Stoke City V Manchester United

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Randall Flagg

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Match day thread from Randall:


League Cup extravaganza

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18/12/13

Sky Sports @ 19:45
 
Hopefully give the likes of Lindegaard, Fabio, Zaha, Fletcher, Anderson etc a chance. Can't rest too many though due to injuries.
 
Hernandez
Zaha/Young Kagawa Nani
Anderson - Fit Midfielder
Fabio/Buttner Evans Jones Rafael
DDG/Lindegaard
 
Hopefully the likes of Fabio, Fletcher and Zaha will all get starts.

Hope we don't see too much of a C team. A trophy would be big for Moyes IMO.
 
Yup I want them to go for it. A top 4 finish a domestic cup and a decent run in Europe and we are laughing
 
Plenty of players who need a run-out if fit. Hernandez, Kagawa, Nani, Zaha, Young, Anderson, Fletcher, Smalling, Rio, Buttner, Fabio, Lindegaard..
 
-------- De Gea
Rafael Evans Jones Fabio
---- Fletcher Anderson
Zaha -- Kagawa -- Nani
------- Welbeck
 
Lindegaard​
Fabio Smalling Ferdinand Buttner​
Fletcher Anderson​
Zaha Kagawa Nani​
Hernandez/Welbeck​
Great time to rest a few players, and hopefully to see Zaha in his right position. Hernandez or Welbeck, either will do for this. Not sure if its too soon to start Fletcher, if he's not ready for a start then give it to Jones next to Anderson. For gods sake though Moyes give Fabio a chance.​
​
 
To generate form. Evra, maybe Rafa should be the only players rested. Plenty of time to rest from today, to Wednesday and again to Saturday.
 
bosnian_red said:
It's midweek, in the league cup. Why would you want to go full strength right before our busiest period of the season?
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In a normal season then you're right, but this isn't a normal season. Moyes needs a trophy and we need to build some momentum. Fielding some half-arsed team and getting knocked out by a lowly Stoke would be yet another example of this 'two steps forward and one step back' rut we've found ourselves in thus far.

We should field a strong team and go all out for the win. Our players need game time, they don't need rest.
 
MajorTom said:
Never mind resting players, full strength team to get the win.
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I would also like a strong team because it'd be great for Moyes to win a trophy but there must be some common sense shown.
 
Indeed and we need to be consistent over this period. The games against Hull (26th), Norwich (28th) and Tottenham (1st) are the games to make a few changes each game to keep an element of freshness.
 
Kag said:
In a normal season then you're right, but this isn't a normal season. Moyes needs a trophy and we need to build some momentum. Fielding some half-arsed team and getting knocked out by a lowly Stoke would be yet another example of this 'two steps forward and one step back' rut we've found ourselves in thus far.

We should field a strong team and go all out for the win. Our players need game time, they don't need rest.
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We shouldn't field a half arsed team, but we have a good squad with a lot of good squad players. Rafael, Evra, Rooney and De Gea should all be rested IMO, as well as Januzaj. They'll be needed more then anyone. The others can all rotate as they aren't in great form or anything anyways.
 
Why does a keeper need a rest? If we had a quality backup then it'd make sense to share the games but we haven't.
 
Any news on Vidic? I assume he is injured since he didn't make the bench against Villa. He'd be useful against Crouch/Jones.
 
I think we are running out of players to leave out seeing all the injury problems. Januzaj and Evra should definitely be given a breather though
 
Carl said:
Why does a keeper need a rest? If we had a quality backup then it'd make sense to share the games but we haven't.
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Lindegaard is more then good enough as a back up, and like always, they get Capital one cup games d other dead rubbers. We've been doing this for years, I doubt we'll change just because moyes desperately wants a trophy. It's not like a league cup would change anything anyway. League is the priority as always.
 
Lindegaard
Fábio Ferdinand Jones Buttner
Fletcher Anderson
Nani Januzaj Welbeck
Hernandez
--
de Gea; Evans; Cleverley, Valencia, Young, Zaha; Rooney​

Hopefully the likes of Kagawa, Fellaini, Vidic, and Smalling are available too.
 
​
​
De Gea​
​
Fabio Rio Jones Buttner​
​
Fletcher Anderson​
​
Nani Kagawa Zaha​
​
Hernandez​
​
​
 
I think any trophy will help David Moyes' settling in period, so I expect him to go close to full strength (well the strongest we can currently choose from).

I imagine Valencia Rooney and Welbeck will all play, perhaps Ashley Young on the left or Welbeck left with Hernandez up front. Jones could possibly go back into midfield.

Had it been a home fixture I think he'd have been more inclined to change it up a bit.

Perhaps:

De Gea, Smalling, Ferdinand, Evans, Evra, Jones, Cleverley, Valencia, Rooney, Welbeck, Hernandez
 
---------Lindegaard---------
Fabio--Rio--Smalling--Buttner
Zaha-Fletcher-Anderson-Nani
----------Kagawa-----------
---------Hernandez---------

Though probably no chance Moyes selects Fabio (:() and he'll probably start Young (sigh).
 
agree that it's not really the time to do too much rotation. Look at how many players are out after all.

A little bit of freshening up with Young/Nani coming in maybe, but apart from that and maybe Buttner/Fabio in at left back should be it.

Then hopefully we have more back for West Ham at the weekend.

I think the time teams sneered at the League cup has long gone, and teams have done the maths and realised there are 3 domestic cups, so you can't just throw one away.
 
A more probable scenario is that Moyes may rest more players for the West Ham game than the Stoke game if he wants at least a trophy in his first season. We should really be beating West Ham at home even with a Carling Cup team
 
I have to say I'm left very disappointed by the OP.
 
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