City haven't looked unstoppable for a while, Fulham were poor at the weekend and they looked good but Everton made them look pretty toothless.

Rooney needs to play if he's fit, whatever the competition. Especially if he's scoring he'll need to keep it going.

When I say unstoppable, I mean they keep picking up the points. Hernandez and Berbatov both need games, I would much rather save Rooney for the league and keep him fresh. Some plays like Evra and Rooney get overplayed.

I think we should treat it like the Champion's League, we are out of all other competitions and so the fixture pile-up is not so bad.

What's important is momentumn, a winning streak; winning leads to winning as we've seen many times.

It's no good playing poorly in Europe and expecting to turn it on in the Prem, it doesn't work like that, you have to create a winning environment!

SAF will want to win it, but I can see him using a lot of rotation.

There are some good teams in there this year, but you'd have to say United and City are the favourites.

But if I had the choice, I'd take the PL any day.

This is an excellent competition for the likes of Fabio, Pogba, Cleverley and Anderson. Berbatov needs games here and Amos to. I hope we can go far in this Comp and give the young players game time. Fabio needs his chance and Pogba to. Should be interesting how we line up. But Fabio will start!

But do you guys not think the team I suggested is good enough to win? There comes a time when Rooney can't play matches, we need to depend on other players to put in a performance.

Now we are out of the FA Cup, and players are returning from injury, The fixture pileup doesn't look bad at all.

I think it will depend on the opposition so I guess we will know how the EL will be apprached when we see the team sheet v Ajax

May 21st, I think your team is OK except I wouldn't have Amos in goal, I'd be giving De Gea as much game time as possible.

I'd expect that sort of team with the likes of Rooney, Giggs, Nani, Wellbeck, Scholes, and Ferdinand on the bench.

anyone think Nani will play on Saturday?
It says doubtful on my fantasy football

Lambsy has it spot on.

Yet How do we tackle the Europa League?

Studs up and two footed

I was only thinking of Amos needing game time but I have no problem at all with De Gea getting games, I suppose he does need the confidence and experience as well. And yes a strong bench would be in order.

City are in the same boat.
How do you think they'll approach it?
Will they be more up for it than United, given they have only 1 European Trophy to their name and that was back when Huddersfield Town were in the 1st Division, or will they take the same "It's only The Europa League" attitude?

i think we should go all out and try to win it.
treat it like the cl

comment by GregUnited (U1192)
posted 4 minutes ago
i think we should go all out and try to win it.
treat it like the cl
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I think the team I suggested could be good enough. And if they don't win the away fixture then we can always pack some more first teamers into the second leg.

I'm not a United fan, but as a Madrid fan I expect my side to have the ambition to try to win any competition they enter. We took a very despondent attitude towards the Copa del Rey for a great number of years, and i found it very frustrating.

Teams like United and Madrid should always look to win any competition they take part in, as they should be expected to have sufficient squad depth to do so.

On the other hand, and this is a debatable issue, I reckon City could very well be dropping more points due to the conservative attitude Mancini seems to take when they hold a lead and the negative message he send out with his substitutions, both to his own side and to his opponents.

I've seen this in a couple of games where they were firmly in control and cruising and he's made defensive substitutions that have given their opponents the initiative.

In my opinion, the more convincingly you win this sort of game, the stronger the message you send out to future opponents. As it is, a home side that's trailing against them can expect City to hand them the initiative and will fancy their chances of a lucky break swinging the game their way.

The opposite can be argued: the less you concede, the more likely it is that opponents will lose faith once they're down on the scoreboard, but for that to happen you really need to be a top class defensive team, which I don't really think City are away from home.

Interestingly, they've conceded more than double the number of goals away than at home, where you'd expect them -even if only to please the fans- to keep on attacking even when they hold a lead.

I think the team I suggested could be good enough. And if they don't win the away fixture then we can always pack some more first teamers into the second leg.
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reason I said we should go all out to win it is because what if we dont win the Premier League then what? We would be thinking, if we tried harder we could have maybe won the Europa instead of fielding a lighter team than whats possible.

Also, the winner of the Europa plays the winner of the CL - very interesting

It's only 2 trophies as well, normally we're competing for about 3 or 4 this time of the year

Getting a tough side like Ajax will help up in preparation I feel, as the underestimating of our teams in the CL cost us dearly.

While seeing us not win this competition wouldn't bother me (yet give WUM'S great satisfaction) I hope we do put up a decent fight to get some of our players match fit, give younger players vital European experience, something fergie enjoys to do so.

It really is only two more fixtures than we have dealt with over the last four years, successfully reaching the CL finals and considering we no longer have an F.A cup run, in terms of games we are more than capable to handle this.

Yeah but do we ever have an injury crisis as bad as this year? I know we normally do, but not this bad.

Personally I'd love both you lot and Athletic Bilbao to get through so you meet each other. I'm v interested in seeing how Athletic fare against some really serious int'l opposition.

I think Ajax will be tougher than most people think, especially in the away fixture.

I look forward to seeing that Christian Erickson lad play against us, he looks a real talent.

Athletic Bilbao are a good team from what I have seen

Domestic form doesn't always carry over to European competition, but Ajax seem to be going through a big slump in form.

They haven't won a game since the end of the winter break, losing 3 and drawing just 1.

BB on Athletic. I agree.

I'd consider United overwhelming favourites, as Athletic still lack a bit of experience and consistency, but Bielsa's doing a good job.

They press quite a bit, have good intensity and can mix more direct football with keeping the ball on the deck. They've played some really nice football at times too.

They're a predominantly young side, with the likes of Javi Martínez, Ander Herrera, Muniaín, Aurtenetxe or Iturraspe, alongside a few more seasoned pros like Llorente, Iraola or Gabilondo.

Iraizoz's a good and experienced keeper, though he's a bit prone to dropping the odd clanger here and there. Basque keepers generally have a better aerial game than most Spanish keepers due to the brand of football they favour up there.

They qualified for the Spanish Cup final last night, albeit by pummelling a Spanish 3rd division side, but they were good to watch.

Anyhow, I guess you might want prefer to cross that bridge when you get to it.

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