[RedDevilRoshi]

I thought Ronaldo would have been brought back in after Martial’s injury but well done to ETH for sticking with his principles. Refreshing to see.

 

[Escobar]

Surprised Eriksen didn’t get a rest.

The problem is we dont have any other option

 

[Escobar]

I thought Ronaldo would have been brought back in after Martial’s injury but well done to ETH for sticking with his principles. Refreshing to see.

Finally a proper manager

 

[Josh 76]

Is there a reason that the team who played on Monday night gets the early Saturday kick off?

I can see the reasoning behind keeping the same 11. Good performances should be rewarded with playing time, the same way bad performances should be punished with being benched!

3-1 United and hopefully we see a decent Casemiro run out.

Some of the starting 11 on Monday didn’t finish the match.

 

[Bondi77]

McTominay and Elanga.

Part of a winning team against Liverpool...shock horror....what is the manager playing at?????

 

[2 man midfield]

feck signing a midfielder, the priority has to be changing the order of the players in our starting line up tweet. It makes no fecking sense to do it that way.

 

[sglowrider]

We have already briefed that we are willing to let him go. The real humbling experience for Ronaldo is no other club wants him and that's why he's still here.

I bet on the 2nd of September he will claim that he never wanted to leave. He loves Manchester

 

[theyneverlearn]

I thought Ronaldo would have been brought back in after Martial’s injury but well done to ETH for sticking with his principles. Refreshing to see.

Think it was obvious he wouldn’t based on him being dropped last week and Martial was also on the bench. It’s clear he was behind Rashford and Martial as CF’s in this system.

 

[Tarrou]

Not surprised in the slightest Ronny stayed dropped

ETH doesn’t feck about

 

[Marcus]

11/11. First time this season!

 

[Djemba-Djemba]

Going to be a really tough game.

Southampton are almost always a struggle for us and this side has an absolute phobia about away games in general.

7 defeats in a row is it ? Only 2 goals scored in that time i think.

 

[Zlaatan]

That's the right starting 11 no matter who we've signed. They've all earned it after Monday's game.

 

[christinaa]

Maybe he needs to learn the system first.

We can only play one system with the present team.
Low block and counter attack.

How can you complain when we've just won our first game of the season after being beat convincingly the other two games?

He's literally just started training with his new team mates this week, why would ten Hag rock the apple cart?

I'm not complaining but just asking for illumination from an expert like you.

Some people here argue about anything under the sun!

 

[Olecurls99]

Hopefully we keep it tight and even nick a goal. Can't see us playing expansive football with Mctominay and Elanga but we should at least match them for fight.

 

[DJ_21]

Let’s see how this goes.

Completely different game than the Liverpool one, they won’t be playing a huge line so interested how Elanga will work outside of his work rate.

He played the nice 1-2 to set up sancho against Liverpool. We’ll have to be quick at passing in and around there box if they leave us no space.

 

[Loony BoB]

Every time I see McTom's name on the team sheet I expect us to lose possession a lot.

https://www.squawka.com/en/comparison-matrix/?compare=uNx-ajmC8w1qWjdUoZws5

Interesting - so far this season, he's lost possession less per 90 minutes than any of our CMs bar Donny, and has a comparable pass accuracy to everyone (again bar Donny). All while having the second lowest (behind Fred) percentage of backwards passes and a higher forward pass percentage than both Donny and Fred. Donny's pass accuracy is probably improved by him having the highest % of backwards passes out of all five of them, and the lowest % of forward passes out of all five of them.

Scott's biggest flaw is not his pass accuracy or his direction of passing, but the amount of passes he makes per game. I'd say his goal shouldn't be to improve his accuracy etc. but to improve his positioning in order to make himself more available to receive the ball and thus allow himself to generate more passes per 90 minutes.

Scott - FW 29% BW 14% SW 57%

Fred - FW 26% BW 12% SW 63%

Eriksen - FW 34% BW 15% SW 52%

Bruno - FW 34% BW 20% SW 46%

Donny - FW 23% BW 23% SW 54%

 

[Cloud7]

No Maguire and Shaw for two weeks in a row is a big positive for me

 

[Random Task]

Right, players who needed to be dropped finally were against Liverpool and then the players who performed rightfully now keep their places. Creating a meritocracy where players are rewarded for playing well and there are consequences for bad performances is what needs to be created. Plus Casemiro presumably isn't fit to start yet so bring him on at some point to give him minute.

Indeed.

