Manchester United v Aston Villa Pre-Match Thread January 1st 8pm

[PaulWinch again]

Traore gave Chilwell so much room on Monday. They'll likely try and exploit that with Rashford/Greenwood. I'd bring Barkley in.

Yes however we approach this we need to minimise their space. They’re limited tactically, but they are very good at exploiting space.

[Risso]

Traore gave Chilwell so much room on Monday. They'll likely try and exploit that with Rashford/Greenwood. I'd bring Barkley in.

He tightened up a bit second half but he was all over the place first half, and rightly got a tongue lashing from Cash after the goal.

[andyh]

I sense that Yanited are being more cocky and obnoxious than normal because they are high in the table (for a change).
Time to bring the fuckers down a peg or two.

[SoccerHQ]

this is the big one for me; forget Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea blah blah blah - if there's one away game you want to win, it's at Old Trafford. Smith needs to make sure the players know how big winning this, or even avoiding defeat would be. It would give us a serious platform to compete for a top 6 finish.

Good omen is we drew twice up there 0-0 in the mid 90s under SBL and those were both January games.

Wouldn't shock me if that is the scoreline tonight as we've hardly conceded away this season and they've struggled to score at home bar the mad Leeds game.

I suspect we'll play things like we did going to Leicester and see what we can create on counter attack.

Can't see Barkley thrown back in to start as given he lasted one minute of the Brighton game he hasn't played for nearly 8 weeks now so rare you throw a player straight back into start of high intensity game.

Hopefully will be on the bench and get last 30 minutes the he starts v Liverpool.

[mobythevillan]

From Deano's comments elsewhere, he likely won't change much in the lineup (at kick-off at least), so Manure can't afford to take us for granted. How often could we have said THAT? I really hope they do of course, the cocky Manky twatpieces. Continuity for a change, let the opposition worry about us, and as I would have said many years ago: Gerrinta em and f***k em off....

[RamboandBruno]

Traore gave Chilwell so much room on Monday. They'll likely try and exploit that with Rashford/Greenwood. I'd bring Barkley in.

Agree with this. Traore has done well in the last few games, but was dodgy first half against Chelsea, although to be fair pulled it round second half.  Can see that barcklay won’t be match fit, but he’s a big game player. Generally, apart from
Leeds and Southampton (1st half) we look far more dynamic with barcklay behind Watkins, linking with grealish and Targett on the left. I’d play him for 50 or 60 mins then bring Traore on

[Skerra]

Great goal from Watkins but, judged to be offside, even though his run started from inside our own penalty area. Immediately after this, one of their divers trips over a blade of grass around the halfway line. The referee picks up said blade of grass, puts it into our penalty area and goes to VAR. They take 5 minutes to review the decision and then award the penalty. They score from the penalty. We equalise in the 44th minute but, ref puts his watch on a couple of minutes so, goal is ruled out as ref says he had already blown for half time.
What will the second half bring, anyone!!??

[brontebilly]

I'll be stunned if Smith doesn't bring both Barkley and Mings straight back in. I think Smith will be keen to get Grealish on the left wing to target AWB who appears really short of confidence currently.

[Ads]

Barkley was out on the 21st November, so its not as long as it appears.

[SoccerHQ]

Barkley was out on the 21st November, so its not as long as it appears.

He played grand total of one minute of that game so it's two days off eight weeks really from Arsenal away. That's a long time to be out and we don't want him starting just to pull up again after 20 minutes. Rather ease him in and start him v Liverpool to get him properly match fit for Spurs and Everton.

Anyone know how far off Trez is as he'd be another useful sub option for last 20 minutes given his workrate.

[Risso]

Barkley was out on the 21st November, so its not as long as it appears.

Smith said if we weasn't back for the Wolves game, it would be just after. That was three weeks ago.

[ChicagoLion]

Don’t think we can leave Cash exposed with Traore in front of him.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

From Deano's comments elsewhere, he likely won't change much in the lineup (at kick-off at least), so Manure can't afford to take us for granted.

I reckon Dean was bluffing. I expect he'll make a change or two, certainly Barkley if he's fit.

Let's go out and beat the Plastics though that will only happen if they don't get given a penalty. 2-1 Villa.

[Ads]

Barkley was out on the 21st November, so its not as long as it appears.

He played grand total of one minute of that game so it's two days off eight weeks really from Arsenal away. That's a long time to be out and we don't want him starting just to pull up again after 20 minutes. Rather ease him in and start him v Liverpool to get him properly match fit for Spurs and Everton.

Anyone know how far off Trez is as he'd be another useful sub option for last 20 minutes given his workrate.

I think he will start.

As an aside Redcafe appears to have some catastrophically archetypal Yanited fans on it;

This is still a villa team that survived relegation by the skin of their teeth last year.

Keep Grealish out of the game and they don’t offer a huge amount.

We shouldn’t fear them, play to our strengths and we should win.

[Lastfootstamper]

Manyoo don't have a left back anywhere near as good as Chilwell.