First Choice XI now

[K_Ash]

I want a Diamond midfield with Matic and Fred protecting and freeing Paul(VdB) - Bruno(VdB)-Shaw(Telles)&AWB(BWilliams)

 

[gerdm07]

I just watched some highlights of Telles and I think he is a starter. I like Shaw but his results in the final third are so bad. This is worth a try but obviously Pogba is a big question.

Against weaker opponents

............Martial........Greenwood
...............Bruno......DBF
Telles............Matic...............Pogba
.....Shaw......Maguire......AWB


Against stronger opponents

Martial.......Cavani..........Pogba
..................Bruno
.........2 of (Fred, Matic, McT)
Telles....Maguire....Lindelof.....AWB

Pogba needs a different position to jump start his career and he is our best player at beating players on the dribble. Let's let him do it on the wing.

 

[Jezpeza]

De Gea

AWB Bailly Maguire Telles

DVB Fred

Mason Bruno Rashford

Martial

Pogba too ill disciplined and matic hasnt got the legs to cover. Neither make my team anymore. They make us so easy to play through

 

[Blood Mage]

Telles in for Shaw, because Shaw doesn't do much going forward and Rashford could use some help as he's not a winger.

Fred and McTominay to fight the midfield battle we seem to be losing every game with Matic and Pogba. We're in deep shit right now, might as well try something different. This needs to be done as Bruno loses the ball quite often and we need to keep midfield tight.

Pogba as a sub for Bruno or any of front three, keep him away from midfield.

VdB as a sub for any midfield player.

People including Matic, Pogba or van de Beek in their first XI are really doing my head in.

Thank you. If we're going to start winning midfield battles and have some kind of solid structure, I think a double pivot of McTominay and Fred is the way to go for now until we replace them with better players next year. Pogba, VDB and Fernandes aren't willing to do the dirty work so only one of them should start and Matic almost looks done at this point.

 

[Zlatan Ibrahomovic]

Shaw has been our best player for quite some time now, makes no sense to out him on the bench. Instead, move him into the middle the same way Bayern moved Alaba to centre back and pair him with who ever the f.

 

[Monks_United]

We should go with a 3-5-2 now. I'd play the following -

Rashford Martial
Telles. Pogba/VDB. Bruno. James
Matic
Shaw. Maguire. Bailly
De Gea

I think the formation would give us more width and a functioning right side with James getting more space to run the channels. I don't trust any 2 CBs right now to defend to hopefully we do better with 3 CBs instead. Telles gives us good attacking play on the left wing. We have decent cover for the front two with Cavani and Greenwood. I think Fred would be workable as a matic backup in this formation. I do think this is our best bet this season

 

[friendlytramp]

—————Henderson
AWB—Bailly—Maguire—Telles
——————-McT(c)
————VdB——-Fernandes
Greenwood————Rashford
——————Martial

 

[Zed 101]

Regarding the defence, a lot has been made about Maguire whose form has been poor, no doubt, but for me it is AWB who is more off it, last season he was amazing defensively and mopped up a lot at the back for Lindelof/Maguire especially covering for pace (as did Shaw the other side)..... don't know what has happened to AWB but he is the worst right now and that is saying something

 

[GlasgowCeltic]

Shaws definitely the best of the current back four, but I won’t lose sleep if he doesn’t play. He’s Luke Shaw

 

[chris123]

I'm surprised no one is even considering 5 at the back? Is that because Ole seems set on the 4-2-3-1, or you genuinely think it's still our best possible lineup? Clearly our biggest weaknesses so far are our defense, and being overrun in midfield. 5 at the back and retaining 3 in midfield would hopefully solve some of these issues. Plus with the addition of Cavani, 5 at the back is really the formation that gives us solid depth at every position, and allows Telles more freedom to get forward.

De Gea
AWB Lindelof Maguire Shaw (?) Telles
..................Matic VDB...........................
........................Bruno.............................
.................Rashford......Martial.............

Depth/Cover:
Henderson
RB - Williams
CB - Bailly, Tuanzebe, Mengi
LB - Shaw, Williams
CM - Pogba, Fred, McTominay
CAM - Pogba, VDB
ST - Cavani, Greenwood

 

[DevTheRed]

Ole has got a real conundrum trying to piece together that midfield to try and get the best out of them, some good players none of which really compliment each other. Ideally I think we really needed a good, mobile tenacious defensive mid to do the dirty work to allow the likes of Pogba, Bruno and VDB to do their thing. Fred for me just isn't that player, McTominay lacks real quality and Matic isn't as mobile as he used to be.

