2nd string against Chelsea? Or do we risk more tiredness

Somewhere in between. A few key players: Maguire, Matic, Rashford mixed in with the likes of Fred, Mctominay, James and Lingard.

Definite rests for Pogba, Fernandes and Greenwood though.
 
3-4 changes max (one of which will be the keeper) and play your best players. Some ridiculous nonsense in this thread, you play football to win trophies. Keep the run going.
 
We can play Pereira and Lingard. I don't like any first starting 11 from the regular team starting in this match.
 
If we weren't in the Europa League then it would be more of a conundrum for me. Given we've still got a chance at silverware elsewhere it's a no brainer for me that we should rest at least 6/7 players for the game against Chelsea. To beat them with our first 11 and then suffer from injuries or burnout against West Ham which leads to the failure to secure Champions League would hurt more than losing the chance to go to the FA Cup final for me. Midfielders specifically look exhausted.
 
Honestly I could give a rats arse about the Fa cup or Uefa cup(unless we need it for CL) however managers pretty much make their living off of winning trophies so I can’t see Ole taking a backward step now. Him winning the FA cup would be a big deal for him and probably the club as well.

Personally I think the game against West Ham and Leiscter are more important.
 
Foxbatt said:
We can play Pereira and Lingard. I don't like any first starting 11 from the regular team starting in this match.
Click to expand...

Are you insane to play them both? At least Bruno or Pogba should play. At least Rashford or Martial should play.
 
Play a full strength team and try to win a trophy. Regardless of what sponsors want...as a fan I want to see us win something and would rather have success in the FA Cup than finish 3rd or 4th.
 
Play a second string side but push in an extra attacker. Maybe have Lingard, Mata, James and Ighao all starting. Our second string defence and midfield should be good enough to cope with Chelsea but I think we are short on goals there. Have a strong bench and do everything possible to finish the match in 90 eitherways. 30 extra minutes will be a disaster.
 
Mr. MUJAC said:
Play a full strength team and try to win a trophy. Regardless of what sponsors want...as a fan I want to see us win something and would rather have success in the FA Cup than finish 3rd or 4th.
Click to expand...
You rather we win what has now become an irrelevant cup than compete for the biggest prize in club football next season and get the world class signings to get us back on track for competing for the league?

I don't understand this logic of some of you all. You claim we used to laugh at clubs that were fighting for 4th? What about clubs that prioritise the bloody FA cup because they know they're winning diddly-squat in the next 10 years?
 
Paul_Scholes18 said:
Are you insane to play them both? At least Bruno or Pogba should play. At least Rashford or Martial should play.
Click to expand...

I am not. That's why I don't want Bruno or Pogba to play. Injure anyone if them and goodbye to the CL. We are still in with a chance to get the CL spot if we win our two PL games to go. The chances of winning the two two PL games are much better than winning the FA Cup
 
JB7 said:
3-4 changes max (one of which will be the keeper) and play your best players. Some ridiculous nonsense in this thread, you play football to win trophies. Keep the run going.
Click to expand...
You’re telling me you never dreamed of finishing third in the league and wouldn’t sacrifice any amount of glory for that? We should be sacking Ole tomorrow and getting Poch in. I dream of my club finishing 3rd, 2nd, 3rd and 4th in the league. What legendary achievement.
 
Rightnr said:
You rather we win what has now become an irrelevant cup than compete for the biggest prize in club football next season and get the world class signings to get us back on track for competing for the league?

I don't understand this logic of some of you all. You claim we used to laugh at clubs that were fighting for 4th? What about clubs that prioritise the bloody FA cup because they know they're winning diddly-squat in the next 10 years?
Click to expand...

It's because I lived through an era when winning trophies was important than sponsorship.

1. It's your opinion that the FA Cup is irrelevant. If you ask everyone at United they wouldn't say that. In 2016 Rooney and Carrick were desperate to win it. Rooney was going for years about not having a winners medal. Players want medals. Not press kudos for finishing third.

2. I've never laughed at any club for finishing 4th.

3. If we want world class signings we will make them. If we were not challenging at all that's a different story. But we are.

