Sunderland vs. Manchester United

As good as Giggs has been in a number of recent games, he still doesn't really work as a CM at the moment. Put him on the wing or don't play him.

I agree with this. I think he's been fantastic but is best on the wing unless we're using a midfield three which we rarely do anyway.
 
Sunderland:
De Gea
Smalling Evans Jones Buttner
Giggs Anderson
Valencia Kagawa Young
Cheech​

Chelsea:
De Gea
Rafael Vidic Ferdinand Evra
Carrick Cleverley
Nani Rooney Welbeck
Persie​

Rest all the players!!!

I want the FA Cup so badly I could eat it! That team should walk all over Sunderland anyway.

Good thinking, just switch positions to Smalling and Jones.
 
Good thinking, just switch positions to Smalling and Jones.

Looks good, except I'd be a little nervous about Giggs/Anderson in midfield for an away game. It will be interesting to see what Chelsea do given that they probably need the league points more than us.
 
De Gea

Rafael
Evans
Vidic
Evra

Nani
Cleverley
Anderson
Giggs

Rooney
Welbeck

Subs - Lindegaard, Smalling, Jones, Carrick, Scholes, Young, RvP.

I'd keep Rio, Kagawa and Chicharito completely fresh for the Chelsea game.
 
De Gea

Rafael
Evans
Vidic
Evra

Nani
Cleverley
Anderson
Giggs

Rooney
Welbeck

Subs - Lindegaard, Smalling, Jones, Carrick, Scholes, Young, RvP.

I'd keep Rio, Kagawa and Chicharito completely fresh for the Chelsea game.

I mostly agree about that, it's a good team.
 
Very important game this. If we drop a point here and City win their we're only 12p ahead. It is vital to grab these point ahead of the City clash. We could find ourselves in a situation where we're only 9p ahead with 7 games to go, including the Arsenal and Chelsea games!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
Off to London today, to be followed by a quick stop at OT to pay proper respect to glorious football club, then back down to Sunderland for the match. I may check in here only a few times between now and then. Vaya con dios!
 
Very important game this. If we drop a point here and City win their we're only 12p ahead. It is vital to grab these point ahead of the City clash. We could find ourselves in a situation where we're only 9p ahead with 7 games to go, including the Arsenal and Chelsea games!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is how I feel. Then I remember it's a 15 point lead, and can't work out why I feel that way ;)

Still, are any of Sunderland's players away on intl duty?
 
Off to London today, to be followed by a quick stop at OT to pay proper respect to glorious football club, then back down to Sunderland for the match. I may check in here only a few times between now and then. Vaya con dios!

Just to avoid any confusion, Sunderland's way way up from Manchester ...
 
Just win this. Don't care how.

No doubt they'll play like a fecking world cup final. They seem to think we're rivals.

Beat them.
 

I'm glad someone called him out, Giggs has been quite good in the center of the park recently.

After a rough start to the season, highlighted by that Spurs game, he's really come on strong, on the wing or in midfield.

I suspect lots of people are losing money betting that Giggs will retire each season.
 
Giggs' best performances for us in general over 90 minutes have been out wide. I wouldn't use him in the middle from the start though, can be a bit inconsistent and even more loose with posession than Anderson.
 
Just to avoid any confusion, Sunderland's way way up from Manchester ...

Yes, but south of Edinburgh, where I'll spend a couple of days as well visiting daughter who's attending university there for the semester.

For us Californians, we view a couple of hundred miles between cities as child's play for a quick drive. I've made the drive between LA and the Northern California hundreds of times, at least. We're crazy fukks here, driving more miles per capita than any other race of people on earth, I would think. You can blame us, if you like, for global warming, and we're doing what we can to dig ourselves out of that mess.

Thanks for the heads up!
 
I'm glad someone called him out, Giggs has been quite good in the center of the park recently.

After a rough start to the season, highlighted by that Spurs game, he's really come on strong, on the wing or in midfield.

I suspect lots of people are losing money betting that Giggs will retire each season.

He's been great on the wing, and both good and bad in the middle. He's obviously still got it in terms of passing range and invention and the like, but the off-the-ball basics aren't there. Once you start looking for it, you see it all the time, even when he's playing well in terms of what he does positively on the ball. He'll vaguely pick up a man but then switch off after ten seconds or so and let the man go. Sometimes he catches the eye chasing back or tackling, but then three times in a row you can find him wandering about whilst an opposition move goes straight through our midfield.

I wouldn't mind so much if he was put beside someone who does the legwork in midfield well, like Carrick or Cleverley. But put him next to Anderson and, whilst they might come out of the game having looked decent, our defence will suffer for it, and so will our control of the middle of the park.

It's not a criticism of Giggs, just noting that at the moment a wider position suits the good stuff he's doing more than a central one.
 
I'd agree with Brightonian. For me he's had one good game in the center of the park and that was vs QPR where our ball retention wasn't really good enough. All his other matches he's excelled in have been on the wing.
 
Very important game this. If we drop a point here and City win their we're only 12p ahead. It is vital to grab these point ahead of the City clash. We could find ourselves in a situation where we're only 9p ahead with 7 games to go, including the Arsenal and Chelsea games!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yep, complacency is the watch word.

However, it's not a bad position to know that even if we lost against Sunderland, Arsenal, and City and Chelsea at home (4 losses in 4 games, when we've lost 3 in 29 so far) , and City won their 4 games,

we'd still be 3 points clear with 5 games left.
 
Think Fletcher went off injured for Sunderland - they will miss him if he's not fit

I hope we trounce them after watching those videos
 
I heard Fletcher was out fire the season, but we really shouldn't be having any problems against this team. They're fecking shit.
 
The only way I can see us stumbling here is if Fergie has his eyes set on the Chelsea game. It really is a tricky position to be in, playing Saturday and then the Monday.

Sunderland: De Gea, Rafael, Smalling, Vidic, Evra, Valencia, Carrick, Cleverley, Young, Welbeck, Van Persie.

Chelsea: De Gea, Rafael, Ferdinand, Evans, Evra, Welbeck, Carrick, Giggs, Kagawa, Rooney, Hernandez.

Even after typing that prediction, I still think I'm totally wrong. If Nani can be fit for Sunderland at least, it would be great. The hardest predictions is how Fergie will utilize Hernandez, Van Persie, Rooney and Welbeck. Hernandez surely has to start against Chelsea due to his habit of scoring against them. Which surely means Van Persie against Sunderland, and potentially Rooney and Welbeck to play both?
 
Want a strong team for both games. Rafael has had a 3 week rest when the game starts, Evra has not played for 2 weeks (but I think he will start for France tomorrow), Vidic and Rio has no games either but not sure any of them can play both, Evans probably will.

Rafael, Vidic, Evans, Evra
Rafael Rio, Evans, Evra

Hope that's our defence for the two games, no need to rest any.
 
Rafael and Evra will both be shattered after playing 180+ mins in 3 days.

Its actually 2 days.

And I agree. I can see Buttner and Smalling at fullback against Sunderland perhaps.
 
Its actually 2 days.

And I agree. I can see Buttner and Smalling at fullback against Sunderland perhaps.
yeah I agree with you on smalling/buttner

our strength in depth will be really beneficial here

there's more pressure on Chelsea to play a strong team in their league game while we can rotate a bit and this could be crucial in a tight cup game that might end up going to extra time

i think those who didn't play internationals (or both games) - vidic, evans, rio, giggs, anderson, buttner, smalling, etc should all play

maybe play rio at Sunderland but Evans/Vidic at Chelsea

any word on Phil Jones?