What is our best XI this season ?

[P-Nut]

I'm not too sure who the right back at Porto is but Dalot would have been 18 at the time and that was his first season in a full team squad? So he got a handful of appearances in his first season in professional football.

Valencia may be captain and an international, but so was Wayne Rooney. So were a lot of past players. It doesn't mean he needs to stay in the team. His performances on the pitch have been average at best for a long time now and he is one of the weakest players in our team.

As you can probably tell I can't wait for Dalot to get his chance, not because I have any idea how good he'll be, but because there is no way forward with Valencia playing there.

Oh don't get me wrong I can't wait to see Dalot either, just if we're naming our best 11 there's no way you can put him in it.

Put it this way, if we were playing City this weekend and both were fully fit which one would you start, Dalot or Valencia?

 

[Baby-faced Assassin]

Remember the days when our 2nd XI was good enough to beat most teams. As daft as the line up below is, these are players (apart from Grant and possibly Darmian) that are likely to get regular game time this season

Grant

Darmian Smalling Jones Rojo

Herrera

McTominay Fellaini

Valencia Young
Mata

 

[99withaflake]

Oh don't get me wrong I can't wait to see Dalot either, just if we're naming our best 11 there's no way you can put him in it.

Put it this way, if we were playing City this weekend and both were fully fit which one would you start, Dalot or Valencia?

I'm with you on that, if a big game is coming up then Valencia starts, but I'd hope Dalot gets plenty of game time throughout the season as we need to move on from Valencia. Hope he gets some game time soon.

Apologises for my super quick responses. I'm sat at work and the Caf is far more interesting!

 

[P-Nut]

I'm with you on that, if a big game is coming up then Valencia starts, but I'd hope Dalot gets plenty of game time throughout the season as we need to move on from Valencia. Hope he gets some game time soon.

Apologises for my super quick responses. I'm sat at work and the Caf is far more interesting!

I'm doing the exact same so no need to apologise.

 

[Seven Seas Sardines]

Put it this way, if we were playing City this weekend and both were fully fit which one would you start, Dalot or Valencia?

Dalot being fully fit means he'd have a full pre-season and I'd probably prefer to watch him.

 

[P-Nut]

Remember the days when our 2nd XI was good enough to beat most teams. As daft as the line up below is, these are players (apart from Grant and possibly Darmian) that are likely to get regular game time this season

Grant

Darmian Smalling Jones Rojo

Herrera

McTominay Fellaini

Valencia Young
Mata

It doesn't make it much better but Valencia and Young are likely first choice this season. So we'd likely have

Romero
Dalot Smalling Jones Shaw
Pereira
Herrera Fellaini
Lingard Rashford Martial

As our second string side.

 

[Baby-faced Assassin]

It doesn't make it much better but Valencia and Young are likely first choice this season. So we'd likely have

Romero
Dalot Smalling Jones Shaw
Pereira
Herrera Fellaini
Lingard Rashford Martial

As our second string side.

At least there is some up and coming talent in that list which is exciting but clearly at least 9 players in our 25 that you wouldn’t look twice at if they were at another club. With first choice players misfiring like Sanchez (albeit only 1 game so far) or unhappy like Pogba, having a big drop off in quality in your second string doesn’t bode well for a long season. Cup comps may be a safer bet this season.

 

[sincher]

I think it looks like a fecking strong second side. Certainly compares well with the other teams. City definitely have some depth mind. Theirs would be something like:

Bravo

Danilo
Kompany
Laporte
Zinchenko

Delph
Gundogan
Sterling
B.Silva
Foden

Jesus

I don't think that is much different in strength to ours actually.

 

[Fosu-Mens]

It's interesting that you chose Pereira instead of Fred. Do you think Andreas is a better player?

Still early for judgement, and they are different players. Against teams that are even less interested in having possesion than us, the prefered player should be Pereira. As he is a much more efficient passer and seems able to "control" the game. Against teams where we are sitting low and depended on counter attack for creating chances, Fred may be the best of them to use.
Then again i was not the biggest fan of the Fred transfer, so i'm not the most objective person regarding Fred.

 

[MyOnlySolskjaer]

Still early for judgement, and they are different players. Against teams that are even less interested in having possesion than us, the prefered player should be Pereira. As he is a much more efficient passer and seems able to "control" the game. Against teams where we are sitting low and depended on counter attack for creating chances, Fred may be the best of them to use.
Then again i was not the biggest fan of the Fred transfer, so i'm not the most objective person regarding Fred.

