[Plant0x84]

More of the same from today. Arsenal aren’t as formidable as Liverpool and we went toe to toe with the scousers.

We should be winning this cup again, and this match is very winnable, especially as a one off cup tie.

 

[DRJosh]

Have we ever strung 2 consecutive good performances together (not wins) in recent memory?

 

[Who's Kissing Cameras?]

Leave 3 men up at corners. 1-2 win.

 

[Fallon d'Floor]

I doubt Arteta will care about this. Maybe if the Newcastle game doesn't go well. But he knows Arsenal can't compete in 4 tournaments with their squad.

I'd expect him to rotate. They have Spurs at home a few days later, which is a must win for them. He could rotate vs Newcastle instead though. But maybe he wants to win a cup again to ease some trophy pressure. Get a good result vs Newcastle and they are in with a shout.

 

[tomaldinho1]

I doubt Arteta will care about this. Maybe if the Newcastle game doesn't go well. But he knows Arsenal can't compete in 4 tournaments with their squad.

I'd expect him to rotate. They have Spurs at home a few days later, which is a must win for them. He could rotate vs Newcastle instead though. But maybe he wants to win a cup again to ease some trophy pressure. Get a good result vs Newcastle and they are in with a shout.

Yeah this is my hope. They are close enough to pool to be in the race, particularly given Pool are away at Forest for their game in hand which is a hard one given they already lost to them once. I think it makes more sense to play a stronger team tomorrow, rotate versus us, then full strength Spurs.

 

[ArtetasHair]

Can Utd do it on a cold night at Stoke?

Arteta will care more about this than Newcastle. Esp as we have a second leg to recover things vs Newcastle.

If you guys are as open as you were vs Pool you'll lose easily. Its what we want. It's why we struggle to break down teams until the game opens or the teams are forced to attack eg West Ham or Palace. Your chance is to play how you did in the league game. Be very compact. Still though should be a good game. As the players who have been asleep last few games will be fully on it since it's United we are playing and not Ipswich.

 

[erikcred]

More of the same from today. Arsenal aren’t as formidable as Liverpool and we went toe to toe with the scousers.

We should be winning this cup again, and this match is very winnable, especially as a one off cup tie.

If we let them take a lead, they'll time waste the game into oblivion.

 

[Plant0x84]

If we let them take a lead, they'll time waste the game into oblivion.

Yeah, but as long as we don’t keep kicking it out for corners () they won’t score easily.

 

[Born2Lose]

Do as he did against Spurs in the League cup, a lot of rotation and give the regular first teamers a rest.

Great opportunity for players like Yoro, Garnacho, Zirkzee, Antony, Casemiro and Malacia to get a start. Would love to see a young player like Collyer get some minutes too.

 

[freddie the red]

This a joke? Arsenal in the 3rd round ffs

Meanwhile, the scousers are at home to Accrington Stanley (who are they?) and city welcome Salford

 

[USREDEVIL]

What's wrong with me. I'm getting optimistic again. I've talked to myself about this. Ugh.
1-1 draw
united win it in pen shootout.

 

[Dannn411]

Not too arsed about the score. Play well and show the same commitment levels as at Anfield. That is all I ask. Southampton game the following week is far more important.

 

[RuudTom83]

I'd put the same eleven out against Arsenal, purely as a test to see if they can repeat the effort and desire they showed against Liverpool.

Also it's a full week after the Liverpool match and then a 4 day gap before Southampton. So there is not really any need to rest or rotate unless a few of them slack off in training.

 

[Demon Barber]

It makes sense to field the same starting XI as against Liverpool. Barring any training niggles/illness there is no reason not to. Amorim has stated several times that we need to win every game, and we can.

 

[leeroyTX]

Hopefully Arsenal rest some players as well.

They're running out of players to rest.

I feel like Arsenal know this is and the EFL Cup are their only hopes for hardware this season. They ain't winning the league and I don't see them winning the CL. I think they'll play whatever starters they have available.

With another full week of training, I'd like to see the same lineup. They need repetition.

 

[CallyRed]

Arsenal missing Saka and Nwaneri. Priority is the league for them, I'll doubt they'll make a lot changes especially v us.

 

[Red Royal]

Put Chido in the travelling squad for this, just to annoy the Gunners.

 

[Lu Tze]

Our players are a bunch of game raising sods so I imagine we'll give them a competitive game. Mostly same XI as Sunday but I wouldn't play Martinez against a team with such strong aerial threat.

 

[Adz_99]

This games a bit of a free hit imo. If we win, fantastic, if we lose I'm not that fussed (so long as we play well).

A cup would be nice but I'm far more interested in the Europa League and a less embarrassing league position.

 

[JJ12]

Can Utd do it on a cold night at Stoke?

Arteta will care more about this than Newcastle. Esp as we have a second leg to recover things vs Newcastle.

