no idea how this team fits together. Ole better pray mctominay turns into a world class DM-which he most certainly is not.
With Ronaldo, how do we line up?
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Ronaldo is going in right next to Fred in midfield.
I think we all agree Ole has played McFred because he didn’t trust the back four? Varane looks like changing that?
no idea. If he goes with mcfred still that will leave a big name out somewhere when fit. Can't imagine ronaldo on bench too many times. Same with pogba and bruno generally.
Those keeping McTominay and Fred together are in the right. Putting big names in to keep egos happy will win you commercial contracts but not games. Balance will win you games. It's why O'Shea, Fletcher and Park were so important in the past. You pick a formation to fit the players, you lost already. You pick the players to fit the formation and you'll do far better.
We probably could afford to play that second lineup in certain games like when playing at Old Trafford against weaker opposition that comes to defend most of the game. I remember us dominating Everton in February with McTominay-Pogba midfield in the first half until Pogba got injured towards the end of the half, so that attacking lineup should be possible in some matches.
My prediction is that Ronaldo is going to absolutely clean up feeding off of rebounds from Greenwood snapshots.
It depends on which competition we're talking about:
Champions League
Ronaldo Cavani
Fernandes
Pogba Fred Vdb
Shaw Maguire Varane Awb
Ddg
5 subs: Rashford, Greenwood, McTominay, Sancho, Dalot/Telles
Premier League
Rashford (Ronaldo or Cavani) Greenwood
Fernandes
Fred McTominay
Shaw Maguire Varane Awb
Henderson
Use Pogba in rotation with Rashford and McTominay
3 subs: Ronaldo or Cavani, Sancho, Vdb
FA Cup and League Cup (as well as select PL and CL games)
Elanga Greenwood Sancho
Mejbri
Matic Vdb
Telles Bailly Lindelof Dalot
Ddg
3 subs: Mata, Lingard, Jones
I'm not counting the likes of Amad or Shoretire here as it seems they will go out on loan sooner or later this season. Maybe so will Elanga and Mejbri, but right now there's less loan talk surrounding those two. Perhaps all four will go on loan eventually this season, along with a bunch of other Academy players. In which case you simply start Mata, Lingard and Jones in these games. Martial I would look to move on now because I simply don't see how he's going to get game time. Same goes for Lingard and Jones really, though if Jones leaves you need to bring in a new fifth choice CB. With a new CDM/DLP being the priority and with a question mark over who the back-up RB should be I don't see that see that happening right now.
Champions League
Ronaldo Cavani
Fernandes
Pogba Fred Vdb
Shaw Maguire Varane Awb
Ddg
5 subs: Rashford, Greenwood, McTominay, Sancho, Dalot/Telles
Premier League
Rashford (Ronaldo or Cavani) Greenwood
Fernandes
Fred McTominay
Shaw Maguire Varane Awb
Henderson
Use Pogba in rotation with Rashford and McTominay
3 subs: Ronaldo or Cavani, Sancho, Vdb
FA Cup and League Cup (as well as select PL and CL games)
Elanga Greenwood Sancho
Mejbri
Matic Vdb
Telles Bailly Lindelof Dalot
Ddg
3 subs: Mata, Lingard, Jones
I'm not counting the likes of Amad or Shoretire here as it seems they will go out on loan sooner or later this season. Maybe so will Elanga and Mejbri, but right now there's less loan talk surrounding those two. Perhaps all four will go on loan eventually this season, along with a bunch of other Academy players. In which case you simply start Mata, Lingard and Jones in these games. Martial I would look to move on now because I simply don't see how he's going to get game time. Same goes for Lingard and Jones really, though if Jones leaves you need to bring in a new fifth choice CB. With a new CDM/DLP being the priority and with a question mark over who the back-up RB should be I don't see that see that happening right now.
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Ole will have a lot of "problems" to keep players happy this year and still pick functional lineup. On paper our best front 5 are:
Pogba, Bruno
Sancho-Ronny- Rashford.
But;
1) we don't have dmc who can cover those 5 even against smaller teams
2) with Greenwood in top form and Ronny as a player who wants and must play every game, Sancho goes on the left. On the left where we have Rashford (who will not accept bench), Sancho who is payed to not sit on the bench and Martial who will not accept to be backup of the backup.
3) Cavani? His minutes will be reduced to minimum.
4) formation in big games. 3 attackers with Bruno and Pogba are highly unlikely with Ole's approach to those games
I know that people like to say that season is long and manager will rotate but in reality, you always have players who play far more and players who are subs. When our big games start then neither player will be happy to sit on the bench. Neither of our six attackers is not a player who is happy to be a bench option (James or Lingard type).
