Martial Mata and Mikhitaryan I see being our 3 best and most creative players behind the 9.

Herrera looks likely to be our best 6. And that leaves Pogba as b2b and even though he's been fairly mediocre so far, I can see him growing into the role. He's too good of a player not to.

I have no worries about our defence. They are solid.

We're not far off having a fantastic team. We just need our players to bloody click.

Carrick is a good shout. Him and Schneiderlin need games.

I wouldn't be against either Carrick or Schneiderlin playing tonight. Wouldn't start both though. We don't want to risk starting too many rusty players and not getting the win we need.

Agree with SE85 - squad and first XI is good on paper, especially if Herrera can continue in that role. We need a couple more games like the Leicester one, where we put a team to the sword, then I think we'll see more fluency and identity.

I just don't think Morgan is needed for games we expect to be on the front foot and dominate, he isn't good enough with the ball.

At least with Carrick you know he will always look to make those passes between the lines, and he can dictate the tempo, something he has done amazingly well for us in Europe over the years. Would be a sound platform for our attackers to do their stuff tonight, think he;s been somewhat underrused this season so far.

Schneiderlin, Schweinsteiger & Depay won't be Utd players this time next year. Neither will Carrick as his extension will be over. Rooney perhaps may leave. I suspect he may because he's surely too proud to be a sub every week.

It's going to be a huge summer of changes once again. Jose has his work cut out. That's 3 cm's alone that you can see leaving.

Agree with SE85 - squad and first XI is good on paper, especially if Herrera can continue in that role. We need a couple more games like the Leicester one, where we put a team to the sword, then I think we'll see more fluency and identity

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Exactly.

We have Zlatan, Rashford and Rooney for the 9 role.

We have some very good options to play in the 3 positions behind the 9. Getting them all fit and playing at same time seems an issue though.

We're nowhere near as bad as people make out.

Martial - Mata - miki

Who wouldn't want a trio like that at their club? Not many clubs would turn that down.

If he picks the right team tonight and we're up for it ( don't hold yer breath on that last one) then I can see us murdering them. They aren't the best away from home in Europe usually.

If we are more clinical in front of goal then we can be right up there

Romero
Darmian Bailly Smalling Shaw
Carrick Schneiderlin
Lingard Mata Martial
Rooney​

This is my guess - perhaps TFM or Jones to play CB. Memphis and Mkhitaryan will probably come off the bench.

comment by Marlo Stanfield. (U7553)
posted 1 hour, 2 minutes ago
Tonight:
----------------------Romero----------------------
Fosu-Mensah--Smalling Blind----------Rojo
--------------------- Carrick--------------------
------------------ Mata Pogba ----------------
Young--------- --- Rooney--------------Martial


Sunday:
-------------------DDG-------------------
Valencia----Bailly Smalling----Blind
------------------Herrera-----------------
-------------Fellaini Pogba-------------
Lingard--------Zlatan-------Rashford

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Nailed it Marlo son, nailed it

It's got to be back to the 4-3-3 for tonight's game. Our best two performances, by far, have come with Mata and Pogba supporting the attack with Herrera mopping up.

Not that I expect it to happen, but looking at our current side, what I think represents best balance and factoring in the players Mourinho seems to not favour (which unfortunately seems to include Carrick), I'd love to see a midfield that looks like this:

--------------------------Herrera
Mkhitaryan--F.Mensah--Pogba--Martial

I think to play with a deep lying player like Herrera requires a bit of compensation defensively from one of the other midfielders, and that isn't going to come from Pogba.

At the same time, to get the best our of Pogba requires giving him freedom from deep, which requires a deep lying passer (Herrera) and a more conservative box-to-box player. From the current ranks that player could be young Tim.

As a midfield I think there's some interesting similarities between Mourinho's early Chelsea team.

Berba

I see where you're coming from, and in the more difficult away fixtures, the benefit of having a player like TFM in there.

That said, short passing is not (yet) Timmy's strongest attribute, and your side would rely quite heavily on Pogba to work everything that came through the centre, unless you were to switch out Herrera and TFM.

For me, if Herrera can keep this kind of form up - and he was quite brilliant against Liverpool - you can switch TFM for Mata.