If you guys are as open as you were vs Pool you'll lose easily. Its what we want. It's why we struggle to break down teams until the game opens or the teams are forced to attack eg West Ham or Palace. Your chance is to play how you did in the league game. Be very compact. Still though should be a good game. As the players who have been asleep last few games will be fully on it since it's United we are playing and not Ipswich.

 

[ArtetasHair]

Not sure what's amusing in this? Your last results against us have been due to you being v tight eg the league game where you took your first shot after the 60th minute. Spurs put 4 past you when you were attacking. We still have the second highest goals despite not being as fluent in attack. Everton, Fulham, Brighton all got draws against us (2 at home) by being v compact and v hard to break down.

West Ham and Palace both got smashed as they kept trying to attack. You're free to quote me on this after the match and if I'm wrong I'll happily come here and admit it.

I was also the one who predicted you'd draw against Liverpool this and last year while the rest of the posters here were their doom and gloom.

 

[Tincanalley]

Who's that?

Yosemite. Bears and geysers and everything

 

[Tincanalley]

Meanwhile, the scousers are at home to Accrington Stanley (who are they?) and city welcome Salford

Accrington are a venerable and storied football club

 

[Annihilate Now!]

Well now that we can seemingly put in actual football performances, I now have some (tempered) expectations for this.

Still can see us losing, and honestly I don't really mind going out of the FA Cup early (and there are far more embarrassing ways to go out then Arsenal away) - but hopefully we we put up a bit more resistance then we did at the Emirates last month.

 

[JJ12]

Not sure what's amusing in this? Your last results against us have been due to you being v tight eg the league game where you took your first shot after the 60th minute. Spurs put 4 past you when you were attacking. We still have the second highest goals despite not being as fluent in attack. Everton, Fulham, Brighton all got draws against us (2 at home) by being v compact and v hard to break down.

West Ham and Palace both got smashed as they kept trying to attack. You're free to quote me on this after the match and if I'm wrong I'll happily come here and admit it.

I was also the one who predicted you'd draw against Liverpool this and last year while the rest of the posters here were their doom and gloom.

If we play like we did against Liverpool,
I'm very confident of a positive result. You could've used umpteen games to pinpoint where we were wide open and generally shit, but I'll take that performance every single game and be confident.

Not to mention Arsenal are hardly firing on all cylinders right now.

 

[tenpoless]

They only have 3-4 days of rest. Hope they go all in against Newcastle tomorrow.

 

[Fr. Todd Unctious]

If we play like we did against Liverpool. Absolutely no reason why we can't get a result

 

[Havak]

I don't want to be too 'doom and gloom' after a promising performance and decent result at Anfield, but even if we perform to similar levels on Sunday there's no guarantee we'll get through. Arsenal without Saka should of course be a bit easier to keep at bay, so I don't expect them to be scoring 3 goals against us unless we make even more silly individual mistakes, but I'd still expect a narrow defeat as the most likely result. Arsenal will probably go slightly stronger than anticipated due to recent results in the league, as they'll be expected to go for other trophies a bit more as the league continues to look unlikely. That said, I do think Arsenal can take it to the finish line if they hang in there and go on a run with Saka back in the team (or make an impactful signing in January).

We can take a lot of positives from the previous game, but we still don't finish enough chances (which is hard to remedy without adding more expansive players into the line-up which makes us more likely to concede, or signing a new forward quickly). A huge positive is clearly players being fitter, Amorim knowing his best 13-14 currently, and actually having the training time on the pitch to prepare. We might be able to go with a very similar starting XI again, but I wouldn't be surprised to see a couple of changes because despite wanting to win trophies, I really think the Southampton game is more important for us. That's where the players need to show their mettle and win the home fixture that is the most expected victory we'll have on paper all season against a team that has only won once in 20 attempts. We need to find some wins in our other upcoming home games in the Premier League and Europa League as we need to put some distance between ourselves and the bottom teams and then try and qualify for the next round of the Europa League automatically.

This game, to me, is just an opportunity to test the players against another top side, gaining some confidence and continuity along the way. I don't think our fans will be too disheartened with a defeat as long as the effort is there. A lot of our fans are indeed realistic and understand that this current Man Utd squad can play well and not win against most of the top sides in Europe as the quality just isn't there. In time, this should hopefully resolve itself to a point where if we play well we don't lose, but that isn't right now. If Arsenal play as well as or better than us on the day, they will beat us. I think it's pretty obvious, but that doesn't mean we can't be competitive. You can always get a lucky goal and defend well too.

This always feels like the wrong approach, but if we go out of this competition, and given we're already out of the League Cup, it might end up being a benefit to have the additional training time between games, especially if we can then beat Rangers & FCSB to automatically qualify for the last 16 of the Europa League giving us even less fixtures to contend with.

I think Amorim will go with a strong side, perhaps going for something like this (we might even see no changes):

Onana
Mazraoui Yoro Martinez
Amad Mainoo Ugarte Dalot
Bruno Garnacho
Zirkzee​

 

[Crostien]

Hope we can get a good result and am buoyed by the Liverpool performance

 

[KiD MoYeS]

This squad have consistently shown that they are more likely to revert to type and put in a spineless performance rather than build on a strong performance and deliver a result. Hopefully I'm wrong.

