League Cup Final

Southampton 2:3 Manchester United

Wembley

Kick-off
Sun, 26 February 2017 @ 4:30pm GMT
Status

Closed

Discussion Your Lineup Prediction

  • Status
    Not open for further replies.
    Strats said:
    This.

    I mean, why not play the world champion who has a broad experience of big finals, and played well in his cameo against decent opposition. He's fit and good to go.
    Click to expand...

    If it's between him, Lingard & Fellaini it really should be a no brainer.

    Only a front 4 of:

    --------Zlatan
    Martial Mata Rashford

    Is an "acceptable" alternative imo. Wouldn't be suprised if Rooney gets himself a number 10 spot though.
     
    I would rather have Rashford from the bench. I think that's a better use of him than starting him on the right.
     
    Bastian looked good the last two times he has come on for us. But no way is he going to last the whole match.
    He is not match fit.
    I expect he will be on the bench and will come on at some point.
    If Carrick is not fit, I expect Mourinho will play everyone's 'favourite' ;) Fellani.

    So Pogba,Herrera and Fellani.
     
    Dave, Valencia, Bailly, Smalling, Blind, Carrick, Herrera, Pogba, Mata, Zlatan, Martial.

    This team should be good enough to win.

    Carrick may miss out to Mkhi (if fit). Or Rashford if Mkhi is not fit. Think Bailly will keep his place, if not then Rojo.
     
    With Carrick and Mkhitaryan out, I would expect Fellaini and Lingard to play.

    De Gea
    Valencia, Smalling, Rojo, Blind
    Fellaini Herrera Pogba
    Mata Zlatan Martial

    Simple, effective, will do the business. Cup final, I expect we will play 4-3-3 as opposed to 4-2-3-1, at least initially.
     
    Santoryo said:
    Miki and Carrick getting injured means I'll be seeing scenarios I didn't want to happen:

    - Fellaini playing in midfield.
    - Lingard making the 11 line up.
    - Rashford occupying one wing.

    No matter what 1 of those above will happen on Sunday after the injuries we got.
    Click to expand...
    Rooney could start allowing non of those options to happen
     
    People seem to get away with Bastian, when Southampton is a completely different beast to Wigan & St. Etienne in term of intensity of their play. And it's a final after all. Letting Southampton loose for one moment & it could be costly. Even if it's a scrappy game, just win it.
     
    Heartbreaking that Mkhitaryan misses out, I'd go with......

    De Gea
    Valencia Bailly Rojo Blind
    Herrera
    Fellaini Pogba
    Mata Zlatan Martial​

    Subs
    Romero
    Darmian
    Smalling
    Young
    Schweinsteiger
    Lingard
    Rashford

    May as well hand us the cup now.
     
    Until the injuries, I was sure this would be the line-up on Sunday:

    De Gea
    Valencia Smalling Bailly Blind
    Herrera Carrick Pogba
    Mkhitaryan Ibrahimovic Martial​

    Now, Mata is guaranteed to start. Then it's either Fellaini or Rashford to replace the other. A 'stronger' and more typical midfield three is what I'd expect in a cup final, so it'll probably be Fellaini to start. Rooney will likely get on the bench now, whereas he might not have otherwise. Unless he goes to China before then of course, but it'd be nice to see him play and win a trophy in his late game for us.

    Should still have enough to win this, but losing two guaranteed starters is a big blow.
     
    Last edited:
    I think a three man midfield with Fellaini is the likeliest scenario, though a 4-2-3-1 with one of Rashford or Lingard starting on the wing is the other possibility.

    I think I'd actually prefer we start Fellaini and try to dominate the midfield. At least then we'd have room for maneuverability on the bench should we need to make changes later on.
     
    ----------------------------De Gea-----------------------------
    Valencia-------Baiiley-----------Smalling----------Blind------

    -----------------Fellaini-------------Herrera-------------------
    ----------Mata----------------Pogba---------------Martial-----------------------------------------------Ibra-----------------------

    Let's see what Pogba can do in the final third. Give him the license to go forward and break this Southampton defence. He's been linking up with Ibra so well lately.
     
    We need Mkhi for this but unfortunately it seems hard. Think Lingard will replace Mkhi and hopefully Fellaini stays out.
     
    I'm nervous about this game now. Miki is a massive miss, he has that match winning quality about him.

    Just as big of a miss as Pogba and Ibrahimović.
     
    ti vu said:
    People seem to get away with Bastian, when Southampton is a completely different beast to Wigan & St. Etienne in term of intensity of their play.
    Click to expand...

    It's probably got something to do with Schweinsteiger actually playing most of his career at an amazing level against miles better teams than Wigan and St. Etienne (and Southampton for that matter). It's not like he's some youth product we're getting over-excited about.
     
    Regulus Arcturus Black said:
    Done it once so that makes zero sense. If he repeats the feat on Sunday, feel free to post this as often as possible.
    Click to expand...
    He did it twice. The FA Cup late minute winner and the Messi-influenced run in the Community Shield.
     
    DWelbz19 said:
    He did it twice. The FA Cup late minute winner and the Messi-influenced run in the Community Shield.
    Click to expand...

    Hardly a screamer so your post should read, "Lingard loves a Wembley wonder goal more though".

    Fwiw @DWelbz19, Schweinsteiger hasn't just played in one World Cup final, he still holds the record for having won the German cup the most times I believe.
     