Think Pereira is quite low in the pecking order as an #8, the likes of Herrera and Fellaini, Fred and obviously Pogba are ahead of him. Probably just ahead of Scott.

As a #6 however he’s second choice. He’ll get plenty of time to impress though.

 

[The Irish Connection]

Definitely agree with playing Sanchez on the right! Won't happen though cos he clearly is being a diva about it.
Definitely don't agree with leaving Matic out for pereira. As good as pereira has been, matic was brilliant for us last season and definitely amongst our top 3 players of the season. Pereira will get plenty of games as well.

 

[Fosu-Mens]

Think Pereira is quite low in the pecking order as an #8, the likes of Herrera and Fellaini, Fred and obviously Pogba are ahead of him. Probably just ahead of Scott.

As a #6 however he’s second choice. He’ll get plenty of time to impress though.

Different players for different tactics.
When the team plays against a low sitting team not interested in possesion(Huddersfield as an example and around 20 other games in PL this season), having an efficient passer should be a priority among the 2/3 players starting in midfield. And from the current players we have, Pereira and Pogba(even though he often plays risky passes as he should) are by a milestone the best at moving the ball. Considering that Pogba is wasted sitting deep on the pitch and collecting the ball from the CBs, then Pereira should be starting most of these games.

Herrera and McTominay are best when we don't have the ball (limited technical abilites), but not physical(either strong or agile) enough to be able to win back the ball or play "pragmatic" football against teams like City. Neither should be starting in matches that have some importance.
Fellaini is very useful during the last 15 minutes of games where we are either defending or trying to score, but not a starter, unless Lukaku is out.
Fred: Not seen enough of him yet, but first impression is that he is a "messy" player. Meaning that he takes to many risks with the ball and often does not seem to have control over whose around him. Hopefully this will improve with time.

 

[VivaObertan]

---------------DDG
-Valencia-Bailly-Smalling-Young
-------------Matic
--------Fred-----Pogba
-Lingard---Lukaku---Alexis

Above are the players I think will feature most frequently per position, injuries permitting. Obviously the others will all play their part too depending on opposition.

 

[jesperjaap]

Ability wise I would say:

De Gea
Shaw
Smalling
Bailly
Dalot
Pereira
Pogba
Fred
Sanchez
Martial
Lingard

Still definately a centre back short and maybe a proper right winger, but potentially a good attacking side. I think the strongest side we could put out though would have Young, Valencia, Matic and Lukaku in it, but I would hope some of the players with ability can change that with both getting opportunities and taking them this season

 

[Marcky411]

DDG
Valencia Bailly Lindelof Shaw
Fred Andreas Pogba
Lingard Lukaku Martial

Obviously won’t be an opinion shared by many and there are some clearly debatable choices in there. Matic is obviously better defensively than Andreas but he uses the ball so well and I just love his style as a player.

I also hope for Dalot to come in and hopefully take that RB spot as the season goes on.

Martial over Sanchez is obviously going to probably not happen, but Sanchez really doesn’t have it right now it’s weird. Loses the ball so often and makes really dumb decisions that kill our attacks.

Fully agree with you, your line up and the points you made. I too hope that Andreas keeps Matic out of the team, I don't rate Matic like some people do, he has had some incredible games for us but can't say he is a constant 7 or 8/10 performer every match. Matic is actually to slow and needs far to many touches. He also likes to hang very deep not to get caught out and ends up nearly as a 3rd CD. In Shaw's case I really hope gets a run of games, this could and should be his season. As for Sanchez, I have said it before and he seems to be proving me right so far, Jose got rid of Rooney because he was clearly past his best for some years, but then went out and replaced him with the Chilean Rooney. Don't get me wrong I am a great admirer of Sanchez right back to his days at Barcelona, never understood why we didn't go for him then. The problem now is, he is clearly past his best and seems to have lost his legs, that explosiveness he had getting off the mark is gone and that was a great part of his game.

I expect Jose will go with;
Valencia Smalling Jones Young
Fred Matic Pogba
Linguard Lukaku Sanchez

 

[GaryLifo]

3-5-2

-----------------De Gea----------------

-------Lindelof---Smalling----Bailly-----
Valencia-------Matic---Fred-------Young
-------------------Pogba-----------------
-------------Lukaku---Sanchez-----------

This.