Manchester United (Carabao Cup Home) Wednesday 23 December

[markjazzbassist]

Let’s hope we do better against them than we did earlier this year.  It’s home it’s one match, just have a go Carlo and go all in.  Ole needs points in the league more than this competition so let’s hope he rotates Satisfy the shareholders.  Lineup to come after the arsenal match

[Btay]

On 17/12/2020 at 13:13, markjazzbassist said:

Let’s hope we do better against them than we did earlier this year.  It’s home it’s one match, just have a go Carlo and go all in.  Ole needs points in the league more than this competition so let’s hope he rotates Satisfy the shareholders.  Lineup to come after the arsenal match

United are one win away from second in the league? I think he is probably more scared of being dumped out of another cup. Regardless we should be fresher. 

Really hard to pick a team for this. All depends on recovery. I think Doucoure needs a rest though. DCL/Richarlison need to be managed although they just seem like they can play non stop an injury to either would be devastating. 

[London Blue]

Rotation is key now or we risk serious injuries to the players. Yes its a quarter final of a very winnable cup but sending out exhausted players is not going to get the win.

                                Olsen

Coleman      Mina           Keane   Niels

                     Davies  Gomes

                             James

Bernard                                Gordon

                            Cenk

[Matt]

I wouldn’t change the team to be honest. Keep the momentum going so the lads can enjoy Christmas rather have a defeat in the back of their mind

[Romey 1878]

1 hour ago, London Blue said:

Rotation is key now or we risk serious injuries to the players. Yes its a quarter final of a very winnable cup but sending out exhausted players is not going to get the win.

                                Olsen

Coleman      Mina           Keane   Niels

                     Davies  Gomes

                             James

Bernard                                Gordon

                            Cenk

I think we’d lose comfortably with that team and I’d much rather keep winning and stay in with a chance of silverware tbh. Not saying don’t make changes like. 

[London Blue]

1 hour ago, Matt said:

I wouldn’t change the team to be honest. Keep the momentum going so the lads can enjoy Christmas rather have a defeat in the back of their mind

I would love to keep the same team, save for James, Gomes and Coleman coming in, but that team has just played 3 games in 7 days, we have Man Utd on Wednesday, Sheffield Utd on Saturday then City on the Monday.

There is no way that the vast majority of our regular team can play those matches without serious rotation, especially the midfield where players like Doucoure, Iwobi, Siggy, Richy and DCL, Godfrey and Holgate have expended so much energy. There is a real risk we will lose someone like Doucoure to injury because of the energy he expends every match. With Allan out already, why take the risk?

Yes its a cup match, but we have a squad and need to use them. I guess we could risk running them again against UTD, but then you have a very winnable match against Sheffield Utd where you want to go for the win. 

52 minutes ago, Romey 1878 said:

I think we’d lose comfortably with that team and I’d much rather keep winning and stay in with a chance of silverware tbh. Not saying don’t make changes like. 

I know I am resting pretty much the whole team, be interested to know what changes would you make?

Edit, Utd play today then have us, then Leicester on Saturday so is a real chance they rotate as well. I would rather have 11 fit rested, squad players than 11 knackerd regular first teamers.

[Bailey]

Its all well and good talking about rotation but we have no idea which players need a break.

The club will have the stats on that and be able to make the decisions but I would try and keep as much of the same team as possible. I would also try and play the same way as it will work just as well against Utd. 

The only change I would consider would be Coleman for Holgate. I would prefer to give Coleman more time as I have said before, but I thought Holgate was poor against Arsenal.

[markjazzbassist]

I have no idea on the lineup just that I expect some rotation and this is gonna be a tough match. 

[Zoo 2.0]

Once again, I want us to win a trophy. Winning breeds winning and as I'm 27 I've seen us win fuck all (being 2 years old in '95). Play a strong XI and deal with any fatigue afterwards, let's just get to the semi and keep up the momentum - as much as Ole is under pressure his focus has to be on the top 4, not the Carabao Cup. I don't expect a brand new XI, but I do expect changes.

[markjazzbassist]

Does the FA cup have home and away semis or is that just the league cup?  Cant remember

[Palfy]

3 hours ago, London Blue said:

Rotation is key now or we risk serious injuries to the players. Yes its a quarter final of a very winnable cup but sending out exhausted players is not going to get the win.

