Swansea City vs. Manchester United

Not much reason to change a lot from our previous two games...

de Gea
Jones Ferdinand Smalling Evra
Carrick Cleverley
Valencia Rooney Young
van Persie​

Likely to see Giggs and Scholes on the bench, maybe Fletcher. Welbeck and Hernandez as the attacking alternatives. Hopefully Kagawa can make the bench and I'd obviously like to see Vidic there again to get some minutes if we're commanding the game towards the end.

Rafael back in over Jones if he's fit too.

We're obviously going to see a lot of squad rotation over the next few games, but there's been a week since the last game so this one isn't the game to start that in. Very tricky game but still expect us to come through it.
 
With Newcastle coming up only three days later, whatever Fergie does about Swansea will be done with one eye on the Geordies.

The fascinating decision will be when Vidic goes his first start. Is he ready to deal with Michu or does Fergie ease him in one more game and start him v Ba? Beats me!

When does Hernandez start?

Does Nani ever comes out witness protection or is he completely done at Old Trafford?

Does Jones get a start in place of Carrick?

Needless to say, Swansea and Newcastle will not be easy to break down. A nice Christmas present would be Valencia displaying his old form. We've done we'll despite his hesitant play, but we can't go without that added dimension for much longer.
 
Ruud10 said:
With Newcastle coming up only three days later, whatever Fergie does about Swansea will be done with one eye on the Geordies.

The fascinating decision will be when Vidic goes his first start. Is he ready to deal with Michu or does Fergie ease him in one more game and start him v Ba? Beats me!

When does Hernandez start?

Does Nani ever comes out witness protection or is he completely done at Old Trafford?

Does Jones get a start in place of Carrick?

Needless to say, Swansea and Newcastle will not be easy to break down. A nice Christmas present would be Valencia displaying his old form. We've done we'll despite his hesitant play, but we can't go without that added dimension for much longer.
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Posted from Ruud10's iPhone.
 
Ruud10 said:
With Newcastle coming up only three days later, whatever Fergie does about Swansea will be done with one eye on the Geordies.

The fascinating decision will be when Vidic goes his first start. Is he ready to deal with Michu or does Fergie ease him in one more game and start him v Ba? Beats me!

When does Hernandez start?

Does Nani ever comes out witness protection or is he completely done at Old Trafford?

Does Jones get a start in place of Carrick?

Needless to say, Swansea and Newcastle will not be easy to break down. A nice Christmas present would be Valencia displaying his old form. We've done we'll despite his hesitant play, but we can't go without that added dimension for much longer.
Click to expand...

At the moment Swansea is the more dangerous match by some way. He should play close to his strongest team in Wales, and leave the tinkering till the home match. After all, we've had a couple of one-match weeks, the whole squad should be pretty well rested at the moment.

And Jones should definitely NOT get a start in place of Carrick. It's nervy enough seeing him in midfield as a substitute, let alone as a starter. I'd rather have Fletcher whilst we establish a rhythm and hopefully a lead in the first hour, and then bring on Jones before Darren tires too much.

Is Carrick's injury confirmed? Or is it another Frogie ploy? :devil:
 
Brightonian said:
At the moment Swansea is the more dangerous match by some way. He should play close to his strongest team in Wales, and leave the tinkering till the home match. After all, we've had a couple of one-match weeks, the whole squad should be pretty well rested at the moment.

And Jones should definitely NOT get a start in place of Carrick. It's nervy enough seeing him in midfield as a substitute, let alone as a starter. I'd rather have Fletcher whilst we establish a rhythm and hopefully a lead in the first hour, and then bring on Jones before Darren tires too much.

Is Carrick's injury confirmed? Or is it another Frogie ploy? :devil:
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I don't think SAF is even considering doing that. After the Sunderland game he praised Carrick and Cleverley then said:
"We have a lot of options in midfield: Anderson, Darren Fletcher, Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs - people keep saying we are weak in midfield but these are fantastic players.
"Sometimes it gives me a little bit of a problem picking the right two."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/20743701

Some here like Jones in midfield, I think it's risky enough with Carrick beside him never mind in place of Carrick, looking at that quote though it doesn't look like SAF is considering it.
 
