With the up-coming festive period, and considering most of us will already have given thought to the first component of this; I thought it would be interesting to see how people would approach the busy Chistmas schedule. From the 22/12 to 05/13 we are playing 5 games in 15 days, against Swansea (A), Newcastle (H), West Brom (H), Wigan (A) in the league and then West Ham (A) in the FA cup. What I want to know what would be your line ups for those games mentioned and why. Consider that most factors remain stable e.g. form. This will be an impossible task to get right, so I hope it just sparks up a bit of discussion and shows that this one small aspect of managing can be very difficult and last but not least, for fun! I'll go first:
Swansea vs. Manchester United (23/12)
Swansea are no mugs and at home they are very good, but with this team I reckon we could get a 0-3 victory considering our form:
De Gea
Rafael Rio Vidic(c) Evra
Cleverley Fletcher Kagawa
Rooney RvP Welbeck
Subs: Lindegaard, Smalling, Jones, Buttner, Young, Carrick and Hernandez
The reason I've thrown Kagawa in his because it will give the match fitness against a team he should play well against, with Tom helping him and Fletcher helping to tidy everything up our midfield should do well. I went for the most experienced back four as they will need to help Vidic out a lot and Michu out, he should be able to cope with whatever Swansea can throw at us. I've kept Rooney and Robin up top and given Young a rest and let Welbeck come in just because he's more similiar to Ashley and it will et us play the same sytem that has served us so well in recent games. Ideally both Wayne and van Persie get on the score sheet before the 60th minute then get Kagawa, Wayne and Rvp off for Jones, to help shore up the middle, and straight swaps with Hernandez and Young to get Hernandez minutes and for Young to keep his form going.
Manchester United vs. Newcastle (26/12)
Providng Newcastle are still below par in terms of form and considering we are at home, I've went for the following Boxing day team:
De Gea
Smalling Rio Evans Evra(c)
Carrick Jones
Valencia Cleverley Young
Hernandez
Subs: Lindegaard, Rafael, Buttner, Fletcher, Welbeck, Rooney and RvP
I've given our two in form strikers a rest for this one although I've kept them on the bench just in case we need the calvery. I've given Vidic the day off so that we are not rushing him back to quick and the same for Kagawa. I've brought carrick and Evans back in as they should have recovered from their kncoks and provided Hernandez with a start. I kept Cleverley in as I think it's important for him to get used to playing 2 games a week if he's ever to become an established first team regular. Rio and Evans should be enough for Ba and Cisse and hopefully with Young's form, Valencia's work rate, and Jones packing the middle we can pick up a well fought victory so I'm going to guess a 2-1 home win. Ideally, we won't need wayne and Robin so hopefully we can get Buttner another bit of Premiership action for Evra when/if we are comfortable; get Fletcher on for Tom to tighten things up and rest Valencia a little for Welbeck who will have a role to play in the up coming games.
Manchester United vs. West Brom (29/12)
By now we are getting through the festive period and hopefully City and Chelsea are struggling withh the cold. West Brom are another team who can roll with the best but seem to be lacking form and again considering we are home, I'd hope that we could really hurt West Brom and further or place at the top of the league increasing our goal difference with a 3-0 win, my team is:
Lindegaard
Rafael Evans Vidic(c) Buttner
Fletcher Carrick
Valencia Kagawa Rooney
RvP
Subs: De Gea, Jones, Smalling, Cleverley, Welbeck, Young and Hernandez
With the amount of experience throughout this squad this would be an excellent time to give buttner another Premiership run out. With Carrick and Fletcher in the centre we will be able to provide a platform for the attack of Valencia, Kagawa, Rooney and RvP which would be devasting for any team in Europe, never mind a Newcastle side who are leaking goals and who will be without Tiote, Ben Arfa and Cabaye. Another 90 minutes for Vidic should see him getting back to close fitness. In this game I would like to get Kagawa a full 90 minutes so I'd leave him on and take Rvp and Rooney off for Hernandez and Welbeck respectively and then leave the last substitute depending on how the game's going, hopefully getting JOnes on for Carrick to help keep his hamstring injury at bay.
Wigan vs. Manchester United (01/13)
Lessons to be learnt from last year, as Wigan historically start to come good in the second half of the season. It's for this reason I haven't used any of United's fringe players in another starting line up. Playing this safe and getting the three points is all that matters in what could be the trickiest festive game. I've decided on this line-up which should give us a theoretically comfortable 0-2 win:
De Gea
Rafael Rio Vidic(c) Evra
Carrick Anderson
Nani Rooney Young
RvP
Subs: Lindegaard, Evans, Fletcher, Cleverley, Valencia, Welbeck and Hernandez
A strong defence and the rest of the team made up of our in form players I hope we can give Nani and Anderson a game to get the back to match fitness, particularly Nani. With Young and Nani flanking alongside Rafael and Evra there is enough width and defensive quality considering Rio and Vidic are back playing together to combat Wigans 3-5-2. It's a risk but even 60 minutes for Nani and Anderson and then take them off for Fletcher and Welbeck to help us push on and then maybe get Hernandez on for either Rooney, RvP or Cleverley depending on who looks fatigued. I would hope that the movement and even better link up play from Wayne and Robin would be enough to dispose of the lactics.
West Ham vs. Manchester United
A tough away game at any of big Sam's side will make progressing in the FA cup difficult. Also, considering we're at home to Liverpool in 8 days time Fergie will need to get the balance right on this one but hopefully with the following team we could win 2-3:
Lindegaard
Jones Smalling Evans Buttner
Cleverley Fletcher(c)
Welbeck Kagawa Young
Hernandez
Subs: De Gea, Rafael, Wooten, Powell, Anderson, Nani and Rooney
A weakened team this may appear but in this we will have one of out top goal scorers, arguably one of our best big game players captaining the side, our in form defender of 2012, one of the most exciting attacking talents in Europe getting back to fitness and a few other academy players and 30 million worth of home grown talent. This will be a battle but with the energy, attacking prowess and ability to defend from our full backs and wingers we should be defensively sound whilst still providing ammo for Hernandez to get a hatrick. Fletcher can hussle the middle and if Cleverley and Kagawa can click then they will be able to pass West Ham off the park. Hopefully we can get Powell on at some point for Kagawa and then Nani and Anderson on again for whoevers starting to fatigue the most.
That's my thoughts on the christmas period I know it will never work out like that but I think with that group of players we could do very, very well.
What do you guys think?