[pocco]

It's a write-off, trust me on that. Damage limitation until the summer rebuild now.

No, not after three games, I said this in June.

In June you said it's a write off until next summer?

 

[Moriarty]

I still you're you're being a bit OTT. If we're still in the doldrums come Christmas, then fair enough but the table is still sorting itself out. How many times have you seen teams recover from a crappy start to the season only to go on a winning run and charge up the table? We'll be there or thereabouts at the death.

 

[Adcuth]

That's not really the point.

Don't get Sassy, Colin

 

[peridigm]

I'm really not sure who will partner Smalling, part of me even wonders if Mourinho might play Herrera as a CB with him.

If he does that he should be sacked. Why play a midfielder in defense if we have two fit center backs? Surely two half-assed center backs are better than a half-assed midfielder playing center back along side a half-assed center back.

I'm not watching whatever the case is. Going to visit my daughter at college instead. I'll listen in on radio during the drive until it goes tits up. Then I'll switch to the post match phone ins for some comedy.

 

[el3mel]

Don't win tomorrow and top 4 will be sorted in Sep.

 

[el3mel]

Tweet

— Twitter API (@user) date

 

[el3mel]

Confirmed United squad members

David de Gea, Sergio Romero, Lee Grant, Antonio Valencia, Eric Bailly, Chris Smalling, Victor Lindelof, Luke Shaw, Ashley Young, Scott McTominay, Marouane Fellaini, Ander Herrera, Nemanja Matic, Fred, Paul Pogba, Juan Mata, Jesse Lingard, Marcus Rashford, Romelu Lukaku, Anthony Martial, Alexis Sanchez

 

[Damien]

That squad is looking very thin.

De Gea

Valencia Bailly Smalling Shaw
Matic
Fred Pogba
Lingard Lukaku Sanchez​

Bench: Grant, Lindelof, Young, Herrera, Fellaini, Martial, Rashford
Left out: Romero (only just played a day or so ago), McTominay, Mata

Will probably be Mata in the squad over Martial.

 

[Janson]

It's a write-off, trust me on that. Damage limitation until the summer rebuild now.

No, not after three games, I said this in June.

So the season is a write off before it's even started, that's even better.

Why on earth would we be keeping him if it was damage limitation before the start of the season?

 

[Ramshock]

would this work?

Spoiler

 

[JMack1234]

Hang about...is this game not on Sky or BT?

 

[Class of 63]

Yeah, ok then.

Well it's more likely than what you came up with

 

[Motorman]

Hang about...is this game not on Sky or BT?

Only just realised this myself. Damnit

 

[BusbyMalone]

I'd drop Pogba for this game personally. The guy is taking the piss a bit, and i would like to see him out of the team. The way he's playing at the moment he's a detriment to the team.

 

[DRM]

Hang about...is this game not on Sky or BT?

Only just realised this myself. Damnit

They moved the date because of Burnely being in the Europa league and playing on a Thursday.

 

[FootyGirl88]

Where is Pereira? How is supposed to improve if he doesn't get chances. What has McTominay done to deserve being in the squad

 

[Greck]

Don't win tomorrow and top 4 will be sorted in Sep.

This statement seems hyperbole till one looks at the table. With today's results if we lose tomorrow we could be 3 games out of the top 4.

 

[The Red Roman]

Telecast Schedule and Info

............ ..VS...............

Date - Sunday, September 02 2018
Kickoff Time - 1600 Hrs BST
Venue - Turf Moor, Burnley

League standings and form guide

13. Manchester United: WLL

18. Burnley: DLL


Previous League Meetings

Burnley 0—1 Manchester United

Manchester United 2—2 Burnley

Burnley 0—2 Manchester United

Manchester United 0—0 Burnley

Manchester United 3—1 Burnley


All-Time League Record

Manchester United wins: 51
Burnley wins: 40
Draws: 19


Pre-Match Pressers

José Mourinho


Sean Dyche



Team News

Manchester United

Phil Jones, Marcos Rojo, Diogo Dalot and Sergio Romero ruled out.


Burnley

Johann Berg Gudmundsson, Steven Defour and Nick Pope ruled out. Robbie Brady doubtful.


Know the opposition

Burnley Football Club (nicknamed The Clarets), is a professional association football club based in Burnley, Lancashire. On 18 May 1882, The club was founded on On 18 May 1882, when Burnley Rovers Football Club decided to shift their allegiance from rugby union to football. Playing in various green or blue and white kits for their first few years, the club played their first competitive game in October 1882 against Astley Bridge in the Lancashire Challenge Cup, that game ending in an 8–0 defeat. In the early months of 1883 the club moved to Turf Moor and remain there, only their Lancashire rivals Preston North End having occupied the same ground continuously for longer. Burnley first appeared in the FA Cup in 1885–86 but were ignominiously beaten 11–0 when eligibility restrictions meant that their reserve side had to be fielded against Darwen Old Wanderers. On 13 October 1886, Turf Moor became the first ground to be visited by a member of a (British) Royal Family. When it was decided to found the Football League for the 1888–89 season, Burnley were among the 12 founders of that competition.

