[Longshanks]

Would rather see v.d.b in midfield for one of Fred or mctom, but I suppose the idea might be to stop Chelsea's wingbacks from getting forward to much and stop them from creating overloads in wide areas. Expect fred and mctom to push out wide when defending.

Probably be quite passive first 20-25mins keep it tight then we might come out of shell a bit and try a push up the pitch. The front three with Fred and mctom joing from deeper could be a useful pressing tool, if implemented properly.

 

[Walters_19_MuFc]

Surely we can do better than Matic? He ain't got the legs for a game like this.

He has legs around him, though. Hopefully it will balance out, with his experience and composure being of importance in possession.

 

[Coleyoscar]

Caretaker or inexperienced managers often strive to prove that they have insight that critics and ordinary fans don't have. This sometimes results in strange selections and, in my experience, rarely, if ever, works. The right team is often the most obvious one.

Dropping Ronaldo to the bench seems like one of those 'cunning plan' scenarios. I hope I'm wrong.

 

[MUFC OK]

Ole dropped Ronaldo vs Everton though. Not the first time ronaldo is dropped this season.

No reason to drop him at all. Even at his age he’s arguably quicker than Sancho. I don’t get it.

 

[glazed]

Wow Phil Jones. Must be January sales coming up.

 

[izec]

We are playing for a draw here, at best.

 

[SirReginald]

I don’t think it’s going to be a diamond. Still think it’ll be 4-3-3. Would be utter suicide to be so narrow when most of our threat has come down the wide areas.

 

[SirAnderson]

Ronaldo asked to come off from the Bench because Lukaku will be coming off the bench. #facts

 

[Bertie Wooster]

Not a great team, but that's more because of missing 3 out of our 4 first choice defenders as well as Pogba.

I guess the weakened defence is why we've gone in with our 3 most defensive minded CM's and 3 mobile attacking minded players but no #9.

Time will tell if it's a great tactic that successfully deals with our weakened defence while still being a threat on the break - or if we've just weakened our attack and creativity as well while still struggling with our second string defence.

 

[HailtotheKing]

I like that team. Brave. But why McTominay? Does every club have a player that constantly plays and fans have no idea why?

 

[Walters_19_MuFc]

Caretaker or inexperienced managers often strive to prove that they have insight that critics and ordinary fans don't have. This sometimes results in strange selections and, in my experience, rarely, if ever, works. The right team is often the most obvious one.

Dropping Ronaldo to the bench seems like one of those 'cunning plan' scenarios. I hope I'm wrong.

Did you say that when Carrick dropped Bruno against Villareal?

 

[Idxomer]

Ole must have had a word with them before and just gave some advice.

Ane then they did the complete opposite.

 

[Berbasbullet]

What an absolutely disgusting & disgraceful starting line-up by Carrick, perfect illustration as to why his crappy coaching has left us in such an awful position this season, I am hopping mad!!!

No Ronaldo, the only outfield player actually winning games for us, DVDB drops to bench in favour of McFred yet again & no youth on bench, instead we've got the likes of Mata, Jones & Lingard, absolutely shocking & idiotic by Carrick!

Is this satire…?

 

[TrustInJanuzaj]

It’s a decent team but I don’t understand by VDB isn’t in instead of McTominay. Also notable that we have very little technical ability or ability to hold up the ball anywhere on the pitch. I’m expecting a backs to the wall counter attacking performance, hopefully we can steal something.

 

[Judas]

What an absolutely disgusting & disgraceful starting line-up by Carrick, perfect illustration as to why his crappy coaching has left us in such an awful position this season, I am hopping mad!!!

No Ronaldo, the only outfield player actually winning games for us, DVDB drops to bench in favour of McFred yet again & no youth on bench, instead we've got the likes of Mata, Jones & Lingard, absolutely shocking & idiotic by Carrick!

this is the funniest post I've read in ages. Bless you.

 

[Castia]

What did you want? Another McFred midfield duo getting completely outnumbered and outplayed while our forward line spends entire game without touching the ball? This at least has some hope that we will have a bit of the ball in the game. If we manage to do anything with it or not is a different question but it's an interesting lineup.

We can have 80% possession with that line up and offer virtually no goal threat. 3 DM’s an out of form Rashford and Bruno in a system that looks like we have no striker?

That McFred and Matic midfield 3 is making my dick hard the football is going to be brilliant…wonder if we’ll get a single forwards pass within 90 minutes?

 

[dove]

Is this satire…?

Got to be but can't be sure these days

 

[Rockets Redglare]

Possibly shows that it may have been Ole holding Carrick/McKenna back a bit and Carrick/McKenna implementing Ole’s ideas rather than the other way around.

Carrick/McKenna showing some balls at least

How is playing 3 defensive midfielders and no striker showing balls?