Pogba, Bruno
Sancho-Ronny- Rashford.
But;
1) we don't have dmc who can cover those 5 even against smaller teams
2) with Greenwood in top form and Ronny as a player who wants and must play every game, Sancho goes on the left. On the left where we have Rashford (who will not accept bench), Sancho who is payed to not sit on the bench and Martial who will not accept to be backup of the backup.
3) Cavani? His minutes will be reduced to minimum.
4) formation in big games. 3 attackers with Bruno and Pogba are highly unlikely with Ole's approach to those games
I know that people like to say that season is long and manager will rotate but in reality, you always have players who play far more and players who are subs. When our big games start then neither player will be happy to sit on the bench. Neither of our six attackers is not a player who is happy to be a bench option (James or Lingard type).
And you are happy with the Wolves game? Against teams with 10 players inside their own box, we can survive with 1x DMF.
I agree. From "Pogba can play in midfield against most teams" we've gone to "we can play single DM against teams with 10 players inside their own box", which I think will happen very rarely.
Tweet
— Twitter API (@user) date
This. Atleast until Rashford is back
---------------------DDG
---------------------------Matic
Sancho-Pogba-Bruno-Rashford-Martial-Amad
-----------Cavani-Ronaldo-Greenwood
---------------------------Matic
Sancho-Pogba-Bruno-Rashford-Martial-Amad
-----------Cavani-Ronaldo-Greenwood
Not really but first game for Varane so always likely to see teething problems. Similarly, not often used a Fred/Pogba pairing.. again unlikely to be perfect.
May not be perfect in future but I wouldn't use a sample of one game (which we still won, just) as proof a system works... or doesn't.
Someone told me "Now we will see how good Bruno really is". Dunno how to feel about that.
It. Depends. On. The. Game!
PL, Liverpool. Thoughts?
I have a feeling that Ronaldo might be telling Ole what to do before too long. Ole will play the 4231. Ronaldo and Cavani will be competing for the CF position.
Put Greenwood instead of Sancho and that is how I will line up too.
Amazes me the amount of posters that don't have Greenwood starting.
I know he's a teacher's pet but I hope Rashford has to win his place back rather than walking back into the team at the expense of Greenwood.
Sancho's shown nothing yet to suggest he should be starting games ahead of Greenwood either.
I know he's a teacher's pet but I hope Rashford has to win his place back rather than walking back into the team at the expense of Greenwood.
Sancho's shown nothing yet to suggest he should be starting games ahead of Greenwood either.
McTomminay instead of Fred and Rashford instead of Sancho!
Rashford is so underrated here ! I don’t get how Sancho is better. He has to prove it first and it doesn’t look like he will right now.
Greenwood is our best attacking player actually ! So yes, he has to start right now.
Rashford is so underrated here. If a player proved he is worth a place in the team it’s him. When he will be fit he will show everyone he is a top player.
Already one clean sheet, keep it up
Right now, Martial seems better then Sancho on the left !
Depends on when Sancho beds in, which he hasn't really yet. Right now I'd probably go for Pogba at LW and McFred in the middle.
Good if they are not happy with the bench !
If you want to play for Manchester United you should expect competition.
We missed that for a long time !
This, even when Rashford's back
- Ronaldo
- Sancho
- Rashford
- Cavani
- Greenwood
- Martial
- Lingard
- Bruno
- Pogba
- Fred
- McTominay
- Matic
- DvdB
Ronaldo
... Rashford..................................... Greenwood
....... Pogba..... McTominay..... Fernandes
......Shaw...... ... Maguire..... Varane...... Wan-Bissaka
De Gea
... Rashford..................................... Greenwood
....... Pogba..... McTominay..... Fernandes
......Shaw...... ... Maguire..... Varane...... Wan-Bissaka
De Gea
For me this is what it most likely will be, based on what we know of Ole, and the politics around Pogba / Sancho (pricetags etc), but it's not necessarily what it should be. For me, Mason should be starting ahead of Sancho here based on his form. So in 95% of games, the above is what I would expect to be his "best 11".
I do think though, that in the games such as vs City, he will set up to counter and look for more work rate, whilst accepting you get what you get from Ronaldo. He also has done the 343 vs City and PSG etc quite a bit before. I think this will all depend on Ole's trust levels. Let's see how we are when everyone is fit and we see the above team on paper. If he trusts 4-2-3-1 then he may stick with that, but given his historical use of 343 in bigger games, I could see:
De Gea
Lindelof Varane Maguire
AWB McTominay Fred Shaw
Sancho Bruno
Ronaldo
With maybe someone like Rashford coming in ahead of Sancho. Depends on how the back 4 goes and how much trust Ole develops in it.