 

[Dante]

Nothing significant will change for the Newcastle game. Excepting for injuries, it'll be:

James--Rashford--Greenwood
Bruno
Matic--Pogba
Shaw--Maguire--Bailly-AWB
DDG​

But I'd like to see us change systems to something more radical. The midfield two definitely needs to be made more solid, but not by sacrificing the creativity of Pogba and Bruno. The counterpoint is that we would need to play more attacking fullbacks, but thankfully we now have them. I'm also a fan of Henderson, so this is how I would personally go:

Rashford--Greenwood
Bruno------------------Pogba
Fred--McTominay
Telles--Maguire--Bailly-Williams
Henderson
​

It makes us a lot more vulnerable on the flanks. But I think there's a strong case that that would be the strongest spine in the PL (though Fred and Bailly could ideally do with a bit of an upgrade).

 

[KcB32]

I want to see as many ballers on the pitch as possible. No doubt we would be vulnerable in defense (especially set pieces) and I'm sure this would fail spectacularly, but it would be highly entertaining.

Henderson
AWB - Bailly - Rojo
Bruno - Pogba - VDB - Fred
Greenwood - Martial - Rashford
​

 

[croadyman]

Telles for Shaw, everything else the same. We needed a new CB, DM & RW & we got none.

I would like to see

DDG, AWB, Bailly, Lindelof, Telles, Fred, Bruno, Pogba, Mata, Rashford, Martial, with Pogba & Bruno playing as 8’s. Ole is very rigid with his use of 2 DMs though.

We clearly went on a Sancho wild goose chase in regards to a RW. CB would have been bought if we got on and paid Upamecano's release clause quicker. DM went off the table when Matic signed new 3 year deal.

 

[sincher]

I want to see as many ballers on the pitch as possible. No doubt we would be vulnerable in defense (especially set pieces) and I'm sure this would fail spectacularly, but it would be highly entertaining.

Henderson
AWB - Bailly - Rojo
Bruno - Pogba - VDB - Fred
Greenwood - Martial - Rashford
​

Bingo!

 

[V.O.]

I want to see as many ballers on the pitch as possible. No doubt we would be vulnerable in defense (especially set pieces) and I'm sure this would fail spectacularly, but it would be highly entertaining.

Henderson
AWB - Bailly - Rojo
Bruno - Pogba - VDB - Fred
Greenwood - Martial - Rashford
​

In the same way that some people find watching dashcam footage of Russian car crashes on Liveleak entertaining

 

[sincher]

Shaw has been our best player for quite some time now,

Really? I missed that!

 

[sun_tzu]

I think telles will be good in games we dominate but im not sure how good a defender he is
Basically I think telles and vdb are going to be good squad options but our best xi in big games is probably the same as last season

 

[sincher]

I just watched some highlights of Telles and I think he is a starter. I like Shaw but his results in the final third are so bad. This is worth a try but obviously Pogba is a big question.

Against weaker opponents

............Martial........Greenwood
...............Bruno......DBF
Telles............Matic...............Pogba
.....Shaw......Maguire......AWB

Pogba at wing-back and Don't Buy Fred in the middle. Gangsta!

 

[starman]

The class of 2020, needed another CB...

Henderson
Jurado....?.....Kambwala......Telles
Pellistri........VDB....Bruno.........Traore
Cavani.......Ighalo​

 

[Adam McNeill]

Martial...................Cavani..............Rashford/New lads
...............................Bruno...............................
.......................Matic........Pogba...............................
Telles......Maguire/Shaw/AWB/Baily.....Williams
.............................De Gea

Let me explain:

I would really like to see a big shake up in our defence for a few games to try it, maybe in a few cup games.

AWB in my mind would make an immense CB, he is our best tackler by far and I am astounded he's not been considered to play a game there, he seems to be coming inside a lot recently anyway so he's already half way there ;-)

Shaw would be decent LCB too but then we would need "a Maguire" next to them for some height, I like Baily if he could just stay fit and get some experience/cut down the mistakes he would be our best CB.

The front line looks good to me, I believe Cavani will have the "Zlatan" effect and be decent for us..... all the front line can rotate around as necessary.

Replacements in January/Summer (in bold) + in-house phase ins below:

GK: De Gea -> Henderson (sooner rather than later)
CB: Maguire -> Upamecano or De Ligt
DM: Matic -> Maguire/Fred (don't laugh but I believe Maguire could rotate with Matic/Fred until we can arrange a world class DM)
Pogba -> DvB (sell Pogba asap, the fascination behind PP player amazes me, he's average 90% of games and his attitude has never sat right with me)
Cavani = Greenwood

Sell all the deadwood we can, and use the rest sparingly until contracts are up.

We have some real quality youngsters around the first team who I want to see have some game time this season.

Sorry for the long post, its my first one and I couldn't stop typing ;-)

 

[Sandikan]

Have to agree, I have hardly any faith in lindelof or bailly and can't imagine shaw would be a huge downgrade, plenty of fullbacks have morphed into good centre backs so why not shaw?

