[Josh 76]

We need a PSG miracle today....but miracles do happen and surely maybe today luck will be on our side compared to them

Hopefully Liverpool get someone sent off

Liverpool get a player sent off ?
Don't think Robertson can try any harder.

 

[croadyman]

If our players thought Partizan was an intense atmosphere,just wait until they walk into that cauldron today. They will be screaming for every challenge and you have to keep your head.

 

[Wayne's World]

Shaw????
Solid mid table midfield and attack.

Mid-table? It's relegation folder and we have spent numerous amounts of obscene money on shit and this is what we have to show for it going to be our biggest rivals....

 

[edgar allan]

Well,that's the fundamental thing. Wherever you put the majority of these guys they're still a few levels below the opposition today.

I just dont think playing a diamond formation will do us any good and would just play into their hands because you're either giving their fullbacks too much space or,if we want AWB and whoever's on the left-side, to go high up the pitch and mark Robertson and Arnold you're leaving space in behind for Mane and Salah ,who would then be 1v1 with anyone of our 3 CB's.

4-4-2 Makes abit more sense because you'll be restricting Liverpool's main weapon ie width alittle more sensibly.
Its more toe-to-toe.

Time to sit back and frustrate, I think we will have to play like the small time team that we have become

 

[Paxi]

I've a bad feeling

 

[Josh 76]

If the Scousers score early, will be a long 90 mins.
If we some how get to 30 mins at 0-0, then hopefully we won't get a battering.

 

[Paul_Scholes18]

Liverpool get a player sent off ?
Don't think Robertson can try any harder.

Yeah I think Liverpool have had 3-4 clear reds this season being ignored. I know the refs in England allow a lot in general, but Liverpool can do whatever they want these days. Not like when Gerrard could actually be sent off in the past.

I think we could get something without the VAR help for them. Although with it it feels a bit hopeless.

 

[Forevergiggs1]

Because as a wingback,even in a defensive set-up,you would still be offering a offensive option.
Where's the width going to come from if we're attacking ? Perriera,Martial and James would be far too central.

AWB has to offer an outlet. Maybe not all the time when we're potentially attacking but atleast occasionally.

We cant go to Anfield and be ultra cautious and act like cowards.

_______________DeGea______________
________AWB__Lindelof__Maquire__
_Dalot______________________Williams__
__________Fred_____Matic___________
______________Peirera ________________
_______Greenwood _____James______


Martial is one of our best players but I think today we need more bite and if Rashford doesn't play Martial doesn't seem to have the same energy. Or we could have James on the right, Martial on the left and Greenwood on the bench.

 

[Marcus]

Come on United. Time to raise our game and win this. Hopefully with the aura of invincibility shattered, other teams will also gain confidence when facing the scousers.

 

[Roboc7]

Suspect will be like last year, we’ll park the bus and get battered.

 

[100]

Our best bet is stacking the midfield and giving Martial some freedom up front(assuming Rashford is out). We're not comfortable enough with 3/5 at the back to justify playing it at Anfield.

DDG
AWB Lindelof Maguire Williams
Fred Matic
Dalot Pereira James
Martial

The big decision is whether to go for Greenwood or a more defensive winger.

James is important on the left to help Williams out, and potentially get in behind their adventurous fullbacks.

Not expecting anything from this so anything is a bonus.

 

[Dinghy]

Hoping for Williams to start as a RWB. Pereira shouldn't be anywhere near a starting line up in a game like this, but he's much better defensively than Greenwood and Mata.

---------------------------DDG------------------------------
----------AWB------Lindelof----Maguire----------
Williams-------------------------------------Shaw----
-----------------Matic---------Fred---------------------
Pereira---------------------------------------James--
-------------------------Martial---------------------------

Back 5 doesn't look too bad, but that front 5 is fecking shocking.

 

[Nickelodeon]

Need DDG to perform miracles today. Hope he can be at his absolute extreme best.

 

[Red00012]

I don’t really want to see 3 at the back because let’s face it we are going to concede and it will probably changing up when we concede. It’s been a decent weekend with results going for us so lets just go for it .

 

[fergiesarmy1]

Been out for a couple of hours, do we know if Rashford is no chance yet?

Scratch that - press are confirming out. Can’t believe how anything that can go for the scousers seems to this season.

 

[Bilbo]

Rashford would be a huge loss today. Our fighting chance in this fixture comes from keeping him and James/Martial high and wide to give their full backs pause for thought when they go upfield. We can hurt them there, but only if we have the right players to do it.

 

[FrankDrebin]

Liverpool would kick Rashford off the pitch,though. So as much as I would be disappointed if he doesn't feature, longterm wise would likely be more beneficial for Rashford,Ole and United in general.

 

[PaulRich]

Turn it into the worst footballing spectacle of the year and run like feck with a draw in our back pockets. Best we're gonna do

 

[Forevergiggs1]

Going to put a cheeky £10 bet on us to win at 13/2. Did the same in the first game at 4/1 and won £36 when I cashed out about 5 minutes before Liverpool scored. Just have to keep your finger hovering over the cash out button.

