Manchester United put in their best league performance of a very poor season against West Brom at the weekend.
Very rarely this term have Manchester United had a comfortable victory. Despite this result coming against a seriously struggling West Brom side there were some encouraging portents of how Manchester United could shape up in the coming years.
Finally David Moyes seems to be coming around to the 4-2-3-1 formation. He clung on to the 4-4-2 for most of the season but any sane football fan can see that Manchester United no longer have the tools for such a shape.
Gone are the flying wingers and in have come the more modern footballing talents of Januzaj and Mata – not conventional wingers but players who can be devastating in the wider areas of the right formation.
With their current crop the 4-2-3-1 works brilliantly and should be employed for the rest of the season if Manchester United want to take anything from it.
What Moyes needs to do now is increase the momentum. He won’t do this by chopping and changing formations every week. He needs to stick with a settled team, especially in the more advanced areas of the park.
The team selection for Olympiakos was a disgrace and hopefully Moyes has learnt from this – the fewer changes the better from this point on.
The obvious problem in Europe is that Manchester United can’t use Mata. But they should still employ exactly the same formation and simply swap Mata out for Kagawa.
This way the team can start playing with more confidence and get to know where their team mates will be at any given time.
So we think that Moyes must play this team and formation to give himself and his club any chance of a top four finish and European glory this season.
Manchester United fans – is this your strongest XI?
Manchester United: De Gea, Evra, Jones, Ferdinand, Rafa – Carrick, Fellaini – Januzaj, Rooney, Mata (Kagawa in Europe) – RvP
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stuart
Mar 11, 2014 at 6:08 am
Yes but maybe Wellbeck is more suited to this fast close passing game than RVP.
jackMufc
Mar 11, 2014 at 6:09 am
Januzaj should not be starting. I don’t care what anyone says he is not good enough YET! He will be world class one day but he shouldn’t be starting atm I’d rather see kagawa
in1voice
Mar 11, 2014 at 6:11 am
Think this is the best XI that MU has now. Cleverly, Young and Valencia should not start in the first 11. Maybe just sit on the bench. Maybe Valencia can fill in for Mata, instead of Kagawa, if they need a more defensive game, but certainly, this XI must be kept intact till in the end of the season. We also need to consider Evans as a first XI too.
Abdulmajeed
Mar 11, 2014 at 6:23 am
This is d best starting X1 man u have so far but am not happy with kagawa situation,I dnt like d way moyes use d lad out of position.
Ben Dover
Mar 11, 2014 at 7:33 am
Why on earth do you want to bring Rio in as a part of the strongest XI??
He has no speed, he does not react quickly, he is not tough… The only thing he’s got left is experience. Sorry Rio, but you got to go now…
alexspring
Mar 12, 2014 at 4:39 am
I agree with you,Rio is too slow.
Robert hector
Mar 11, 2014 at 9:29 am
I would prefer using ths, De gea in goal, rafael in 2,evra in 3,evans in 4,johnes in 5 ,carrick in 6 ,valencia in 7 ,kagawa in 8 ,welbeck in 9, rooney in 10 and mata In 11, substitutes. Rvp,januzaj,chicarito,vidic,lindegard,fellaini,young
chudic
Mar 11, 2014 at 10:30 am
Pls remove Rio Ferdinand and replace him with Evans.
ECHEYA M.C
Mar 11, 2014 at 10:05 pm
UTD FIRST X1 TILL END OF THE SEASON = DEA GEA ~ EVRA ~ JONES ~ VIDIC ~ RAPHAEL ~ JANUZAJ ~ FELLAINI ~ CARRICK ~ MATA ~ ROONEY ~ VAN PERSIE =? LINDEGAARD..EVANS..VALENCIA..WELBECK…BUTTNER..FLETCHER..=?
Junaid
Mar 12, 2014 at 12:02 am
Januzaj should always be included his brilliant, rio should never feature anymore,theres phill jones,evans, smalling and ,evra.
I’m glad fellaini is coming to the party and carrick always been awesome,
dmaestro9
Mar 12, 2014 at 5:58 am
Rio should be swapped with Evans and everything will move swiftly ….//mind u **januzaj will always be, there is no world class without playing dude.
All those fantastic Spanish players comes good around 20 do he has to play to come good too.