Because we have players failing in their specialist position. So throwing someone into a new one doesn't seem wise. And probably has a strong reason not to have been tried before.

 

[ArjenIsM3]

Henderson
AWB - Tuanzebe - Maguire - Telles
Fred - Van de Beek
Greenwood - Fernandes - Rashford
Cavani

 

[SadlerMUFC]

This is my line-up. It would require Ole to have balls. He would have change formation to include 3 centre backs.
- Drop that fridge.
- Make Bruno captain.
- Use the 3rd centre back position to blood Menghi or Tuanzebe.
- Replace Pogba with the energy of Van de Beek, this will get the better of Matic.
- Rashford / Martial / Greenwood playing in interchangeably a front 2.

This is not an ideal line-up but I believe this is what would best results. The full-backs would have more attacking responsibility. I would initially use AWB, but also start slowly blooding Laird or someone more attacking during the season.


------------------Rashford-------Martial / Greenwood
---------------------------Bruno (captain)
---------------------VdB--------------Matic
Telles------------------------------------------------------------------AWB (but replace with an attacking full-back ASAP)
-------------Shaw - Lindelof - Bailly/Tuanzebe/Menghi
----------------------Henderson

Maguire is not being dropped. You may have some agenda against him, but that doesn't change the fact that he is our best defender. In fact, it's not even close. It's about who partners Maguire, not about leaving him out. I don't think he should be captain, but you don't improve the team by taking out the best players...

 

[ajay1002]

Henderson

Do we even have a strongest defence? Whichever 4 are in form

VdB...Fred/McT

Greenwood...Bruno...Rashford

Martial

​

Would ideally play Greenwood up front over Martial, but a starting RW was ignored in the transfer window as usual.

 

[Himannv]

The first XI is pretty much the same set of players who started vs Spurs.

 

[lsd]

Henderson
AWB Tuanzebe Mengi Telles
Fernandes Pogba Van De beek
Greenwood Cavani Rashford

 

[Ephrem]

We need to figure out what to do with Pogba! Everyone wants United to press, but it is not possible with Maguire, Matic, and Pogba in the same lineup. I would go with either of these two line-ups depending upon the opposition.

De Gea
AWB—Bailly—Maguire—Shaw
Matic
Bruno VDB Pogba
Martial
Rashford

De Gea
Bailly—Maguire—Shaw
AWB Fred Telles
VDB Bruno
Rashford
Martial

On paper, the midfield is our strongest, but in the field, it is still the weakest! To fit our best mid, I believe we need to drop one of the front trios for the overall balance of the team. That way, we won't be overplaying Rashford/Martial like last season, and Greenwood will be playing closer to the goal.

 

[Ekeke]

Henderson

AWB
Cavani
Shaw
Telles

Matic
Pogba

Greenwood
Martial
Rashford

 

[Ollie Derbyshire]

I’d like to see;

Henderson

AWB Bailly. Maguire. Telles

Fred

Bruno. VdB

Greenwood. Martial. Rashford

Or maybe;

Henderson

Bailly Maguire. Shaw

AWB. Fred Telles

Bruno. VdB

Martial. Rashford

Either way I don’t want to see Pogba in the team

 

[Adcuth]

Ole needs to change the formation or play the players best suited to what he uses now. Pointless convo currently. Defence has no protection, front 3 are all strikers. Pogba needs playing further forward. Donny needs bringing in. Maguire, AWB, De Gea and Martial need dropping

 

[TehRed]

---------------------Henderson-----------------‐--
AWB-------Lindelof------Maguire---Telles
---------------VdB--------------Matic--------------
Rashford----------Bruno-------------Martial
------------------------Cavani------------------------

Second XI:

------------------------De Gea-----------------‐-----
Williams----Bailly-----Tuanzebe---Shaw
-----------McTominay------Fred---------------
Mata----------------Pogba-------------James
--------------------Greenwood--------------------

Still hoping that Romero and Rojo could get loaned out. Expect Lingard and Jones to stay and provide cover, Ighalo too until he leaves in January.

Not sure if Pellestri will actually go right into the senior squad as claimed, can see him going into the U23s and only getting called up to cover injuries or maybe for a League Cup game. Diallo sounds to me like he has more chance of getting into the squad in January, he seems to be the more hyped prospect of the two.

 

[Highfather_24]

Got this from reddit.

 

[Adamsk7]

I feel like now is the time to shake things up a bit.