I like that he's kept Ronaldo out of the starting eleven too, as it sends a valuable message to the rest of the squad: spending the whole summer trying to force a transfer out of the club (and failing) will only result in you spending the following season as backup to those who want to stay and help the club progress.

 

[Marcelinho87]

I expected Casemiro to start to be honest.

 

[saik]

Aha. Southampton's new Head of Recruitment is former City's academy recruitment head. Makes sense how City were able to get around £25m for two of their youth players.

 

[IrishRedDevil]

Martial

 

[AndySmith1990]

https://www.squawka.com/en/comparison-matrix/?compare=uNx-ajmC8w1qWjdUoZws5

Interesting - so far this season, he's lost possession less per 90 minutes than any of our CMs bar Donny, and has a comparable pass accuracy to everyone (again bar Donny). All while having the second lowest (behind Fred) percentage of backwards passes and a higher forward pass percentage than both Donny and Fred. Donny's pass accuracy is probably improved by him having the highest % of backwards passes out of all five of them, and the lowest % of forward passes out of all five of them.

Scott's biggest flaw is not his pass accuracy or his direction of passing, but the amount of passes he makes per game. I'd say his goal shouldn't be to improve his accuracy etc. but to improve his positioning in order to make himself more available to receive the ball and thus allow himself to generate more passes per 90 minutes.

Scott - FW 29% BW 14% SW 57%

Fred - FW 26% BW 12% SW 63%

Eriksen - FW 34% BW 15% SW 52%

Bruno - FW 34% BW 20% SW 46%

Donny - FW 23% BW 23% SW 54%

McTominay always makes short safe passes so naturally he'll have a higher pass accuracy than most

 

[BorisManUtd]

I’d go with this too. Need a solid mid away from home. Fred would give us a lot of energy against a team that press. I’ve a feeling he’s going to go Casemiro and eriksen though. I’m surprised eriksens started all the games so far.

Well he went with McTominay and Eriksen in the end. Thought Eriksen was pretty meh against Liverpool and isn't the strongest physically so I'm bit worried with how we'll cope in midfield. We usually struggle against Saints at St Mary's.

 

[saik]

Like a lot of people on here, expected Casemiro to start. Maybe him having only 2 or 3 training sessions and the communication barrier stopping him from starting right away.

 

[Tigersam]

Humbling experience for Ronaldo again, second game on the bench.

ETH obviously didn't like my idea (I sent him an e-mail) to try Ronaldo in goals. He is tall, good with his feet, could take the penalties and go up in injury time for a late header if its 0:0 or 1:1!

 

[Swedish_Plumber]

None of them deserved to be dropped after Monday. It’s up to them to play to the same level now. They know they will be dropped if performance slips.

Hope this decision by Ten Hag works well for him.

 

[saik]

We seriously have lost last 7 consecutive away games and conceding 4 goals each in 4 of those games.

 

[Beans]

Curious decision, Casemiro may not be ready, he has played very limited minutes for Real before the transfer.

Should be enough, anyway.

 

[Camy89]

feck signing a midfielder, the priority has to be changing the order of the players in our starting line up tweet. It makes no fecking sense to do it that way.

It triggers a deep rage within me every time I see it.

 

[Dannn411]

Never been a fan of the logic of "you don't change a winning lineup" because the "winning lineup" was specific to one game against an opponent that is not going to be the same.
Surely the line-up to be picked should almost always be reflective of the best players available and should be reflective of study of the opponent and not merely based on historical games against different opponents.

Nevertheless, this is a big game for us and hopefully they carry on from where they left off on Monday.

 

[BrilliantOrange]

The mixture of confidence, excitement and nerves is confusing me..

 

[0le]

The mixture of confidence, excitement and nerves is confusing me..

Agreed

 

[BorisManUtd]

Never been a fan of the logic of "you don't change a winning lineup" because the "winning lineup" was specific to one game against an opponent that is not going to be the same.
Surely the line-up to be picked should almost always be reflective of the best players available and should be reflective of study of the opponent and not merely based on historical games against different opponents.

Nevertheless, this is a big game for us and hopefully they carry on from where they left off on Monday.

Fully agree with whole of your post. I'm bit worried but hopefully they prove us wrong.

 

[Loony BoB]

McTominay always makes short safe passes so naturally he'll have a higher pass accuracy than most

Same goes for every player who plays in the pivot, none of Donny, Fred and McT have generated chances in the first three games. Also, so long as a tidy percentage of those safe short passes are forward passes then I'm happy that he's taking reasonable risks for his position. His attempted long passes are only 0.2 per game fewer than Fred (Donny has none so far) while Eriksen and Bruno make roughly twice as many long passes per game.

