Manchester United vs Real Madrid (Pre-season Friendly)

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Today they're playing Bale and Isco as strikers. I imagine their use of the formation today is to give certain players minutes or counter our formation.
Yeah I'm sure it's one or the other, can't see them maintaining this shape throughout the season.
 
Can't see Real playing it on a regular basis - just against us. Inter seem to be making a permanent switch to 3-5-2 though, and aren't Juventus moving away from 3-5-2?
Yeah, can't see it happening for Real. Juve were moving to 4-3-3 under Conte, I don't know if that will change under Allegri?

Just a stray observation with the three at the back, given player trends. Unless I'm mistaken we saw more of it at the World Cup than we have in previous editions.
 
Sorry can I get this straight, we're looking to play Fletcher at CB because Jones is injured so let's just figure this out.

Our current CM options look like thus:

Cleverley- off I hope
Herrera
Fellaini- off
Anderson- got to be off

If we don't buy at least one more we are screwed Kagawa is pretty useless in a sitting role.

And CB options (now):

Fletcher- possibility of fatigue
Smalling- not 100%
Evans
Keane- not the best at the moment/ inexperienced
Blackett- inexperienced


Jesus were in trouble.
 
I want to see Michael Keane and Blackett against Madrid. Smalling's injury means that we'll probably see both of them, which is great news. If we don't sign any new defenders, the only positive outcome of it would be Blackett and M.Keane getting loads of games in the 3-5-2 formation.

Van Gaal already said that he likes both of them, so maybe they've shown enough to convince him that they have the right mentality and enough intelligence for their young age to actually make their mark in the first team this season.

I still think that we need at least one more center back though. We're obviously going to stick with this 3-5-2 formation, so we probably need more than 5 center backs when 3 of them will be starting games.

No matter what the next month brings (or doesn't) on the transfer front, I trust Van Gaal completely to guide us to a successful season. Exciting times ahead.
 
You know your a united fan used to winning when we're desperately figuring out our path to the final of a pre season friendly tournament.
I actually went on the International Champions Cup website earlier to see the tables!
 
Sorry can I get this straight, we're looking to play Fletcher at CB because Jones is injured so let's just figure this out.

Our current CM options look like thus:

Cleverley- off I hope
Herrera
Fellaini- off
Anderson- got to be off

If we don't buy at least one more we are screwed Kagawa is pretty useless in a sitting role.

And CB options (now):

Fletcher- possibility of fatigue
Smalling- not 100%
Evans
Keane- not the best at the moment/ inexperienced
Blackett- inexperienced


Jesus were in trouble.
No chance of Cleverley being off... otherwise I agree. We need at least one CB and CM.
 
OK say we miss out on Vidal, god knows what's going on there. I would really love us to have a pop at De Rossi again and go for Kovacic as well.
 
I'm guessing we'll see...
de Gea
Keane Evans Blackett
Valencia Herrera Fletcher James
Mata
Welbeck Rooney​
 
I love the look of Blackett and Keane but I'm sorry they've never faced anything like Bale before, pre season or not.
 
Nonsense. They simply aren't good enough, the sooner people accept that, the better. If they become amazing and prove me wrong, great, but we both know they won't. Give the self-righteous BS a rest.

Fletcher in defence with Keane there too is really asking for it... against the likes of Bale.

I never said he's rubbish or even bad, just that he's not good enough (and still has health issues) that mean he's only good as a backup/rotation option.

Cleverley I'm not a fan of though, he's a smug coward and I simply don't like him.

Please don't be fooled by a few lacklustre pre-season games. You know how this will go.

Hmmm..
 
Smalling and Jones injured and the season hasn't even started lol.
*sigh*
Guess it was kind of inevitable. Leaves Van Gaal under no illusions as to the need for cover.
 
I love the look of Blackett and Keane but I'm sorry they've never faced anything like Bale before, pre season or not.

He played Chelsea in League Cup when he's 19 and played Man City last year when he's on loan with Leicester.
 
Poor Scott Wootton was a disaster that game. Keane didn't come out of it looking great either.

Even Vidic would struggle with Chelsea went all out attacking after conceding when you have Scott Wootton as your defensive partner and Tunnicliffe in midfield.
 
Smalling and Jones injured and the season hasn't even started lol.
*sigh*
Guess it was kind of inevitable. Leaves Van Gaal under no illusions as to the need for cover.

Sounds like they're both minor injuries. If it was a league game they might have both played but no point taking risks in a friendly.

I agree on the need for cover.
 
Poor Scott Wootton was a disaster that game. Keane didn't come out of it looking great either.
IIRC wasn't that the game where we played quite an inexperienced against a fairly seasoned Chelsea side? If this was that game, we ended up losing in extra time as the youngsters just looked completely gassed, the CB's looked capable up until that point.
 
Smalling and Jones injured and the season hasn't even started lol.
*sigh*
Guess it was kind of inevitable. Leaves Van Gaal under no illusions as to the need for cover.

What is it with these 2, always get injured at the same time!!
 
IIRC wasn't that the game where we played quite an inexperienced against a fairly seasoned Chelsea side? If this was that game, we ended up losing in extra time as the youngsters just looked completely gassed, the CB's looked capable up until that point.

Was that the game we were actually looking like winning, until Nani pissed about with the ball and lost it in the corner with about 1min left, and they raced down the pitch and scored?

I remember feeling darn angry about that.
 
IIRC wasn't that the game where we played quite an inexperienced against a fairly seasoned Chelsea side? If this was that game, we ended up losing in extra time as the youngsters just looked completely gassed, the CB's looked capable up until that point.
Yeah that's it but we conceded 5 goals that day, one or two completely down to Wootton. I can't really remember how Keane fared individually.
 
You couldn't make it up with regards to our injuries.

They're regular as clockwork.
 
IIRC wasn't that the game where we played quite an inexperienced against a fairly seasoned Chelsea side? If this was that game, we ended up losing in extra time as the youngsters just looked completely gassed, the CB's looked capable up until that point.

Yup, it was the 5-4 game at SB where we've fielded some youngsters and Chelsea went rather with rather first squad ( not fully of course ) and there was as much blame on the CBs who were out of fuel in the added time as on Nani for losing that ball.

And I've got the whole line-up correct, neat.
 
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