4. It's not about prioritising the FA Cup. It's about NOT de-prioritising it.

5. I just don't buy into all this media bullshit about 'holy grail' of getting in Champions League. I reckon our players and management team go out to win every game...as it should be.
 
Mr. MUJAC said:
It's because I lived through an era when winning trophies was important than sponsorship.

1. It's your opinion that the FA Cup is irrelevant. If you ask everyone at United they wouldn't say that. In 2016 Rooney and Carrick were desperate to win it. Rooney was going for years about not having a winners medal. Players want medals. Not press kudos for finishing third.

2. I've never laughed at any club for finishing 4th.

3. If we want world class signings we will make them. If we were not challenging at all that's a different story. But we are.

4. It's not about prioritising the FA Cup. It's about NOT de-prioritising it.

5. I just don't buy into all this media bullshit about 'holy grail' of getting in Champions League. I reckon our players and management team go out to win every game...as it should be.
Click to expand...

This, again, is some incredibly condescending nonsense. Do you think I'm 15 or something? I've been brought up on us winning trophies.

It still doesn't mean you're correct in your assessment. Without the much needed injection of money, we won't be buying Sancho, if our owners' past history is anything to go by. I'd barely be confident we'll do it if we are in the CL.

Most of the rest of the post is pretty much head hard in the sand and let's hope for the best bullshit. Most of that behaviour is what's enabled the Glazers to absolutely rinse the club dry because 'we need to support the club'.

And as for 5., it's the holy grail because of money and prestige. No one gives a toss about the FA Cup and EL in comparison, much as some on here would have people believe.
 
Rightnr said:
This, again, is some incredibly condescending nonsense. Do you think I'm 15 or something? I've been brought up on us winning trophies.

It still doesn't mean you're correct in your assessment. Without the much needed injection of money, we won't be buying Sancho, if our owners' past history is anything to go by. I'd barely be confident we'll do it if we are in the CL.

Most of the rest of the post is pretty much head hard in the sand and let's hope for the best bullshit. Most of that behaviour is what's enabled the Glazers to absolutely rinse the club dry because 'we need to support the club'.

And as for 5., it's the holy grail because of money and prestige. No one gives a toss about the FA Cup and EL in comparison, much as some on here would have people believe.
Click to expand...
This is my opinion and I wasn’t being condescending in any way.
I have no idea how old you are...but I wasn’t talking about you. I was talking about me, my preferences and experience.
You are entitled to disagree and have your own opinion.
Clearly you have a different view which you have expressed.
Try not to make it personal eh!
 
Mr. MUJAC said:
This is my opinion and I wasn’t being condescending in any way.
I have no idea how old you are...but I wasn’t talking about you. I was talking about me, my preferences and experience.
You are entitled to disagree and have your own opinion.
Clearly you have a different view which you have expressed.
Try not to make it personal eh!
Click to expand...
I think if there was 1 week between this and the West Ham game then of course we would go full strength, but many of us are worried that we played on Thursday and looked tired, we now face Chelsea 2 days later and could potentially go into extra time. We then have a huge match against West Ham on Wednesday.

We could potentially end up losing to Chelsea going full strength, then losing to West Ham being dead on our feet. Where does that leave us then? I'd love to win the FA cup and it would do the squad well I agree, but sometimes you just have to accept you can't win everything.

I'm sure Ole will see how the lads look in training and will make a decision, I feel he might be a little naive in wanting to win everything and having another PSG moment with the team collapsing with injury/tiredness.
 
We're playing one of our strongest teams tomorrow
Guessing three or four changes
 
I`m still rotating tomorrow if I`m Ole but 5 players max we defo need to try and seriously win this.
 
Arsenal in the final, revenge for 05. Please let’s not put some awful heavily rotated team out
 
Mr. MUJAC said:
Play a full strength team and try to win a trophy. Regardless of what sponsors want...as a fan I want to see us win something and would rather have success in the FA Cup than finish 3rd or 4th.
Click to expand...
I agree Mujac that winning the FA Cup is something I’d be more excited to see as a fan. I respect your position greatly.