Do you watch us at all ? I can’t see Sancho start right now, price tag is more important then performances for some as I can see.
My person preference with everyone fit if I could dictate the shape:
De Gea
AWB Varane Maguire Shaw
Scott Fred
Sancho Bruno Rashford
Ronaldo
Harder than I thought that. I think the big thing for me would to get Bruno to play as a midfielder again. He's been having far too far forward and it won't work against a team like Liverpool. If we can get him to play deeper i could maaaybe justify playing Pogba in midfield. I feel I'm being really hard on Pogba as his form has been amazing, but I just don't trust him on the left to track TAA and we'll need someone to do Ronaldo's running. Also rough on Greenwood, but I think Sancho is a real winger and we need the width.
Very different side against the likes of Norwich, Pogba in midfield and Greenwood could come in for any of the front 3.
Best attacking talent we’ve had since 2009
After Wolves game, I am going to change my mind to your suggestion. Hoping McTominay is more solid. Rashford is my favourite player, I just hate playing with 3 strikers, it’s total overkill and not needed unless you are going for broke in the final 20 min of a game, however Sancho looked like he is going to take some time to adapt to the English game so I’m all for playing Rashford.
I agree. They are the hard work backbone of the team that allow the others to shine.
Greenwood is 3 from 3 and playing in a team that makes it fecking hard for strikers for two of those games. It actually annoys me he’s going to get moved from 9, kid has so much potential but we have to play him.
Dare we try a 442 with Ronaldo and Greenwood playing off him?
Why do we still try to play Paul in the double pivot with the same crop of midfielders? I'd play McFred in the double pivot with Pogba on the left till either:
1. We have someone world class to partner him.
2. Our backline can play high up the pitch and prove to be incredibly resilient despite the weak midfield.
Pogba is a massive defensive liability. He switches off periodically and jumps out of challenges he should be making in the double pivot.
It's also great that we can now rotate our attackers with minimal drop in quality. For the past 2-3 seasons the likes of Rashford, Greenwood and Bruno have all tailed off because of fatigue and niggles. IMHO that's been the difference between being also-rans and winning a Cup.
Ronaldo can play in both wings.
CR-Cavani-Greenwood
Or Rashford-Cavani-CR.
Good riddance to Lingard and James.
CR-Cavani-Greenwood
Or Rashford-Cavani-CR.
Good riddance to Lingard and James.
With everyone playing their best position, in terms of first choice I think it looks like this:
GK: de Gea, Henderson
RB: AWB, Dalot
RCB: Varane, Lindelof
LCB: Maguire, Bailly
LB: Shaw, Telles
CM: McTominay, Fred, Matic
CAM: Bruno, VDB, Lingard
LAM: Pogba, Rashford
RAM: Sancho, Greenwood
ST: Ronaldo, Cavani, Martial
de Gea
AWB - Varane - Maguire - Shaw
McTominay - Fred
Greenwood - Bruno - Pogba
Ronaldo
Once Sancho settles and Rashford returns we'll have more of a problem. I'd see the competing spots as this:AWB - Varane - Maguire - Shaw
McTominay - Fred
Greenwood - Bruno - Pogba
Ronaldo
GK: de Gea, Henderson
RB: AWB, Dalot
RCB: Varane, Lindelof
LCB: Maguire, Bailly
LB: Shaw, Telles
CM: McTominay, Fred, Matic
CAM: Bruno, VDB, Lingard
LAM: Pogba, Rashford
RAM: Sancho, Greenwood
ST: Ronaldo, Cavani, Martial
For now:
De Gea
AWB Varane Maguire Shaw
McFred
Greenwood Bruno Pogba
Ronaldo
After Sancho is settled:AWB Varane Maguire Shaw
McFred
Greenwood Bruno Pogba
Ronaldo
De Gea
AWB Varane Maguire Shaw
McTominay Pogba
Greenwood Bruno Sancho
Ronaldo
After Rashford is back:AWB Varane Maguire Shaw
McTominay Pogba
Greenwood Bruno Sancho
Ronaldo
De Gea
AWB Varane Maguire Shaw
McTominay Pogba
Greenwood* Bruno Rashford*
Ronaldo
*Rashford, Sancho, Greenwood in rotation.
AWB Varane Maguire Shaw
McTominay Pogba
Greenwood* Bruno Rashford*
Ronaldo
*Rashford, Sancho, Greenwood in rotation.