Hernandez was pure class, his overall game improved so much it's unreal. He has improved his link up play, passing and even dribbling. Superb professional, never moans about being left out and does the job when given the chance. Ole#2.
The Manchester United Thread
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he was brilliant, but this game summed up why we shouldnt play a diamond vs a 3 man mid when the opposition have strong wide players. Exactly why i wouldn't play it against Chelsea.
Not the first time I hsve seen Chelsea less than impressive but usually they still get the result.
I personally think Kagawa is finding it hard at the moment to make any impact in our games, looks like a different player from the Dortmund one even though we are not playing him where he used to play for them lately. Not sure what we are quite trying to do with him.
Hernandez proved to me at least why he is better than Welbeck (For now at least.). Hernandez finds space with the same ease that Welbeck does except he finishes better most of the time, I'm glad to see a return to form for Hernandez, competition between him and Welbeck will be good 
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.Hernandez proved to me at least why he is better than Welbeck (For now at least.). Hernandez finds space with the same ease that Welbeck does except he finishes better most of the time, I'm glad to see a return to form for Hernandez, competition between him and Welbeck will be good
No, Welbeck is still the much better rounded player but his finishing isn't to the standards of Hernandez.
More to do with playing players out of position too. Playing Kagawa as CM is just suicidal, I have told so many times even before we signed him that he is not a CM. He doesn't have the defensive ability at all, swapping Rooney and Kagawa would have done the trick.
And re diamond, I also said Valencia in place of Kagawa to provide width. My main point was playing 3 in the middle (not the formation) which is absolutely must IMO.
Also Cleverley tackling has improved so much, he is winning lot of tackles. Good to see improvement in each individual players. Now with the way Hernandez performed it will be very difficult to drop him against Chelsea and his record against Chelsea is superb. So maybe we will play the same formation with Carrick in place of Fletcher and Valencia in place of Kagawa with Rooney dropping deep. Yeah sort of 4-2-3-1
But Shakhtar is just superb team. They could have scored 5-6 goals, can't compare the performance though as playing Shakhtar at their home is very very hard.
Maybe something to do with the position he is playing. He played as AM against Everton and Fulham, he was our best player. Even against Galatasaray he played well. Playing him deeper will do no good, his best attribute is his movement, touch and the final pass in the final third, playing deep negates everything as he doesn't have passing range of Scholes/Carrick/Cleverley or even defensive ability.
Maybe so, but there was an air of complacency there too. The players made quite a few basic mistakes they shouldn't have like short passing. Torres wa a bit off the pace too. They just weren't at the races and didn't show urgency. I'd expect them to up their game at Stamford Bridge though, and Cole has to put in a better performance too
Hernandez can stretch a defence just as well as Welbeck with added bonus of better finishing, If Welbeck could finish like Hernandez then yes I would say he is definitely a better player but I find Welbeck's finishing infuriating at times.
Also Lampard was off which means he might not start on weekend. It will be Ramires and Mikel which makes it ever harder.
We have superb attacking threat, just needs to find the right balance. Our ability to defend as a team is **** poor, we just can't press and deny the space, we drop deep and then try to win the ball back near the box or allowing the opponents to take shot from distance.
Think I would gladly take a draw.
Chelsea are there for the beating, I certainly wouldn't take a draw considering they have a 4 point gap which needs closing.
Still think Spurs would of won with a full strength team, if we have our strongest and Rio back then we can take it to them, not going to be easy but this is perfect time to face them after travelling to Ukraine.
Yeah but the game is on Sunday which means almost 5 days.
4 points is not much as there are nearly 30 more games this season.
Kagawa was just playing a left sided role of what he did vs newcastle, which he did well. was hugely out of position, but the diamond was the wrong shape, because it wasnt to our advantage un like newcastle, where it was 4 vs 2. The argument was about playing as a cm, but play at CM, and moving forwards, which eh could do vs newcastle, but not here because we were losing the battle at first, and defending is not his strong point.
But then you are too stretched as a wide diamond with valencia, you have lost the centre mid battle, because you have at best 2 mids to their 3 and we are disadvantaged there as it is.
Braga were solid in the middle and dangerous down the flanks, diamond was not a good choice.
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I have to agree Chelsea are good and their attacking play has been of high quality this season, however Tottenham were only good for about 25 min against and they lost more because of defensive lapses by an aging Gallas than a poor team effort. I can see the goals flowing because Hazard, Oscar and Mata are on fire and our defence is in the toilet, but I with RVP, Rooney and the rest performing well in the final third it could be an epic encounter
I didn't say diamond with Valencia. I said 3 in the middle then Valencia, Rooney, RVP. Sort of 4-3-3 with Rooney playing free role and other CM proving support from left side. Sort of how Giggs used to play when played as CM, drifting towards left wing position to provide width.
As we are playing very flexible formations, RVP will move to LW at times with Rooney playing as striker.
I still wonder how we played Giggs in CM against Liverpool and Fergie does still not see the need for an extra CM like a Keane-esque type player. No doubt go out again in the CL because of it as well.
That negates Rooney's best game, which is his excellent link up and ability to create and score from AMC, also leaves RVP surrounded by 4 players. Our best attacking play , and our best way of hurting Chelsea is through our close link up, look at the number of goals we have scored. It doesnt make much sense to change that up.
use this11 to draw up what you mean, but from what i think it is, not sure its a good call at all