Match Day Thread Manchester United v Anderlecht

I'd rather Buffon win it than Ronaldo, someone like him genuinely deserves to have a CL medal and seems almost surreal that he hasn't. He's one of the genuine legends of the game.

They'll have their hands full with Monaco in the semi but the experience of Buffon, Chiellini, Bonnuci and Alves should see them though. I reckon they'll win it this year.

The two best sides, in my own opinion, are in that semi. All the eyes are in the Madrid teams but those two have been the most impressive.

 

The best attacking side against the best defensive - will either be one of the best matches ever or a snoozefest.

 

Monaco are a good side and have done well to get to the semis, but I don't rate them as highly as you do.

They beat a very poor City side in the last 16, and Im not convinced Dortmund played to their best after the terrorist attack on their bus. I didn't fancy them before the kick off after hearing what went on.

Mbappe has been a revelation, and Falcao looks near his best again but if Juventus can shut out Barca I don't see Monaco causing them many problems. Monaco aswell are very dodgy defensively, we seen that in the City game, and I can see Juventus opening them up very easily. So I'm predicting a comfortable ride through to the final for Juve.

Real for me though are still the best side in Europe, and I think they had a much tougher path through. I think Bayern are probably the 2nd best, so I wouldn't hold it against Real for having a tough time getting through that tie. Will be a facinating final if it's Real v Juve

 

don't agree it's out of our hands. It is really tough and almost unrealistic but if we win all our matches, we will top what City and Arsenal can achieve.

Every league match is now like a cup match that we have to win. Fail to win we are out of contention. Win the Burnley match United can move on to the next hurdle. Lose or draw, JM might as well put everything in the Europa semi against celta Vigo

 

And if we keep winning games well whilst Liverpool keep scraping results we could overhaul their GD advantage by the end of the season.

Although that is an even bigger if that us winning all our game tbh - I reckon we will pick up maybe 16-17 points from the last seven matches meaning City or Liverpool will need to drop at least five points for us to catch them. Although a win in the City game would change the picture in a big way.

 

I just feel that if we can beat Chelsea we can beat City

 

Course we can - we can beat all seven of the sides we still have to play.

The question is whether we will on the day, or whether we will do our usual create loads of chances, miss them all and concede on the break.

 

Agree, Real vs Juve would be an interesting final. Attack, defence, quality of players, the swagger of Real vs the technical ability of the Juve side. Would be a throwback to CL finals of 15-20 years ago rather than the damp squibs of the last 5-6 years or so.

 

Playing at our best and putting chances away more efficiently, definitely.

The question is whether after the 2 Europa semis we would be able to play at our best. The negatives now include defenders injured, no Zlatan. To me this is the time to go all out for goals. We will concede now that defenders are makeshift but if we score more we will get the wins.

 

Realistically the only team we have an influence over is City (Arsenal still in there ). We simply have to beat City and match every other City result. If we do that (easier said) we've got 4th place.

 

I think it's between us and Liverpool. City will make Top 4, they've been more consistent.

 

Anyone who thinks this current team we have is going to win all 7 games is living in cloud cuckoo land. We couldn't even beat Anderlecht in 2 ninety minute matches, and had to rely on extra time to progress. Not to mention all the other dross we have drawn against in recent months.

Some top sides will have the occasional game where they will dominate and miss loads of chances, but we do it on a weekly basis. So that tells me there is something seriously wrong with the composure of the attacking players we currently have. It's not just been going on under Mourinho either, the same was happening under LVG.

This lack of composure is not going away, as it hasn't done all season, so let's not kid ourselves that it's going to be any different over the last 7 games. Nothing is going to change until we bring in players who can put the ball in the net more consistantly.

 

Hmmmm... I think the difference was that under Van Gaal AND under Mourinho for large parts of this season we created very little, especially in terms of clear cut chances. When that happens the poor finishing CANNOT improve. I.e. if you only create 2 chances every game and your strikers only have those 2 chances and they don't score those, then it doesnt give them enough chances to change that. And it affects their confidence.

BUT the last couple of games have shown that if you create 8-10 chances per game our forwards may be poor at finishing but they have a far better chance of improving their form

Look at Rashford in both our last 2 games. That's EXACTLY what happened.

 

If the current trend continues, correct. We might as well give up and go home

We have absolutely nothing to lose now in the league and everything to gain. I am hoping that without abandoning our defensive common sense, that JM and the players will go on the attack and not be afraid of missing chances. Rashford has given hope to many fans despite Zlatan's injury.

 

The retarded have the best chance of top 4 for ages. But knowing them, you wouldn't bet against them throwing it away

The easiest run in helped by the FA AND them focusing their entire season on top 4 AND without European football, they still have not secured it.

 

I think City have been just as pants as everyone else vying for the 4th position. Probably even worse given how good they were before Pep came in and how much was spent to improve an already good squad. But City often gets a pass somehow. It's almost as though the table doesn't apply to them.

That Pep though! Boy oh boy!!! Even I was sold after their first 10 games that Pep was a super coach unlike no other. That mirror is now completely shattered.

 

You should have no problem beating them if you play the way you did against Burnley as that is the way we beat them - high pressing with a fast striker running rings around their defense.

Just tell Fellani to mind his elbows and Herrera to aim for the ball when making tackles...