R.I.P. Ugo Ehiogu

I liked this player always, I remember I always used to buy him when I played Championship Manager.

(http://www.goal.com/en-gb/news/2896/premier-l...722/-)

Having a manager like Mourinho means so much when it comes to attracting top players, there is no doubt about it.

What an ugly game :(

If someone never watched football before but saw the game tonight, I doubt he/she would be attracted by this sport, which is usually beautiful, but not this game.

It is disgraceful for Mourinho and United to ever play for 0-0.

It was obvious that with this attitude tonight we were not going to score, at least not score more than City. It wasn't even tactics to play on counter-attack, as City's central defenders were positioned very well and didn't risk being hit on the counter, especially not by a team which attacks with one player, maximum two.

We were missing Pogba very much, Martial was frustrated on the wing or almost on left back, Miki was nowhere to be seen, etc.

We are still in the fight for top 4, we can still reach Liverpool and surpass City, but tonight it seemed that Mourinho had already decided to focus on EL, or just to wait for another chance.

The only positive thing from tonight's game is that Fellaini will not be able to play in the next 2-3 games. On the other hand, the bad news is that he will be in the starting 11 against Celta next Thursday. Tonight was one of his worst games and he proved yet another time that he is an epic idiot with a naive reaction to Aguero's provocation.

If United were to play like you suggest, they would have came home with 0 points in their hands and way lower chances for top 4. Given the injuries and the fatigue, this was the best gameplan in the circumstances. Also, it's Mourinho, what were you expecting? He started the Chelsea game with the same tactic, only then we were lucky to score that early goal and send them into panic mode for the rest of the first half.

What Fellaini did was stupid, but not deserving a straight red card, a second yellow at best. Aguero dived both at the foul and the following "headbutt" [Fellaini barely touched him while he flies off to the ground, give me a break] but if the referee is blind as Atkinson tonight it's to be expected. Other than that, Fellaini had a very good game until then, cheering for his absence is a poor attitude on your part considering how overworked our midfield is and how valuable the Belgian is in certain types of games. Against Arsenal and Spurs having someone of his qualities in the midfield is extremely valuable. Ok, Fosu-Mensah will get some game time, but with 2 vital PL games in the next 2 weeks having only 4 players for a 3 central midfield formation will be gruesome.

If United were to play like you suggest, they would have came home with 0 points in their hands and way lower chances for top 4.

I don't remember suggesting anything in particular, so how do you know we would come home with 0 points?

What I told is that is disgraceful to play for 0-0. I follow United for more than 25 years and I don't remember we ever played this way, as we always went to win games (at least in the league), not draw.

City's defence is not unbeatable, we had a chance to surpass them and we needed to try at least, instead of going for 0-0.

He started the Chelsea game with the same tactic

Wrong.

Against Chelsea we played a kind of 4-4-2, with Rashford and Lingard upfront, three in the middle, Young left midfielder/wing, Valencia offensive RB.

What Fellaini did was stupid, but not deserving a straight red card, a second yellow at best.

Rules are rules and you cannot interpret them this way. A headbutt is a red card, doesn't matter if he barely touched him or not. Anyway, even if it was a second yellow, he was off and left his team-mates in trouble just because he could not control himself. This is highly unprofessional and stupid. Just when he was starting to play a bit better and I was almost convinced that he might be a player for our bench and some special tasks, he reminded me what a liability he was.

Other than that, Fellaini had a very good game until then, cheering for his absence is a poor attitude on your part considering how overworked our midfield is and how valuable the Belgian is in certain types of games.

He didn't have a good game, he had a poor game. Lost a lot of balls either on the ground and in the air, all in all one of his worst games for United, in my opinion.
Cheering for his absence is not a poor attitude, but just my frustration that we still have this player in our team, with the third manager...
Moyes made a mistake by bringing him because he didn't have a clue what to do with United (let alone the amount of money he spent for him), but LVG and Mourinho also kept him and that is a mistake. United doesn't need such a player. I know he might be valuable for SOME tasks, but sorry, that is not enough if you have ambitions to be among the best in Europe. Such player is OK for a mid table team and their ambitions.
Mourinho sold Schweinsteiger and Schneiderlin, didn't buy anyone instead of them, overplayed Pogba and therefore it is logical that now we have this situation in the middle. Anyway, since we already had Carrick and Herrera in the middle, we could have played a more offensive player in front of them, like Rooney or Miki or Lingard.

