Reserves vs Hull City

Kelvin

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Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is relieved to have his Reserves side preparing for a first competitive game in almost three weeks.

The Reds travel to Hull City on Tuesday for an all-ticket match and, after facing Celtic in a mid-season friendly and staging a host of inter-squad matches in recent weeks, the match is a welcome return to meaningful action for the Norwegian.

"You can't beat proper games - it’s always nice to prepare properly and come in your gear for a game. You get that little buzz," Ole told ManUtd.com.

"We've played loads of practice games against the youth team behind closed doors, which makes up for the loss of competitive game situations, and we’ve not lost yet!

"They’re good competitive games because half the Reserve team are youth team players anyway, so they know each other."

The Reds will face the Tigers this evening and Middlesbrough next Thursday, with a behind-closed-doors friendly with Rosenborg in-between, marking a return to the regular action Solskjaer and Warren Joyce have been pushing for.

"We’ve been working at trying to have a game every week," said the Norwegian. "Now we have Hull, Rosenborg and Middlesbrough - three games in nine days - which is what the lads want because it’s like league football. We just want to try to improve them all the time."

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I would like to believe Manucho will get another 90 mins...
 
according to united.no this is our squad:

Ron-Robert Zieler, James Derbyshire, Scott Wootton, James Chester, Matty James, Kenny Strickland, Cameron Stewart, Rodrigo Possebon, Magnus W. Eikrem, Sam Hewson, Tom Cleverley, Davide Petrucci, Evandro Brandao, Federico Macheda, Antonio Bryan.

It looks like Petrucci might get his Reseve debut tonight. Nobody can say that we are sending an "old" squad for this game...
 
1. Ron-Robert Zieler
2. Cameron Stewart
3. Jimmy Derbyshire
4. Scott Wootton
5. James Chester (c)
6. Rodrigo Possebon
7. Magnus Eikrem
8. Sam Hewson
9. Kiko Macheda
10. Tom Cleverley
11. Antonio Bryan

12. Kenny Strickland
13. Sam Johnstone
14. Matty James
15. Davide Petrucci
16. Evandro Brandao

Those last two subs' numbers might be the other way round, MUTV took the graphic down too quick for me.

Hull have Windass, Stelios and Bryan Hughes in their XI.
 
Fwiw, Manucho's away with Angola, Gibson with Ireland, Welbeck/Drinkwater/Amos with England U19, David Gray with Scotland U21, Corry Evans with NI U21. Fabio, Eckersley and Galbraith still injured.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
Kind of curious to know why the feck these games are so badly scheduled.

First game in 3 weeks and it coincides with international week. Reserve game on the last international break too. Sort it out :nono:
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Well it's not like they have lots of choice, clubs have to fit the games in as and when around the schedule of the other side, the schedule of the team whose ground is being used (Altrincham, North Ferriby tonight etc), the schedule of the relevant first teams and so on.

Besides, international weeks = chances for those players who might not otherwise get them, and results aren't the be all and end all.
 
2-0 Hull, Ryan France. Wootton exposed a little bit there.

Matty James on for Eikrem.
 
Cameron Stewart gets a consolation in the third minute of injury time, game finishes 2-1.
 
PS18 said:
Well it's not like they have lots of choice, clubs have to fit the games in as and when around the schedule of the other side, the schedule of the team whose ground is being used (Altrincham, North Ferriby tonight etc), the schedule of the relevant first teams and so on.

Besides, international weeks = chances for those players who might not otherwise get them, and results aren't the be all and end all.
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Not arse about the result at all.

But it's a good chance for the players like Manucho and Welbeck to get 90 minutes of reasonably competitive football. At least it would be if they actually got to play reserve football more than once a fecking month!
 
finished 2-1 to Hull


Hull roughed us up a little and with a ref who was happy to allow them to push and pull constantly they were on top. No subs until we were 2 goals down which I did not understand (Eikrim and Bryan were poor) and no support for Macheda until last 10minutes when we did start making chances.
Not many played well best probably Stewart and Chester and the subs James and Petrucci
 
Pogue Mahone said:
Not arse about the result at all.