 

[bosnian_red]

Big call to drop Ronaldo. Not too optimistic about this, we have nobody to hold up the ball in attack so that'll be a worry.

 

[UnitedSofa]

Ole dropped Ronaldo vs Everton though. Not the first time ronaldo is dropped this season.

It was more changing the team/formation to counteract what is in front of you rather than simply dropping Ronaldo.

If Ole was in charge it would still be 4,2,3,1

 

[hellhunter]

Did you say that when Carrick dropped Bruno against Villareal?

To be fair, we only came to life when Bruno (and Rashford) entered.

 

[Rossa]

No reason to drop him at all. Even at his age he’s arguably quicker than Sancho. I don’t get it.

sure he is faster in a straight line, but he can’t sprint as often. Carrick wants legs in there. Ronaldo coming on if/when we need a goal.

 

[AndySmith1990]

I've no expectations of getting a win today, I just want to see some effort, a decent performance, and keeping the scoreline respectable.

 

[DOTA]

Is this satire…?

I think they're just hopping mad.

 

[Leftback99]

If we don't concede from a set piece i'll be shocked.

 

[cj_sparky]

I don't know what to make of the line up, because in keeping with recent times I generally don't know what we are up to

 

[UNITED ACADEMY]

No reason to drop him at all. Even at his age he’s arguably quicker than Sancho. I don’t get it.

To be fair, ronaldo was dropped for no reason vs everton since the formation was the same. Cavani replaced him like for like. But today, it’s different formation and Sancho is not like for like replacement for Ronaldo. So it’s definitely tactical change.

 

[Shane88]

Big deal, he's gone next summer anyway.

 

[Hoof the ball]

Not a chance this is a diamond. Sancho is not playing CF. It makes so much more sense that Bruno is false nine considering that he spends most of his time as a second-striker anyway. Bruno is playing the Firmino.

 

[Sky1981]

You only drop Ronaldo if you actually have a proper plan, even that's a mighty gamble.

When you're actually clueless, as much as it pains me to say, just stick to your best player who can create magic ouf of thin air, bolster the back and hope he snatch something.

Dropping Ronaldo while maintaining the ragged clueless formation just made you look dumb and dumber.

Granted if Carrick dropped ronaldo and we started playing like Prime Barca I'd eat my had

 

[Tarrou]

I don’t know how some of you cope with life looking at your reactions to starting lineups

 

[FireballXL5]

Werner will score. Nailed on.

 

[MonkeysMagic]

If we can be compact and defensively organised (big IF) then the longer we can keep the score 0-0 we can create chances to score. Unfortunately, we are abysmal at set pieces and I can see Chel scoring from them.

 

[Trequarista10]

It's 352/343 with Matic LCB I think

Rashford
Bruno ------- Sancho
Telles - Fred - McTom - AWB
Matic - Bailly - Lindelof
De Gea​

 

[suheilsworld]

Expect Loftus Cheek to run circles around our midfield and boss it

 

[Trophy Room]

Matic might play in a back 3/5.

 

[Silverman]

Heard it could be a 3-4-3 to match Chelsea with McTominay in back 3.

 

[SirAnderson]

What an absolutely disgusting & disgraceful starting line-up by Carrick, perfect illustration as to why his crappy coaching has left us in such an awful position this season, I am hopping mad!!!

No Ronaldo, the only outfield player actually winning games for us, DVDB drops to bench in favour of McFred yet again & no youth on bench, instead we've got the likes of Mata, Jones & Lingard, absolutely shocking & idiotic by Carrick!

Use sure it's since 1978? Must be a couple decades earlier, surely? You bleed red through and through.

 

[UnitedSofa]

How is playing 3 defensive midfielders and no striker showing balls?

McT/Fred aren’t defensive midfielders, they’re Box to Box midfielders with Fred arguably being more of an attacking mid.

They only play there because we literally have no one else other than Matic who is a DM. Matic just never got a game under Ole.

Definitely showing balls.

I assume it’s a false 9 but most likely it’s

De Gea

AWB
Lindeloff
Bailly
Telles

Matic

Fred
McT

Bruno

Sancho
Rashford

In diamond formation

 

[Judas]

You only drop Ronaldo if you actually have a proper plan, even that's a mighty gamble.

When you're actually clueless, as much as it pains me to say, just stick to your best player who can create magic ouf of thin air, bolster the back and hope he snatch something.

Dropping Ronaldo while maintaining the ragged clueless formation just made you look dumb and dumber.

Granted if Carrick dropped ronaldo and we started playing like Prime Barca I'd eat my had

But the lineup suggests to me we....have a plan though? Why don't we actually see what happens. Plenty of time for negative shite after the game.

I'm so baffled how tediously negative this place still is even with Ole gone. Try and enjoy things.