[Forevergiggs1]

For all the talk about our player quality, there really isn't a lot between those 2 teams on paper.

Onana > Kelleher
Dalot > Bradley
Maguire < Van Dijk
Kambwala <= Quansah (but both young guys)
AWB < Robertson
Casemiro >= Endo
Mainoo >= Szoboszlai
Bruno >= Mac Allister
Rashford < Salah
Garnacho > Diaz
Hojlund <= Darwin

Main difference is their midfield has way more legs than ours, but not better in individual quality. It's just the coaching.

On paper it doesn't matter. What does matter is that the players compliment one another. Liverpool fall into this category whereas with us it generally looks like we're playing together for the first time. Call it a coaching issue or our players are pretty brainless. Either way it's a glaring difference.

 

[Chairman Steve]

Rashford’s in there purely because Liverpool are going to leave space at the back, especially with inexperience in Bradley and Quansah.

I wouldn’t put it past him scoring our only goal in a 1-3 loss, and kneejerk people saying Rashford’s back to form or something.

I was hoping Mount would play and we would take advantage of his versatility, by putting him on right wing and Garnacho on the left wing.

 

[pascell]

I'm going 3-1 Liverpool

 

[stu_1992]

Less than ideal center back pairing, but not much we can do in the circumstances. Massive game for Kambwala, I'm hoping this will be a game he can really stake a claim to be in the squad long term. It would definitely save us some money.

Naturally nervous about what sort of performance we will put out today. Very wary of another hammering with how many chances we give up. The optimistic side of me says we'll see a reaction to the two poor results recently and that Liverpool may have a bit of doubt in their minds due to the FA Cup result.

 

[BenitoSTARR]

Onana > Kelleher
Dalot > Bradley
Maguire < Van Dijk
Kambwala < Quansah (more experience slightly edges it)
AWB < Robertson
Casemiro >= Endo
Mainoo < Mac Allister (you matched the wrong players here)
Bruno > Szoboszlai (I think)
Rashford < Salah
Garnacho < Diaz (But he’s catching up well!)
Hojlund < Darwin (I think Hojlund has the potential to be better)

 

[Buster15]

You have to hand it to Klopp , if you look at a Liverpool team player by player this season on paper , it does not look a great team that should frighten you.

But under Klopp they work harder than anyone else and they play in sync as a complete unit with each player knowing exactly what his role is and how to play it , the end result is a very formidable outfit.

Yes indeed. Quite correct.
And that is how I want United to perform.
As you describe, a cohesive unit all working their football socks off. Nice and compact keeping the ball moving quickly and accurately.

Do that and we can win.
But the question is what type of Manchester United are going to turn up today.

 

[mu4c_20le]

Amad for the semifinal

 

[Walters_19_MuFc]

I'd have gone Mount for Rashford and made us a bit more difficult to pass through. Hope it is the Rashford who raises his game for the scousers.

The best way to hurt Liverpool is through wide areas. Garnacho and Rashford, with the potential additions of Antony and Amad have pace to burn.

If Mount was to start, then I'd have put him in the middle. With ten Hag favouring the man-to-man press, there's not many better players to rely on than Mason Mount, who has relentless energy. Think Casemiro could struggle!

 

[Berbaclass]

Feck off Sturridge you cnut

 

[Catt]

1-9

 

[BeforeKeanetherewasRobson]

Lot of talk about a FB injury and Amass getting thrown in but what if a CH gets injured? Who replaces them… Hojlund?

 

[BeforeKeanetherewasRobson]

1-9

Nah, 9-0… they’re not scoring.

 

[Berbaclass]

Lot of talk about a FB injury and Amass getting thrown in but what if a CH gets injured? Who replaces them… Hojlund?

Casemiro probably

 

[bond19821982]

Would have preferred Antony but I guess Rashford vs Bradley is what ETH wants to do.

 

[bosnian_red]

Pretty Rose coloured lens there pal.

What? You have massively overrated our midfield and attackers.

Who? Mainoo I think would start for Liverpool ahead of one of their 2 midfielders, I think Mount is pretty much the same as either Szoboszlai and Mac Allister and I don't see where he starts given Mainoo and Bruno, Case is having a garbage season so if anything that one is a reach, but I'm not putting Endo ahead of Casemiro on the back of one season in a garbage system.

Garnacho over Diaz I'm pretty confident in, Diaz is an average player.