There are a bunch of benefits in this. Improving the contribution to team ball retention and creativity in the role would deliver the most obvious benefits, plus offer more creative attacking opportunities, like use of overloading triangles on the right between Mata, Mkhi/Lingard and Valencia (which in turn create space for Pogba and Herrera centrally), take some of the pressure off Herrera when he needs to offload quickly, and provide a bit more flexibility and dynamism (Mata and Lingard, in particular, can - and have at times this season - switch roles dragging markers out of position and upsetting the defensive balance).

Basically, with the talent we have in the squad, I think once we're fully oiled and road tested we should be controlling just about all of our home games and most of the aways, and I don't see the need for a player selected based more on their physical and defensive attributes alongside Pogba as well as a regista.

Rosso,

I take your point and largely agree, hence adding the caveat around which players Mourinho seems to favour/disfavour.

What I like about the idea of Herrera, Fosu and Pogba as a combination is to some degree it has a similar profile to the Juve trio that Pogba seemed to perform best from (Pirlo, Vidal, Pogba) and Mourinho's Makelele, Essien, Lampard trio.

What we lack from our squad is that Vidal/Essien player. I think we've all seen the potential for young Tim to adopt that role. I agree his passing may not be at the required level yet, though his power, pace and willingness to drive forward with the ball and be adventurous makes for an exciting alternative.

..."I don't see the need for a player selected based more on their physical and defensive attributes alongside Pogba as well as a regista."

Maybe not - as before, I agree to a certain extent. But Mourinho clearly does feel this way, especially in certain games (Fellaini). A player like Tim could offer similar attributes to Fellaini but with added pace, drive and dynamism.

I also made a point of putting Mhki in my proposed lineup as like you, I feel that we'd need a bit of extra guile in there somewhere were we to swap out Mata for a player like Tim.

Don't really care about tonight, happy to rest most of the first teamers.

What I do wanna see is Mhki start today and hopefully show enough to get a start on sunday, could make a big difference.

Wouldn't mind also seeing Rashford or Martial as the lone striker and play with a bit more pace.

Comment deleted by Article Creator

Games free on bt showcase channel tonight

comment by BerbaKing11 (U6256)
posted 1 hour, 36 minutes ago
Rosso,

I take your point and largely agree, hence adding the caveat around which players Mourinho seems to favour/disfavour.

What I like about the idea of Herrera, Fosu and Pogba as a combination is to some degree it has a similar profile to the Juve trio that Pogba seemed to perform best from (Pirlo, Vidal, Pogba) and Mourinho's Makelele, Essien, Lampard trio.

What we lack from our squad is that Vidal/Essien player. I think we've all seen the potential for young Tim to adopt that role. I agree his passing may not be at the required level yet, though his power, pace and willingness to drive forward with the ball and be adventurous makes for an exciting alternative.

..."I don't see the need for a player selected based more on their physical and defensive attributes alongside Pogba as well as a regista."

Maybe not - as before, I agree to a certain extent. But Mourinho clearly does feel this way, especially in certain games (Fellaini). A player like Tim could offer similar attributes to Fellaini but with added pace, drive and dynamism.

I also made a point of putting Mhki in my proposed lineup as like you, I feel that we'd need a bit of extra guile in there somewhere were we to swap out Mata for a player like Tim.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
I see the point, and it's hard to argue with the success Jose made of those midfields at Chelsea and Juve.

Isn't it great though to be discussing the nuances in lineups now that Jose has spent just a little time working with the squad, shifting to (or at least towards) the 4-3-3 so many of us have been hoping for, and revising the starting eleven, rather than just despairing about Rooney playing every week and banging our heads against the wall repeatedly having watched another 'philosophical' performance

Very true Rosso!

I'm hoping that in the not too distant future we'll be arguing about how to accommodate Pogba in midfield whilst playing a 4-4-2 with Rashford and Martial dovetailing as the new Yorke and Cole!

comment by BerbaKing11 (U6256)
posted 15 minutes ago
Very true Rosso!

I'm hoping that in the not too distant future we'll be arguing about how to accommodate Pogba in midfield whilst playing a 4-4-2 with Rashford and Martial dovetailing as the new Yorke and Cole!
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Dream on son...

Mhki not even in the squad... Getting a bit frustrating