Manchester Utd (A) Pre Match Thread

[squirtyflower]

Snow mate. Roads are a fucking nightmare.

Best thing about loving in the sticks is they still grit the main roads.

 

[blue corby]

Roads are terrible down our way been snowing since 4am

 

[citytill1die84]

4.30 is a long way away. Good luck!

Been done plenty of times lol

Setting off to the swamp at 3 so 6 hours not bad.

 

[Bill]

Considering the game is at OT and them being 8 points behind, a draw is a better result for us than them.

Agreed.

 

[supercity88]

Starting to feel more confident. Mourinho has always been praised for being a tactical genius and often was wrongly praised in my opinion. Pep has not been given any credit in the run up to this. It is all about Mourinho finding a way to beat us and nothing about Pep predicting that and finding a solution and winning the game. He has a better record in the head to heads and if we do win it will be one of our biggest post takeover. 11 points above them and regardless if we lose this season in the league it is an almightly slap against the rags and Mourinho.

 

[PJM1891]

Looking at redcafe pretty much everyone wants the game to be called off. It's almost like they are scared of losing. Surely a little snow can't be that bad?

 

[BerkshireBlue]

It looks like 11am is the key time for the snow to fall. Hopefully it won't or if it does then hopefully just lightly for 2 hours.it always better to snow during the day as it's less likely to stick as well. Fingers crossed

 

[Blu1]

Usual weird dream before derby day!
Game was played on Deansgate due to snow at Old Trafford! Lol I kid you not

Cmon city let’s smash these today

 

[chedinho]

Interesting discussion. At Bayern, Pep played sometimes with a very attacking 3-5-2 with wingers vs smaller sides. Like this:

Neuer
Lahm Boateng Alaba
Vidal Alonso Thiago
Robben Douglas Costa
Muller Lewandowski

I remember we lined up similar, but with 6 midfielders instead of 2 strikers vs Everton at home last season. Everton parked the bus big time, but it was one of our best performances of the season. It ended 1-1 with Stekelenburg having the game of his life, and 2 penalty misses from KDB and Aguero cost us the win.

Our problem last season was that we didnt have a good enough squad for us to be tactically flexible. Pep settled for the 4-3-3/4-1-4-1 as the players were more comfortable with it, and the results became more stable. This season he tried to play 3-5-2 in the beginning but since Watford away he has again settled with the 4-3-3. Now that the squad has worked with Pep for longer, i believe we will see something similar at home vs a lower table side:

Ederson
Walker Stones Otamendi
KDB Dinho Silva
Sterling Sane
Jesus Aguero

I expect us to play 4-3-3 vs United though.

Another part to the discussion is
We start with our 4-3-3, which we all agree, but Utd park the bus from the k.o. Will Pep make the sub or will he improvise with the players already on the pitch.

 

[mrbelfry]

We've certainly never had a big win away against a team in second at OT as far as I'm aware.

Haha fair shout. However I hear that the game was pretty close until they had a man unfairly sent off and then they switched their formation to 0-0-9 and then we scored a boat load of goals all of which were offside.

Thinking about this game now one of my favourite memories is De Gea hitting the ground in frustration after Silva puts the 5th through his legs