West Bromwich Albion vs. Manchester United

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Is this the strongest starting XI of a seventh place club in the history of football?
 
Fourth is still on, if we win every game then Arsenal must drop 11 points and this is possible (unlikely but possible).

I do wonder whether playing Smalling and Jones is moreso looking toward the future, even if Vidic is leaving, would it not be better to play him?

Or is there a tactical reason for his omission?

Otherwise, the team I hoped.
 
good line up.

it is time to drop vidic. he is not going to be with us much longer and we are very much building for the future so the best thing is to let jones-smalling combo play as much as possible, until one of them gets injured again of course, or even rafael and then smalling will move to RB again,knowing our luck.

fellaini was decent last time he played and he deserves another start, and the front 4 is the best possible that we could put out.

the only problem is that with mata cup tied in the CL we'll revert back to young or valencia in the 2nd leg of the CL. the only good thing is that we can expect these kind of line up for our remaining league matches granted everyone is fit.
 
Christ. That's a fantastic team. Put Evans in for one of Smalling or Jones and IMO our best team. Can't wait.

I was so postive after the Crystal Palace result/performance, but after the game in Greece, I thought we were back to square one. If we can not only win, but perform well, perhaps the Olympiakos result was an anomaly and we can make a late charge this season.

/optimism
 
McManananananananananaman and Hargreaves correct...we are trying to fit 3 in to 2.

Drop Rooney (can't happen it's in his 300k week contract I'm sure), drop RvP (can't, he's the best striker in the club)

Requires managerial bollocks from Moyes - missing
 
Team looks good but still will be all about how they play. Will Rooney play to close to rvp, will we get multiple runners of the ball etc. these have been just as much an issue as anything imo.
 
Bugger me he's only gone and picked the perfect team.
 
Arguably our best lineup. Now let's hope moyes gets us playing good football. Really don't understand why he went to such a shit and stupid lineup against olympiacos, he dug his own grave there.
 
Nickosaur said:
Christ. That's a fantastic team. Put Evans in for one of Smalling or Jones and IMO our best team. Can't wait.

I was so postive after the Crystal Palace result/performance, but after the game in Greece, I thought we were back to square one. If we can not only win, but perform well, perhaps the Olympiakos result was an anomaly and we can make a late charge this season.

/optimism
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I worry we're in for a repeat trick. Good lineup, performance and win today that'll raise hopes and confidence. Then against Liverpool and particularly Olympiacos we'll see Moyes revert to his "strongest" team, with our performance following suit. It would actually hurt all the more after what seems like a step forward today.

Hopefully I'm wrong but I'd be surprised if I was. We could conceivably win two of the next three games and come out more demoralised than we are now.
 
One of the few times every season where we decide to play what everyone feels is our strongest team.

It often seems like Fergie/Moyes were trolling us, there is usually at least one selection that pisses everyone off and seems to make no sense, but can't argue today.

Hope they put on the performance to justify it and force Moyes to continue with such a side.
 
Raven Blade said:
Full confidence in that team selection. We have to make sure this game is decided by pure ability above all else. Those players have got it all.
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I'd think that's the opposite of what we want. I thought we'd prefer a performance where our system actually worked, rather than rely on a few bits of one off brilliance from the players. That way, it'd actually give us some confidence that we're actually moving forward as a team, and that Moyes actually has a game plan and philosophy in mind.

Good team selection though, and it'll be interesting to see if he's worked out the Rooney-RVP conundrum.
 
Gannicus said:
Is this the strongest starting XI of a seventh place club in the history of football?
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It's probably a stronger XI than Fergie was able to call upon in any of his final 3 seasons as manager. Unfortunately the problem this season hasn't been the players available as much as the dreadful system they've been playing in.
 
Top class line up. However, a few of the players have been on international duty so expecting a sluggish first half.
 
Infra-red said:
It's probably a stronger XI than Fergie was able to call upon in any of his final 3 seasons as manager. Unfortunately the problem this season hasn't been the players available as much as the dreadful system they've been playing in.
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If our first attack involves getting it wide and pumping a cross in I'm
gonna lose it.
 
Well the chosen XI looks up to the job on a computer screen but...

Moyes is assuming that West Brom will park the bus for most of this one i suppose, time will tell.

Kagawa makes the bench mind you and i did wonder if his globe trotting would rule that out.
 
Spirits are high after seeing the line up. This season, however, has taught me to be cautious.
 
Infra-red said:
It's probably a stronger XI than Fergie was able to call upon in any of his final 3 seasons as manager. Unfortunately the problem this season hasn't been the players available as much as the dreadful system they've been playing in.
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Good point, it is probably the strongest first XI I've seen post-Ronaldo.
 
Well, this is the first time I recall Moyes starting the lineup most of us seem to want (other than the other week where the forced change was Smalling at RB), so let's see how good it is. If we lose this match then even though I will mostly blame the players, it might just show that they don't want to play for him...

Love the side though and feeling positive! Hope we smash them and go on a run at last.

Edit: also totally agree with this being the best first 11 in a while. I've always said I think we can field as strong a first 11 as pretty much any PL side... But our squad is severely thinner than it used to be.
 
The only thing Id change here is Evans in if he werent injured. Lets hope its not just the lineup thats looking good but that Moyes will also get the lads playing some good football. Hopefully Kagawa will get a run out after around 60 mins too, regardless of how its going.
 
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