 

[Berbaclass]

I’ll be fuming if Rashford strolls around all afternoon after getting a rest the other night

 

[Gabriel Djemba-Bebe]

He must be injured or not 100% otherwise it makes no sense

It makes perfect sense. Exploiting Liverpool's high line is our best chance of scoring and Antony's lack of pace reduces those chances.

 

[Buster15]

One decent performance in 30 games, registering his first assist of the season and you feel sorry him?

I, myself, thought Antony would play today, but I don't feel sorry for him. He's been nowhere near good enough. Neither has Rashford, by the way, but he has 7 goals and 2 assists in the EPL and we know that he typically scores in the bigger games.

Don't forget he gave away a penalty.
Ok. The Chelsea player tripped over the ball. But it was still a penalty.
And I do wonder how many times he could have made that pass with the outside of his boot.

 

[Stadjer]

For all the talk about our player quality, there really isn't a lot between those 2 teams on paper.

Onana > Kelleher
Dalot > Bradley
Maguire < Van Dijk
Kambwala <= Quansah (but both young guys)
AWB < Robertson
Casemiro >= Endo
Mainoo >= Szoboszlai
Bruno >= Mac Allister
Rashford < Salah
Garnacho > Diaz
Hojlund <= Darwin

Main difference is their midfield has way more legs than ours, but not better in individual quality. It's just the coaching.

Depends how you look at it. I think Liverpool their team is better. Their tactics are better too and they work much better together than our mismatch of players.

Dalot is our left back and he is good but Robertson is better. Mac Allister is one of the best players this season so why isnt he rated higher than this years Bruno? Casemiro had a great Real Madrid career but this year is not better than Endo for Liverpool. Mainoo is our wonderkid but Szoboszlai used to be a wonderkid himself too. Garnacho is our right winger so he should be compared to Salah and Salah is clearly much better. Rashford isnt better than Diaz. Darwin is a year ahead of Hojlund and the better player at this time.

I think that Onana is the only player who would be rated higher than Liverpool their goalkeeper by most. Not even everyone because there are many who love to downplay Onana as a terrible goalkeeper.

 

[Walters_19_MuFc]

Well it's about the here and now, isn't it? Antony worked his ass off the other night, covered really well defensively, caused turn overs and provided a brilliant assist. Rashford....well, what did Rashford do when he came on? The messaging to the squad is massively important at this stage of Erik's tenure. The message should be 'Work your arse off'.

Statistically, Rashford is in better form than Antony. Rashford also worked reletively hard in the FA Cup win a few weeks back. Having said that, there's only so much hard working players you can have. Ultimately, this game will be decided by quality, and if I was to choose a player to produce quality, then I'd have Rashford over Antony every day of the week.

However, Antony from the bench is a good option to have. He'll no doubt have a part to play today.

P.S. Antony gave away a penalty due to him not initially following his man.

 

[bosnian_red]

Onana > Kelleher
Dalot > Bradley
Maguire < Van Dijk
Kambwala < Quansah (more experience slightly edges it)
AWB < Robertson
Casemiro >= Endo
Mainoo < Mac Allister (you matched the wrong players here)
Bruno > Szoboszlai (I think)
Rashford < Salah
Garnacho < Diaz (But he’s catching up well!)
Hojlund < Darwin (I think Hojlund has the potential to be better)

For the midfield I'd say it's pretty close, but I'd bet that Mainoo would start in there somewhere for them as he's a unique talent, while Mac Allister and Szoboszlai are both very good, but don't think as talented. Mainoo is young, but I'd have him in there. Garnacho ahead of Diaz for sure for me as well, I don't particularly rate Diaz. He's an average player (but capable of the odd big game, but the system makes him look better than he is).

 

[always_hoping]

McTominay confirmed to be out injured. That's now 56 separate cases of injury and illness that have caused a United player to miss a game this season.

 

[Buster15]

I’ll be fuming if Rashford strolls around all afternoon after getting a rest the other night

As if he actually needs a rest.
At 26, he should be able to run all day at his pace.

 

[United Hobbit]

Im not a fan of Antony, but I'd rather see him than Rashy, at least he'd actually run

Past teams you'd be able to give the incentive of hindering Liverpool's league bid, half of these probably don't give a flying feck

 

[100]

The odds here for us are crazy. Usually there's a bit in them that reflects the occasion/caginess but us being 4/1 at home is mental

 

[BeforeKeanetherewasRobson]

For all the talk about our player quality, there really isn't a lot between those 2 teams on paper.

