We've actually been scoring quite freely lately,I think the flood gates are going to open saturday and Bournemouth are going to get hockey'd like Leicester did back in September.
FA Premier League
Manchester United 1:1 Bournemouth
Old Trafford
- Kick-off
- Sat, 4 March 2017 @ 12:30pm GMT
- Status
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Closed
Discussion Your Lineup Prediction
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- Status
never like to get too confident.
our defence was all over the place Sunday.I haven't been this confident for a game in a long long time. They cannot defend to save their lives right now and I'd say they're the best possible fixture you could have in the league at the minute. We looked wrecked last Sunday tbh but we've had a week to recover now and I think you'll see a free flowing performance with plenty of goals. I'll predict 4-0 to United, finally seeing us move up the table.
The defence has been a bit all over the place since the home game against St. Etienne particularly Bailly being poor.
I wonder if Jose will revert back to Jones and Rojo.Sounds very much like Jones is fit.
Jones /Rojo CB partnership is my hope.
Valencia and Blind or Darmain as the full backs will be fine with me.
Depended on Jones fitness. On Jones thread, the tweet said he has been back to training since last week. Definitely see RoJones as ideal for this game with Howe tried to play fancy teamwork passing football. Smalling is more suitable in game against brute force team where there is alot of defending in the box or their forward is isolated which Smalling is assigned man marking job. Bailly's form recently is properly terrible. RoJones mutual understanding & teamwork is natural counter to Bournemouth' style.A must win league game. We will be above 6th for the first time since many months if we win which means we won't.
I am not confident for this one at allChrist, lighten up guys. We're winning this. I'm also backing a goal from Pogba.Let's absolutely not feck this one up. Must win. I don't care how scrappy or controversial it is.THere's definitely going to be loads of goals tomorrow. Bournemouth can't defend, neither can we, and I'm not going to Old Trafford... so it's all set up to be a goal-fest.
6-2.Micki pictured training, although not sure if he was training full with the team. Guess we’ll hear in a couple of hours.AFC Bournemouth manager Eddie Howe gives his view ahead of the trip to play Manchester United at Old Trafford.
The Red Devils are 16 games unbeaten in the Premier League, at odds with Bournemouth's win-less run to start 2017.
Asked about how his Cherries squad have worked towards switching the momentum in their favour, Eddie Howe says he can still feel confident.
"It’s a delicate balance between doing something different and going away from what you need to do," explained Howe.
“We’ve worked the players hard this week and we’re excited by this game. You can only be positive, we’re as confident as we can be and know that a win is needed to truly feel good about ourselves but hopefully that’s not too far away.
“If you look at our recent history we need to take a moment to think, reflect and look back on what we’ve achieved; when you do that it can give you strength.
“It’s not been a bed of roses for some of our players throughout their careers, me included, where things haven’t always been easy. We will look at our mindset, the need to refocus and then go again.
“I’ve always been my harshest critic, as a player and manager, the buck stops with me first and foremost so I shoulder the responsibility. I’ve never been more motivated at this club to do what we have to do.
“We’ve always tried to defy the odds here and we’ll have to do that again. We need to be very strong as a group to defy the odds again.
“I don’t see motivation in the group as a problem, that’s not an issue for us and against many teams we’ve played very well. In recent weeks we haven’t had that collective team performance we’ve been looking for.
“My main focus this week has been to get everybody performing at their best level again."
The Cherries come up against a United side that won the EFL Cup last weekend with victory over Southampton, and Howe says he's seen development in Jose Mourinho's first season in charge.
“They’ve progressed and improved," said Howe. "That’s been obvious and they won the Cup last week so they’ll be buoyed by that. They have some key players but we’ll have to deal with them."
United's charge has been spearheaded by the 26 goals of striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic and the Swede's major impact has been noted by the Bournemouth manager.
“The day we played them here on the first day of the season I was very impressed by him," said Howeof Ibrahimovic. "He’s then gone on to prove himself this season.
“His appetite was what struck me last weekend and how he approached the game. Full credit to him but it’s up to us to match Manchester United and give them a game."
For crying out loud, 1 or 2 shaky defensive displays among the many good defensive games we'very had and suddenly we're said to be unable to defend.
We've been solid defensively bar odd games with the latest being the Southampton and ASSE games but overran we'recommend solid defensively as our few goals conceded in 2017 show.
Let's not start some random narrative based on the exception rather than the norm.
Oh come on, we're hardly amazing at the back. We're not dreadful of course, but we generally allow the opposition some chances against us... especially recently. Southampton, St Etienne (at home), Blackburn all had their fair share, hell even Watford should have scored against us.
Surely every team gives some chances away? You can't expect us to completely and consistently not allow the opposition any chances.
Our defensive record in the last two seasons has been very good. It could be slightly better but it is hardly a cause for concern imo.
Agree with this. We're not water tight at the back but we've been reasonably solid lately. In the league: conceded 5 goals in the last 10 games, 2 goals in the last 5 and currently boasting 3 clean sheets on the spin.
I understand what people are saying about dropping Bailly-Smalling for Jones-Rojo, and I also think that, based on the former pair's performance, that's what should be done. But that center-back pairing just got us a trophy, will Mourinho really drop them now?
Having said that, I think Jones-Rojo is more adequate for Bournemouth and Bailly-Smalling for Rostov away, so it wouldn't be a complete drop.