 

[groovyalbert]

Stripping the squad of numbers and not replacing them, is the reason we are where we are.

Yup, but they were bad numbers.

No matter who was instigating the overhaul this period of transition was always going to be tough.

My concern is more with who is orchestrating it, rather than the transition itself.

 

[Summit]

Ah, Liverpool's first loss of the season today

 

[Bestietom]

Yup, but they were bad numbers.

No matter who was instigating the overhaul this period of transition was always going to be tough.

My concern is more with who is orchestrating it, rather than the transition itself.

Should have insisted on replacements.

 

[Berbasbullet]

Ah, Liverpool's first loss of the season today

Love this!

 

[Bestietom]

Never Liked this Prick. Was on Sunday Supplement this morning. Here's his column today.

Manchester United in 2020: hell-bent on doing everything their way when they have become the club that always gets it wrong

• SAM WALLACE CHIEF FOOTBALL WRITER

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has made plenty of mistakes since taking over as Manchester United manager .

There will have been many considerations running through the mind of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer when he resolved at last to send on Marcus Rashford for the final stages of a hitherto goalless FA Cup replay on Wednesday night, and no doubt in the moment the decision will have made sense.
The FA Cup offers Manchester United some salvation this season, and Solskjaer could make the case privately, if not in public, that a win on Tuesday outweighed the importance of a league game away at Liverpool, which most expect United to lose anyway. The next three points in the long struggle to challenge for the Champions League places are likely not coming at Anfield on Sunday – but an FA Cup defeat? That might cast a different kind of shade on the manager.
He knew that Rashford has been nursing a back injury for weeks and was substituted at Norwich City to that end. It was a risk to bring him on against Wolverhampton Wanderers, and so it proved: victory but at a price. If Solskjaer picks Rashford for Anfield he will do so knowing that the risk is even greater this time, with a set of implications that go far beyond the weekend. This is how it is when a manager is buying himself time with every game, when it feels like every moment of every match, every injury, every setback, is dictating to him – rather than the other way around.

It is that which stands out about the United of 2020, almost seven years on from the passing into history of Sir Alex Ferguson, as this strange patchwork team of the half-fit, the young, the old and the disenchanted go to Anfield. Not so much that Liverpool are on the brink of escaping the prison of their title curse, or that United look so far from their next one. But more that Solskjaer and United have so little control over events, forever reacting, changing, fighting the consequences of whatever decision they were so sure was right one year ago, or six months past.

They live from game to game, largely reliant now on a 22-year-old striker who, so to speak, was injured before he was injured on Tuesday. As for the defence, Solskjaer will have to consider whether Eric Bailly can be risked for his first involvement in a match of any kind since April, outside the closed-doors practice game that was arranged at Carrington this week. When will Luke Shaw be fit and available? Or Axel Tuanzebe? Hard to say – at least as difficult to answer as recalling the last time any of Liverpool’s key performers missed a significant period with injury.

Would United be better off with Chris Smalling at the back?

On Sunday, Chris Smalling will make his 19th start on loan at Roma where he has been part of seven clean sheets, only one fewer than he achieved in 34 starts for United last season. Romelu Lukaku has 15 goals for Inter Milan, with double the hit-rate of last season at United per 90 minutes played and a better shot conversion rate too. Releasing both last summer were difficult decisions and in the space left behind Solskjaer could argue that Mason Greenwood and Brandon Williams have been given room to develop. What is beyond doubt is that Smalling and Lukaku are playing better under other managers, at other clubs. It is much more difficult to name the players who have improved at United.

Perhaps Ashley Young saw it that way too, as he became the third United player of recent times to embark for Inter Milan this week. The decision on Young’s contract extension was left so long this season that the player decided he would wait no more and then when finally the offer from United came amid a January injury glut it was too late. Nemanja Matic was told he could leave in this window and then the move was blocked. Bruno Fernandes may arrive from Sporting Lisbon this month, but that was never the original plan.
All clubs, all managers, are obliged to try to plot a future that can change with the tear of a muscle, or a referee’s decision. That United have got so little of it right means each blow is accompanied by a disproportionately severe effect. The departure of a player of the vintage of Young, 35, would ordinarily have been mapped on the planning document of a technical director for years in advance. It should not have ended in the chaos of offer and last-minute counter-offer, as a good club captain was obliged to force the issue. Of course, United still do not have a technical director. Presumably on account of them being right and all those clubs who do have that role, including Liverpool, Manchester City, Barcelona, Juventus and Bayern Munich, being wrong.

Ashley Young was this week allowed to leave for Inter Milan
On the scale of calamity - the shocking injury backlog, the unbalanced squad - it is noted that the injured Paul Pogba was at Paris fashion week on Friday. Plotting the engagements of Pogba’s social diary – family weddings, charity football matches, commercial tours used as platforms to outline future career plans – against United’s sliding fortunes is, admittedly, an inexact science.