Yeah I have certainly noticed he has had problems picking the right 2 this season.
 
I think Swansea will be the tougher game purely because it's an away game. Try to win this first then think about Newcastle, but I wouldn't start Vidic in either if possible.
 
Ruud10 said:
With Newcastle coming up only three days later, whatever Fergie does about Swansea will be done with one eye on the Geordies.

The fascinating decision will be when Vidic goes his first start. Is he ready to deal with Michu or does Fergie ease him in one more game and start him v Ba? Beats me!

When does Hernandez start?

Does Nani ever comes out witness protection or is he completely done at Old Trafford?

Does Jones get a start in place of Carrick?

Needless to say, Swansea and Newcastle will not be easy to break down. A nice Christmas present would be Valencia displaying his old form. We've done we'll despite his hesitant play, but we can't go without that added dimension for much longer.
Click to expand...

:eek: where did this come from
 
Oooff, I really dread this match! Win this, and I'm confident that we'll gain a couple of points on City during Christmas.
 
Solius said:

Posted from Ruud10's iPhone.
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Good catch, Solius. I usually post from my iPad, especially while I'm traveling...thus bizare auto corrects creep in and the my own typos I just don't catch on an iPad that I would normally catch on my MacBook Pro.

Today I'm in Phoenix, Arizona, which is one godforsaken hole Satan himself created to fukk with Americans. There's nothing to do here except inhale liquor (I suppose I could head up to Sedona, which is very cool), but I'll be back in Northern California late Saturday night, just a few hours before United are back in action and then my indoor soccer game. Then some serious chilling action for Nick's Day.

I'll try to be more vigilant spotting and correcting the typos.
 
7dan said:
:eek: where did this come from
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I've seen unconfirmed reports Carrick may have an injury. In an event, a quick break may be in order and Fergie has only two choices for a replacement: Jones and Fletcher. Only the man who watches both in training can be sure which one is better suited to the job, but my hunch is that Fergie will go with Jones,
 
Everest Red said:
Yep. The team picks itself IMO.
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True, it's a logical XI, but do you go with this group for Swansea or for Newcastle three days later? West Brom follows three days after that.

Adjustments will have to be made somewhere. Despite their horror form of late, Newcastle concerns me. And West Brom can't be taken too lightly either.

Then Wigan soon after that, but that may be looking too far ahead.

I suppose the safest route is to go strong for Swansea, rest whoever you have to rest for Newcastle and then go strong again for West Brom. The roll the dice with a less than full strength squad v Wigan.

My hunch is that every single one of us would happily take 10 points, maybe even 9, from those 12 on the table.
 
I'd be thrilled with 9 definitely - not sure why, since we should really beat those 4 teams hands down. But with such a busy schedule, I'll be thrilled to see us top after it all.
 
Hernandez - BFA said:
I'd be thrilled with 9 definitely - not sure why, since we should really beat those 4 teams hands down. But with such a busy schedule, I'll be thrilled to see us top after it all.
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Meanwhile, City have Reading, Sunderland, Norwich and Stoke during that same period of time. 12 points is not at all unrealistic for them. It's an arbitrary sense on my part, but I'd really like to hang on to at least 6 point lead on City on the evening of January. Realistically, however, you know they'll be nipping at our heels through May.

Just keep the wheels turning out wins while we manage the workload. There's no better manager on Earth suited to the task than the Harvard man, Sir Alex Ferguson.
 
The flip side of having lots of games over a short period is that if you can hit a bit of form, you bosh through them and before you know it you've wrapped up a quick 12 points.
 
Northstand said:
Not sure I agree with that, Barcelona aside; we have an excellent record against Arsenal, for instance. United tend to struggle more with physically powerful sides who play a pressing game.

Swansea's home record this season is nothing to write home about - they have recorded only three wins, which is the same as Liverpool!

