[GeorgieBoy]

You seriously can't see how shit he's been this season because you support your club and the narrative that Pogba is world class. He might have shown glimpses of being world class, mainly in Italy, but he causes Utd endless headaches for midfield set up. Again, I won't expect you to see this and long may it continue.

He likes space and zero defending, which is a paradox in a Jose team. With him out Utd's midfield will be a lot more solid which we could do without.

You clearly haven't been watching our games regularly, he's been one of our better players this year. Admittedly with a few bad games thrown in there, but to say he's been shit this season is a massive disservice.

 

[Dumbstar]

I'm not his biggest fan, so it's not like I'm blind to his faults. But I can also appreciate his qualities.

How many of United's games do you watch?

And it's not like our other alternatives in midfield are any better. You can't seriously claim you'd be more apprehensive of facing old man Carrick or McTominay compared to Pogba.

When you put those alternatives up then it looks ridiculous. But, barring Herrera injury, how can it come to this? Just because the alternatives are poor doesn't change how I feel about Pogba in big games where he's harassed from the first minute. I've seen a lot of those games. This isn't Anderlecht, Rostow and Ajax coming to town with their pants down ready to take position.

 

[tony54]

Fellaini being back is quite nice for this game. If he's fully fit, I'd go (though I'd expect lingard for martial here).

De Gea
Valencia Bailly Smalling Shaw
Fellaini Matic Pogba
Sanchez
Martial Lukaku​

It would be great to see Fellaini back, it improves our odds of winning.

 

[Buchan]

Darn. Hope he plays .

Oh ffs N.O O.O. Pogba must play. Why does everything always conspire against us when we play Utd?!

Yawn.

 

[PoTMS]

Not really arsed if Pogba misses this one. I'd honestly rather have Fellaini - who will cause Liverpool more of a problem - in midfield instead of Pogba, especially after the shitfest he served up against these lot last season.

 

[VeevaVee]

The rumours seem made up to me.

But if not...

-------Matic--McTom
Mata---Lingard----Sanchez
---------Lukaku


Is surely our best option? Fellaini is out of match practice and will probably two foot someone's chin. Bring him on as sub if someone's chin needs two footing.

 

[Adisa]

So, we're looking at a midfield two of Matic and Scott?

 

[Alabaster Codify7]

When you put those alternatives up then it looks ridiculous. But, barring Herrera injury, how can it come to this? Just because the alternatives are poor doesn't change how I feel about Pogba in big games where he's harassed from the first minute. I've seen a lot of those games. This isn't Anderlecht, Rostow and Ajax coming to town with their pants down ready to take position.

You're right mate. We've spent so much on our midfield recently, and we're still in a position where we're this threadbare. It's quite embarrassing.

 

[Organic Potatoes]

Lingard nailed on to start then if Martial and Pog really aren’t available, probably with Mata on the right.

 

[Cassady]

Yawn.

Autocorrect ?

 

[breakout67]

Our midfield is so thin because LVG killed it. He bought the schmidfield (schneiderlin and schweinsteiger) which was a joke of a midfield.

 

[Organic Potatoes]

Our midfield is so thin because LVG killed it. He bought the schmidfield (schneiderlin and schweinsteiger) which was a joke of a midfield.

I remember when Schneiderlin was the perfect buy, the answer to all our midfield woes...

At any rate, I am super excited to have Felli available for this match. He’s good in big games so long as he doesn’t pick up an early yellow from crushing someone’s eye socket.

 

[ti vu]

Our midfield is so thin because LVG killed it. He bought the schmidfield (schneiderlin and schweinsteiger) which was a joke of a midfield.

Can't blame LVG. Sure he made terrible purchase and leave us much to do. However, it's basically SAF neglected central midfielder reinforce and bad manager appoint leave us here.

 

[BluesJr]

Sherwood and Phill Thompson creaming themselves over Liverpool on The Debate tonight. You wouldn’t think Liverpool have achieved precisely nothing under Klopp, nor would you think they sit behind us in the table.

If we’re so bad and average, what must they be to be behind us? Embarrassing times in the media.

 

[haram]

Can't blame LVG. Sure he made terrible purchase and leave us much to do. However, it's basically SAF neglected central midfielder reinforce and bad manager appoint leave us here.

Of course you can blame LVG.

 

[Klopper76]

Mourinho can still send a team out to do a job on us. Pogba being unavailable doesn’t change that.

This is the toughest test we’ve had in a while. I’ve got no idea what to expect from the game but I’m leaning towards a score draw with us scoring first.

