMick: we've seen in years.

A tough decision for Mou, especially if Mata comes in and plays well on Sunday.

really? last night was 2 up for me. we didn't use a 10.

there were loads of passes that weren't played either in time or at all, not just from rooney.

none of the goals were made from the hole, either. the 1st was a simple 3rd man run like the mata goal v feyenoord - well crafted but a basic football move... the other 3 were all from combination play out wide...

Originally Posted by Tumescent Throb

really? last night was 2 up for me. we didn't use a 10.

there were loads of passes that weren't played either in time or at all, not just from rooney.

none of the goals were made from the hole, either. the 1st was a simple 3rd man run like the mata goal v feyenoord - well crafted but a basic football move... the other 3 were all from combination play out wide...

If anyone was playing 10 it was Mickey T.

Originally Posted by redhegemony

If anyone was playing 10 it was Mickey T.

yep

Originally Posted by Tumescent Throb

really? last night was 2 up for me. we didn't use a 10.

there were loads of passes that weren't played either in time or at all, not just from rooney.

none of the goals were made from the hole, either. the 1st was a simple 3rd man run like the mata goal v feyenoord - well crafted but a basic football move... the other 3 were all from combination play out wide...

The first pass came from Rooney in the hole with runners going past him. He played in behind Ibra, sat deeper than Ibra did when defending and tried to get up around him when we broke, which he did to great effect. Snappy, incisive and accurate passing...he played a similar pass from there to Ibra in the box when he fell over and clattered into Ogbonna and Adrian. Also showed the smarts to push into the box when Ibra dropped deeper, as he did for the third goal.

Mkhi spent most of his evening combining down the right with Valencia but ran infield, with intelligence frequently, his starting position was nearly always off the right though, as Martial's was from the left.

A match like last night shows that there is more than enough talent in the squad to be performing at a consistently higher level than they have been. With Mkhitatyan and Martial starting to perform Utd suddenly have decent depth across the squad, Rooney has even picked up over the last month.

Originally Posted by Jammy Dodger

Carrick needs to be in there, at least against the better teams and away from home. Probably in place of mata or Herrera. But other than that, looks good.

Yup it he's old and can't play every game. Personally I'd rather see Carrick than Pogba on form.

Originally Posted by browser

The first pass came from Rooney in the hole with runners going past him. He played in behind Ibra, sat deeper than Ibra did when defending and tried to get up around him when we broke, which he did to great effect. Snappy, incisive and accurate passing...he played a similar pass from there to Ibra in the box when he fell over and clattered into Ogbonna and Adrian. Also showed the smarts to push into the box when Ibra dropped deeper, as he did for the third goal.

Mkhi spent most of his evening combining down the right with Valencia but ran infield, with intelligence frequently, his starting position was nearly always off the right though, as Martial's was from the left.

i'm not knocking rooney's performance, just saying we were one up one off, not with one in a set role behind the other, and not with a 10. looks like that's what you're saying as well so we're cool

Originally Posted by elephantstone

Bailly is back in training and should be ready to go off to the African cup of nations

Yep, undoubtedly the drawback with him returning "sooner than expected"

Originally Posted by Whip Hubley

blindingly obvious at the moment we shouldn't be starting games without Rooney where possible

We don't have a 'first 11'. The likes of Rooney and Carrick obviously benefit from being rotated. Rashford needs to be rotated at the moment as well IMO. Ibra is 35.

Even hypothetically if all players were firing on all cylinders and in perfect form, we wouldn't have a clear first choice 11. I'm not sure why people think there can be one given the amount of games we have in a season.

This.