Match Day Thread Manchester United v Fenerbache

The game kick's off at 8pm tomorrow, at Old Trafford, It's on BT sport 2.

 

Venue?

 

Old Trafford - the game is being billed as a return by RvP http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/37688299

Other news is Mkhitaryan is back from injury so expect ot see him on the bench.

Think that there will be tinkering by Jose or will he play his first team?

Personally I would like to see Carrick, Martial and Depay.

 

Aye
I hope he doesn't play his first team. I'd like to see them too. They bring a special threat to the United play -especially Carrick and Martial.

This match is one of those where we need to start well. A goal in the first 10 minutes will settle nerves and bring confidence. A stalemate at 60 minutes will make people nervous and put the team under real pressure.

 

For anyone wanting to watch, this is free to view tonight on freeview BT SHOWCASE

 

Poor match thread, no venue and kick off time wrong.
I fear the worst

 

Aye

Half time..

Time to get Pogba and Mata take out for the Chelsea match.

 

This wasn't bad:

Neither was this:

 

Random fact as well - this is the biggest crowd ever in Europa Cup history.

 

Good performance, pleased for Paul Pogba, he did well tonight.

 

Reasonable performance tonight, 7 changes from the mouser game and never looked troubled. I am a little surprised that the defenders actually had to work harder than they did against Liverpool, we had to tackle and take the ball off Fener players as opposed to just shepherding them into mistakes like we did with Liverpool.
Memphis is still trying too hard to impress and has created a real crisis for himself, every time a flick, pass or shot doesn't come off his head goes down and he really looks like he is punishing himself but at least has the guts to try again next time. He needs to play a simple, safe game for a while and work his way back into the fancy stuff or he will get very few more chances.
Carrick was near his best and shows what we miss when Fellaini plays, the shame is that he can only do it in limited stints now, 2 or 3 PL games on the trot would burn him out.
Shaw is a fair way off his full match speed yet and needs a few more games to be anything like his best.
Darmian is no doubt a decent RB but, no better than Valencia (which says it all) and much worse at crossing.

The other 3 changes from the usual (in the last few games) were Rooney, Martial and Lingard, Martial and Lingard add pace to the attack and Lingard in particular moves all around the front of the pitch adding support and penetration all around the box. Rooney is an enigma, I still feel that he has more to offer but, when he has a poor patch they seem to get longer and longer (or the good patches get shorter and shorter), well worth his place on the bench but nothing more at the moment.

In short, we have a very good/strong squad and should do well this season, how well we do is entirely in the players/managers hands, no excuses.

(that is just the starting lineup changes from Monday to tonight and completely ignores many others like Schneiderlin, Rojo, Romero, Fosu-Mensah etc)

 

Personally I thought Carrick was poor. Looked like he lacked match fitness. Agree though, we made it harder than it needed to be at times. Probably because it was a fresh line up?

Mata was class again... which begs the simple question (for everyone here)

Option 1: Mata plays against Liverpool and Chavbus?

or

Option 2: Mata plays against Fenerbache?

 

Carrick is not the same player he was 4/5 years ago, the legs are not the same to cover the width of the pitch. I was talking more about his ball retention, vision and ability/willingness to play a telling pass.

I kind of understand the Mata situation, would you want him to play 3 games in 6 days and risk injury and or tiredness, or would you rather him play in 2 of those games with a week after to recover?

Fellaini did a job against Liverpool, he broke a lot of their play up. I wouldn't be surprised to see him against Chelsea to combat the strength and height of Luiz. Horses for courses at the moment and I really think Jose is getting it right most times, it's the smaller/lesser teams where he needs to be more adventurous.

 

Sad to see a great like Jose playing Europa League

 

You'e alright

 

Sad to see a club like Chelsea not even in Europe, remote from the elite

 

Good result and performance. However, not sure how much can be gleaned from that match considering how bad the Turks were. It is possible we made them look bad but not exactly the toughest opposition. The postive is that United would have gained some confidence from it for the next match against Chelsea and the press pack is off JM's back for the time being. Even after he scores 2 goals, Pogba gets the "it was weak opposition" treatment.

The teams used by JM in different comps are becoming clearer. He will use Rooney, Darmain, Shaw, Carrick, Martial and Mata for the cups and have Ibra, Rashford, hererra, fellani, valencia, Blind for the premiership. And if the forms of the latter players drop he has ready made replacements.

 

Interesting stat -

Opta's data shows that no team that was outside the top five after eight Premier League matches has gone on to win the Premier League.
In fact, 20 of the 24 Premier League title winners were in the top three after eight games, highlighting just hard how it is to make up ground on the early front runners.

 

Yep. Really difficult.

But there is usually a greater points gap between 1st and 6th after eight matches. In this season the gap is not as big but still a huge task. United has to beat the teams ahead of them.

I recall the Chav fans saying they were still in contention for the title after 8 matches, then still in contention for top 4 after 20 matches or so. They were doing the maths and working out how many wins they needed etc. I said they were living in cloud cuckoo land. The key thing is not the points gap but the number of teams ahead of them. You can expect one or two to fall by the wayside but 8 -10 teams? Bloody Leicester never relinquished the top place when they hit their stride.