    Regulus Arcturus Black said:
    It's probably got something to do with Schweinsteiger actually playing most of his career at an amazing level against miles better teams than Wigan and St. Etienne (and Southampton for that matter). It's not like he's some youth product we're getting over-excited about.
    Click to expand...
    I know, but his fitness dropped off the cliff, and very far from that world champion player he used to be. For a full game he definitely prefers in a slow pace game, which we as a team struggle under. If we need to see out the game I can understand. Not in the starting line up try to win the cup though.
     
    Just realised at some point this season we use to regularly play with Rashford and Lingard as our wingers. No wonder results were awful around those times.

    Zero creativity or threat from the wings and a total lack of technical skills which further hampered the attack.

    Now having said that, there is a chance of this(the 2 lining up) happening this Sunday, well at least that's in worst case scenario.

    Though the scenario of either Fellaini playing or Lingard lining up is still on. I can just about tolerate Rashford on the wing if we don't have any choice.
     
    For all that the League Cup is often downplayed by many in terms of priority, this one's such a pivotal game now. Our long unbeaten run (barring the meaningless second leg defeat at Hull) is definitely under threat here with the loss of two important players. A win would be immense for the morale of the players and conversely a defeat could be crushing. It's worrying that Southampton have had nothing else to focus on for the last fortnight.
     
    Northstand said:
    Our long unbeaten run (barring the meaningless second leg defeat at Hull) is definitely under threat here with the loss of two important players.
    Click to expand...
    There was surely less than 5% chance of Carrick starting the final after starting against Blackburn and St Etienne.
     
    Hopefully Mata keeps up his great record of scoring or assisting in every final he's played in (and he's played in a few)
     
    Our most important match of the season, but this statement is going to be revisit again if we do make it to the Europa League Final. I'm confident we will win this Cup, this is everything what Man Utd symbolizes and embodies- winning trophies, not just being contented with a 4th place like Liverpool and Arsenal. Jose Mourinho lives and breathes for this moment, and this is why we hired him as our manager. His record in cup final is impeccable. He is a winner and this will be his first opportunity to win his first trophy for us in his first season. (I'm not going to count the Community Shield as a trophy, even Moyes won it ffs! It's merely just a glorified friendly) Imagine the self-belief and morale it will send out to the team and for Jose as well - winning the first major trophy in the most competitive league in the world, before his peers Conte, Klopp, Guardiola, Wenger in his first season with us. For some strange reason, Jose also always wins the League Cup in his first season. This is why Jose signed Zlatan, he is a serial winner, he wins trophies wherever he goes. I'm sure he will score/assist a goal.

    Winning this trophy will be a big morale boost for our team, and lay down the marker for the rest of our season. Losing this, however will be extremely demoralizing. I remember during one of SAF's toughest years when we went through a transition period, going three seasons without winning the title, due to the then new kid at the block Mourinho who was dominating the league with Chelsea, it was the league cup win in the 2005/2006 season which catapulted and gave our team the self-belief to go on to achieve something bigger, which led to our 3 consecutive title wins and a CL trophy which is one of our most recent successful years in United's history. Even LVG whom everyone seems to hate, some of our fans eventually have had a soft spot for him because he won us the FA Cup which we didn't win for more than a decade, prior to last season.

    Obviously missing Mhiki is a huge blow, but I do think that we still have enough quality to beat Southampton. Let's win this trophy we haven't won for 7 years and use this to lay down a marker for the rest of our season.
     
    • Like
    Reactions: Invictus
    TMDaines said:
    False. Mourinho even clarified that it was just his feeling, his logical assumption give the nature of the problems and the proximity of the next game.
    Click to expand...

    Yes, he said according to his experience they are out but not according to the medical team. At least one of them will play IMO.
     
    Status
    Not open for further replies.
Post-match discussion

Man of the Match

Zlatan Ibrahimovic image Zlatan Ibrahimovic 96% of 987 votes

Runners-up

Player Ratings

6.1 Total Average Rating

Highest Rated Player

Lowest Rated Player

Compiled from 695 ratings.
Submit your ratings
View full results

Score Predictions

506,29,27
  • Man Utd win
  • Southampton win
  • Draw

Detailed Results

  • 27% Southampton 0:2 Man Utd
  • 27% Southampton 1:2 Man Utd
  • 18% Southampton 1:3 Man Utd
  • 7% Southampton 0:1 Man Utd
  • 6% Southampton 0:3 Man Utd
  • 3% Southampton 1:1 Man Utd
  • 2% Southampton 2:1 Man Utd
  • 1% Southampton 0:5 Man Utd
  • 1% Southampton 1:4 Man Utd
  • 1% Southampton 5:0 Man Utd
  • 1% Southampton 0:4 Man Utd
  • 1% Southampton 0:0 Man Utd
  • 1% Southampton 2:2 Man Utd
  • 1% Southampton 1:0 Man Utd
  • 1% Southampton 2:3 Man Utd
  • 1% Southampton 2:0 Man Utd
  • 0% Southampton 2:4 Man Utd
  • 0% Southampton 1:5 Man Utd
  • 0% Southampton 3:1 Man Utd
  • 0% Southampton 3:2 Man Utd
  • 0% Southampton 3:5 Man Utd
  • 0% Southampton 4:5 Man Utd
  • 0% Southampton 5:5 Man Utd
  • 0% Southampton 3:0 Man Utd
Compiled from 562 predictions.
Show more results Score Predictions League Table

Match Stats

  1. Southampton
  2. Man Utd
Possession
48% 52%
Shots
10 12
Shots on Target
6 5
Corners
3 12
Fouls
11 13

Referee

Andre Marriner

Man Utd Lineup

Substitutes

Lineup Predictions League Table View your Lineup Prediction