Some great posts on this thread.

Watching the Seville game, it was clear that although Frank wanting to win, he prioritised making sure we did not lose.

Neutrals appear to like our gung-ho approach, but I think moving forward we need a mind set and team culture that says we will not lose or concede goals. We can then build upon this.

We have so much quality in the team going forward that we are more than capable of winning close tactical games.

Just hope we don’t get a sucker punch through a counter attack.

A while back Rudiger looked good then turned keystone cop. Zuma a while back looked keystone cop then looked good and just as we are starting to conclude he may be a safe CD he goes back to being keystone cop style.

Whenever a CD thinks he is more skilful than he is errors will occur. The biggest preoccupation for any CD must be an engrained sense of danger. Constructive paranoia and a rejection of vanity because sometimes the job is to get the ball out even if it does not look pretty. This aspect to defending appears to be lost and over the last year or so it has cost us a lot.

Fed up with playing with 2 in the midfield and getting ripped apart; Frank has to play with at least 3 midfielders against the top opposition. Kovacic for me has to play as one of the 3 and sit deeper with Kante for this game with Havertz sat just ahead of them; Take your pick of the front 3.  Jorghino though will have to sit this one out for me due to his lack of pace and tackling abilities, Mount needs a rest.....one of those games where Barkley might have been useful...just a thought 

My fear is that we go into this match thinking that we can dominate possession and get a result from it because it might just be us playing into their hands because they would just score as soon as our press doesn't work or something like that, I doubt that we can fix our problem with the high press so fast.

Shame they had that good result midweek as I'm sure their confidence is running sky high, but the longer Ole stays in the role the better it will be for everyone else in the league.

Obviously we have enough talent to win the game, however I am not feeling optimistic about this one. I'm predicting a narrow loss. Probably a last minute penalty from Fernandes.

1-0. Jorginho to be sent off.

1 hour ago, Strider6003 said:

Didn't think on the Drogba thing, for me he was always pumped up for Liverpool yet I guess with Arsenal it might have had an added dimension of,

'Who is the best African player on the block?'

Your absolutely right about the v Liverpool games, but I just always remember, in the build up especially,  feeling a bit ‘comfortable’ v the arsewipes when Drogba was playing, he terrorised their CB’s and Senderos especially - I think he scored something like 12 or more times in not many more matches - so I used to look forward to that fixture particularly and it didn’t matter much where it was being played. 

3 hours ago, Andy North said:

Yeah I forgot to mention Mendy. Its like you don't even have to think about it.

 

It’s ridiculous after 3 games , but your right , it’s like a load has been lifted ??

1 hour ago, The Swan said:

Some great posts on this thread.

Watching the Seville game, it was clear that although Frank wanting to win, he prioritised making sure we did not lose.

Neutrals appear to like our gung-ho approach, but I think moving forward we need a mind set and team culture that says we will not lose or concede goals. We can then build upon this.

We have so much quality in the team going forward that we are more than capable of winning close tactical games.

Just hope we don’t get a sucker punch through a counter attack.

A while back Rudiger looked good then turned keystone cop. Zuma a while back looked keystone cop then looked good and just as we are starting to conclude he may be a safe CD he goes back to being keystone cop style.

Whenever a CD thinks he is more skilful than he is errors will occur. The biggest preoccupation for any CD must be an engrained sense of danger. Constructive paranoia and a rejection of vanity because sometimes the job is to get the ball out even if it does not look pretty. This aspect to defending appears to be lost and over the last year or so it has cost us a lot.

I suspect Micky Droy might agree with you. 

1 hour ago, The Swan said:

Some great posts on this thread.

Watching the Seville game, it was clear that although Frank wanting to win, he prioritised making sure we did not lose.

Neutrals appear to like our gung-ho approach, but I think moving forward we need a mind set and team culture that says we will not lose or concede goals. We can then build upon this.

 

Whenever a CD thinks he is more skilful than he is errors will occur. The biggest preoccupation for any CD must be an engrained sense of danger. Constructive paranoia and a rejection of vanity because sometimes the job is to get the ball out even if it does not look pretty. This aspect to defending appears to be lost and over the last year or so it has cost us a lot.

This works for me.

Natural ball playing defenders who can do it all (arguably like VVD) are a very rare commodity and consequently very expensive, especially if they already have a reputation - somebody mentioned that our scouts did a good job ‘finding’ Chilwell, I don’t mean to be petty, but I’m not sure he was lost - his pedigree was there to be seen, it was only ever a matter of if he wanted it and how much Leicester could ring out of us.

Where our scouts would earn their dough is finding the next ‘one’ , probably needs to be a kid that we can develop, I don’t imagine that they aren’t trying, I don’t say that it’s easy and I’m sure they have to sometimes wait until Real M and Barca etc have had their dinner first ?

Sarr played last night for Porto v manc city, they lost but he did ok apparently - who knows ? 

Don't have a good feeling about this.  For how awful they area as a club, United are a lucky team.  Keep reminding myself we took care of them in the FA Cup.  Need a committed and focused performance.

