As good as Greenwood is he can’t play in 2 positions
FA Premier League
Manchester United 3:3 Everton
Old Trafford
- Kick-off
- Sat, 6 February 2021 @ 8:00pm GMT
- Status
-
Closed
Discussion Your Lineup Prediction
-
- Status
Win their 2 games in hand and they’re 3rdNever know what to expect from Everton performance wise. I presume James Rodriguez and King will start? (both on the bench today)
I expect Martial to start for us. Pogba to come back in the side too.
White text
I'd be happy whether Pogba starts or not. 10 men or not, you can only play what's in front of you and Mctom and Fred both had good games.
If we're talking about short term memories, Pogba started vs Sheffield and Arsenal and we were poor in those games. If he comes in, he needs to justify taking a place from whoever he replaces.
So did Fred and McT.That loss against Sheffield united is still hurting.
Being 3 points around top is manageable, being potentially 6 points behind the current city is too much i think. Hopefully Everton takes points of them in their game in hand.
This is a must win, all games actually are from now one. I would play our strongest team. Fred/Matic, Pogba and Bruno in midfield, and Cavani in attack.
Watch him
He literally just won player of the month for January, and has been our best player for two months pretty much. I think he’s justified selection. And we were not poor against Arsenal either. We were not as good as if we had played against 10 or 9 men though, but each game is different. We played a tough away game at Arsenal, and were very much in it and should have won. Pogba was also our best player in the game.
We need to go with our strongest team I think, and assume that games going forward will be closer to what they were before the anomaly of the Southampton game rather than take that game as some sort of norm.I’m conflicted on the Cavani/Martial issue too. I firmly believe that at some point - Martial will return to form this season. And a Martial on form, I’m not sure is an inferior option to Cavani. He doesn’t have the same qualities, but he has different ones.
I’m also a little nervous about Cavani’s finishing, generally speaking. He’s always been a patchy finisher, and if the team creates few chances, I’m not sure if he’d take his.
Right now, I’d prefer him to start, but that is more due to Martial being off form than me thinking Cavani is just the infinitely better option. And I’m not sure if now may be the time Martial returns to the player of last season - which would be huge for us.
It wasn't 2nd string Southampton side.
Pogba was great in January. I'm wondering how we fit in him in assuming we want to play Rashford on the left and Greenwood on the right. Is Ole willing to trust him in a double-pivot with Fred or McTominay?Tricky how to start this one. On one hand, I would like to start the same guys as last matches to keep momentum. On the other hand Pogba has been great lately, can't rest him for two matches.
I would start the same players except McT or Fred for Pogba.
Also if Lindelof needs recovery, rest him and play Bailly. But prefereably Lindelof and then play Bailly in the cup.
We have to play our best team, which is with Pogba. He was rested against Southampton and others did well but still he should play. He is in very good form too.
If we go on another run now, which Ole is famous for with this team, streaky purple patches of form, I'm confident City will drop points. They've got some tricky fixtures coming up. If Sheff United is the payment for two excellent purple patches of form either side, then I'll take it.
But it does hurt, because it reminded us we've got to be razor sharp every game, for 90 mins. Luckily for us, it was a wake up call, not the indicator that we're done.
We still play City so it's all to play for.
i look at city and see a team that won’t drop any points. When they were poor early in the season they just didn’t have this invincibility so it’s just how a team looks when on a run, whether poor or good. I agree with the poster though if we drop points before they do from here on it’s very unlikely they’ll let it slip. I personally think they’ll win the league with a ten point cushion.
100% - none of that strolling through the first half as though we're the best thing since sliced bread after a great performance and result. It's become so predictable this season. This Everton team is more than good enough to punish that kind of attitude
Lindelof won most aerials of all last match and is in general stronger than Bailly in the air and also challenges more in the air. Everton will aim many high balls towards DCL and he will position himself to the one who partners Maguire, as he knows Maguire is just as strong as him in the air. No matter who, that CB will be kept busy in the air and will lose aerials. That was their tactics last time and I’m sure it will be the same again. Hopefully they fail this time as well.
He has done multiple times in the period you speak of, against better teams than both Southampton and Everton too.
Are you sure? According to past team-sheets he only did it once in the league, against Fulham. He played it in the cup against Liverpool but brought on Fred immediately after Liverpool scored their equaliser at 60 minutes.
He played it against Fulham, Burnley, Wolves, Liverpool and after Scott went off against Arsenal, he chose to do so there rather than bring on Matic. I doubt he’s afraid to play Pogba in midfield against Everton at Old Trafford, I think he is increasingly confident of playing him there.
There are probably a very small number of teams that would concern Ole in that respect, otherwise, I think he’d play Pogba in that role generally speaking. He made a big point after the last Liverpool game about how it was particularly satisfying because we won it playing ‘on our own terms’, and said how previously, we’d tweak things for these sort of games.
Nah breh, you've misunderstood. I asked whether Ole trust Pogba in a pivot with McTominay or Fred, which he's only done once in the league this year. The Matic-Pogba was never in the equation, he's done that plenty of times! The two usual setups are either Fred-McTominay or Matic-Pogba. I'm hoping to see more of Pogba with either McTominay or Fred.Got a feeling Ole might go for a diamond midfield. Similar to the one we used against them in the league cup tie just before Christmas.