After a very good game as a striker, Martial was again pushed on the left wing, almost left back, which is another error imo.
Shaw doesn't play again, while Darmian doesn't offer much in the offensive part.

Young was very good lately, but he was on the bench again.

Therefore, with the team that played last night, we couldn't expect more than a point.

By the way, yesterday I heard a sad fact that, since SAF left, United never finished a season above City in the table. We had a chance last night to work on correcting that, but it seemed that Mourinho was pleased with one point and that he will try to get CL through Europa League.

What I told is that is disgraceful to play for 0-0. I follow United for more than 25 years and I don't remember we ever played this way, as we always went to win games (at least in the league), not draw.

United were also stronger in the past 25 years. You can say what you want, but City's squad is very strong and the only reason they're underperforming is because Guardiola really wants to implement his style [which takes time to teach] instead of one that is easier to put into application. Ergo, going there looking to attack would have been bad news.

A headbutt is a red card

Yeah, but it makes a difference when it comes to the number of games he's suspended for. As I said, what he did was stupid and Aguero played him just the right amount for that.

He didn't have a good game, he had a poor game. Lost a lot of balls either on the ground and in the air, all in all one of his worst games for United, in my opinion.

What game did you watch? Herrera lost way more balls than him, some of them right to the edge of our box, Mkhi kept dribbling the ball into the feet of his opponents and had 0 product, Martial in the second half was invisible, and yet Fellaini gets the stick, unbelievable. He tackled, he intercepted, he robbed City players of the ball in some occasions, he did what he had to do in the system Mourinho designed.

Cheering for his absence is not a poor attitude, but just my frustration that we still have this player in our team, with the third manager...
Moyes made a mistake by bringing him because he didn't have a clue what to do with United, but LVG and Mourinho also kept him and that is a mistake. United doesn't need such a player. I know he might be valuable for SOME tasks, but sorry, that is not enough if you have ambitions to be among the best in Europe. Such player is OK for a mid table team and their ambitions

It still shows poor attitude on your part. Cheering for one of your player's suspensions is already in poor taste, but doing that to someone who despite his flaws works hard and never ever complains about the stick he gets from the fans is absolutely terrible. It's not his fault Moyes was completely in over his head and ruined himself and his career in the process. It's not his fault that LVG used him to great effect in his 1st season [remember how useful he was in the final push for 4th?], and not his fault that LVG made no progress in his 2nd season. Oh, and Fosu Mensah is also injured, cheering for a more depleted midfield are we?

Mourinho sold Schweinsteiger and Schneiderlin, didn't buy anyone instead of them, overplayed Pogba and therefore it is logical that now we have this situation in the middle. Anyway, since we already had Carrick and Herrera in the middle, we could have played a more offensive player in front of them, like Rooney or Miki or Lingard.

Mourinho left Schweini and Schneiderlin leave because they wanted to leave. Players who are held prisoner are a liability and after all.
And please, no Rooney. The insistence to play him in every match was one of LVG's greatest mistakes, his form has dipped considerably and abruptly 2 years ago. Since then, his first touch is comparable to a ball hitting the corner of a table and his finishing, while sometimes effective, is nowhere near what he had 3-4 years ago. At 31 Rooney looks in worse shape than Ibra at 35, as much as I appreciate his achievements he is unfortunately past it and has been since 2016 at least

We had a chance last night to work on correcting that, but it seemed that Mourinho was pleased with one point and that he will try to get CL through Europa League.

Top 4 is still doable and it's the most important aspect from this game. Rivalries can wait, playing for objectives is the most important part. Would you rather finish 5th and City 6th just so you can be above?

Ergo, going there looking to attack would have been bad news.

You see, this is not Manchester United mentality.

I didn't say we needed to go gung-ho, but at least a bit more wish to hurt the opponent would have been more suitable for a team that needs points, in order to gain one of top 4 spots.

What game did you watch? Herrera lost way more balls than him, some of them right to the edge of our box, Mkhi kept dribbling the ball into the feet of his opponents and had 0 product, Martial in the second half was invisible, and yet Fellaini gets the stick, unbelievable. He tackled, he intercepted, he robbed City players of the ball in some occasions, he did what he had to do in the system Mourinho designed.

I didn't say others were great (because they weren't) but we were talking about Fellaini and imo he had a poor game. I read different player ratings just to see whether it was just my bias, but all of them gave him very low ratings, so it's not a coincidence. The ratings were not low just because of a red card, but due to a poor overall performance.
As I said, the others were weak as well, especially Mkhitaryan, but at least they didn't leave their team with 10 players.

