Not 3-5-2.
How to beat City? | without Pogba
- Thread starter sammsky1
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If there's someone who is good at breaking down juggernauts, its Jose Mourinho. I hope he comes with a masterclass performance in the tactics department.
The other factor that makes facing City more difficult after a match like that against Huddersfield is that not only are City players increasingly confident of getting a result against parked buses but also that if you're a side looking to park the bus the realization that you can get it virtually perfect and still lose to this side. Defensively, you have to have a lot of belief to pull off the bus
It's always going to be one of two approaches, one you park it and kick them to bits hoping to get a willing referee or press them high ala Simeone and hope to convert the few chances you'll get. Depending on your squad, there isn't much else left to do because no team in the Premiership can outpass them
It's always going to be one of two approaches, one you park it and kick them to bits hoping to get a willing referee or press them high ala Simeone and hope to convert the few chances you'll get. Depending on your squad, there isn't much else left to do because no team in the Premiership can outpass them
If anyone could beat them it is Jose Mourinho I think. However, it will be a very difficult game and I think United will have to play as if it were a final.
3-5-2 is actually what we need to do to beat them.
Bailly Jones Rojo as CBs
Valencia/Young as WBs
Herrera, Matic, Pogba as CMs
Martial & Rashford as STs(assuming Romelu gets banned)
If the game is deadlocked & we need to win or get an equaliser, bring Ibra/Fellaini in on the 70th minute.
Bombard their defence aerially. No more building from the back. De Gea shoots directly into Fellaini’s chest at the edge of their pen.
We could do them 2-0 but it won’t be easy.
Forget it we aren't winning this game.
Why? Because at the bare minimum, we need quality on the ball to string 2 passes together. Right now, bar Pogba, I can't see any other player in the team who can give a through ball that cuts the defense. The best we can hope for is to play rugby football and hope that we draw the game to keep our title hopes alive.
Only a team drilled better in attacking football can dismantle this City side. That is not the Mourinho way so there is no hope at all, to be bluntly honest.
Why? Because at the bare minimum, we need quality on the ball to string 2 passes together. Right now, bar Pogba, I can't see any other player in the team who can give a through ball that cuts the defense. The best we can hope for is to play rugby football and hope that we draw the game to keep our title hopes alive.
Only a team drilled better in attacking football can dismantle this City side. That is not the Mourinho way so there is no hope at all, to be bluntly honest.
I have a brilliant plan for us to beat city and we can do it our way but one thing is for sure, we need a Mourinho game plan and defensive duties from all the players to get the job done. We absolutely have to defend well against them because they will definitely go for the throat.
The game is at OT and it is our home, there is no way we should fear City. We never have.
The team setup should be something like this,
Valencia-Bailly-Lindelof-Blind
Valencia- he has be one of our consistent players in the last couple of years and just because he didn't so well against Brighton on saturday, we cannot count him out. I'm not saying he's the best RB but certainly our best choice right now.
Bailly- when not injured, he's one of the best CB in the world.
Lindelof- given his recent form and toil, i think he deserves to be given a chance to prove against the best teams, if he manages to play against Watford and Arsenal- he should go all the way through to the derby.
Blind- I would never start Young or Darmian because they each have a weakness in defense and attack respectively. Although Rojo is a good option at RB.
Matic-Herrera
Matic- he is one of the few players in our side who never gives up and tries to play simple passes and keeps things clean. He is our assurance to not concede a goal
Herrera- not in a good run of form but he always picks up in the big matches and can definitely deliver. Loads of passion for United.
POGBA- He is the man to play in a more attacking area in between the wingers. He definitely can find the right pass and can do the simple things well.
Martial- Lukaku- MkhiT
All the 3 can do well when the passes go their way and are provided with good service. Although Lukaku needs to do better with his finishing and position. Also on the ball, he needs to play tight and fast passes.
De Gea
valencia-bailly-lindelof-blind
matic-herrera
pogba
mkhit lukaku martial
Rashford, Zlatan and Fellaini can be subs for the day.