Ah, well that is true, but I would think there’s still some clear suggestion that Ole is happy to play him in a double pivot. It’s clear that Matic doesn’t do the work of two men - so I don’t see why the detail that it has often been alongside him as opposed to Fred or Scott bears much significance. I think that’s just the way the rotation has fallen, not so much an issue of trust. I can’t see why Ole would trust PP alongside Matic but not Scott personally.
Anyway, it all remains to be seen, but I think Ole trusts PP to play in a two. He also trusts the other three to play in a two - so will pick his teams accordingly on the basis that he trusts all 4, except for a very small handful of games where I think he’d be less trusting of Matic or PP. I think which of the 4 is the partner is a bit of a red herring personally.
I agree. He’s been one of our best players lately, in competition with Shaw. Also he is strong in the air which can help us defensively in some situations. They have scored many goals from setpieces and we have conceded many from
Setpieces.
yep - replace our most effective player of the past year with the most disinterested.
Wow! It's quite clearly due to how Ole wants to set the team up depending on the opposition, for me. Against City (league and cup), Villa, Arsenal, Liverpool (league), Leicester, and Leeds he played Fred-McTominay. Against Sheffield United, Burnley, Everton (cup) and Wolves he played Matic-Pogba. That isn't just a coincidence due to the way rotation has fallen. Matic is a much more disciplined and experienced DM which gives Pogba license to roam forward. His choice of midfield suggests that Ole doesn't yet have faith that Fred or McTominay with Pogba gives the defence enough protection.A game for Dean Henderson to step into the limelightJust hope Pickford doesn't take out Cavani or Rashford.
And here l was thinking that Fred or McTominay were more trusted than Matic to provide protection for the defence. Hardly think it warrants a ‘wow’. As you said, he still played PP and Fred against Fulham.
If anything, to me, he doesn’t trust Fred or Scott with the actual football, so in games where we expect to have most of it, he has preferred PP and Matic - who are both better than them on the ball. The other two are better without it. I didn’t see it as Fred or Scott not trusted defensively alongside PP, I would have seen it as them not trusted offensively/creatively in certain types of games. If Matic had the legs, he’d play ahead of Scott and Fred in any type of game, as he’s generally a much better player aside from that. It never occurred to me that Fred and McTominay were being played for their offensive contributions above their defensive ones.
No thanks.
Who said that? It's clear that Fred and McTominay are trusted as a pair to do the defensive job (and spring attacks) against teams that are likely to press us and run a lot. Matic and Pogba are preferred in games against slower teams that are likely to drop deep. Each partnership has its merits which Ole plumps for accordingly. It's not always going to be quite so rigid but that's what we've been doing in recent months to pretty good effect.
Well, it depends on what you deem 'actual football'. He's trusted the Fred and McTominay combo in the majority of games in recent months and we've won most of them. Fred and McTominay obviously aren't Pogba levels when it comes to their offensive contributions, but they are able to move the ball fast (Fred especially), spring quick attacks and their ability to press and harry the opposition is vital to how we attack. I'll be surprised if we see the Pogba-Matic axis anytime soon after the Sheffield United farce, to be honest.
Who would that be
You're probably right. 2nd place this season would still be a great improvement from us. I just hope we increase our points tally rather than look at positions though. City got 81 points last year in 2nd place. I'd like us to surpass 81 points as a benchmark of where we are.
We're averaging exactly 2 points per game, so by that logic it takes us to 78 points. I believe the start of our season was a false start, I think we can do better this 2nd half of the season and hit 80+DDG
AWB Lindelof McGuire Shaw
McFred
Pogba Bruno Rashford
Cavani
Can you change your name.
It's giving me severe whiplash. Everytime I see your post I doubletake wondering when I posted....
When he moved into the middle after Mc Tom went off v Arsenal we immediately looked more threatening
To clarify, I'm not taking anything away from Pogba. I agree he's been fantastic and crucial to our success when Bruno hasn't produced. I'm more thinking about the right set up to play Everton.
Would you take out Mctom, Fred or play Pogba right?Fred out, Pogba in. United 2 Everton 0.- Status
Player Ratings
Total Average Rating
Highest Rated Player
Lowest Rated Player
Compiled from 321 ratings.
Score Predictions
184,8,25
- Man Utd win
- Everton win
- Draw
Detailed Results
- 30% Man Utd 2:1 Everton
- 20% Man Utd 3:1 Everton
- 17% Man Utd 2:0 Everton
- 7% Man Utd 3:0 Everton
- 6% Man Utd 1:1 Everton
- 6% Man Utd 1:0 Everton
- 4% Man Utd 2:2 Everton
- 1% Man Utd 3:2 Everton
- 1% Man Utd 0:2 Everton
- 1% Man Utd 4:1 Everton
- 1% Man Utd 5:0 Everton
- 1% Man Utd 0:0 Everton
- 1% Man Utd 0:1 Everton
- 1% Man Utd 4:0 Everton
- 0% Man Utd 0:5 Everton
- 0% Man Utd 4:2 Everton
- 0% Man Utd 2:3 Everton
- 0% Man Utd 1:2 Everton
Match Stats
- Man Utd
- Everton
- Possession
- 62% 38%
- Shots
- 14 6
- Shots on Target
- 5 3
- Corners
- 5 1
- Fouls
- 14 11
Referee
Jonathan Moss
Man Utd Lineup
-
-
-
-
-
-
replaced by Fred
-
-
-
-
replaced by Axel Tuanzebe
-