The same side as Saturday would be great, with Rafael maybe getting a recall. Just hope Carrick is fit, though.
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Bilbao ring a bell?
 
gooDevil said:
With our big squad it's a great opportunity to pick up a few points on our main competitor, most years we manage it.
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Possibly. I feel like compared to previous years our big squad is a bit deceptive. There are a fair few players on there that feel less like capable back-up and more like a temptation to tinker unnecessarily. Plus we're almost too strong in some areas (up front, for example), and too weak in others (central midfield, obviously.)

So for example, Vidic, Smalling, Ferdinand and Jones are all potentially available CBs. We won't need all of them, and Jones is at the bottom of the list. Meanwhile, with Carrick possibly joining Ando in the physio's room, our decent CM options are massively limited. The obvious consequence of these two facts is Fergie playing Jones in midfield at some point. Some might see that as a goer, but for me it's a massive no-no, and I'd rather SAF just risked overplaying Cleverley, really.
 
Plato said:
Bilbao ring a bell?
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Bilbao do not just play a pressing, possession-paced game. They're not just another Barca or Arsenal. It annoys me when people assume that because they run around a lot and pass the ball well this is what they're doing. In fact their particular brand of man-marking is fairly unique at the moment.

For me, that's not even why we struggled. We struggled because we were playing complete shite at the time.
 
Brightonian said:
Bilbao do not just play a pressing, possession-paced game. They're not just another Barca or Arsenal. It annoys me when people assume that because they run around a lot and pass the ball well this is what they're doing. In fact their particular brand of man-marking is fairly unique at the moment.

For me, that's not even why we struggled. We struggled because we were playing complete shite at the time.
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Hold on mate. Nowhere did I say they're another Barca. I said we tend to struggle against teams who keep the ball well. IMO, Arsenal don't even keep it that well. We just act like men and they gift us the ball. We counterattack and it's game over.

We'll see how we fare at swansea. Your annoyance doesn't correspond to my argument, it corresponds to his.

And we clearly struggled with their man-marking system. It was a season where anytime we were put under pressure, we had problems. But anyway, Im about to board my next flight. Enjoy the match!
 
Plato said:
Hold on mate. Nowhere did I say they're another Barca. I said we tend to struggle against teams who keep the ball well. IMO, Arsenal don't even keep it that well. We just act like men and they gift us the ball. We counterattack and it's game over.

We'll see how we fare at swansea. Your annoyance doesn't correspond to my argument, it corresponds to his.

And we clearly struggled with their man-marking system. It was a season where anytime we were put under pressure, we had problems. But anyway, Im about to board my next flight. Enjoy the match!
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True. Just easier to quote your post, sorry. :p
 
Was this moved from Saturday to Sunday ? My calendar lists it as a Sat match.
 
I think this could be the game that sees Valencia back in full flow. Ben Davies has done really well but I think he's there to be got at. I don't think Rangel's back for it, so we should hopefully get some joy down the wings.

Midfield should be interesting. I think Britton's having another great season but he'll need help with Rooney & also with Carrick & Cleverley looking good. When I've watched Swansea, Ki's looked half a step off the pace several times, but maybe this is one where he rises to the occasion.
 
Same team that beat Sunderland please.
 
Ruud10 said:
That would be ideal, but then who do you see starting for Newcastle three days later?
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Away to Swansea is a tougher game than at home to an awful Newcastle side.

We shouldn't need to make many changes. We've not played that much football recently.
 
If anyone has a spare for this I'm absolutely desperate and could return the favour in the future as we apply for every away and get about half of them.
 
Looking at the weather warnings for Wales over the next 24/48 hours, what are the chances of the game being called off, I dont know how well the Swansea pitch drains, but there is a hell of a lot of rain due to fall. Even travelling down there could be a problem.
 
I think the important thing is to start the same way we did against Sunderland, come out with energy and intensity get early goals then rest people. Hopefully we can get our subs a bit better this time though so we don't end up having to work hard soaking up pressure at the end.
 
Feed Me said:
DDG

Jones Smalling Vidic Evra

Valencia Carrick Cleverley Young

Rooney

RvP
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This, 100 times over.

Hopefully Carrick makes it, I'm sure that he will. Rafa picking up that injury was infortunate, but I'm sure that Jones will put in a good shift.
 
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