I think we can work city slowly up the field but if we get a break which we will on many occasions because of City's fast passing, we need to get on the counter and put them away. Our build up has be awful throughout the season, we keep passing from side to side and then the ball floats inside from one of our wingbacks which hasn't worked. We need to play through the middle and get those passes accurately. We definitely definitely have to play quick passes and our movement has to be ecstatic to beat that City team.
I definitely think we can.
The game is at OT and it is our home, there is no way we should fear City. We never have.
The team setup should be something like this,
Valencia-Bailly-Lindelof-Blind
Valencia- he has be one of our consistent players in the last couple of years and just because he didn't so well against Brighton on saturday, we cannot count him out. I'm not saying he's the best RB but certainly our best choice right now.
Bailly- when not injured, he's one of the best CB in the world.
Lindelof- given his recent form and toil, i think he deserves to be given a chance to prove against the best teams, if he manages to play against Watford and Arsenal- he should go all the way through to the derby.
Blind- I would never start Young or Darmian because they each have a weakness in defense and attack respectively. Although Rojo is a good option at RB.
Matic-Herrera
Matic- he is one of the few players in our side who never gives up and tries to play simple passes and keeps things clean. He is our assurance to not concede a goal
Herrera- not in a good run of form but he always picks up in the big matches and can definitely deliver. Loads of passion for United.
POGBA- He is the man to play in a more attacking area in between the wingers. He definitely can find the right pass and can do the simple things well.
Martial- Lukaku- MkhiT
All the 3 can do well when the passes go their way and are provided with good service. Although Lukaku needs to do better with his finishing and position. Also on the ball, he needs to play tight and fast passes.
De Gea
valencia-bailly-lindelof-blind
matic-herrera
pogba
mkhit lukaku martial
Rashford, Zlatan and Fellaini can be subs for the day.
I think we can work city slowly up the field but if we get a break which we will on many occasions because of City's fast passing, we need to get on the counter and put them away. Our build up has be awful throughout the season, we keep passing from side to side and then the ball floats inside from one of our wingbacks which hasn't worked. We need to play through the middle and get those passes accurately. We definitely definitely have to play quick passes and our movement has to be ecstatic to beat that City team.
I definitely think we can.
Remove Mkhitaryan & Lindelof - they are pussies in this kind of games. No heart, no guts.
Huddersfield crowd scared the shit out of Lindelof. Mkhitaryan froze at OT in the same fixture last season at OT. I think Jose took him off at half time after a shambolic first half performance.
True what you say but all is not lost yet. Mourinho wants his team to defend well but he always teaches attacking football. His primary instinct is defense but he loves when his teams can dismantle other defenses. He is one of the best managers because he learns a lot about the opponents attack and puts his team in a position to stop all their attacks but his team needs to attack their defense.
Here's a perfect example of a Mourinho masterclass.
Yes but i don't think we have a better option at RB and i certainly do not think Mata should play out wide. We tried Rashford twice and it doesn't seem to work. MkhiT is a great player and he definitely can play on the Right. Lindelof was in a bad patch, if you had seen him play at Benfica you'd know he's better than what he seems to be doing here. He can come around, or we can play Rojo who's proved it already last season but i think it's too intense after coming back from injury.
Fecking clatter the cnuts
Why do you glorify a coach won nothing with City?
A football fan should be realistic but also optimistic: the league isn't over at the moment.
A football fan should be realistic but also optimistic: the league isn't over at the moment.
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Delph is the only real weakness in the team, but unfortunately we don't have a proper right winger in the squad, so I can't see us causing them too many problems there. Rashford's pace may cause some problems, but from viewing recent games, he doesn't stick to the right whenever he has played there and prefers going centrally or on the left, where it's a lot more cramped.
I concur.
No coincidence that in the few games that City have actually looked beatable, it has been physicality that has unnerved them.
I'd sooner this derby turned into a dogfight.
I would go also physical against them and then all will depend on ref. If ref will have traditional english criteria it will be good, but if ref will be like all refs this season when city plays and punish every soft touch , players, fans and jose will be crazy. Also it will allow city girls silva, sterling, aguero to dive whole game. In other words they will follow guardiola's philosophy.
