FA Cup Fourth Round

Manchester United 4:0 Wigan Athletic

Old Trafford

Kick-off
Sun, 29 January 2017 @ 4:00pm GMT
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    MOURINHO'S TEAM NEWS UPDATE FOR WIGAN TIE

    Sergio Romero and Anthony Martial will start for Manchester United in Sunday’s FA Cup fourth-round tie at home to Wigan Athletic, manager Jose Mourinho has revealed.


    The boss has confirmed he will rest no.1 David De Gea for the Old Trafford clash against Warren Joyce’s Latics, providing Argentina international Romero the chance to make his sixth appearance of the season, with recent loan returnee Joel Pereira set to be named on the bench.

    Martial, meanwhile, will come back into the side after missing the last two games and Mourinho has challenged him to keep his place for next Wednesday's Premier League encounter against Hull City.

    Speaking after Thursday’s EFL Cup semi-final aggregate victory over the Tigers, Mourinho said: "This is the second match for us in the FA Cup and I want to do it in a serious way. We have to play with a very good team; the only player that is out is De Gea – I’ll give him a few days off. I will play Romero, I will put Joel on the bench and apart from that I go with a good team because we want to try to beat them. Anthony will play on Sunday and if he plays magnificently, he will play against Hull in the next match – it’s simple."

    Continuing on the theme of team news, Mourinho stated: "I will make some changes – that’s obvious. We play Hull again three days after Wigan but I’m going to play a good team with the responsibility to give fans a good performance at home and with the responsibility to try to win against Wigan."

    Former Reserves coach Joyce makes a quick return to Old Trafford, having ended his eight-year spell with the Reds to take the reins at Wigan in November.

    "We know the difficulty to play against Championship teams," Mourinho told reporters. "We played Wigan already in pre-season and now they are with Warren, who knows us well and will come with special motivation to play against his old club.

    "I worked at the club with him for a few months but it was enough to know he’s a very nice man, a very passionate football man. He took the risk, accepted the challenge and left a good situation at this club.

    "His team will be very aggressive, very well organised defensively and also emotional, like the manager is emotional, so it will be a difficult match."
     
    Would’ve been really happy to see Pereira get the nod, but tbf Romero’s done well this season and it’s good that we’re keeping the 2nd keeper match sharp.
     
    With that news in mind, I'm thinking maybe...

    Romero
    Valencia - Jones - Rojo - Shaw/Blind
    Herrera - Fellaini
    Mkhitaryan - Mata - Martial
    Rooney(?)​
     
    I'll go for a 4-2-3-1. Romero, Valencia, Rojo, Jones & Shaw in defence, Carrick & Herrera in midfield, Mhkitaryan, Mata & Martial in attack & Rashford as striker.
     
    --------------------------Romero-------------------------
    Darmian---------Smalling------Blind---------------Shaw
    ------------------Fellaini--------Bastian------------------
    Mata----------------------Rooney------------------Martial
    ---------------------------Rashford------------------------
     
    Rashford was really great as a forward against Reading, but he had lots and lots of space. The next game, Hull at home, no space available, he vanished. Maybe his best position for us now in most games is left-winger (not yesterday, though), and thus the Martial problem.
     
    --------------------------Romero-------------------------
    Darmian---------Smalling------Blind---------------Shaw
    ------------------Fellaini--------Bastian------------------
    Mata----------------------Rooney------------------Martial
    ---------------------------Rashford------------------------
    Just the dread at the idea of having Darmian again as right-back drains all the fun of the game ahead.
     
    The problem here is that we'll have 3 games in just 8 days. So, anyone from the first team who starts here might have problems in the Leicester away game, a game we don't really want to have problems. Unless they're rested with Hull at home, which is highly unlikely. I'm talking mostly of Valencia, Jones, Rojo, Carrick, Herrera (Pogba, I think, can physically handle it), Mkhitaryan and Ibrahimović.
     
    Rashford was really great as a forward against Reading, but he had lots and lots of space. The next game, Hull at home, no space available, he vanished. Maybe his best position for us now in most games is left-winger (not yesterday, though), and thus the Martial problem.

    I agree, Rashford is fine as a #9 if he has space to run in behind but disappears when teams park the bus which most do against us.
     
    Just the dread at the idea of having Darmian again as right-back drains all the fun of the game ahead.
    Dread having Smalling in any defence. Cannot make my mind up if memory is painting a rosy picture of him in the past or he has always been like this?
     
    The boss has confirmed he will rest no.1 David De Gea for the Old Trafford clash against Warren Joyce’s Latics, providing Argentina international Romero the chance to make his sixth appearance of the season, with recent loan returnee Joel Pereira set to be named on the bench.

    @Niall needs to be added to the squad, please. :)
     
    "I will play Romero, I will put Joel on the bench and apart from that I go with a good team". lol
     
    I'm fully expecting all of Romero, Valencia, Bailly, Shaw, Mkhitaryan, and Martial to come in. Quite possibly Rooney and/or Mata as well. Smalling has played a lot of late, but I'd probably prefer he play this game and then we go back to Jones/Rojo for the Premier League meeting with Hull. The midfield will probably get freshened up slightly, with Carrick left out and one of the other mainstays making way for Fellaini.

