Manchester United 4:0 AZ Alkmaar

RUCK4444 · Dec 12, 2019

Is this on BT Sport? Can't see it listed as being televised.

The Cat · Dec 12, 2019

RUCK4444 said:
Is this on BT Sport? Can't see it listed as being televised.

20:00
BT Sport 2 / BT Sport Ultimate

Strelok · Dec 12, 2019

Damien said:
He played 90 mins on Monday. I get the feeling the club know he isn't going to sign a new contract so no point in integrating him with the first team squad.

Honestly from what I've seen of Gomes he has not showed anything special enough to justify the hype about him around the caf.

Could any poster here enlighten me on this please?

Class of 63 · Dec 12, 2019

Strelok said:
Honestly from what I've seen of Gomes he has not showed anything special enough to justify the hype about him around the caf.

Could any poster here enlighten me on this please?

If he was 2/3 inches taller, half a yard more of pace and the hunger needed he'd be an ideal no.10 in the current set-up, alas

Red00012 · Dec 12, 2019

Canuckred64 said:
We can't afford to lose this game, why do people think we are going to rest most of our starters?

We’re already qualified

Offside · Dec 12, 2019

Canuckred64 said:
We can't afford to lose this game, why do people think we are going to rest most of our starters?

Better we come 2nd in the group and play a CL dropout in the earlier knockout rounds before they start taking it more seriously.

Strelok · Dec 12, 2019

Class of 63 said:
If he was 2/3 inches taller, half a yard more of pace and the hunger needed he'd be an ideal no.10 in the current set-up, alas

Quite an IF imho ...

Shimo · Dec 12, 2019

Pretty sure Garner is going to start even though he played 64 min on Monday. They have his mug on social media for the game promo. My guess is

Romero
Young, Tuanzebe, Jones, Williams
Garners, Matic
Perreira, Mata, Chong
Greenwood

Can't see us risking Martial for this. Rashford/James on the bench should we need attacking reinforcements.

Paul_Scholes18 · Dec 12, 2019

I want us to rest everyone apart from martial who played last game. I do think martial needs more minutes to get into form.

Redplane · Dec 12, 2019

Shimo said:
Pretty sure Garner is going to start even though he played 64 min on Monday. They have his mug on social media for the game promo. My guess is

Romero
Young, Tuanzebe, Jones, Williams
Garners, Matic
Perreira, Mata, Chong
Greenwood

Can't see us risking Martial for this. Rashford/James on the bench should we need attacking reinforcements.

I hope you re wrong because that lineup seems created for AZ to waltz right into our box.

RedCurry · Dec 12, 2019

Strelok said:
Honestly from what I've seen of Gomes he has not showed anything special enough to justify the hype about him around the caf.

Could any poster here enlighten me on this please?

Players of his technique and size could take a while to get going in their careers. See Gnabry of now versus when he was in premier league. His body will fill up and he has to continue to improve his balance, technique, passing, finishing in the meantime. Pace is something that can be improved as well over a period of time with the right specialists. He's a special talent, make no mistake about it.

Class of 63 · Dec 12, 2019

Strelok said:
Quite an IF imho ...

Yep and I think he knows it, maybe not enough i'll prove yous wrong in his make-up to make it at United.

ChaddyP · Dec 12, 2019

Offside said:
Better we come 2nd in the group and play a CL dropout in the earlier knockout rounds before they start taking it more seriously.

Also we play better against better sides. Rather draw Ajax than some random team from Lithuania

Samid · Dec 12, 2019

Bottled the prediction. Think Fred will start but changed him to Garner last minute.

zenith · Dec 12, 2019

Important for us to finish top of the group and avoid the CL drop outs . Hoping for a half decent team which will give much needed game time to bench players and avoid defeat at the very least

Strelok · Dec 12, 2019

RedCurry said:
Players of his technique and size could take a while to get going in their careers. See Gnabry of now versus when he was in premier league. His body will fill up and he has to continue to improve his balance, technique, passing, finishing in the meantime. Pace is something that can be improved as well over a period of time with the right specialists. He's a special talent, make no mistake about it.

I only watched his highlight videos and the 1st team matches where he played so it's probably not enough to see his talent. However from your post I'm still unable to understand what is so special about him.

Regarding his physique development I strongly doubt that he would one day become fast and strong enough to cut it at the PL. He's already 19 and is only 5 ft 3 inch, pretty slow and weak imo. By that age height usually stops to develop, very rare that he'd see phenomenal physical development.

Another thing for me he doesn't seem to have a quick football brain either. The matches I watched him he often takes a lot of time before making a decision and his passing was also pretty mediocre. Honestly I could hardly recall anything that show even a glimpse of a special talent in the making.

Random Task · Dec 12, 2019

Strelok said:
From today till 5th Jan we'll have 8 games, basically one game every 3 days. What a crucial period and we just barely got our best players back.

Ole must be crazy to field the first team players, maybe 1-2 max is my guess. Pereira will play as Sunday he won't.

I will go with this:

Romero
Laird - Tuan - Jones - Williams
Garner - Pereira
Mata
Chong - Greenwood - Young

Laird is an interesting pick. I've heard good things about him but haven't seen him play.

Strelok · Dec 12, 2019

Random Task said:
Laird is an interesting pick. I've heard good things about him but haven't seen him play.

I've seen him only in the Astana match but the guy is a good prospect imho. Fast, strong, brave, decent on the ball and good stamina. Run down the right flank a lot and caused considerable problems for Astana defence.

Probably will become a decent RB imo.

Damien · Dec 12, 2019

Samid said:
Bottled the prediction. Think Fred will start but changed him to Garner last minute.

