In his final decade (final decade
the legend was around for a while 
), he seemed to use a sitting midfielder to dictate the tempo of games more often (Keane as he got older, Carrick, 33 year old onwards Scholes). Matic is not as good as Carrick, no point even debating that, but he could do that job, surely better than Fred and most likely McT, although Fergie quite possibly would have played him all the time considering how he nurtured and developed Fletcher. McT is sort of a b-tech Fletcher atm, hope he matches the latter’s prime as he reaches his.Switch Pogba in for McTominay and I think it would be possible.
You can guarantee it or it’s possible?
Possible. Wrong wording.
This.
I think this is pretty close to what it would be, although not sure about Rashford on the right. But who knows
Generally agree with this and the rest of your post but I put Greenwood in my team because while Sir Alex thought outside the box to sort out problem positions a lot (Cleverley, Obertan, Carrick at CB), would he really be putting Amad in over an academy graduate with one of the best seasons for a teenager in the PL under his belt? Don’t think so personally. Having said that, he could easily use Amad on the right with Mason up front and Cavani as the impact sub.
Yeah, I felt in Sir Alex's eyes Greenwood would just be treated as the 2nd striker option after Cavani. I don't think he'd believe that Greenwood has the Rooney-esque versatility to play the wide forward/winger role. He's a striker, and we'd make sure he'd become the best damn striker.
Well, I get your point. I, and probably also most managers, would say it’s a squad game too, though I think not saying Ferguson never had a more or less clearly defined first XI is a bit of an exaggeration.
Just look at how many times some of Ferguson's most iconic XIs actually played together and the records he set in constantly rotating his team. He went 165 games from late 2008 until March 2011 without naming an unchanged starting XI. I swear too he once went a whole season never playing the same XI twice, but I may be confusing that stat.
I could be wrong here...as I was only a kid at the time. But I always thought Cantona played a bit like a modern day no.10, albeit dropping off the front rather than driving from midfield, whilst Giggs and Kanchelkskis were both very attacking wingers. So if you had a heatmap from the mid 90s I reckon we actually played more like a 4231...even if it was a 442 on paper.
Exactly this.
That's an overly idealistic view. We never signed Shearer, we failed to sign Hazard, Bale, Varane etc, Pogba left under him... Theres too many players in the world of football and a lot of competition to say this one player for sure would have come. Best we can go with is the players we have now and how they would (likely) be used!
Bruno is being used and playing pretty much like how Sir Alex used Rooney for years. Rashford would definitely be used like a Ronaldo type as a winger. You say he didn't like #10's, but its really the Ozil type he didn't like, he loved second striker types. What he almost never did was a #10 being used wide like Mata. He tried Kagawa there for a little bit in his last season... that's pretty much it. Was pace/trickery but most importantly directness throughout for the rest of his time on the wings. Kanchelskis/ Sharpe/ Giggs/ Beckham/ Ronaldo/ Nani/ Valencia/ Young etc.. It would 100% be Rashford left, and likely James on the right since he's the closest we have to a right winger, with it being a position of focus to improve. Could easily see it being a lop sided 4-4-2 like in 2007/08, Rashford an advanced left winger, the other winger being a work horse type, Bruno like Rooney as a second striker, but then Cavani/Greenwood/Martial as a normal #9 which we didn't have then.
I don’t disagree with you in regards to rotation and squad management, but as I said, I don’t think that really stands in opposition to having a preferred first XI, or preferred first choices for most positions if you will. What’sthat card game where you sit on your best cards until it is exactly the right time to play them? That is how Ferguson would manage a squad over a season. He’d still have a pretty clear idea which cards were his aces, I think, and I think it showed. But I agree, different XI for different situations was also a trademark of his.
Nah Bruno plays a lot deeper than Rooney, even younger Rooney who liked to drop deep to collect the ball (and got shouted at by SAF who wanted him to conserve energy and play further up). Rooney would be trying to recieve the ball just in front of the CBs, Bruno drops right into midfield.