Very interesting. Gives me hope as City are far less defensively competent than that Barcelona team and I think our attacking vitality this year is better than that Inter team.
Mourinho is also more tactically ruthless than Guardiola.
It’s going to be a fascinating game on so many levels.
It's certainly not especially since Guardiola's teams are prone to starting strong but slowing down after half a season. The problem is that currently their point advantage is getting a bit too big for my liking and I really don't know if we can be more consitent for the rest of the season as they are, as we have seen we are one Pogba or Matic injury away from another form drop.
I'm with Harry Redknapp and Brian Cloughy.. all this tactical bollox is overrated football is a very simple game with thicko footballers. Players win matches and in the end it depends if City players (as they do have the better players and team) turn up and play their best, or have an off day and we play our best. Simple as that.
Mou is a pragmatist and will do whatever needs to be done tactically to beat his opponent. Imo that's a real advantage in a manager if he isn't so hellbent on playing the game the "right" way. We need to stay compact in the center and hit them on the counter Rashford's pace should come in handy against a high defensive line like that of City.
Pep’s teams slowing down after half a season? If you followed his teams, opposite was true
Just luck
See how many times Barca missed chances they would normally take that night. All this "parking the bus" is a load of cliched rubbish. A team can get battered all day, keeper makes loads of saves and gifts the other team chances yet it ends 0-0 and suddenly everyone praises the team and manager that they "parked the bus" in a tactical masterclass.. yeah ok.
There's a reason nobody mentioned teams "parking the bus" in the 70 and 80s because they saw it for what it was, luck.
Can't quite remember how it exactly was at Barca but during his time at Bayern they always started slowing down in the second half of the season. Hence the reason he got a couple of beatings in the CL because his team went into form crisis always before the vital phase of the CL started.
they slowed down last 10 games or so as they had already won the league, it wasn't a case of slowing down because they were fatigued
I can only think of 1 hammering in the CL, a missed pen against Atletico by Muller cost them a game they should have won easily.
There’s no luck in football.
You either take your chances or you don’t. That’s got nothing to do with luck.
Players having a bad day can be down to many factors of which fatigue is one of them.
Barca players travelled 1000km to Milan by bus - it was a period when flights were cancelled because of the volcanic ash cloud in Iceland.
This gave Inter a huge advantage in the first leg. By the time the 2nd leg took place in Barcelona, the volcanic ash cloud was over. Mourinho & his boys travelled by plane to Barcelona.
Pretty good fortune to land a willing Portuguese and former business partner to Mou as a match referee as well
Attack the space left by full backs, since we are physically better side we need to create more aerial treat.
As they can't compete with us aerially they might look for those second balls which should be denied.
Obviously we would be sitting back and need to find every opportunity to play those forward passes especially in those wide areas.
Also never give too much time on the ball for them especially in front of the D box.
As they can't compete with us aerially they might look for those second balls which should be denied.
Obviously we would be sitting back and need to find every opportunity to play those forward passes especially in those wide areas.
Also never give too much time on the ball for them especially in front of the D box.
So you think we have more options? So far against top teams, we have seen two: a) Hoof the ball b) Hoof the ball harder. If you think that'll do, fair enough.
Yeah setting up a side to exploit weaknesses of the other team is just luck and parking the bus etc. Nothing to do with tactics or anything you know they only exist when you play attacking football. Nothing goes into defending. You just send out 11 players and tell them to 'park the bus'
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3-5-2 is actually 7-2-1
He has our holding mid-fielders site so far back they're additional centre backs. Creates far too much space between the creative midfielders and Lukaku. Invites opposing teams on which more often than no, can result in a backfire - like Basel.
We need to go out like we're Man Utd playing at home, play our way, let City deal with us.... oh to dream.
I do agree with everything you have said, but...
Man for man, MCFC have a much better squad than ours and if we decide to play them and match their skill level, I can't see us getting even a point.