 

[breakout67]

Can't blame LVG. Sure he made terrible purchase and leave us much to do. However, it's basically SAF neglected central midfielder reinforce and bad manager appoint leave us here.

You just said why you can blame LVG, he bought terribly in midfield.

Of course SAF can be blamed for a poor midfield, but we have had plenty of opportunity to buy a new midfield. We have spent huge amounts of money since SAF, enough to have a top quality team. Mourinho is the first manager to buy well in the market, his only failure (mkhitaryan) was used as a bargaining chip for Alexis Sanchez (this is reminiscient of SAF, give Arsenal a flop for a top player).

 

[Adebesi]

Both managers could easily live with a draw, so that’s my prediction. Think both teams will sit back and try and lure the other forward.

Most definitely. Both teams will be more concerned about not losing this game rather than winning it.

 

[haram]

Actually think Liverpool might start this game cautious trying to save energy expecting us to go up a gear second half.

 

[ti vu]

You just said why you can blame LVG, he bought terribly in midfield.

Of course SAF can be blamed for a poor midfield, but we have had plenty of opportunity to buy a new midfield. We have spent huge amounts of money since SAF, enough to have a top quality team. Mourinho is the first manager to buy well in the market, his only failure (mkhitaryan) was used as a bargaining chip for Alexis Sanchez (this is reminiscient of SAF, give Arsenal a flop for a top player).

Of course you can blame LVG.

I see. Yeah. I should word it better. Need to add "entirely" somewhere. LVG has different profile for his midfielder so I doubt even if it would be a success for him it would long term fit what the club liking at the end of the road.

 

[breakout67]

I see. Yeah. I should word it better. Need to add "entirely" somewhere. LVG has different profile for his midfielder so I doubt even if it would be a success for him it would long term fit what the club liking at the end of the road.

Yes, our problems in midfield is a build up from SAF > Moyes > LVG.

But i think that a good LVG midfield would do well under Mourinho. Because he plays safety first. The problem is that LVG didn't know how to buy his own midfield

 

[Trizy]

We're kinda fecked with Pogba and Martial.

I don't get all the jokes about United and the bus because we're facing Liverpool. People on social media and memes I've seen basically portraying us a championship team about to play prime 2009 Barcelona. Liverpool are below us in the league for a reason ffs.

 

[MyOnlySolskjaer]

 

[Dumbstar]

Autocorrect ?

 

[Greck]

You seriously can't see how shit he's been this season because you support your club and the narrative that Pogba is world class. He might have shown glimpses of being world class, mainly in Italy, but he causes Utd endless headaches for midfield set up. Again, I won't expect you to see this and long may it continue.

He likes space and zero defending, which is a paradox in a Jose team. With him out Utd's midfield will be a lot more solid which we could do without.

Rubbish post. It's like when we complain about Sanchez, we judge those players on world class standards while we give lesser players like Mctominay, Valencia lavish praise if they go the whole 90mins without putting a foot wrong. Pogba has been gash since the new year but is still one of our better contributors. His absence is better felt than his presence. We can't get the ball from defense to attack without hoofing it when he doesn't play. I doubt you watch more United games than actual United fans to tell them who their best performers are

 

[Jim Beam]

This isn't Anderlecht, Rostow and Ajax coming to town with their pants down ready to take position.

Well done. Your modesty never ceases to amaze me after winning feck all for more than a decade.

 

[Dumbstar]

Rubbish post. It's like when we complain about Sanchez, we judge those players on world class standards while we give lesser players like Mctominay, Valencia lavish praise if they go the whole 90mins without putting a foot wrong. Pogba has been gash since the new year but is still one of our better contributors. His absence is better felt than his presence. We can't get the ball from defense to attack without hoofing it when he doesn't play. I doubt you watch more United games than actual United fans to tell them who their best performers are

That's twice I've been told that. I watch all Utd games that are on the telly (sky and bt). Utd are usually on in the big games, understandably. He often doesn't perform against big teams that can harass him. I see what I need to see for the big games and there's no bigger than Liverpool v Utd.

 

[haram]

He's a troll, stop feeding him.

 

[breakout67]

Looks like the boom-bust cycle is revving up it's engine for Liverpool fans. No matter what position Liverpool are in, they are always a better team than United and have a better manager.

I remember last season there were talks of winning the League when Liverpool were top of the league for a while. Then reality hit them in the face once Chelsea got a run going. This season is the reverse, they started woefully and are finishing strong. Next year is their year.

 

[Greck]

That's twice I've been told that. I watch all Utd games that are on the telly (sky and bt). Utd are usually on in the big games, understandably. He often doesn't perform against big teams that can harass him. I see what I need to see for the big games and there's no bigger than Liverpool v Utd.