                                Olsen

Coleman      Mina           Keane   Niels

                     Davies  Gomes

                             James

Bernard                                Gordon

                            Cenk

Not if we seriously want to win this cup, but if we’re not bothered go with that, I want this cup on our list of honours then we will have the full set and I would like to see it before I’m on the conveyor belt of ashes to ashes. 

[Palfy]

22 minutes ago, markjazzbassist said:

Does the FA cup have home and away semis or is that just the league cup?  Cant remember

FA cup semifinals played at Wembley. 

[markjazzbassist]

3 minutes ago, Palfy said:

FA cup semifinals played at Wembley. 

Gotcha, so it’s a single knockout tournament, great, just hope it’s your day and you move on.  I hate the 2 legged ties.  

[Romey 1878]

1 hour ago, London Blue said:

I know I am resting pretty much the whole team, be interested to know what changes would you make?

That's the question, isn't it? Because I can understand each and every change you've made and am actually on board with them. I just don't like so many of them all at once.

Like I've said before, we do need to rotate but we need to be clever with it and minimise the amount of changes we make each game. I don't envy Carlo because no matter what he does he'll get complaints.

[Palfy]

29 minutes ago, markjazzbassist said:

Gotcha, so it’s a single knockout tournament, great, just hope it’s your day and you move on.  I hate the 2 legged ties.  

So do I they always favour the favourites imo. 

[Formby]

4 hours ago, London Blue said:

Rotation is key now or we risk serious injuries to the players. Yes its a quarter final of a very winnable cup but sending out exhausted players is not going to get the win.

                                Olsen

Coleman      Mina           Keane   Niels

                     Davies  Gomes

                             James

Bernard                                Gordon

                            Cenk

Are we trying to score? The midfield will get overrun and we have Cenk upfront - need Holgate or Doucoure in the middle, at least - and we have to play DCL, surely!

[AlbanyNYToffee]

Don’t think big rotation is needed til weekend. Here are the changes (using Arsenal XI as starting point every time) I’d make for these games:

Utd: Gomes and James for Siggy and Iwobi

Sheffield: Olsen Coleman Branthwaite Niels and Gomes for Pickford Holgate Godfrey Mina Doucoure

City: Kenny Bernard James for Siggy Richy Iwobi (Holgate would slide into mid along Doucoure)

im hopeful Keane can play every minute and we can start DCL every game and get him an early sub against Sheffield. 

 

[Bailey]

I don't think DCL is getting through loads of work like he used to and he sounds mentally strong so I think he is more likely than most to be able to play the majority of games.

[Hafnia]

7 minutes ago, Bailey said:

I don't think DCL is getting through loads of work like he used to and he sounds mentally strong so I think he is more likely than most to be able to play the majority of games.

I'd disagree based on what I see.  The number of aerial balls he challenges for alone would knacker the average person out.  He's carrying more weight as he's bulked up. 

He's by far the hardest working number 9 in the league. 

[markjazzbassist]

They are smashing Leeds

[Zoo 2.0]

9 minutes ago, markjazzbassist said:

They are smashing Leeds

Leeds are a good side, but I haven't seen such a naive performance in a long while - they were 2-0 down inside 120 seconds. The first goal being an absolute embarrassment defensively.

Trouble is this will give United a much needed boost, unless of course this leads them to believe their own hype and come to us in first gear.

[markjazzbassist]

4 minutes ago, Zoo 2.0 said:

Leeds are a good side, but I haven't seen such a naive performance in a long while - they were 2-0 down inside 120 seconds. The first goal being an absolute embarrassment defensively.

Trouble is this will give United a much needed boost, unless of course this leads them to believe their own hype and come to us in first gear.

Let’s hope the latter

[Matt]

10 minutes ago, Zoo 2.0 said:

Leeds are a good side, but I haven't seen such a naive performance in a long while - they were 2-0 down inside 120 seconds. The first goal being an absolute embarrassment defensively.

Trouble is this will give United a much needed boost, unless of course this leads them to believe their own hype and come to us in first gear.