However, when you consider the volume of passes made, since Scott has attempted roughly half as many passes per game, you could argue that as a percentage of pass types, he's actually doing the best job at long passes of our team:

	Long per 90	Passes per 90	% Long	Long Accuracy
Scott	2.2​	33.9​	6%​	80%​
Fred	2.4​	66.2​	4%​	0%​
Eriksen	4.2​	52.1​	8%​	33%​
Bruno	3.7​	51.6​	7%​	45%​
Donny	0​	61.6​	0%​	0%​

I stand firm that Scott's primary flaw this season so far is his positioning and that he doesn't make himself as available, hence his fewer passes per game. Either that or it's an intentional tactic, which would be odd considering McT plays more forward than Fred.

 

[diarm]

Am I right in thinking that it's only Arsenal away after this that we'll have to see this horror show of a kit again?

 

[saik]

Never been a fan of the logic of "you don't change a winning lineup" because the "winning lineup" was specific to one game against an opponent that is not going to be the same.
Surely the line-up to be picked should almost always be reflective of the best players available and should be reflective of study of the opponent and not merely based on historical games against different opponents.

Nevertheless, this is a big game for us and hopefully they carry on from where they left off on Monday.

Well Martial was supposed to be back for this game but he only went ahead and got injured again and Casemiro might not be ready to start yet. Apart from those two who would you have preferred to start??

 

[Olecurls99]

Never been a fan of the logic of "you don't change a winning lineup" because the "winning lineup" was specific to one game against an opponent that is not going to be the same.
Surely the line-up to be picked should almost always be reflective of the best players available and should be reflective of study of the opponent and not merely based on historical games against different opponents.

Nevertheless, this is a big game for us and hopefully they carry on from where they left off on Monday.

Spot on but I'd say he's just relieved to see a good performance and wants to reward that. I think Casemiro and Ronaldo might make a difference in the 2nd half. Ronaldo especially pulling onto the full back for crosses.

 

[AussieDevil]

Never been a fan of the logic of "you don't change a winning lineup" because the "winning lineup" was specific to one game against an opponent that is not going to be the same.
Surely the line-up to be picked should almost always be reflective of the best players available and should be reflective of study of the opponent and not merely based on historical games against different opponents.

Nevertheless, this is a big game for us and hopefully they carry on from where they left off on Monday.

I agree with this. I do trust Ten Hag but I just feel like we are going to be frustrated with players like Elanga and McTominay against a side thats as compressed as Southampton.

 

[Cantona in disguise]

Never been a fan of the logic of "you don't change a winning lineup" because the "winning lineup" was specific to one game against an opponent that is not going to be the same.
Surely the line-up to be picked should almost always be reflective of the best players available and should be reflective of study of the opponent and not merely based on historical games against different opponents.

Nevertheless, this is a big game for us and hopefully they carry on from where they left off on Monday.

What message would it send to the players that bust a nut against Liverpool to be dropped for this. As a previous poster said its up to them to continue and prove they deserve to play. If the performance dips in this then the manager will make his decisions.

Personally prefer this approach. Sends the right message in my eyes.

 

[Keane's Prawn Sandwich]

https://www.squawka.com/en/comparison-matrix/?compare=uNx-ajmC8w1qWjdUoZws5

Interesting - so far this season, he's lost possession less per 90 minutes than any of our CMs bar Donny, and has a comparable pass accuracy to everyone (again bar Donny). All while having the second lowest (behind Fred) percentage of backwards passes and a higher forward pass percentage than both Donny and Fred. Donny's pass accuracy is probably improved by him having the highest % of backwards passes out of all five of them, and the lowest % of forward passes out of all five of them.

Scott's biggest flaw is not his pass accuracy or his direction of passing, but the amount of passes he makes per game. I'd say his goal shouldn't be to improve his accuracy etc. but to improve his positioning in order to make himself more available to receive the ball and thus allow himself to generate more passes per 90 minutes.

Scott - FW 29% BW 14% SW 57%

Fred - FW 26% BW 12% SW 63%

Eriksen - FW 34% BW 15% SW 52%

Bruno - FW 34% BW 20% SW 46%

Donny - FW 23% BW 23% SW 54%

I meant that I expect, not stating any facts I swear I just felt that way cause of him ruined with the ball, delaying a pass and then losing it a couple of times this season. Great analysis though, fair deuce!