Imo, Bailly was our MOTM, but Blind was also very good.

It still shows poor attitude on your part. Cheering for one of your player's suspensions is already in poor taste, but doing that to someone who despite his flaws works hard and never ever complains about the stick he gets from the fans is absolutely terrible. It's not his fault Moyes was completely in over his head and ruined himself and his career in the process. It's not his fault that LVG used him to great effect in his 1st season [remember how useful he was in the final push for 4th?], and not his fault that LVG made no progress in his 2nd season.

What do you know about my attitude???

For example, I would never boo Fellaini or any other player if I was in the stadium because I am completely against that, but here I will surely say my opinion. I don't consider Fellaini "my" player and I never did, because he is just a mistake Moyes brought and it keeps dragging on unfortunately. I don't blame him personally as he is trying hard, I blame Moyes from bringing him and LVG and Mourinho for not selling him. Anyway, what I can blame Fellaini for is his idiotic behaviour that affects the whole team. Headbutting Aguero (even slightly) is just the last example, but there were other situations too, like a stupid penalty he made against Everton, which cost us 2 points. Those errors were very avoidable.

Oh, and Fosu Mensah is also injured, cheering for a more depleted midfield are we?

I will not comment this at all...

Mourinho left Schweini and Schneiderlin leave because they wanted to leave.

They didn't want to leave, they wanted to play.
Afterwards, when they saw they are not getting almost any minutes, it was logical for them to leave.
I don't blame Mourinho for selling them, but he should have known that, in this case, he needs to have some backup, to avoid finding himself in a situation we are in now.
Anyway, if he though we had too many midfielders and wanted to get rid of someone, he should have sold Fellaini. But then, I don't think anyone really wanted to buy Fellaini. Even if they did, what would be an offer for him? 5mil? 10mil? We would have never got more than that and there's a reason why.

Top 4 is still doable and it's the most important aspect from this game. Rivalries can wait, playing for objectives is the most important part. Would you rather finish 5th and City 6th just so you can be above?

No. Winning against City was important in order to surpass them in the table and we could have tried at least, as they are not an unbeatable opponent. We did it against Chelsea and Spurs, so why not against City?

I don't have any problems with Jose's gameplan. This was an away match at City, which is always going to be decided by fine margins. Looking at how City have played throughout the season I expected our quick forwards to cause them problems and at times they did that. In the second half our attacks became less potent and that wasn't great.

I think a large part of the reason why we played like this was the fact that we're playing so many games. I think if Jose had a full week to prepare and then a week of rest after the game, then he might have gone and tried to press them all over the pitch. They have short and not so strong strikers and we could've had a lot of joy pressing them. But as we didn't have enough time to prepare that gameplan, then it would've been a disaster to play like that. Plus it would've helped to have someone like Pogba playing instead of Carrick for that gameplan.

I agree that we missed Pogba. We relied too much on Carrick to make the forward passes. He did well, but both Herrera and Fellaini weren't able to do enough higher up the pitch. There were plenty of occasions, when their defensive line was high up the pitch and Rashford made good runs, but the others didn't manage to make the throughball. I think the gameplan was pretty good, because they were constantly struggling against Rashford and Martial.

I think that Martial didn't have a very good game yesterday. I know he had a task of keeping it compact in defense and worked a lot, but on the ball he wasn't dangerous enough. A few times he made good runs in the first half, but too often it felt he played it safe or didn't try to expose his direct opponent. I feel that's one of the things that Jose doesn't like too much about him.

The only positive thing from tonight's game is that Fellaini will not be able to play in the next 2-3 games. On the other hand, the bad news is that he will be in the starting 11 against Celta next Thursday. Tonight was one of his worst games and he proved yet another time that he is an epic idiot with a naive reaction to Aguero's provocation.

That's the kind of attitude towards him that I don't like. You seem to be making it very clear that you don't like him. I think yesterday he wasn't great, but did a good job in a team where we didn't have our first choice midfielders available. He got a stupid red card of course, but generally he played his role well.. He broke up play excellently and that's always important against a team like City. I was somewhat afraid during the last 5 minutes during the corners, because we didn't have Zlatan, Pogba or Fellaini defending them and they had Kompany, Otamendi and Yaya as pretty strong headers in our box. Fellaini is important in those situations, like it or not. He isn't going to lose his duel against anyone.

I don't think Jose has conceded the fourth spot. If we win our game in hand, then we're in fourth place. This point as actually a good point, because it theoretically put us above Liverpool. We do have some tough matches coming up in the league, but I think we're in a good position. 24 games unbeaten is impressive - just 2 teams have gone on a longer unbeaten run in PL and United have once done 24 games as well.