Much simpler to say that Pogba appears to do whatever he wants, which tells you all need to know about the kind of control that United assert over their highest paid employee, and by extension the club itself. Additionally, for those who might have forgotten, United still pay Alexis Sanchez around £175,000 a week not to play for them – or indeed Inter, where he is injured. An astonishing turn of events, made even more remarkable by the fact that his unfortunate situation is not even in United’s top ten of current problems.
By the same token, Solskjaer was unable to convince the free-scoring teenage striker Erling Haaland to sign for him despite the not-inconspicuous advantage of being the most famous player ever to emerge from the 19-year-old’s native Norway, his former coach and a friend of his dad. It makes you wonder if young Erling had drawn his own conclusions from events at Old Trafford. The same might be said for Tahith Chong and Angel Gomes, both out of contract in the summer.
This is United in 2020, a string of emergencies each requiring an unsatisfactory solution that sends their manager stumbling on to the next challenge, which happens to be Anfield on Sunday. There remains a small chance that United might pull off a historic upset as they often did against a much more successful Liverpool in the 1980s. The caveat being that it will be in spite of what they have become in recent years rather than because of what they are.

 

[Adam-Utd]

Not looking forward to this today, think we will take a real pasting. The injuries and huge amount of hard games will just be too much.

No way is our defence and Matic going to handle the press of Liverpool. If we can scrape a draw it'll be a miracle tbh.

Anyway, most of our rivals have dropped points this weekend so it's a bit of a freebie.

 

[groovyalbert]

Should have insisted on replacements.

In an ideal world, you'd have a one-in-one-out transition. But it's much easier to identify the rot than the potential. Plus a lot of those players were setting dreadful precedences in terms of what we were willing to pay and what they were then delivering.

We've still got a lot of these players (Rojo, Jones, Lingard and arguably Pogba, let alone Sanchez who'll more than likely be back this summer).

I'd like to think our rebuild will become a lot smoother once we've cleared the wage bill, but I can understand the trepidation people at the club have about bringing players in given how rubbish we were at it under LvG and Jose.

Like I said, this is why I'm more worried about who is actually orchestrating the rebuild. I think we know who needs to go, but we don't have the right minds at the decision making end of the rebuild to bring in the right players in an efficient and dynamic fashion.

 

[Nickelodeon]

Not looking forward to this today, think we will take a real pasting. The injuries and huge amount of hard games will just be too much.

No way is our defence and Matic going to handle the press of Liverpool. If we can scrape a draw it'll be a miracle tbh.

Anyway, most of our rivals have dropped points this weekend so it's a bit of a freebie.

There is potential for humiliation. I wouldn't have worried about it had I not seen the shambolic first half against City last week. We have a weaker squad, much weaker starting 11, more fatigued players and a tactically weaker manager. Most people here would take a battling loss right now (unthinkable at any other point in time), but our squad is stripped to its bare bones and there's nothing we can do right now.

 

[sewey89]

Rashford out. Hopefully it’s not for the season as some reports are saying

Tweet

— Twitter API (@user) date

I just want us to not get humiliated. Which is a sad state of affairs, but we’re playing the best team in the world currently and we’re without our 2 best players

 

[Random Task]

Ah, Liverpool's first loss of the season today

This.

Come on United!

 

[red_de_pologne]

Will be a comfortable win for Pool unfortunately

 

[Bestietom]

Carragher thinks we are in for a pasting. Jeery Cnut.

 

[Random Task]

Rashford out. Hopefully it’s not for the season as some reports are saying

Tweet

— Twitter API (@user) date

I just want us to not get humiliated. Which is a sad statee of affairs, but we’re playing the best team in the world currently and we’re without our 2 best players

Rashford could be out for the season?

You jest. Surely you jest.

 

[Bestietom]

Liverpool get a player sent off ?
Don't think Robertson can try any harder.

Think Pereira would be the more likely one.

 

[Fts 74]

Wow what is wrong with everyone.

Have some faith at least, in a lot of games Liverpool haven't been great.
If we can grab an early goal or keep it 0-0 for an hr we can definitely beat them.

It's a utd forum full of utd supporters I thought, sick and tired of hearing how great Liverpool are.

Come on utd!

 

[croadyman]

Rashford could be out for the season?

You jest. Surely you jest.

Yeah that stuff was coming from Daniel Harris who was quite clearly taking the mick

 

[Can7onA]

When we were the best thing since sliced bread, Liverpool used to always give us a really hard game. I'm hoping for the reverse. Just give it your all boys and don't let them embarrass us.

 

[Cpt Negative]

Rashford out. Hopefully it’s not for the season as some reports are saying

Tweet

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I just want us to not get humiliated. Which is a sad state of affairs, but we’re playing the best team in the world currently and we’re without our 2 best players

Our best performances this season have come when most expect us to be humiliated. It’s when we expect a decent performance we falter. Have every faith in them today

 

[jymufc20]

They fluked a win Vs Spurs last week, yeah we may be missing our 3 best players but Liverpool aren't unbeatable if anyone is gonna do it, it will be us.

When we was at our best and they were terrible I still feared this fixture as form and everything goes out the window. And I bet the majority of their fans aren't overly confident today either.

 

[top1whoisman]

Tweet

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[pauldyson1uk]

pretty foggy in Liverpool, whats it like at the ground ?
Match in danger ?