    We can play a 4231 here for sure.

    Romero
    Valencia Smalling Bailly Shaw
    Fellaini Pogba
    Mkhitaryan Mata Martial
    Rooney​

    Hopefully it would be Rashford or Martial as the striker, but I am leaning towards Rooney starting and Mourinho wanting to keep sticking Martial out on the left. If Rooney had started against Hull, then I don't think he'd be starting this, but he did..

    Should be a comfortable win, at least 2-0. Bring on Fosu-Mensah, Schweinsteiger, Rashford in the second half.
     
    Dread having Smalling in any defence. Cannot make my mind up if memory is painting a rosy picture of him in the past or he has always been like this?
    Smalling was much more settled and composed under LVG, seems that the lack of games recently has really effected his rhythm/confidence on the ball.
     
    Smalling was much more settled and composed under LVG, seems that the lack of games recently has really effected his rhythm/confidence on the ball.
    We played very conservatively to protect the defense under LVG and I think that's part of the reason why Smalling looked good. His weaknesses come to the fore when the pressure is higher. And he's crap at passing forwards.
     
    He says Shaw will play as well at the end of the presser. So if he's telling the truth that's Romero, Martial and Shaw confirmed in the line-up against Wigan.
     
    Romero
    Fosu-Mensah - Bailly - Smalling - Shaw
    Fellaini - Bastian
    Lingard - Rooney - Martial
    Rashford​

    Think it will be something like this, a completely different side to what will play against Hull in the league.
     
    Anyone have any clue on whether there’ll be some Munich tributes, seeing as we’re playing Leicester away on Sunday the 5th, or will they be held in the next home match vs Watford (probably) or at Leicester?
     
    Last edited:
    Romero
    Fosu-Mensah - Bailly - Smalling - Shaw
    Fellaini - Bastian
    Lingard - Rooney - Martial
    Rashford​

    Think it will be something like this, a completely different side to what will play against Hull in the league.
    Honestly don't think Lingard has a chance to start; he might not even make the bench.

    Definitely agree Schweinsteiger should have a chance. We should go for the next months with so many games in all competitions with two midfielders to spare and that we cannot use (him and Fosu-Mensah).
     
    We played very conservatively to protect the defense under LVG and I think that's part of the reason why Smalling looked good. His weaknesses come to the fore when the pressure is higher. And he's crap at passing forwards.
    The midfield's job last season was to protect the defence, that is why we were so boring.
     
    Such a wild game to predict, that I'll share my bigger doubts:
    Valencia or Young?
    Rojo or Blind?
    Carrick or Schweinsteiger?
     
    Smalling was much more settled and composed under LVG, seems that the lack of games recently has really effected his rhythm/confidence on the ball.

    Yes, because he had 2 DMs and an ultra-defensive tactic protecting him.
    When our opponent went past our midfield, the defence was bypassed and DDG would be forced to make a save. The fact that DDG was our POTY last season, should be enough proof that our defence was pretty bad. But as a team, defensively we were strong.

    I would suspect that if Smalling played in a team which plays 'park the bus' football, he'd do very well, but in a team where the midfield looks to attack (and not park the bus), Smalling would do pretty well.
     
    You missed us under van Gaal? We played against those sides often enough and he did very well.

    He was an unknown quantity then and was in an incredible purple patch, now teams know his game and his weaknesses and shut him out easily when they defend deep and tight to him as his first touch and strength to hold the ball up are not that good.
     
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Post-match discussion

Player Ratings

6.4 Total Average Rating

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Lowest Rated Player

Compiled from 546 ratings.

Score Predictions

494,12,13
  • Man Utd win
  • Wigan win
  • Draw

Detailed Results

  • 29% Man Utd 3:0 Wigan
  • 29% Man Utd 2:0 Wigan
  • 12% Man Utd 4:0 Wigan
  • 9% Man Utd 1:0 Wigan
  • 6% Man Utd 3:1 Wigan
  • 4% Man Utd 5:0 Wigan
  • 3% Man Utd 2:1 Wigan
  • 2% Man Utd 4:1 Wigan
  • 1% Man Utd 1:1 Wigan
  • 1% Man Utd 0:0 Wigan
  • 1% Man Utd 0:1 Wigan
  • 0% Man Utd 5:1 Wigan
  • 0% Man Utd 1:3 Wigan
  • 0% Man Utd 0:5 Wigan
  • 0% Man Utd 2:2 Wigan
  • 0% Man Utd 5:4 Wigan
  • 0% Man Utd 3:2 Wigan
  • 0% Man Utd 0:4 Wigan
  • 0% Man Utd 4:2 Wigan
  • 0% Man Utd 2:3 Wigan
  • 0% Man Utd 1:2 Wigan
Compiled from 519 predictions.
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Match Stats

  1. Man Utd
  2. Wigan
Possession
72% 28%
Shots
11 7
Shots on Target
4 5
Corners
5 2
Fouls
11 6

Referee

Neil Swarbrick