I've done the same with fullbacks. Think Laird will start but changed him to Young. I'm more confident about Garner starting due to him coming off on Monday.

always_hoping · Dec 12, 2019

zenith said:
Important for us to finish top of the group and avoid the CL drop outs . Hoping for a half decent team which will give much needed game time to bench players and avoid defeat at the very least

Open to correction, if United finish 1st they can still play one of 4 champions league drop outs, Bayern Leverkusen, Shakhtar,Olympiacos,Club Brugge.

Winning the group means United will avoid Inter, Ajax, Salzburg, Benfica in the next round.

Brightonian · Dec 12, 2019

Strelok said:
I only watched his highlight videos and the 1st team matches where he played so it's probably not enough to see his talent. However from your post I'm still unable to understand what is so special about him.

Regarding his physique development I strongly doubt that he would one day become fast and strong enough to cut it at the PL. He's already 19 and is only 5 ft 3 inch, pretty slow and weak imo. By that age height usually stops to develop, very rare that he'd see phenomenal physical development.

Another thing for me he doesn't seem to have a quick football brain either. The matches I watched him he often takes a lot of time before making a decision and his passing was also pretty mediocre. Honestly I could hardly recall anything that show even a glimpse of a special talent in the making.

Some of the things you say are fair but some you would completely reconsider, I think, if you'd seen more of him. He does sometimes dwell on the ball a little but it's certainly not because his footballing brain is slow. I've seen him pull off absurdly creative passes with no time to think at all plenty of times. And his passing is absolutely top drawer, both long and short range - probably his equal best quality alongside his ball control.

Only time will tell in terms of his physique and sharpness. He was always going to be a late developer, given his size. His pace is neither great nor bad - he's faster, stronger and more useful in the tackle now than Mata has ever been, and remember that once upon a time Mata was probably the PL's best creative forward.

Adcuth · Dec 12, 2019

Class of 63 said:
Presuming you're talking about Levitt - since he hasn't featured the last 2 or 3 matches for the 23s

I assumed he was being brought into the first team fold and that's why he hadn't played. Has there been confirmation of an injury?

FrankDrebin · Dec 12, 2019

Any idea with how AZ are going to line-up ?
And are they a attacking team or quite a pragmatic one ?

Random Task · Dec 12, 2019

Strelok said:
I've seen him only in the Astana match but the guy is a good prospect imho. Fast, strong, brave, decent on the ball and good stamina. Run down the right flank a lot and caused considerable problems for Astana defence.

Probably will become a decent RB imo.

Yeah, I missed that game.

AWB could use a rest so we may as well give him a runout.

Adcuth · Dec 12, 2019

FrankDrebin said:
Any idea with how AZ are going to line-up ?
And are they a attacking team or quite a pragmatic one ?

Weve played them recently

Random Task · Dec 12, 2019

Samid said:
Bottled the prediction. Think Fred will start but changed him to Garner last minute.

I reckon it was a good move. Garner is more likely to start tonight - I think. Ole is a difficult one to predict though.

Strelok · Dec 12, 2019

Brightonian said:
Some of the things you say are fair but some you would completely reconsider, I think, if you'd seen more of him. He does sometimes dwell on the ball a little but it's certainly not because his footballing brain is slow. I've seen him pull off absurdly creative passes with no time to think at all plenty of times. And his passing is absolutely top drawer, both long and short range - probably his equal best quality alongside his ball control.

Only time will tell in terms of his physique and sharpness. He was always going to be a late developer, given his size. His pace is neither great nor bad - he's faster, stronger and more useful in the tackle now than Mata has ever been, and remember that once upon a time Mata was probably the PL's best creative forward.

Yeah only time will tell, of course I really hope he'd prove me wrong and become a valuable asset for us. Still a little doubt over his physique development though.

Stadjer · Dec 12, 2019

FrankDrebin said:
Any idea with how AZ are going to line-up ?
And are they a attacking team or quite a pragmatic one ?

Attacking team with a very young and talented forward line. Stengs, Boadu and Idrissi are great to watch. Boadu and Stengs recently made their debuts for the national team too. Boadu also directly scored a goal during his debut but he is suspended today.

Koopmeinders is also a good player.

DomesticTadpole · Dec 12, 2019

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VeevaVee · Dec 12, 2019

Is Ole playing a second team in the EL every time so when we get knocked out he can say "I wasn't even trying"?

Suvvernmanc · Dec 12, 2019

Williams starts. Mutv just confirmed it

dove · Dec 12, 2019

I really don't understand why the hell are we playing our 2nd team again (against Astana it was more like 3rd). Finishing top is important to avoid 2 extra games...

Adcuth · Dec 12, 2019

Mata and Pereira. Which is on the right?

prateik · Dec 12, 2019

Martial and Maguire are the only first choice starters playing.. Great.

prateik · Dec 12, 2019

dove said:
I really don't understand why the hell are we playing our 2nd team again (against Astana it was more like 3rd). Finishing top is important to avoid 2 extra games...

?

King Andow · Dec 12, 2019

4-4-2?

Havak · Dec 12, 2019

dove said:
I really don't understand why the hell are we playing our 2nd team again (against Astana it was more like 3rd). Finishing top is important to avoid 2 extra games...

Why would we play two extra games?

bosnian_red · Dec 12, 2019

No gomes

Also pereira, matic and Mata all on there is going to be ugly in midfield. Whatever.

Gandalf · Dec 12, 2019

We

VeevaVee said:
Is Ole playing a second team in the EL every time so when we get knocked out he can say "I wasn't even trying"?

Teams will get stronger in the knockout rounds but for now better to rest the starters and give minutes to the kids. If we are in the semis I expect it will be first XI all the way.

Adcuth · Dec 12, 2019

prateik said:
?

I second this....?

Europa League Group L

Manchester United 4:0 AZ Alkmaar

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