What I told is that is disgraceful to play for 0-0. I follow United for more than 25 years and I don't remember we ever played this way, as we always went to win games (at least in the league), not draw.

City's defence is not unbeatable, we had a chance to surpass them and we needed to try at least, instead of going for 0-0.

I think you're very wrong here. The gameplan wasn't to play for 0-0, but to defend and counter. Which is playing to the weaknesses of City. Their defense isn't very good, especially against quick forwards like Rashford.

They also don't have strong attackers, which meant that they'd find it hard to create good chances against us as they can't use the physique of their attackers. Bailly and Blind will win the duels against their opponents most of the time. They did manage to create a few great chances and we were somewhat lucky that Aguero missed two of their best chances.

This also suited our midfield, where we were depleted and couldn't choose the combination of players that we might have wanted to.

After a very good game as a striker, Martial was again pushed on the left wing, almost left back, which is another error imo.
Shaw doesn't play again, while Darmian doesn't offer much in the offensive part.

Rashford is better as a striker and you can't play against City with two strikers. They'll crush our midfield that way and create many more chances.

As for Shaw - while I like him as a player I think he hasn't earned the trust from Jose. I can understand why. He doesn't have the right mindset. He is a defender and that has to be his first concern. Sometimes it feels like he wants to be a ball playing footballer too much and takes too many risks. Most of the time they come off but sometimes they don't. Against a high pressing side like City I think he might have been a player that is capable of giving the ball away cheaply. While Darmian is limited, he plays like a true italian defender. He does whatever needed to keep a clean sheet IMO.

Young was very good lately, but he was on the bench again.

And he should've played instead of whom? Martial? Darmian? He has his qualities, but I'm very unsure about him in such types of games as a defender.

How many chances did we create? Maybe our only real chance was when Herrera missed the header in the end of 1st half.
At first I also thought we would try with counter attacks, but we couldn't, as we didn't have a possibility to do it with only one player running against 3 or 4 defenders.
Guardiola is too smart to let us hit them on the counter like that and it was especially difficult with Kompany back in their side.
It was OK to be cautious but we had to show more wish to attack, instead of having 10 men on our side of the pitch for most of the game. Moreover, City did play less games lately, but they also had injured players and they played 120 minutes against Arsenal after our 90 mins against Burnley. People seem to forget that, with Fergie we also played tough EPL and we were often in the final phases of Champions League, but anyway we mostly played attacking football until the end of the season, despite injuries ans fatigue.

Guardiola is too smart to let us hit them on the counter like that and it was especially difficult with Kompany back in their side.

Really?

His teams have always been mediocre against counterattacks and this was a good thing to exploit.

It was OK to be cautious but we had to show more wish to attack, instead of having 10 men on our side of the pitch for most of the game. Moreover, City did play less games lately, but they also had injured players and they played 120 minutes against Arsenal after our 90 mins against Burnley. People seem to forget that, with Fergie we also played tough EPL and we were often in the final phases of Champions League, but anyway we mostly played attacking football until the end of the season, despite injuries ans fatigue.

People also seem to forget how in 2008 we played total defense over 180 minutes against Barcelona in the CL semis. Fergie quite often turned to such tactics in specific games. Just like Jose does. They know the limitations of their teams and choose the tactics to fit the match.

I agree that we did have multiple competitions and a lot of matches with Fergie as well, but the circumstances were somewhat different. The quality of the squad was somewhat better and the players were all used to playing the way Fergie wanted them to. Right now we have a good but not great squad, where missing a few players takes it's toll. Look at how we missed Pogba against City. He surely would've made one or two throughballs to Rashford and created the chances.

The difference between 'good' and 'bad' rotation is the quality of the players on the bench. Leicester keeping the same 11 for almost all season last season was the right decision because they just had about 11 very good players, but for United in 2008 would've been stupid. There changing the team from game to game made a lot of sense.

I also think that it's been Jose's first season in charge and he wants to stamp his authority on the team, which means that things are done his way and if someone doesn't listen, he will happily let that player move on. That means he can't really rotate if he doesn't trust the players on the bench. In an ideal world he could've rotated more early in the season to avoid the accumulation of fatigue that inevitably increases injury risk, but he also wanted to get the team playing like he wants. He's achieved the second part largely as the only significant loss since the start of November has been in the FA Cup against Chelsea. And that was because Herrera got a red card and in that match we weren't THAT inferior even with 10 men. We've had too many draws and I think Jose is right to be critical of some of the attacking players as a result, but generally his methods have worked.