Onana > Kelleher
Dalot > Bradley
Maguire < Van Dijk
Kambwala <= Quansah (but both young guys)
AWB < Robertson
Casemiro >= Endo
Mainoo >= Szoboszlai
Bruno >= Mac Allister
Rashford < Salah
Garnacho > Diaz
Hojlund <= Darwin

Main difference is their midfield has way more legs than ours, but not better in individual quality. It's just the coaching.

There’s 2-3 I’d probably differ on but for me the difference will be which back four works together the best. If your defence is getting torn apart, your entire team falls back and/or concedes.

 

[leontas]

Can we play our U18s?

 

[erikcred]

Is Rooney drunk?

 

[bosnian_red]

Depends how you look at it. I think Liverpool their team is better. Their tactics are better too and they work much better together than our mismatch of players.

Dalot is our left back and he is good but Robertson is better. Mac Allister is one of the best players this season so why isnt he rated higher than this years Bruno? Casemiro had a great Real Madrid career but this year is not better than Endo for Liverpool. Mainoo is our wonderkid but Szoboszlai used to be a wonderkid himself too. Garnacho is our right winger so he should be compared to Salah and Salah is clearly much better. Rashford isnt better than Diaz. Darwin is a year ahead of Hojlund and the better player at this time.

I think that Onana is the only player who would be rated higher than Liverpool their goalkeeper by most. Not even everyone because there are many who love to downplay Onana as a terrible goalkeeper.

Like I said though, a lot of that is coaching related and form related. If you're making a mixed team, it'd probably look like:

Onana
Dalot Maguire Van Dijk Robertson
Mainoo
Bruno Mac Allister
Salah Darwin Garnacho

Kelleher
Bradley Quansah Kambwala Wan Bissaka
Endo Casemiro
Diaz Szoboszlai Rashford
Hojlund
​

Some tight picks, I don't think Hojlund is too far off Darwin and is probably more suited to a big team in terms of being able to hold up the ball and bring others into play, Szoboszlai and Mount as well you could easily argue with Bruno and Mac Allister, but the others I'd say are pretty straight forward picks?

 

[lex talionis]

I’ll be fuming if Rashford strolls around all afternoon after getting a rest the other night

Prepare to fume.

 

[One Night Only]

Lot of talk about a FB injury and Amass getting thrown in but what if a CH gets injured? Who replaces them… Hojlund?

Dalot to CB, Antony on to play as full back.

 

[BeforeKeanetherewasRobson]

Dalot to CB, Antony on to play as full back.

Ahhhh… and there was me being worried for a minute.

Phew.

 

[Von Mistelroum]

What happened to that Amad lad who played a few minutes a while back?

Playing Rashford = we start 10 v 11.

 

[BeforeKeanetherewasRobson]

I’ll be fuming if Rashford strolls around all afternoon after getting a rest the other night

Start now… he’s just given the ball away to Liverpool players twice in the pre match warm up.

 

[Dannn411]

I’ll be fuming if Rashford strolls around all afternoon after getting a rest the other night

Get ready to fume because he is going to do it.

 

[evil_geko]

Liverpool missing their starting keeper, playing Bradley right back and some guy called quansah centreback. Hopefully that evens it out for the injury excuse folk

Yes, excuse, while we field Kambwala in the starting line up, "excuse" indeed.

 

[Oscar Bonavena]

Ain't no way Rashford is going to be tracking Bradley's runs so let's hope he can at least do a bit of damage on the break if Bradley bombs forward.

 

[Zlatan 7]

Yes, excuse, while we field Kambwala in the starting line up, "excuse" indeed.

Do you think our starting eleven today is more decimated by injuries than Liverpools team? Yes we have a young centre back playing. So do they. I think we are starting our strongest team bar one centre back and shaw. Injuries really shouldn’t be used as an excuse today is what I’m saying. We should be good to go and face them up and cause problems against their back line, like they probably are thinking the same about ours

and those goggly eyes add nothing but make you look immature

 

[christinaa]

Easy one indeed

Really ?

 

[Darkhorsez]

Erik’s comment on picking Rashford ahead of Antony was pretty interesting. More down to Antony putting a lot of work mid week etc. How far Rashford has fallen from the young hungry lad we all loved so much.