I think one could say we got the trophy even though they were The CB pairing and not because.
And I would almost agree. The question is, does Mourinho allow himself to do that, knowing it could harm those players morale?
Mourinho is a what's good for the team kinda guy it seems. He's yanked players out of the starting 11 before, and says everyone has to earn their spot. But let's see what he does tomorrow. Because of the lack of a huge aerial threat from Bournemouth I think he may drop Smalling at least.
Yes, and I forgot Bailly can't play in Russia, so…
Well since "Rojones" had such a great period, I really don't think the players would "hold it against" Mourinho. Their morale would be harmed if the other players hadn't been good. At least that's how I see it. It also looks like the whole team has such a great atmosphere and they're all working together so if Mourinho would want to make changes, the "subs" are still happy for the others. It looks like that anyway.
Also, I don't really think one can say there's an established first team center-back pairing for the season, it has changed throughout. But I do feel Mourinho likes to respect players' performance (even if it's bad, but with good results) and not drop them without reason. All of them can demand a place there, so I think the main criteria for change will be the Rostov game, where Bailly can't play, and also to give a chance for Jones to get back in competition.
Agree with everything you said. But Bailly was probably seen as the #1 but things have changed during this season with strong performances from the others. Which is something good - the stronger the competition among the players, the better the performances will be.
And he hasn't been quite the same after AFCON, has he?Weird situation with Shaw, since he's an odd player to take to the bench, only managing to cover for one position, specially when we have limited options upfront (and it could cost Young's inclusion). Would make more sense to start him, from that point of view, but Mourinho said he only had a step up (to the bench).It's the fecking early kick off?!
No he hasn't. But it's probably a bit because he doens't do well in a partnership with Smalling. That's the feeling I get. And it's quite normal to drop in form after playing in AFCON/WC/EC. He'll need a bit more time. Thankfully Jones seems to be fit (for how long?) and he can hopefully help the team.
After watching the matches this season, it seems to me that Jones works well with Rojo and Smalling, so he should also work well with Bailly (don't remember they've played together). So Jones should be seen as #1. Because Rojo and Smalling hasn't been that great, Smalling and Bailly not that good either.
Looks like the common denominator for the good performances is Jones and the "not so good" is Smalling. But it could also be coincidence, not an expert.
No that you mention, it's an important detail: seems Bailly hasn't been Jones center-back pair all season. Probably because both play right-center-back, preferably.Good kick-off time for me. 9.30pm.
I'm going out for dinner with 5 girls before that.I'm going to the match tomorrow....and the last time I was at Old Trafford we lost
But watching Bournemouth in the last couple of weeks, they have never recovered from losing Nathan Ake and unless Boruc, or whatever keeper they throw in tomorrow has a blinder, we should win comfortably.
3-0 United
Happy with that. If we win,I can watch our to rivals in peace.It's the fecking early kick off?!
Yes, probably. But I would still like to see how that partnership would work. It could be worth a chance. But then again, I trust Mourinho, he's a genius in this department.It's Bournemouth at home. We should win comfortably. But we've been here many times before and it's never a given.
Happy that Luke Shaw is back in contention. Hope he can get some minutes at least and go some way towards solving our LB issue.
Agreed, we’ve played on Sunday most weekends. Early beers, a win = enjoy the rest of the weekend.- Status
Man of the Match
Runners-up
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16%
Antonio Valencia
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11%
Juan Mata
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9%
Luke Shaw
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8%
Michael Carrick
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6%
Anthony Martial
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4%
David de Gea
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3%
Wayne Rooney
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2%
Paul Pogba
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1%
Zlatan Ibrahimovic
Player Ratings
Total Average Rating
Highest Rated Player
Lowest Rated Player
Compiled from 544 ratings.
Score Predictions
609,12,25
- Man Utd win
- Bournemouth win
- Draw
Detailed Results
- 31% Man Utd 3:0 Bournemouth
- 27% Man Utd 2:0 Bournemouth
- 12% Man Utd 3:1 Bournemouth
- 9% Man Utd 4:0 Bournemouth
- 5% Man Utd 2:1 Bournemouth
- 4% Man Utd 5:0 Bournemouth
- 3% Man Utd 1:0 Bournemouth
- 2% Man Utd 0:0 Bournemouth
- 2% Man Utd 4:1 Bournemouth
- 1% Man Utd 1:1 Bournemouth
- 1% Man Utd 0:5 Bournemouth
- 1% Man Utd 2:2 Bournemouth
- 1% Man Utd 3:2 Bournemouth
- 0% Man Utd 4:2 Bournemouth
- 0% Man Utd 5:2 Bournemouth
- 0% Man Utd 0:1 Bournemouth
- 0% Man Utd 1:2 Bournemouth
- 0% Man Utd 5:1 Bournemouth
- 0% Man Utd 1:3 Bournemouth
- 0% Man Utd 0:3 Bournemouth
- 0% Man Utd 2:5 Bournemouth
Match Stats
- Man Utd
- Bournemouth
- Possession
- 69% 31%
- Shots
- 20 3
- Shots on Target
- 7 1
- Corners
- 15 2
- Fouls
- 9 11
Referee
Kevin Friend
Man Utd Lineup
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replaced by Marcus Rashford
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replaced by Marouane Fellaini
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replaced by Jesse Lingard