I think he knew that he was taking a risk by not rotating as much, but at the same time he needed to take that risk to get his message across and make sure that the team evolves. I think he hoped we'd get lucky and not have that many injuries and now is just playing the media by complaining and trying to keep the media pressure down while behind closed doors the message is different.

As for the match tactics against City - I think they were the only possible tactics in the circumstances and the team did well to execute them. I think Fergie would've played the game similarly. There is no shame in having a defensive gameplan away at one of your biggest rivals.

Read a good article on this topic: (http://www.espnfc.com/club/manchester-united/...f-ucl)

He's achieved the second part largely as the only significant loss since the start of November has been in the FA Cup against Chelsea. And that was because Herrera got a red card and in that match we weren't THAT inferior even with 10 men.

It was nice to see how the team played until that stupid red card. In 11 I think United could have beaten Chelsea, Mourinho used the same tactic he used in the league game. I was surprised Conte did not change anything in the 2nd game, I surely thought he realized the danger United posed in the early parts of the cup game.

Guardiola's City was weak in defence when Kompany was injured and when Zabaleta didn't play, but with their knowledge and experience, they are much better.

Moreover, we didn't really give them a tough job, as we were mostly down on our half and haven't really pushed much to try and attack.

I was really hoping to see more effort in attack. OK cautious game, but not too much. We were like most of smaller teams who come to Old Trafford and that left me a bad feeling.

We did miss Pogba badly, I already said that, but if I was Mourinho I would risk a bit more and tried to change something when I saw that we are not dangerous at all. We played something like 4-5-1 with both wide midfielders very low, so the only guy in attack (usually Rashford) found it very hard to make himself dangerous. What were the chances of something like that to work? Maybe against Demichelis, but not against both Kompany and Otamendi, especially not with Martin Atkinson who didn't give almost any small fouls.

Getting back to Pogba, the reason for is injury is because he was overplayed. There were games he didn't need to play, there were situations he could have been subbed and given some rest. Mourinho and his coaches surely knew that Pogba was in the red zone, so he could have been managed better. For example, if he knew Pogba was in trouble with fatigue, why didn't he take him off against Burnley in the 2nd half, at least in the last 15-20 minutes? Mourinho is complaining too much about injuries and schedule, but that is what you get when you are running a big team. If this is the situation, then give some more trust to some young players. Fosu-Mensah could have played many more games, Tuanzebe as well, Shaw didn't play enough, neither did Martial or Young. I am not saying they should have all played against City, but could have been used more in rotation earlier, to avoid the main players being over-fatigued.

Fergie's teams got to the end of the season less tired, because he did more rotation, gave trust to more players and risked some more.

Against Barcelona in 2008 we did play defensively, but it was the 1st leg of a cup game, not a league game where we needed points. However, my point was that this City is surely not Barcelona.

I respect Mourinho and his calculations, he probably thought a point would be enough, but it hurts me to see Man Utd play like that, that's all.

I read the text and I especially noted this:

United had just 31 percent possession, their lowest since such statistics were measured in the Premier League, and had just three shots in 90 minutes.

Not really something to be proud of.

However, not a bad text, viewing the situation from all angles (which I already did) and giving some credit to Mourinho for defending well. I don't have a problem with that, I just said we should have tried to attack a bit more, with a couple more players in some occasions.

Now, I think Mourinho must absolutely give rest to Bailly against Swansea, even if it means playing Tuanzebe in central defence. He can also play Darmian as a central defender, with Shaw on LB, but Bailly must be rested.

Getting back to Pogba, the reason for is injury is because he was overplayed. There were games he didn't need to play, there were situations he could have been subbed and given some rest. Mourinho and his coaches surely knew that Pogba was in the red zone, so he could have been managed better. For example, if he knew Pogba was in trouble with fatigue, why didn't he take him off against Burnley in the 2nd half, at least in the last 15-20 minutes?

I agree that he could've done a few things differently. But then again I wouldn't be so sure that he was in the red zone. Think about other top players like Ronaldo and Rooney at that age. They played all games, except the games in the league cup and fa cup against the lower league sides and rarely got injured back then. Pogba seems to be as ambitious as those two and probably works out as hard as them as well and keeps himself in top condition.

I wouldn't be so sure that Pogba was in the red zone. He had two weeks of rest during the international break from travelling and football and played 45 minutes in two of the games after that as well.