The club enjoyed its Golden days as one of the most progressive clubs around in the 1950s to the early 1970s under the reign of chairman Bob Lord. They were one of the first teams to build a training ground next to the stadium, while every other team still trained in their own stadium, and the Turf Moor club used innovative training methods. Among other things, this resulted in an excellent youth team. Nearly all members of the 1959–60 Division 1 winning team had played in the Burnley youth team. Lord also pioneered the short-lived 'Football Specials'. The Clarets were also the first to let a manager decide about the transfer policy. After the 1959–60 title winning season finished, Burnley went to the United States to participate in the inaugural international football tournament in North-America, the International Soccer League. The following season Burnley played in European competition for the first time. Burnley's biggest traditional rivals are Blackburn Rovers and Bolton Wanderers with the match between Burnley and Blackburn sometimes called The Cotton Mills Derby. Burnley play their home games at Turf Moor.


Referee

Jonathan Moss.


Familiar Faces

Tom Heaton, Robbie Brady, Anders Lindegaard and Phil Bardsley

It has been a really poor start to the season and United are really under pressure already to keep up with the leaders at the top of the league. We really need to string 5 or 6 wins together back to back, maybe even more to get ourselves back on course and the fixture list on paper looks like we could well do that, but the confidence of the players looks fragile. Mourinho must take some of the blame for that because he did create a very downbeat vibe around the club with his politics with the board over transfers. The players do look low on confidence and that makes games like this against Burnley even harder than they should be. Mourinho has tried to put a positive spin on how the team is feeling ”It was a week when people were positive,“ he said in his pre-match press conference. ”People were convinced that we deserved much more than what we got on Monday. That is why people are positive, even though we know that we have another very difficult match this weekend.“ I also enjoyed his comeback at Tottenham fans, when asked by one journalist if Spurs fans were right to claim he was no longer 'The Special One', the manager remained bullish and retorted: “They didn't have that song when we beat them at Wembley a couple of months ago [in the FA Cup semi-final].They had a big dream to win the cup final. It was a trophy they had a big dream to win, because they don't win many. But that day at Wembley, the United fans were singing 'The Special One', and of course the Spurs fans were not singing that.“ He also claimed that he is still ‘one of the greatest manager’s in the world’ which is true, I like Jose in this mood, but he must realise that football only care about the here and now, you are only as good as your last result and the press are really trying to provoke him with what are really poor questions and attitudes towards him, it is very hard not to bite in those situations so I do feel sorry for him in that respect, but it will only go away with wins and performances, United certainly need a win here.

Burnley have consistently provided a big test to the top six teams since they returned to the Premier League, they have no pressure on them in this game and will certainly smell blood. I’m not sure they do anything that different from last season so expect them to be excellently drilled without possession, getting back into a deep and solid shape. Dyche is very good at nullifying the opposition, and he'll ask his defence and midfield to keep it tight between the lines, using two banks of four, making little attempt to dominate possession. They’re supremely effective at denying the opposition shots from good positions, and get plenty of bodies back behind the ball to block shots too. United will struggle to play our way through them as their is little understanding or combination play between our attacking players. Our best route to goal in possession might well be getting the full-back overlapping to the bye-line and providing crosses and cut-backs. Luke Shaw has been United’s best player so far this season and might be an important attacking threat here. The lack of a naturally overlapping left-back means Sanchez's drifts in-field have robbed United of width; but with Shaw on that side this season we may look more potent down that flank this season. Antonio Valencia is not quite as dynamic down the right but should provide United with width down the right. Burnely did struggle against us last season in the counter-attacking phase so any opportunities United get to break with Burnley dis organised we need to be precise and clinical.

I think Mourinho should stick with the same shape in midfield. Obviously he changed to a 5-3-2 against Tottenham and their is an argument that he could move to a 4-2-3-1 here in order to get another attacking player on the pitch but I like the balance that a Matic, Pogba and Fred midfield can provide so a 4-3-3 shape should work well here. United should get plenty of the ball, but Burnley have evolved slightly in recent seasons, whereas they used to look for counter-attacks and long balls, now they hold the ball for longer periods thanks to Jack Cork’s intelligent possession play and if United’s midfield is aggressive and can turn the ball over in good area’s it would give us good chances of getting those counter-attacks that could expose Burnley.