 

[Crostien]

This squad have consistently shown that they are more likely to revert to type and put in a spineless performance rather than build on a strong performance and deliver a result. Hopefully I'm wrong.

I know the feeling

 

[freddie the red]

Accrington are a venerable and storied football club

Exactly!

 

[LDUred]

Arsenal will win by scoring one of their 'well, they all count!' goals.

 

[dutchred]

I think we will win 1 -2

 

[DJ_21]

Another full weeks training. We’ve got this game

 

[DJ_21]

I don't want to be too 'doom and gloom' after a promising performance and decent result at Anfield, but even if we perform to similar levels on Sunday there's no guarantee we'll get through. Arsenal without Saka should of course be a bit easier to keep at bay, so I don't expect them to be scoring 3 goals against us unless we make even more silly individual mistakes, but I'd still expect a narrow defeat as the most likely result. Arsenal will probably go slightly stronger than anticipated due to recent results in the league, as they'll be expected to go for other trophies a bit more as the league continues to look unlikely. That said, I do think Arsenal can take it to the finish line if they hang in there and go on a run with Saka back in the team (or make an impactful signing in January).

We can take a lot of positives from the previous game, but we still don't finish enough chances (which is hard to remedy without adding more expansive players into the line-up which makes us more likely to concede, or signing a new forward quickly). A huge positive is clearly players being fitter, Amorim knowing his best 13-14 currently, and actually having the training time on the pitch to prepare. We might be able to go with a very similar starting XI again, but I wouldn't be surprised to see a couple of changes because despite wanting to win trophies, I really think the Southampton game is more important for us. That's where the players need to show their mettle and win the home fixture that is the most expected victory we'll have on paper all season against a team that has only won once in 20 attempts. We need to find some wins in our other upcoming home games in the Premier League and Europa League as we need to put some distance between ourselves and the bottom teams and then try and qualify for the next round of the Europa League automatically.

This game, to me, is just an opportunity to test the players against another top side, gaining some confidence and continuity along the way. I don't think our fans will be too disheartened with a defeat as long as the effort is there. A lot of our fans are indeed realistic and understand that this current Man Utd squad can play well and not win against most of the top sides in Europe as the quality just isn't there. In time, this should hopefully resolve itself to a point where if we play well we don't lose, but that isn't right now. If Arsenal play as well as or better than us on the day, they will beat us. I think it's pretty obvious, but that doesn't mean we can't be competitive. You can always get a lucky goal and defend well too.

This always feels like the wrong approach, but if we go out of this competition, and given we're already out of the League Cup, it might end up being a benefit to have the additional training time between games, especially if we can then beat Rangers & FCSB to automatically qualify for the last 16 of the Europa League giving us even less fixtures to contend with.

I think Amorim will go with a strong side, perhaps going for something like this (we might even see no changes):

Onana
Mazraoui Yoro Martinez
Amad Mainoo Ugarte Dalot
Bruno Garnacho
Zirkzee​

I think we need to forget Amad in the RWB role. It’s quite clear now that Amorim sees him as one of the 10s. Personally though I’d like him at RWB to give us that threat on that side.

 

[Nep77]

Onana
Yoro Deligt Martinez
Amad Mainoo Ugarte Dalot
Bruno Rasmus Garnacho

 

[JoaoFM]

I think we need to forget Amad in the RWB role. It’s quite clear now that Amorim sees him as one of the 10s. Personally though I’d like him at RWB to give us that threat on that side.

I believe Amad will be there in a 2nd phase (maybe next year?), once the system is better implemented and the defense is more in sync.
At least that´s what he has done in Sporting: in the beginning he used FB´s as WB (e.g. Pedro Porro and Nuno Mendes) and later on started using wingers (Nuno Santos, Geny Catamo and G. Quenda) creating a more ofensive team

 

[DJ_21]

I believe Amad will be there in a 2nd phase (maybe next year?), once the system is better implemented and the defense is more in sync.
At least that´s what he has done in Sporting: in the beginning he used FB´s as WB (e.g. Pedro Porro and Nuno Mendes) and later on started using wingers (Nuno Santos, Geny Catamo and G. Quenda) creating a more ofensive team

Ye that makes more sense.

 

[Oscar Bonavena]

We have Southampton the following Thursday and Brighton on the Sunday, which with all due respect to the FA Cup are far more important games for us, so I can't see him starting our strongest line up here. Especially as rotation is a huge part of his philosophy!

My take is this, nice to win this game but better to have players rested for the league games if that's what Amorim thinks is needed. The FA Cup is a bit of a lottery anyway, we could pick our strongest team here, burst our arses trying to win the game and then get f**king Liverpool away in the next round! Once it gets to maybe QF/SF stage, then picking a first choice XI is more important.