Manchester United v Villa pre-match thread

[dave.woodhall]

Another one where you don’t know where to start. During the time H&V has been going they’ve been bad losers, bad winners and now they’re bad losers again. There might come a time when they grow a bit of humility, but now is not that time. Anyone who goes there will be under no illusion that we are strictly on there to make up the numbers and there’d be a minimum spend on all tickets sold if they could get away with it. They might not be the best team in the league anymore but they’re still world champions when it comes to screwing the last penny out of the paying punter. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer still hasn’t made anyone really regret that he didn’t want to be our manager, even when the second choice was Paul Lambert, Ashley Young’s 35, which makes you realise how time’s going too fast and Axel Tuanzebe should get a good reception from our supporters. And that’s about all that’s worth saying about them.

Wouldn’t it be great if we go up there and win? And wouldn’t it not be all that much of a surprise, because they aren’t all that good? There really isn’t anything to fear about them, and a win is definitely possible.

Things newfooty fans won’t know – Not much. They used to support Manchester United. Now they can’t get the tickets a few miles further on.   

[cdbearsfan]

I'm refusing to get my hopes up. It's Man U v Villa. Doesn't matter how badly they are playing, or even what team they put out. We will find a way to fuck it up. Probably late on having had the lead.

[olaftab]

Well hopefully their  little outing to FC Astana on Thursday  will help us.

[Bad English]

1-2. Beetroot Face to leave the directors' box early, with a grinning Purslow sticking his hand out as he stomps out.

[wittonwarrior]

We could  be outstanding but you just know what will happen. 

[cdbearsfan]

Well hopefully their  little outing to FC Astana on Thursday  will help us.

None of their first team are going, they're already through.

Goalkeepers: Lee Grant (36), Matej Kovar (19).

Defenders: Max Taylor (19), Luke Shaw (24), Axel Tuanzebe (22), Teden Mengi (17), Di'Shon Bernard (19), Ethan Laird (18).

Midfielder: Dylan Levitt (19), Ethan Galbraith (18), Arnau Puigmal (18), James Garner (18), Jesse Lingard (26), Tahith Chong (19), Angel Gomes (19).

Forwards: Largie Ramazani (19), D'Mani Bughail-Mellor (19), Mason Greenwood (18).

[Richard E]

If we were 9-0 up in the 96th minute and they were down to 8 men I still wouldn’t be confident we’d see it through.

[Flin5tone]

1-1

Can see us getting something if we play like last night, turn up like we did against Wolverhampton and we'll get beat

[PeterWithesShin]

Them 0-5 Us.

[PeterWithesShin]

Referee: Craig Pawson
Assistants: Ian Hussin, Darren Cann
Fourth official: Anthony Taylor
VAR: Kevin Friend
Assistant VAR: Matthew Wilkes

[Marlon From Bearwood]

For the first time in possibly 30 years, you can look at the two line ups before a Man U v Villa game and say that we have the stronger midfield.

We’ll be bang up for this and I’m confident we’ll get at least a draw.

[ChicagoLion]

They still have a lot of good players and a lot of pace in the team. They are not a balanced side particularly central midfield and defense.
We can certainly give them a game though but I have experienced too many disappointments to get my hopes up.

[Des Little]

If we were 9-0 up in the 96th minute and they were down to 8 men I still wouldn’t be confident we’d see it through.

This.

[cdbearsfan]

The only good thing about our matches against Man U is the invention of inplay betting for the occasions when we take the lead.

[SoccerHQ]

Well hopefully their  little outing to FC Astana on Thursday  will help us.

They're taking pretty much a youth team there, think Tuanzebe, Luke Shaw and Lingard are the only seniors travelling. Certainly frustrating in that if they were playing any other team this weekend you can bet they'd have been struggling in the europa group and would've had to take a full first team over, it's an 8 hour flight so not great recovery time.

Edit: CDB already said this.

Anyway....if the players go out on the pitch and really believe they can get a result I think they will.

We've come close to getting points v Arsenal, Spurs and Liverpool and were also holding Man. City 0-0 to half time and Man. United are probably going to finish below all of them.

They're without their first choice central midfielders so we really should be getting at Fred and Pereria, those two really struggled against Sheffield United's middle trio who just passed the ball around them. Very tough call over Luiz or Nakamba, think Dean will stick with unchanged 11.

1-2 win!