Olympiakos vs. Manchester United

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Had Kagawa been getting some actual game time he would be the right replacement for Mata i agree, however in circumstances where he has played so infrequently you would have to wonder at his readiness for a match of this importance.

I wouldn't be surprised if we saw the return of both Young and Valencia actually.
 
De Gea
Rafael--Smalling--Vidic--Evra
Carrick--Cleverley
Valencia--Rooney--Januzaj
van Persie

Kagawa coming on for Januzaj in the 2nd half no matter the scoreline. Try and give him half an hour.
 
I reckon Moyes might have tried the Nicky Butt in '99 "this is your match, prepare for this match" shtick with Kagawa for this. He get the full 75 minutes and is ultimately disappointing and gets subbed off for Young/Januzaj.

Hopefully I am wrong!
 
Kagawa has been one of our standout players in this CL campaign. If he doesn't start, then I might actually...

... do nothing. I'm just a guy on the internet after all :(
 
keep the system going. no reason to change it but i got a feeling moyes will unfortunately, especially with mata unavailable. could see valencia starting this too,

with rafa unavailable and mata cup tied my line up would be

-----------------------de gea------------------------
smalling---------rio---------------vidic----------evra
--------------carrick-------------fellaini------------
-----januzaj------------rooney-----------kagawa----
------------------------van persie------------------
 
Mad Winger said:
Kagawa has been one of our standout players in this CL campaign. If he doesn't start, then I might actually...

... do nothing. I'm just a guy on the internet after all :(
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Don't lie. You won't 'do nothing'. You won't be able to help yourself and speak out against the injustice Kagawa is on the end of.
 
Nickosaur said:
I would play the same team, except Kagawa for Mata. Unless of course Evans/Jones/Rafael are back. This would probably be the strongest team we could pick:

DDG
Rafael Smalling Evans Evra
Carrick Fellaini
Januzaj Rooney Kagawa
RVP

I'm excited.
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This. Probably Fletch instead of Fellaini if Fellaini can't play because he's just back from injury.
 
It'll be nice to play a game that has some significance besides just the performance itself. Looking forward to this one. For some reason I feel like we'll gather some good momentum over the coming weeks.
 
Mad Winger said:
Kagawa has been one of our standout players in this CL campaign. If he doesn't start, then I might actually...

... do nothing. I'm just a guy on the internet after all :(
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Don't be putting yourself down, you could still make a protest. You could threaten to leave Redcafe if he is left out. In fact you should just leave in protest at how this gallant footballing prince has been abused by evil stepmother David Moyes.
 
De Gea, Rafael, Ferdinand, Evans, Evra, Valencia, Carrick, Fletcher, Kagawa, Rooney, van Persie.
 
Gannicus said:
How long will Jones be out?
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David Moyes will check on the fitness of defensive trio Jonny Evans, Phil Jones and Rafael before finalising his plans for the Champions League trip to Olympiacos.

The Reds fly to Greece on Monday for the first leg of the last 16 encounter on the back of a convincing win at Crystal Palace thanks to second-half goals from Robin van Persie and Wayne Rooney.

Evans, Jones and Rafael all missed the victory in the capital but United still kept a clean sheet.

"We’ve got a few injuries but I’m hoping we might get a few of them back for Tuesday," stated the boss. "We’ll get a chance to see how Jonny Evans, Phil Jones and Rafael are on Sunday and see if they can join us.

"We’ve got a tough European game coming up on Tuesday now. I wanted to win [at Palace] so we could go into it in form and with confidence. It’s such a big game for us. We hadn’t played for 10 days before Saturday, so I wanted to make sure all the players were ready and will be ready to perform again on Tuesday."
 
United should win very comfortably. This game will actually be interesting. I remain convinced that Olympiacos only actually win when the opposition have nothing to play for.
 
Complacency aside, is it just me that thinks we will easily beat them? I know we're bad right now but surely we can still take on the might of Olympiakos in the knockout stage of the CL and win comfortably. Even in our bad patch we've still done relatively well in the CL, we just haven't set the world alight besides at Leverkusen. It's meeting the big teams like Bayern and Barca that I'm worried about. A good away performance please with no defensive mistakes then finish the job at home in total control.
 
I suspect you guys are too optimistic, and we'll see a team with Valencia and Young as our wingers.. or at least one of them with Kagawa on the other wing.
 
Javier Saviola, that's a name to remind anyone of the old Championship Manager games from the early 2000s!
 
It was the easiest tie you could physically have drawn. Not only were they already awful, but they then proceeded to sell their two best players as well.

There's some odd pessimism here. You're playing a QF at least.
 