As someone said above, we need to make this scrappy and really dirty. I believe this was referred to as negative football. This should be our aim. If we do this effectively, we will get at least one point, if not 3.
We won't be performing optimally and we will be carrying passengers. Of that I am sure (see below).
Mikki will be our main passenger. If he plays, it'll be like playing with 10 men.
Man for man, MCFC have a much better squad than ours and if we decide to play them and match their skill level, I can't see us getting even a point.
As someone said above, we need to make this scrappy and really dirty. I believe this was referred to as negative football. This should be our aim. If we do this effectively, we will get at least one point, if not 3.
3-5-2 worked against Spurs. We kept them at arm’s length and attacked them with vigour when we could.
I’d take a 1-0 result against City than go all out and get beat 6-1 like they did in 11/12. If they score before us, we are doomed.
For me the best team i would put out is
-----------------------DDG-----------------
------------Bailly---Jones--------Rojo---- Young
------------------------Matic---------------------
Valencia---------Herrera--------Pogba-----Rashford---
----------------------Lukaku--------------------
Why...
First point...
Push valencia high up to attack Delph. Valencia will defend when needed and will make Delph stay behind.
Herrera to play to pinch the balls and break the play down. He his the best in that job.
Rashford to take left side to attack those openings.. This will force City not to press to high.
Now to the 2 players who will HAVE TO HAVE a INCH PERFECT PERFORMANCE Lukaku and Pogba.
Pogba to make sure he doesn't let herrera be over run and Lukaku to score any chance brought to him.
Am sure 100% Mourinho has a plan even if not this team am certain we will win.
This is the games Mourinho is made of especially at home.
This game as all the whole marks of a Premier League Classic.
All the shackles will be dropped and United will do it.
Can't wait, i wish the game was tomorrow..
Old Trafford we fear no one. Correct score 4-2 to United
-----------------------DDG-----------------
------------Bailly---Jones--------Rojo---- Young
------------------------Matic---------------------
Valencia---------Herrera--------Pogba-----Rashford---
----------------------Lukaku--------------------
Why...
First point...
Push valencia high up to attack Delph. Valencia will defend when needed and will make Delph stay behind.
Herrera to play to pinch the balls and break the play down. He his the best in that job.
Rashford to take left side to attack those openings.. This will force City not to press to high.
Now to the 2 players who will HAVE TO HAVE a INCH PERFECT PERFORMANCE Lukaku and Pogba.
Pogba to make sure he doesn't let herrera be over run and Lukaku to score any chance brought to him.
Am sure 100% Mourinho has a plan even if not this team am certain we will win.
This is the games Mourinho is made of especially at home.
This game as all the whole marks of a Premier League Classic.
All the shackles will be dropped and United will do it.
Can't wait, i wish the game was tomorrow..
Old Trafford we fear no one. Correct score 4-2 to United
I'd play Herrera to do a job on debryune, cause every movie of theirs comes via him. Plus we'll need pogba and matic at their dynamic best to control the gave against a host of dynamic midfielders.
On the attacking front, our best chance is to get rashford or martial one and one with their defenders, because those guys are capable of carving out an opening on their own.
On the attacking front, our best chance is to get rashford or martial one and one with their defenders, because those guys are capable of carving out an opening on their own.
I'd play Herrera to do a job on debryune, cause every movie of theirs comes via him. Plus we'll need pogba and matic at their dynamic best to control the gave against a host of dynamic midfielders.
On the attacking front, our best chance is to get rashford or martial one and one with their defenders, because those guys are capable of carving out an opening on their own.
On the attacking front, our best chance is to get rashford or martial one and one with their defenders, because those guys are capable of carving out an opening on their own.
Would love that but the reality is in this moment they are better than us, if we try to go toe to toe we'll lose heavily.
Yes, you are right. The EPL race is over. Sack Mourinho and rebuild for next season. Only the Champion's League is relevant and then only amongst City and Psg and Barcelona (even Real is a terrible team that can't compete).
David Silva is the playmaker, KDB is more direct in his passing but Silva is very important too. Yesterday KDB created nothing, almost every chance was created by Silva.