But it's a good chance for the players like Manucho and Welbeck to get 90 minutes of reasonably competitive football. At least it would be if they actually got to play reserve football more than once a fecking month!
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They'll be playing football that's every bit as competitive on international duty, no? What's better for Manucho, ninety minutes against a decent Venezuela side or ninety minutes against Hull's journeymen?
 
PS18 said:
They'll be playing football that's every bit as competitive on international duty, no? What's better for Manucho, ninety minutes against a decent Venezuela side or ninety minutes against Hull's journeymen?
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He's just disappointed he didn't get to see them in action. If you hadn't realised by now, I should point out that Pogue has a touch of the ''muppet'' about him.
 
A very young side, especially when you consider that the difference between Hull's no.9 (Windass) and our no.9 was 22 years (Cico ;))! They out-fought us ultimately; our players looked under pressure on the ball and intimidated - despite having a 5 man midfield and 3 good passers of the ball in the middle, we struggled to hold on to any decent possession. Macheda was isolated throughout, Eikrem was disappointing and our defence looked exposed.

After they'd taken the 2-0 lead; we took off Eikrem, put Stewart up to right wing and he was very influential to all our good play late in the match. He gave us a vibrancy and directness that was missing, looks a talented youngster. Davide Petrucci looked very composed when he came on too, some nice touches and a great volley that just hit their keeper towards the end.

Overall, a good learning experience in a difficult environment and against motivated opposition. Though I hope we don't persist with just the one up front.
 
Virtuoso said:
Overall, a good learning experience in a difficult environment and against motivated opposition. Though I hope we don't persist with just the one up front.
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I guess circumstances are dictating the formation to an extent. We've rarely had more than one of Manucho, Welbeck and Macheda available at the same time, we completely lack wingers and we've an embarrassment of riches in central midfield.
 
PS18 said:
I guess circumstances are dictating the formation to an extent. We've rarely had more than one of Manucho, Welbeck and Macheda available at the same time, we completely lack wingers and we've an embarrassment of riches in central midfield.
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You're right, we don't seem to have many options and especially without Manucho and Welbeck. I don't think any of the middle 3 offered enough support to Macheda though - I think Rodrigo Possebon should be playing as more of a deep-lying midfielder and Hewson should support more up front because otherwise the 3 of them seemed a little unsure. Cleverley was trying to take the game by the scruff of the neck but there weren't enough options going forward.
 
From MEN

Hull res 2 United res 1

19/11/2008

UNITED'S young reserves toiled long and hard in North Ferriby on Tuesday night but found the more experienced Tigers a tough nut to crack.

The home side produced far more openings in the first half, but it was not until after the break that the goals arrived which sank United.

Veteran striker Dean Windass headed the Tigers' first goal from Stelios Giannakopoulos' cross in the 51st minute and the ex-Bolton man did the trick again 14 minutes later, to set up Ryan France for the second goal.

United came back strongly in the dying minutes of the contest and in the third minute of added time Cameron Stewart's shot was deflected past Tigers' keeper Matt Duke.

It was a case of too little, too late.

UNITED: Zieler, Stewart, Derbyshire, Wootton, Chester, Possebon (Brandao 78), Eikrem (James 66), Hewson, Macheda, Cleverley, Bryan (Petrucci 70). Substitutes: Strickland, Johnstone.
 
PS18 said:
They'll be playing football that's every bit as competitive on international duty, no? What's better for Manucho, ninety minutes against a decent Venezuela side or ninety minutes against Hull's journeymen?
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In terms of getting him ready for the Premier League?

90 minutes against Hull's journeymen, on a cold November night.

No doubt about it, as the gaffer might say.
 
We'll have to agree to differ then because I think that's nonsense. If he was playing in a similarly tough game with a similar quality of football on a cold November night then you'd maybe have a point.
 
PS18 said:
We'll have to agree to differ then because I think that's nonsense. If he was playing in a similarly tough game with a similar quality of football on a cold November night then you'd maybe have a point.
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Happy to agree to disagree but don't you think the hurly burly, physical, Premier League style defending he would have been up against - vs Hull reserves - would have been better preparation than playing a slower paced, international friendly?

If not, then fair enough.
 
The one area Hull lacked any experience was in defence, where their players were practically as raw as ours. He'd have basically been playing against kids, nothing like 'hurly burly, physical, Premier League style defending'.
 
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