I agree with you that Jose's substitutions aren't like the ones we were used to with Fergie, but then again Fergie never managed to cut down the number of injuries either. I was hoping that Jose would come and help us and for long periods of the season that looked the case. Maybe we're just unlucky with injuries right now.

Fergie's teams got to the end of the season less tired, because he did more rotation, gave trust to more players and risked some more.

To be honest I think the tiredness thing is just something that Jose has been saying to divert the media's attention. He said we were really tired before the Chelsea game but we put in a great display there and the tiredness was nowhere to be seen. And after the game he smirked and said that it was a bluff basically.

I do agree that Fergie was the master of rotation, but as I already pointed out, there is a small difference between great rotation and just tinkering with the team. It only works if the second choice players can carry out the gameplan well enough. I think that the second 11 at United haven't so far earned Jose's trust and he just hasn't been able to rotate because of that. He knows that it's a ruthless business and that results are key. Had we endured a mid-season slump because of rotation, then everyone would be talking about how Jose has lost it and isn't a top manager any more and how he should get fired etc. Now he's managed the team so that we're in a good position.

I think you yourself have pointed out how you don't like some of his team selections, because you think he's not picking the best 11. Do you want more rotation or the best 11 playing? Can't really have both...

Against Barcelona in 2008 we did play defensively, but it was the 1st leg of a cup game, not a league game where we needed points. However, my point was that this City is surely not Barcelona.

I think the weaknesses of Guardiolas teams have been the same all the time. Doesn't matter what team he has. It's a structural weakness. His teams are just average defensively. The other weak link on Thursday was Yaya. But we didn't have Pogba to exploit that. Fellaini did get on the ball often enough but couldn't take advantage. I think Pogba would've sealed the game for us.

So I think the tactics were spot on.

Now, I think Mourinho must absolutely give rest to Bailly against Swansea,

I don't know. I remember how Rio-Vidic played all the important games in spring in their prime.. Darmian-Blind just doesn't feel like a good pairing. We can't take Carrick out of midfield either. And we need to win that game.

I think you yourself have pointed out how you don't like some of his team selections, because you think he's not picking the best 11. Do you want more rotation or the best 11 playing? Can't really have both...

Well, not really...

I was maybe saying that Mourinho should have chosen a different starting lineup, that he is not using best players in some positions or uses some players in positions which are not their best.

I never said that he shouldn't rotate, though.

So Neymar posts a picture of himself out on the town with his sister. Is it just me, or is this a truly weird fucking photo?

(https://www.instagram.com/p/BTl2qSqjldB/)

What sister sticks her tits into her brother like that for a photo??

I would rest Rashford tomorrow and start Martial as a number 9, with Mata, Mikhi and Lingard (or Young) behind.
Pogba and Herrera (or Fellaini) in central midfield, while the defensive four depends on availability.

Carrick and Rashford would be on the bench, in case we need them to come on.

It would be great to bring home a positive result, in order to concentrate on Sunday's game against Arsenal

I'd do the opposite. Jose knows how to beat Wenger. He's like the rock and Wenger is scissors. We'll just soak up pressure and hit them on the counter. They won't be good at stopping counters. They never have been. We have enough pace upfront to just kill them.

Put out the best team to beat Celta and get a few away goals. Then the tie is done and he can rest a few players in the home leg.

I'd do the opposite. Jose knows how to beat Wenger. He's like the rock and Wenger is scissors. We'll just soak up pressure and hit them on the counter. They won't be good at stopping counters. They never have been. We have enough pace upfront to just kill them.

Since we are probably going to play on the counter against Arsenal, then it is even more logical to rest Rashford against Celta and use him on Sunday, when he would be more fresh and hungry.

He has played a lot lately and playing him tomorrow then again on Sunday might be too much and he might not give 100% in this way. If you want to get the best out of players, you need to know the right "dosage" of football you give them.

Put out the best team to beat Celta and get a few away goals. Then the tie is done and he can rest a few players in the home leg.

It depends on what you consider our best team at the moment, considering the fatigue, injuries and form.

Imo, our best attack tomorrow would be the one I indicated earlier, as those players are not as fatigued as some of the others.

Ajax playing a great game against Lyon!

Their attackers' price will rise very much after this game, especially Traore, but also Ziyech and Younes.

I knew about Dollberg, but I haven't seen those other kids before, they are very, very good.

However, the defence of Lyon is full of holes like a Swiss cheese, so they are contributing to the impression of how strong Ajax attack is.