Sadly this will be another 3 or 4 nil drubbing...but at least it might bring forward desperately needed change in management etc.

1 hour ago, doctorblue said:

Sadly this will be another 3 or 4 nil drubbing...but at least it might bring forward desperately needed change in management etc.

what changes in Management are you expecting and why do you think changes are necessary within 6 games, bearing in mind we've lost 1 game in those 6 and that game was against the Champions from last season?

I have a feeling we might change formation to 3-4-3 to incorporate both Azi and James.

mendy

azi Silva zouma 

james kova kante chilly 

pulusic Abraham Werner 

 

Kia and Mount  have played a lot of minutes, would only Use both in second half if needed.

give Ziyech 30 mins second half 

 

Jimmy Floyd

Kante, after this Mourinho told Conte to keep it down...

 

 

The buildup still going on... Cmon Chels

6 hours ago, doctorblue said:

Sadly this will be another 3 or 4 nil drubbing...but at least it might bring forward desperately needed change in management etc.

Another? When was our last 3 or 4 nil drubbing? 
 

If we don’t win tomorrow it will be a close game like every game against them, in fact we have outplayed them in every game even when we have lost. 

Very hard to call this game, 

United have won the last 2 games in all competitions, where as we have drawn 2.  So we need to start wining again.
 

my concern is Zouma , as he has made some big mistakes at the back recently. United love to win on the counter, so I would say we should be more cautious and be more compact. 
 

mendy 

Azbi zouma silva chillwell 

kante kovacic 

ziyech havertz pulisic 

werner 

 

On 22/10/2020 at 15:00, SlantyTown said:

Shame they had that good result midweek as I'm sure their confidence is running sky high, but the longer Ole stays in the role the better it will be for everyone else in the league.

Obviously we have enough talent to win the game, however I am not feeling optimistic about this one. I'm predicting a narrow loss. Probably a last minute penalty from Fernandes.

 

I don't care about the good result they had during the week. Football is a game of many matches, we too could have had a win, a lose or a draw before this game. So winning a match before this match is irrelevant to this match. 

It's a shame that so many people in the world do not have any business commenting about football, they don't know anything about football. Seriously, for now, with how difficult the premier league is now, against big teams, I feel we should be using two defensively minded midfielders in that midfield behind Havertz.

They will do all the work and make it easy for Havertz to do what we want him to do. On the part of the Chelsea board, I feel when they bought Havertz, they should have prioritised us buying a DM to partner Kante behind Havertz. 

For so many people that want us to be playing Barcelona's style, with one DM, i hope they remember Bayern beat them 8-2 last season. 

For tommorow, I feel what Man United may do is to play Matic in that midfield. They may want to use his intelligence to coordinate their midfield and break our midfield down. I feel Chelsea's weakness is that midfield.

On the way!

22 minutes ago, Jezq8 said:

Very hard to call this game, 

United have won the last 2 games in all competitions, where as we have drawn 2.  So we need to start wining again.
 

my concern is Zouma , as he has made some big mistakes at the back recently. United love to win on the counter, so I would say we should be more cautious and be more compact. 
 

mendy 

Azbi zouma silva chillwell 

kante kovacic 

ziyech havertz pulisic 

werner 

 

I am not concerned about Zouma's ball playing ability in this game as I just don't think United will press him high up the pitch & he will get time on the ball to pick his passes forward. If Thiago, Zouma, Chilwell, Azpi & Mendy are included in the backline I would feel fairly confident in our defense however I am mostly concerned about major individual mistakes, so far every game bar Crystal Palace one of our defenders has committed a major blunder.

2 hours ago, Gol15 said:

On the way!

Lets hope those smiles are still there on the way back.

Stick Kante on Fernandes and if Kante wins the battle we will probably win the game. United surely going with 3-4-1-2 dropping Maguire again after the midweek win, OGS will be feeling confident to stick with it and the fans will demand it. I hope he does because i think it could play into our hands, we have the attack to dismantle a back 3, with Shaw on the left, Silva plays and James can really push forward, James will pull Shaw out of position on the wing and we can make hay at the back post if Werner is on his toes. 

Very fearful utd will win this. I just think we will start really sluggish, careless with the ball and Utd will get an early goal as their energy levels will be right up and at us. 

My expectations

man utd 0-1 Chelsea ?

scores goal Silva 

Liverpool 0-8 Sheff Utd

????????

Mohammed salalah scores in his goal ?

????????

This is the line up I would like to see :

                             

                         Mendy

James      Silva          Zouma           Chilwell

                Kanté        Kovacic

Ziyech             Havertz               Pulisic

                        Werner

That front four should cause United a lot of problems and hopefully win us the game just in case Ziyech isn't fit to start let Odoi start and bring Ziyech later on.                                                                 

By the way if it was possible Lampard's dream line up would be : 

                                

                         Mount

Mount     Mount          Mount           Mount

                Mount          Mount

Mount               Mount               Mount

                          Mount

???

 

18 hours ago, Gol15 said:

Jimmy Floyd

Kante, after this Mourinho told Conte to keep it down...

 

Two great goals.?