Don't know much about them, but if Javier Saviola is one of their best players then we don't have anything to worry about.
 
Javier Saviola has long been one of my favourite players.
 
Iv got 2 gamer mates who are from Athens and they are quite confident. They haven't lost this season winning 24/26 league games, obviously its not a high standard league but still.

''might miss the easy goal cause of Mitroglou. The rest of the players are covered'' was his take on them players they have lost.

A confident team with one of the fiercest atmospheres behind them, it's going to be a tough game.
 
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Away games in Greece are only slightly easier then in turkey, so it should still be a tight game. We'll get through the tie comfortably but I won't expect a 4-0 win or anything away there. Then again our only game over 3-0 came away to bayer Leverkusen so who knows.
 
Expecting Evans, Kagawa and Valencia to come in for Rio, Mata and Januzaj. We'll ein the tie comfortably IMO.
 
Castia said:
Iv got 2 gamer mates who are from Athens and they are quite confident. They haven't lost this season winning 24/26 league games, obviously its not a high standard league but still.

''might miss the easy goal cause of Mitroglou. The rest of the players are covered'' was his take on them players they have lost.

A confident team with one of the fiercest atmospheres behind them, it's going to be a tough game.
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Aren't some parts of the stadium closed?
 
Sean_RedDevil said:
David Moyes will check on the fitness of defensive trio Jonny Evans, Phil Jones and Rafael before finalising his plans for the Champions League trip to Olympiacos.

The Reds fly to Greece on Monday for the first leg of the last 16 encounter on the back of a convincing win at Crystal Palace thanks to second-half goals from Robin van Persie and Wayne Rooney.

Evans, Jones and Rafael all missed the victory in the capital but United still kept a clean sheet.

"We’ve got a few injuries but I’m hoping we might get a few of them back for Tuesday," stated the boss. "We’ll get a chance to see how Jonny Evans, Phil Jones and Rafael are on Sunday and see if they can join us.

"We’ve got a tough European game coming up on Tuesday now. I wanted to win [at Palace] so we could go into it in form and with confidence. It’s such a big game for us. We hadn’t played for 10 days before Saturday, so I wanted to make sure all the players were ready and will be ready to perform again on Tuesday."
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Thanks for the update.

Despite the relative tameness of this opponent, it's an away game in a hostile environment and having Jones in particular would be very useful.

I haven't seen more than highlights of Olympiakos this season but the squad we're facing this week is one we should be able to put away with a comfortable 0-2 win, provided good news on the physioroom front and a fair amount of mental discipline.

Please UEFA, no more shithead referees like the cnunt Cuneyt last season. The red card on Nani was one of the more insane red cards any of us will ever see in our lifetimes.
 
Really looking forward to this match.

Is there a reason United isn't playing in the league the following weekend? Not playing until the 8th of March.
 
They are not a team of individual stars, but apparently they do play together well, a case of the sum being greater than the parts, a bit like Greece in 2004 at the European championships
 
Red For Ever said:
They are not a team of individual stars, but apparently they do play together well, a case of the sum being greater than the parts, a bit like Greece in 2004 at the European championships
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A good basis from which to prevent the away goal, aim to frustrate us and nick a 1-0 is possible.
 
I hope we can enjoy this a little, y'know, considering this could well be one of only two or three proper European Cup ties we play in four sodding seasons.

And we thought the issue after Wembley was how we get to Barcelona's level... :(
 
Chabon said:
I hope we can enjoy this a little, y'know, considering this could well be one of only two or three proper European Cup ties we play in four sodding seasons.

And we thought the issue after Wembley was how we get to Barcelona's level... :(
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Why four seasons particularly?
 
Brophs said:
Why four seasons particularly?
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Because Wembley 2011 marks the end of our glorious era in europe, since which time we've done nothing at all on the continent, and we won't be playing in the CL at all next season. I mean, if you take them as two separate four season periods the comparison is profoundly depressing:

2007-2011: F, F, QF, F
2011-2015: GS, 2R, 2R?, -

That's 25 proper European Cup matches against probably 6, maybe 8. So I'm hoping to enjoy this one as the rare commodity it's become.
 
Chabon said:
Because Wembley 2011 marks the end of our glorious era in europe, since which time we've done nothing at all on the continent, and we won't be playing in the CL at all next season. I mean, if you take them as two separate four season periods the comparison is profoundly depressing:

2007-2011: F, F, QF, F
2011-2015: GS, 2R, 2R?, -

That's 25 proper European Cup matches against probably 6, maybe 8. So I'm hoping to enjoy this one as the rare commodity it's become.
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Fair enough. I assumed you meant four seasons from now, which seemed particularly prescient.
 
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