I dont disagree with the bolded but that's a whole different ballgame from what you said. That he's been shit this season and calling out a United fan for being too biased to see it. He was good against Chelsea and Arsenal so you might also want to tone down the hyperbole

 

[extincti fugax hominum]

Looks like the boom-bust cycle is revving up it's engine for Liverpool fans. No matter what position Liverpool are in, they are always a better team than United and have a better manager.

I remember last season there were talks of winning the League when Liverpool were top of the league for a while. Then reality hit them in the face once Chelsea got a run going. This season is the reverse, they started woefully and are finishing strong. Next year is their year.

This is spot on It's actually both funny and sad at the same time Poor Scousers, they really want to believe that the last 25 years didn't happen don't they

 

[Catt]

Mourinho can still send a team out to do a job on us. Pogba being unavailable doesn’t change that.

This is the toughest test we’ve had in a while. I’ve got no idea what to expect from the game but I’m leaning towards a score draw with us scoring first.

Going by how great you are, you really should win this. Listening to what pundits and fans say I don't see United being able to cope.

 

[MrPooni]

Just watched the embargoed press conference and Jose confirmed that Martial is out.

 

[breakout67]

This is spot on It's actually both funny and sad at the same time Poor Scousers, they really want to believe that the last 25 years didn't happen don't they

This Liverpool team are really bad compared to the days of Benitez when they had some good players. They've gone from Alonso to nobody (because they just have workhorses in the team, no-one to control the play), Gerrard to Henderson, Carragher to Matip, even Liverpool fans know deep down that this team are a system team.

Klopp has done well to get these players working their socks off to make up for their deficiencies.

 

[Devil may care]

If Pogba is out then an already difficult task becomes more difficult in actually winning. I'm not confident in a double pivot of McTominay and Matic, neither are very mobile and I think we'll have a hell of a job getting out of Liverpool's press.

 

[Distracted Steward]

If Mourinho elects to play a 4-2-3-1, whoever plays at the top of the midfield is going to have to put in a good shift keeping linked up with the deep pair and spraying balls out into space for Lukaku and the wide two. It's going to a take a quite a performance in that two-way #10 role Mourinho demands. That's what it is going to take to beat the press and do more than sit on a draw.

Sanchez, Mata or Lingard all could do it with some variation to each.

This is the sort of match that really screams for a well-knit flat three-man midfield. The 4-3-3 Mourinho employed at Chelsea in the mid-2000s would be ideal for this. The wide men are slowly growing into the roll he demands, and Lukaku is slowly growing into the Mourinho #9 role. The biggest thing keeping the team from that compact and versatile 4-3-3 is that CM we desperately miss. If we had him and were used to that formation, Liverpool would be absolutely there for the taking on the counter. They're still vulnerable, but probably more so for how they play than the way we do.

 

[noodlehair]

Speaking to The Times, Lovren said: “Maybe they are not in the best shape, but still they win ugly.

“What matters is the points. Last time, when they came here, they defend really deep so let’s see what happens now.

“[Will they do that again?] I think so. They need the points, definitely. For them it will be maybe a good point but, for us, we never play for a point. We will play like we play every day, attacking football. Let’s enjoy.

“Still, you know Mourinho has his own plans. It is our job to focus on ourselves and play how we hope will beat them.”

In fairness, we probably wouldn't be able to ever play for a point either if Lovren was in our defence.

 

[Yagami]

If we are going to break down Liverpool's pressing then we have to bypass the midfield a lot. Only problem is our striker isn't that great with back to goal. However, one of our midfielders who just came back to the first team is probably one of the best in the world at winning balls in the air and is amazing at playing with his back to goal. So here's a line up that I highly doubt would be used, but makes sense to me

-------------------------DDG--------------------------
Valencia-------Lindelof------Smalling--------Shaw
------------------Matic------Pogba------------------
Lukaku--------------Sanchez--------------Rashford
----------------------Fellaini-------------------------

Doubt that would ever happen though lol

Martial for Fellaini and that's the attack and midfield I hope to see one game this season. Lukaku on the right, a midfield 3 of Matic/Pogba/Alexis, and both Martial and Rashford playing. It'll never happen, though.

 

[Ban]

Given the media narrative last few days you'd think the mightiest Liverpool ever is coming to town and poor, old, ugly United don't have a chance in hell to beat that fabulous team. Even at home.

Also @Dumbstar is having a bit of a mare here.

 

[el3mel]

He's a troll, stop feeding him.

Agree, why are we wasting efforts replaying on him seriously ? I said multiple times I don't care what Scousers think about us.