After a brace of disappointing results at Old Trafford, Sir Alex Ferguson arguably couldn’t ask for an easier match than joint-bottom manager-less Reading.
With Manchester City travelling to Goodison Park in the day’s early kick off, there’s the possibility the lead at the top could be cut to nine points by the time the Reds kick off at half five this afternoon.
It may be tempting for Sir Alex to rest most of his ‘first team’ for a game like this, but we all know that even struggling sides can come up with surprises at Old Trafford against a weakened United side- Blackburn anyone?
The only injury worries are Nani and Phil Jones, although the likes of Rafael, Michael Carrick, Tom Cleverley, Patrice Evra not to mention Robin Van Persie could all do with a rest following the recent tough games.
Here’s United’s possible line up: DDG, Chris Smalling, Jonny Evans, Nemanja Vidic, Alexander Buttner, Ashley Young, Ryan Giggs, Anderson, Shinji Kagawa, Danny Welbeck, Wayne Rooney.
DDG, Chris Smalling, Jonny Evans, Nemanja Vidic, Alexander Buttner, Ashley Young, Ryan Giggs, Anderson, Shinji Kagawa, chica, Wayne Rooney
DDG, Smalling, Evans, Vidic, Buttner, Valencia, Carrick, Anderson, Kagawa, Rooney, Welbeck
I feel this XI would be enough to deal with anything that Reading can throw at us on home soil. It also means we can rest a few players who have gone through a lot of work in the last few weeks.
Hahaha when we thought they’re gonna cut it to 9 points, we now get a chance to make it 15! Good guy Citeh
Why rest Van Persie??? The man will want to start and he will want to score. There is no doubt that his form has been patchy recently, but he will want to start and gets the goals today. A striker needs goals and that is what they live for. A goal or two today and he will want to kick on again.
A win is a win and we are now 15 points clear. In the short-term that is what is important. We got the job done and we move on. In the long-term, its not a great result or performance. It was a similar performance to Norwich, but we didn’t get 3 goals in the last 15 minuets to gloss over poor performance.
I would say the unbalanced starting 11 had a role to play in this strange performance. I think Ferguson was determined to rest players, but the team looked liked that. In fairness we still had Rooney and Van Persie, but both were average against Reading. Van Persie bad form continues and he never really had a chance. I think some of his attempts got desperate as well.
The midfield was the main problem though, not Van Persie. If the Dutchman had better service then he would score even more goals. Welbeck worked his socks off on the wings again, although his finishing is still lackluster. Giggs was the best in midfield again, at the age of 39 incredibly. Anderson flattered to deceive and was not replacement for Carrick. Young was pretty poor as well, but that is a continuation of the rubbish form of all our wingers this season.
In the short-term we got the win and we moved 15 points clear. We go onto the next game and try and win that match now. In the long-term Ferguson has work to do in the transfer market. We need to get better players in midfield, a new central midfielder to partner Carrick, and another wide player to join the arrival of Zaha.