Henderson
AWB Tuanzebe Maguire Telles
Fred
Donny Bruno
Mata Martial Rashford

Bench -

Cavani
Pogba
Shaw
Greenwood
Matic
Lindelof
DDG

I know some will think I’m mad for Mata instead of Greenwood but for all his individual strengths, Mason still needs to learn how to be effective for the team - he’s no help to AWB and he doesn’t yet make intelligent runs, rather likes it to feet so he can drive in and get a shot away. Mata has been our best performer so far this season so he deserves his place and I think Mata, Bruno and Donny will play some great stuff together.

Tuanzebe is the other controversial one but it’s sink or swim for him. Stay fit, get a run of games and I think potentially he’s the best we have at CB.

I think Hendo has better distribution and leadership and that’s vital currently

Fred needs a run of games and he’s our most dynamic midfielder

 

[Bilbo]

Matic/Pogba is a NO-GO for me, Since we started playing this combo our levels have been dropped

Yeah I agree with this. I posted at the back end of last season that I wasn't convinced that Pogba/Matic was a better combination than Fred/McT, and i think that's still a big doubt.

I'm not a fan of the system in general, but I do wonder whether a diamond formation would be best for the players that we have. We are simply too easy to bypass in midfield at the moment. Its really critical that Ole find the right balance in the engine room, and soon, and its looking increasingly probable that Pogba might not be the right man in there.

We were winning and playing well with Fred/Mct as our base before lockdown. They have limitations but the team looked better balanced and more energetic with those two in there. VDB could replace either of those two to add quality in our passing without sacrificing energy.

 

[sp_107]

---------------------Henderson-----------------‐--
AWB-------Lindelof------Maguire---Telles
---------------VdB--------------Matic--------------
Rashford----------Bruno-------------Martial
------------------------Cavani------------------------

Second XI:

------------------------De Gea-----------------‐-----
Williams----Bailly-----Tuanzebe---Shaw
-----------McTominay------Fred---------------
Mata----------------Pogba-------------James
--------------------Greenwood--------------------

Still hoping that Romero and Rojo could get loaned out. Expect Lingard and Jones to stay and provide cover, Ighalo too until he leaves in January.

Not sure if Pellestri will actually go right into the senior squad as claimed, can see him going into the U23s and only getting called up to cover injuries or maybe for a League Cup game. Diallo sounds to me like he has more chance of getting into the squad in January, he seems to be the more hyped prospect of the two.

---------------------Henderson-----------------‐--
AWB-------Lindelof------Maguire---Telles
---------------VdB--------------Matic--------------
Rashford----------Bruno-------------Martial
------------------------Cavani------------------------

Like it with Greenwood as backup and no Pogba in first X1...I still start DDG though

 

[Borys]

Thank you. If we're going to start winning midfield battles and have some kind of solid structure, I think a double pivot of McTominay and Fred is the way to go for now until we replace them with better players next year. Pogba, VDB and Fernandes aren't willing to do the dirty work so only one of them should start and Matic almost looks done at this point.

It's double pivot with Matic and Pogba, they need to stay back because neither can track back. With Fred and McTominay, they will be more box-to-box players, because they have the energy to do it all game. So it's possible we'll lose some attacking threat with them, but not certain. I'm pretty sure we'll make it more difficult for opposition though, so it's a good platform for attackers to do their job.

Feel for Matic, he's our best midfielder but as you said, he looks done on this level. Can do a job occasionally, but should not be a starter by default.

Regarding Bruno, I think he's trying to help defensively but he's just terrible at it (Mata-eque).

 

[Canagel]

Martial -- Cavani -- Greenwood
Pogba -- VdB
Fred
Telles -- Lindelof -- Bailly -- AWB
De Gea

 

[sincher]

I feel like now is the time to shake things up a bit.

Henderson
AWB Tuanzebe Maguire Telles
Fred
Donny Bruno
Mata Martial Rashford

Bench -

Cavani
Pogba
Shaw
Greenwood
Matic
Lindelof
DDG

I know some will think I’m mad for Mata instead of Greenwood but for all his individual strengths, Mason still needs to learn how to be effective for the team - he’s no help to AWB and he doesn’t yet make intelligent runs, rather likes it to feet so he can drive in and get a shot away. Mata has been our best performer so far this season so he deserves his place and I think Mata, Bruno and Donny will play some great stuff together.

Tuanzebe is the other controversial one but it’s sink or swim for him. Stay fit, get a run of games and I think potentially he’s the best we have at CB.

I think Hendo has better distribution and leadership and that’s vital currently

Fred needs a run of games and he’s our most dynamic midfielder

I'd like to see that team. A lot to like.

 

[MUFromLTU]

Against teams with quick strikers/counter-attacking style

Henderson
AWB - Maguire - Shaw
Williams --------------------------------- Telles
Pogba - VdB
Bruno
Martial - Rashford

​

or, against teams with slower strikers

de Gea
AWB - Lindelof - Maguire - Telles
Matic - VdB
Bruno
Rashford - Cavani - Martial


​