But knowing Leeds they’ll go full throttle. If they get the first goal in the second half United are more than capable of collapsing 

[Zoo 2.0]

1 minute ago, Matt said:

But knowing Leeds they’ll go full throttle. If they get the first goal in the second half United are more than capable of collapsing 

Let's hope so, put £1 at 3-0 for Leeds to win @ 100/1. I can't see it happening, although if there's a really early goal from Leeds it'd make things really interesting. 

United are deadly going forward at their moment, but there's always question marks defensively with them - even with De Gea.

[Wiggytop]

Hope Leeds come out strong in the second half and make this a tough game for them.

[milesey05]

I would like to see Godfrey given a crack at CB. It’s a chance of some silverware so I wouldn’t expect to see wholesale changes. 
my team would be.

                    Olsen 

Coleman Holgate Godfrey Niels 

Iwobi     Gomes Dacoure Bernard 

                     James

                      DCL

[London Blue]

If I could rest 1 player it would be Doucoure, he has put in so much in the last week, we cant risk injury to him as that would screw us up more than any other, with the possible exception of DCL. 

[Btay]

3 hours ago, milesey05 said:

I would like to see Godfrey given a crack at CB. It’s a chance of some silverware so I wouldn’t expect to see wholesale changes. 
my team would be.

                    Olsen 

Coleman Holgate Godfrey Niels 

Iwobi     Gomes Dacoure Bernard 

                     James

                      DCL

I think we need Micheal Keane right now - he’s played consistently well the last 3 games, throw Holgate into CM for Doucoure who needs a rest more than most. I have no preference over keeper but I’ll say Pickford. So for me,

                         Pickford

Coleman     Keane     Godfrey     Niels 

             Gomes             Holgate 

                          James 
Bernard               DCL             Gordon 

 

I theory Godfrey/Holgate can cover Niels bombing on. Gordon cuts in for his right foot to open that space. Gomes, James and Bernard are 3 of our better technical players so I expect us to keep the ball there.

I really don’t know what Carlo can do here. Cenk just isn’t good enough. Bernard I would expect a proper performance from - even if he is done at 60 minutes for Iwobi, I want all energy from him.

[Bailey]

6 hours ago, Hafnia said:

I'd disagree based on what I see.  The number of aerial balls he challenges for alone would knacker the average person out.  He's carrying more weight as he's bulked up. 

He's by far the hardest working number 9 in the league. 

He averages 9.4 aerial duels per game. If a guy that athletic is getting knackered out just by that I would worry.

I'm not saying it wouldn't take its toll but he has got through a lot more work in the past and now he is working in a lot smaller areas of the pitch.

This season is tonnes easier than the strain he would have been under in previous years in my opinion and given everything we know about him, he is more likely than not to be one of the starting 11 that can cope with more games (centre backs aside).

(Interestingly he is 3rd in the list of aerial duels won with Ollie Mcburnie being first. Chris Wood would also be ahead as he is 4 behind with 2 games "in hand". It shows how much we rely on him in very different ways to the other top team strikers. With respect to the other two players, they are yard dogs who only play for their size. 

[Hafnia]

12 hours ago, Bailey said:

He averages 9.4 aerial duels per game. If a guy that athletic is getting knackered out just by that I would worry.

I'm not saying it wouldn't take its toll but he has got through a lot more work in the past and now he is working in a lot smaller areas of the pitch.

This season is tonnes easier than the strain he would have been under in previous years in my opinion and given everything we know about him, he is more likely than not to be one of the starting 11 that can cope with more games (centre backs aside).

(Interestingly he is 3rd in the list of aerial duels won with Ollie Mcburnie being first. Chris Wood would also be ahead as he is 4 behind with 2 games "in hand". It shows how much we rely on him in very different ways to the other top team strikers. With respect to the other two players, they are yard dogs who only play for their size. 

Duels.... Not headers. The Duel is when he goes for a header against someone.... He's often unmarked/unchallenged now.   Opponents often don't bother marking or jumping and react to the second ball instead, something I've not seen for us since big duncs days. 

His work off the ball is still very high and his increased muscle is going to tire him more and leave him supseptible to injury.  I reckon he's put on 3-4kg in the last year.  I recall when I was playing, I put on half a stone after doing weights... Absolutely gassed. Look at the likes of AJ - 4 pound either way makes a huge difference.

In terms of overall balance - workrate, physicality, distance covered, and technical output there is no player to touch him.