The main question mark for United is who plays centre-back. Jones and Rojo won’t feature because they are injured and not quite match ready. Bailly was dropped after the dismal performace against Brighton and Smalling and Lindelof were both poor against Tottenham. Chris Wood or Ashley Barnes will lead the line for Burnley – they are very much target men rather than a counter-attackers, and therefore we should expect plenty of crosses. That probably suits Bailly and Smalling more than Lindelof, but it is not a great balance as neither of those two really line-up on the left side. It will be interesting to see who Jose goes with. I would be tempted to put some trust into Lindelof to try and rebuild his confidence a bit, but Mourinho is a fairly ruthless guy so I really don’t know what to expect here. Burnley will certainly believe they can get joy if they get some good pressure on our box.


Subs - Grant, Young, Bailly, Herrera, Fellani, Mata, Rashford

 

[JMack1234]

They moved the date because of Burnely being in the Europa league and playing on a Thursday.

Only just realised this myself. Damnit

Damn it, I'm out and thought it'd be showing it in the pub. Guess i'll have to follow the score then watch Match of The Day like they did in the old days.

 

[Tomuś]

Where is Pereira? How is supposed to improve if he doesn't get chances. What has McTominay done to deserve being in the squad

Fixed it for you

 

[johanovic]

De Gea

Valencia Bailly Smalling Shaw
Matic
Lingard Pogba
Sanchez Lukaku Martial

 

[Marcus]

This game feels like do or die.

 

[Seven Seas Sardines]

Damn it, I'm out and thought it'd be showing it in the pub. Guess i'll have to follow the score then watch Match of The Day like they did in the old days.

Get a laptop, that way you never miss a game. Or just go to an internet cafe.

 

[SER19]

Win and we go into the break 6 points off the pace but with some optimism. It’s hardly an insurmountable distance, Liverpool have a really tough September and city and pool play eachother soon.

A win, but a convincing win, and the whole complexion could be different in a few weeks, the lingering optimism after what was a disastrous result is encouraging and feels like something that can be built on. We are totally written off now it might even take some pressure off compared to trying to chase an unstoppable city last year.

Lose or draw and then maybe that optimism dies.

Haven’t want a fantastic win so much in a long time

 

[SER19]

would this work?

Spoiler

I’d love something like that with different players. Just not sure the wing backs are good enough for a more attacking role. People can say what they want but 2-3 years with Willian and perisic there, at about 120m would have been good business.

 

[alsabi]

We're playing in pink right? Red or blue would clash.

 

[whatwha]

Where is Pereira? How is supposed to improve if he doesn't get chances. What has McTominay done to deserve being in the squad

McTominay is taller... That might be the reason

 

[Andersons Dietician]

I’m going for a 2-1 win.

 

[r3idy]

Im thinking we bounce back in this game. First ten minutes no doubt Burnley will look to cause a bit of chaos and we need to have cool heads. We should be beating Burnley today without any doubt

 

[BigBebe]

It is painful to do the lineup prediction at the moment.

You look at who you would really want in the side. De Gea, Shaw, maybe Lingard, after that you go through the list thinking "Do they deserve it?" Most of the time the answer is no, not really. Sad days.

 

[sherrinford]

I’d love something like that with different players. Just not sure the wing backs are good enough for a more attacking role. People can say what they want but 2-3 years with Willian and perisic there, at about 120m would have been good business.

Except neither of them are wingbacks...

 

[minoo-utd]

Dont't want to even think if we lose this one!

 

[rooneyaldo]

Can someone please pm a iPhone compatible river?

 

[Jazz]

Where is Pereira? How is supposed to improve if he doesn't get chances. What has McTominay done to deserve being in the squad

That's how Jose rolls.

 

[SER19]

Except neither of them are wingbacks...

I’m going by the very much discussed quote by mourinho last year when speaking about a player he missed out on when he said ‘the player I wanted would have allowed me to play 3 at the back with wing backs’

Now of course he may not have been speaking about perisic but it seems unlikely given that that was all that was spoken about at the time and he was clearly who we came up short on last season.

 

[FootyGirl88]

McTominay is taller... That might be the reason

That's how Jose rolls.

He makes me sick - he was singing his praises after the Leicester game, he didn't do much wrong against Brighton either.

 

[AndyJ1985]

We're shit but so are Burnley. I think we'll narrowly win by scoring our only shot on target.

 

[Jazz]

He makes me sick - he was singing his praises after the Leicester game, he didn't do much wrong against Brighton either.

Did the same with Shaw last season and promptly dropped him once Young got over his injury. You can't trust anything that he says. Is it any wonder our players look like they don't know know what the feck is going on?

 

[AngliaRed]

Shame its not on UK TV.

Pink kit & up againy the wall, this has the potential to be a good match. I’ll watch it on my app.

If anyone likes rivers, lakes DM me!

 

[whatwha]

Shame its not on UK TV.

Pink kit & up againy the wall, this has the potential to be a good match. I’ll watch it on my app.

If anyone likes rivers, lakes DM me!

We have a pink kit?