Our strongest midfield combination – Chelsea away 17th Feb

[Withnail]

McTominay and Pogba will both still be unfit.

Pogba should be back by then.

Given McTominay is still out and the Fernandes deal looks to be done, it's a no brainer really.

Pogba Fred
Fernandes

 

[Inigo Montoya]

Pogba should be back by then.

Given McTominay is still out and the Fernandes deal looks to be done, it's a no brainer really.

Pogba Fred
Fernandes

This formation looks ok. But I’d say Bruno is more a number 10 so I’d still push for a:
McT- Pogba-Fred

Bruno

Martial- Rashford

 

[Nickelodeon]

Our fit first 11 would actually be quite competitive in any game. But it's all notional as this point. Pogba's absence cannot be understated. Season-crushing loss for us.

 

[Withnail]

This formation looks ok. But I’d say Bruno is more a number 10 so I’d still push for a:
McT- Pogba-Fred

Bruno

Martial- Rashford

A number 10 in front of a 3?

I went with mine because Ole's preference is 4-2-3-1

What formation are you thinking here?

4-3-1-2?

EDIT: I just noticed you put the strikers in. I didn't get much sleep

 

[Schmeichel's Cartwheel]

City style 4-3-3, Fred as the DM, Pogba and Bruno as the CM/AM.

Ole is way too cautious to try that though.

 

[Inigo Montoya]

A number 10 in front of a 3?

I went with mine because Ole's preference is 4-2-3-1

What formation are you thinking here?

4-3-1-2?

EDIT: I just noticed you put the strikers in. I didn't get much sleep

Yes a 4-3-1-2 flexible to become a 4-3-3. Bruno could drop into midfield and we go with 3 strikers/ forwards.
We’d need a good DM if he was to play there, I’m not sure how good his defensive skills are

 

[Inigo Montoya]

City style 4-3-3, Fred as the DM, Pogba and Bruno as the CM/AM.

Ole is way too cautious to try that though.

You never know though. We did start out very attacking right at the beginning

 

[Withnail]

Yes a 4-3-1-2 flexible to become a 4-3-3. Bruno could drop into midfield and we go with 3 strikers/ forwards.
We’d need a good DM if he was to play there, I’m not sure how good his defensive skills are

From what people are saying he's very hard-working and defensively sound but we'll have to see how well he adapts.

 

[Rozay]

Our fit first 11 would actually be quite competitive in any game. But it's all notional as this point. Pogba's absence cannot be understated. Season-crushing loss for us.

I think it’s easily worth the 6 points we trail Chelsea by. I don’t think we get enough mitigation for the injuries we have suffered this season in general tbh. Barely mentioned in the press (well not as a defence anyway, only to attack our injured players like Pogba and Martial for being injured). The players we have lost are irreplaceable. Even if we had a deeper squad, you don’t get two Pogba’s, Two Rashford’s etc anyway. The idea is typically that someone can come in and cover to a reasonable level for a game or three, but if you think you can just swap Pogba for Lingard for 4 months, you will simply be a worse team.

Losing Pogba, Martial, Shaw, Rashford, McTominay for a minimum of two months each this season is not a small loss at all. That’s more than £300m worth of players.

 

[Volumiza]

For me I'd like to see:

.........….....…..DDG...………………………...
AWB - Maguire - Lindelof - Williams
….....McTom - Fred - Pogba…………..
.........…....Fernandes...…………………...
...…..Greenwood - Martial...…………..

This team could do some damage while waiting for Rashy to get back.

Looks narrow but strong lineup. What's that sitting behind Martial and Greenwood? Is it? No ... it surely can't be? Is that some creativity I see?

 

[simplyared]

So what about the next game? Or the last game? Have you been advocating we start James in the middle three; or are you waiting for a scenario where two of the three allegedly pick themselves so that the debate now becomes about the third man?
After all, if you were advocating starting James in midfield against Wolves, that wouldn’t do it for you, because any hypothetical lineup will still be ‘James, Fred + 1’.

Again not discussing so much individual players but the best combinations when we have everybody fit. Some people may prefer a 4-man midfield. Whether 4 or 3 its about finding the right balance in terms of defensive quality, creativity, grit, attacking quality, goals etc. With that in mind and taking into consideration we are without Rashford, and we've added Fernandes to the squad then my strongest midfield would be the following:
DM: Matic
Box to box: Pogba
CM: MacTominay
AM: Fernandes (replacing James)
This midfield would play behind the front 2 of Martial and Greenwood.
Bench: James (can go into mf or attack) Mata (mf)