And I’d prefer a champions league place was given to the FA Cup Winner than 4th place personally. 4th place if the winner finishes in the top 3.

But unfortunately that’s not a thing, I reluctantly have to prefer we finish in the top 4 simply because I want a better quality of opposition next season. I’ve found the Europa League very tough to watch pre-knockouts.
 
We should make much-needed changes, worry about the final if we get to it. West Ham on Wednesday is our final. Then Leicester.
 
Rotate 5 or 6 now that the final looks very winnable.

Chelsea will probably rotate ahead of Pool away too, if thing go badly, we can sub all the first teamers on around 60min and go from there.
 
A question for you all... would you change the way you see this match if Sancho and Grealish were secured even without Champions League football?
 
Sky1981 said:
We used to laugh at teams that chased top 4th instead of trophies
Click to expand...
Financial implications are too big at this point. Would I love for the FA cup to be worth more (maybe a CL spot) to increase its importance? Absolutely. But, it's just the economics of the modern game.
 
Cal? said:
Rotate 5 or 6 now that the final looks very winnable.

Chelsea will probably rotate ahead of Pool away too, if thing go badly, we can sub all the first teamers on around 60min and go from there.
Click to expand...

Does it? We've a terrible recent record against Arsenal. Beat us 2-0 this season and last season, got a draw at OT.
 
Play strongest team. They have had 3 months' rest have they not? How many times have we regretted not starting our strongest team in matches like this and then with 25 mins to go despite throwing on the cavalry we cannot find a goal as the bus is now well and truly parked by the opponent.
If you want to play for Man Utd/City/Liverpool, these are the demands, tough.
Get 2 goals up, then take them off. But start with strongest team and aim to win the game in the first half.
Keane, Evra, Ronaldo, Scholes, Giggs etc won't be complaining of fatigue would they if it was them? We just have to man up.
This is a crucial next step for the group to make that shift to a championship winning team. Mentality. And pushing hard when you have nothing left to give.
 
When we say "the team" has looked knackered, who is that exactly? I think it's important to be specific because not everyone has looked tired

From what I've seen, it's Pogba, Bruno, Matic, Greenwood, and Wan Bissaka that have looked a bit gassed.

Martial looks like he's on steroids, Rashford's fitness seems to be on an upward trend, Wan Bissaka doesn't have a replacement incidentally (don't say Dalot) and Matic got a rest last game.

The way I see it, we'll probably have a max of 4 or 5 changes including Romero with the rest of the big hitters on the bench to come on and rescue the situation if need be.

Predicting Romero, McTominay, Fred, and James to come in, plus perhaps Ighalo
 
Shark said:
Does it? We've a terrible recent record against Arsenal. Beat us 2-0 this season and last season, got a draw at OT.
Click to expand...
We also have a good record against City this season. Yet I'd still be more confident against Arsenal.
 
DeGea said:
Play strongest team. They have had 3 months' rest have they not? How many times have we regretted not starting our strongest team in matches like this and then with 25 mins to go despite throwing on the cavalry we cannot find a goal as the bus is now well and truly parked by the opponent.
If you want to play for Man Utd/City/Liverpool, these are the demands, tough.
Get 2 goals up, then take them off. But start with strongest team and aim to win the game in the first half.
Keane, Evra, Ronaldo, Scholes, Giggs etc won't be complaining of fatigue would they if it was them? We just have to man up.
This is a crucial next step for the group to make that shift to a championship winning team. Mentality. And pushing hard when you have nothing left to give.
Click to expand...
That's not the problem, they're playing much more in less time than usual.
 
Will be an intriguing team sheet.

In normal times, a home game against West Ham would be more a game to rotate than an FA Cup semi, but obviously it's all super tight in the league.

I'd be inclined to keep as much of the best eleven in there as possible, but get Romero for certain, and maybe Fred and Ighalo in there.
 
I’m surprised to see so many disregard winning this competition. As a fan I want trophies. I think we are on the cusp of a really good season. 2 trophies and 3rd place would be an incredible achievement, especially considering where we were a few months ago.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.