Pre Match Manchester United v Leicester

[mabrah]

So he can still make the bench ?

Or the sandwiches?

 

[sparky79]

i reckon we will see Van de Beek, Bailly and a few other changes on Tuesday. If they are more at the races than us with 48hrs in between games and a games against liverpool ahead on the thursday then we dont deserve top4.
simple equation. need to make some good selections and play fully committed.
the win puts the ball fully in our court.

 

[homer]

He can DEFINITELY be part of the play offs, yeah ?

 

[Jimmy Lad]

Right but we’re about three months too late to add new players to our squad

That shouldn’t deter us. If teams can set up their own super league against the rules and get away with it, I’m sure we’d be just fine playing an unregistered player. It pales into insignificance in comparison..

 

[Jimmy Lad]

So man u played there best 11 and Harry went off injured.

Surely the likes of Pogba, Fernandes and Cavani aren't going to play two games in two days with Liverpool coming up too.

Hopefully we'll see a unprepared and patched up side and are showponies will raise there game at old Trafford.

Cavani will play. On bench today

 

[Payne74]

Maybe the Americans will get together and agree to let Liverpool win as they are both ESL clubs and were not

 

[Lako42]

Cavani will play. On bench today

Yep, and we are in a right pickle as a result.

BR came out after the game and said that Evans is the brains in our backline, so, based on the fact we will have at least 2 very unintelligent defenders playing and one out of position, a player like Cavani will make them look stupid.

Cags managed to look like a Sunday league player against the Necastle forward line, I dread to think what he'll look like on Tuesday.......... Unless he sorts his attitude out and actually puts a very big shift in.

Just think they will massively out smart us without Evans.

 

[Joe_Fox]

Just don’t play ****ing Ricardo and Maddison cos they’re nowhere near good enough/fit enough to play right now

And don’t play a ****ing full back as a ****ing third centre back because it never, ever ****ing works, FFS. If you haven’t got three functioning centre backs, play a ****ing back four - it’s really not that ****ing difficult to understand and they might then actually have a ****ing clue what they are supposed to be doing

Seven. New record Homer?

 

[Jimmy Lad]

Yep, and we are in a right pickle as a result.

BR came out after the game and said that Evans is the brains in our backline, so, based on the fact we will have at least 2 very unintelligent defenders playing and one out of position, a player like Cavani will make them look stupid.

Cags managed to look like a Sunday league player against the Necastle forward line, I dread to think what he'll look like on Tuesday.......... Unless he sorts his attitude out and actually puts a very big shift in.

Just think they will massively out smart us without Evans.

Have to agree. I’d be tempted to stick Amartey in there as he is a pure defender.
Not skilful, not a show pony, just wins
headers and clears the ball. It’s what I think we need without Evans.

 

[Miles Away]

Have to agree. I’d be tempted to stick Amartey in there as he is a pure defender.
Not skilful, not a show pony, just wins
headers and clears the ball. It’s what I think we need without Evans.

And Amartey allows Rodgers the perceived flexibility he likes where he can shift from a 3 to a 4 pretty easily.

 

[sparky79]

Agree we need either Amartey or Fuchs in there if we play a three.
We also need to set up to play smarter
if we line up high up the pitch and try to play dominant we will get bummed. so we need to play tight win the physical battles and win ugly.

Schmeichel
Amartey Fofana Soyuncu
Ndidi
Albrighton Tielemans Praet Castagne
Iheanacho Vardy

try and get down the sides with albrighton amd castagne or into the channels for Iheanachon and Vardy

save Perez, Maddison, Ricardo for if theyre needed to add something later.

 

[mabrah]

In Evans' absence (and I'm assuming that'll be the case) then it's Amartey for me too. I'd consider putting him central too, and leave Fofona and Cags in their usual places. It's not perfect (in fact, I get jittery at the thought) but it's perhaps the least disruptive option. Personally, I don't think Amartey is comfortable going forward (something Fofana likes to do) so he might prefer a more anchored role in the middle.

Agreed also that Soyunu needs to get it together, he's been unreliable of late, unfocused. I read a suggestion of post Covid problems, which I hadn't considered. I personally doubt it but do think there's something praps amiss that seems to coincide with his return from Turkey.

 

[TornadoShaunUK]

In Evans absence, I still wouldn't trust Amartey. Morgan out injured? If so.. put Ndidi back there...

 

[Lako42]

In Evans absence, I still wouldn't trust Amartey. Morgan out injured? If so.. put Ndidi back there...

And severely weaken the entire central area of the pitch.

I hate this weakening two positions just to fill a gap in one.

 

[popillius]

One of the main themes of my posts this season was the overplaying of Justin, Barnes and Tielemans. No matter what, they seemed to play. When asked about it, BR would respond quite bizarrely as far as I'm concerned. Something about them being either built to play a lot or young and therefore somehow impervious to injury.

He's got away with it in the case of Tielemans, although I maintain that he'd be a lot better had he had a few games off over the last few months. With Justin and Barnes, BR is responsible for ending their seasons as far as I'm concerned. They were ridiculously overplayed.

BR has been excellent this season but his management of several individual players has been awful. He's shot himself in the foot by ignoring opportunities to rest key players whilst putting in players that are clearly unfit at times.

With no discernable preseason and then 53 matches in 8 months, he spent about two months juggling resources brilliantly and the rest of the time making a total mess of it.

With absolutely no evidence at all that their injuries were as a result of sustained

 

[Graz]

No way we should take Wilf out of midfield. He's too important there and him winning the ball back in midfield is an important aspect of our attacking play too.

It has to be Amartey if we start with a back 3.

Fuchs is tempting for the leadership and experience but I think he'd get torn apart.

 

[SimonW]

If we were going to bench Vardy for a game then Newcastle was the best game to do so, given that there deep defensive set up.

Against Man Utd, and all of the so called 'big six', I would always play Vardy when fit, they give him more space to run into and stretch the game, giving more space to others.

 

[TornadoShaunUK]

And severely weaken the entire central area of the pitch.

I hate this weakening two positions just to fill a gap in one.

We'd be better off putting Choudhury or Mendy in Ndidi's place and having Ndidi fill in at the back than bringing Amartey in at the back in my opinion. I personally wouldn't trust him and it wouldn't solve the communication issues we have with Evans out. It's a shame we've got the run in we have otherwise we could probably get away with being a bit more ambitious and having a more forward thinking player rather than playing the defensive midfielder all the time but that aspect of having someone who can break up the play will be needed against teams like Man U and Chelsea...

 

[Graz]

We'd be better off putting Choudhury or Mendy in Ndidi's place and having Ndidi fill in at the back than bringing Amartey in at the back in my opinion. I personally wouldn't trust him and it wouldn't solve the communication issues we have with Evans out. It's a shame we've got the run in we have otherwise we could probably get away with being a bit more ambitious and having a more forward thinking player rather than playing the defensive midfielder all the time but that aspect of having someone who can break up the play will be needed against teams like Man U and Chelsea...

Every team in modern football players with a defensive midfielder. I think you'd always be overrun in midfield without it, and it enables you to win the ball back higher up the pitch.

 

[bocadillo]

Do we know definitely that Evans is out? I've seen him listed as an ankle injury but the radio commentator at the Newcastle game was talking about it being plantar fasciitis; a painful condition which an even more painful injection can sort, at least temporarily.