Its not exciting, but something to get in the mood for tonight ...
Team Selection
De Gea
Bailly Smalling Lindelof
Valencia Herrera Pogba Mitchell
Mkhitaryan
Rashford Lukaku
And the rest
We've got a good track record in Houston. I'm looking forward to seeing how we match up against a quality side. Wouldn't mind seeing us try a 3-5-2 again, or possibly a 4-4-2
Lets batter them!
Glad this is on at 3am UK time so I don't have to sit through it. Pointless game.
On paper it's a friendly but we best win. Don't care if it's a cup final or a game of fifa, I always want to beat City!
I really hope to see Lukaku and Rashford playing together against the big teams coming up now. Marcus' improved chemistry with Lukaku bodes well for us, given the fact that they are really our two most potent attacking threats….Mikhi would be expected to float around the front three as he did so effectively today; he was immense in taking up positions in those little pockets of space….My one hope is that Pereira is not being lined up for the CDM role this season - he would seem too talented a midfielder to be in that part of the pitch. He could nicely cover for Herrera and Pogba in those two advanced CM roles and he certainly can pick a pass. Not to jinx it, but I really have high hopes for the young lad.
With it being a friendly I hope we actually try to play football against them this time.
City fans already keeping this on the down low as just a friendly and expecting to be beat which won't really matter. They'd be getting giddy if they won, that's for sure.
We should beat them, they haven't played a game yet have they? If we don't it will be annoying to say the least.
1-1 prediction. There'll probably be a bad challenge or two as well
Carrick was so slow in that game the other night. People were just walking up to him and taking the ball off him. This wouldn't really be acceptable in a pre-season game if it was happening because it was a pre-season game, as it's just patheticly bad...but the problem is it's exactly how he plays in actual games. The fact it's such an issue it stands out even in a pre-season kickabout only emphasises how much of an obvious problem it is. You just can't play him against any team that might press the ball…Too many of our players also seemed unable to differentiate between passing the ball to someone 3 metres away from them, and trying to kick it with such force that it might break the sound barrier…Not sure what the red card was about. Seemed like the ref had time to leave the ppitch and place a bet on himself sending Valencia off, before cominng back and sending him off.
Looking at our squad the way it is, I think it's more suited to a 352 honestly. Rashford and Martial are both probably better as a front 2 then either being a lone striker or being pure wingers, Mkhitaryan is better through the middle (as is Mata), Valencia is basically alone on the right all the time anyway, we don't really have any good left backs/left wing backs so that's not much of a change, but this way we get to use 2 strikers, increasing our attacking threat while still keeping a midfield 3 to get the best out of Pogba. Plus uses 3 center backs and we have a lot of options there at the moment.
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