Fair play to Scholes he predicted what would happen 
.
- Picks a side to play a budget version of us and gets torn apart…greeted by boos at half time
- makes changes and comes back to win
- Takes from that experience that the best way to play us is with the same XI and approach that got torn apart in the first half by a worse version of us.
Its science
He’s been winging it from day 1. He hasn’t got the first fucking clue what he’s doing 
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[quote=“aussielad, post:2251, topic:2003”]
there is no way you can set up like that against Liverpool and not expect to concede 4-5 before half time
[/quot
That is exactly what Paul Scholes said after that game.
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oops … didn’t get as far as your reply before saying the same thing.
Yep. I second this.
On the title race I have to say…
If our key players stay injury free I am sure we’re favorites for the title.
'Problem‘ is it feels like we have more key players than City and Chelsea.
I am talking about injuries that make players miss two months and more.
If Salah gets injured we’re out.
If Virgil gets injured we’re out.
If Alisson gets injured we’re probably out.
If Trent or Robbo are injured we’re out.
If Hendo and Fabinho get injured we’re out.
If two of Diogo, Bobby or Sadio get injured we‘re out.
City’s key players are probably Foden and KdB but they could probably do without them for a while. They don’t even need a #9 with the way they are playing.
City usually suffer more because of fatigue and pressure when the CL KO stage starts.
Chelsea are a bit thin at CB (because they play with 3 at the back) but other than that they don’t really have ‘key players’. They have a huge squad and it feels like everyone is replaceable.
I am happy with our team. We have the better starting11. The better squad. It just feels like injuries can hurt us more than the others.
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I think it was 3 or 4 rather than 4 or 5. And if Paul blind as a bat with a matching intellect and personality Scholes can see that then… Fuck me but aren’t the United coaches special
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My take on the title race is that I think we will be top at Christmas and heading into the New Year. Then we will see what happens with AFCON. Is it on? How long will our players be away? How many games will they miss? Will they come back fit and ready to go for the remainder of our season?
Big questions.
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PL matches I think I had it 3-4, depends how long they progress, I’d assume Salah would be back before Mane for instance.
Finished on the 6th so if we can keep them for Chelsea which seems to be the case then we lose them for Palace (away) and Brentford (Home) and the tournament finishes three days before Leicester away. I have a feeling Salah would be home earlier but potentially Mane could be out there for all of it.
Q Finals are the 29/30th January which would be 9 days before Leicester.
Brazil have two games in that period but hopefully being summer over there will be no issue over quarantine. They play during what seems to be a mid season break.
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AFCON could cost us the league.
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Salah and Virgil, I probably agree. Alisson too, as much as Kelleher has improved he’s still not half the goalkeeper Alisson is.
Trent getting injured makes it difficult because that would mean Milner playing at right back regularly and not being able to provide cover in midfield (but I don’t think it would be fatal).
Robertson - I’m confident Tsimikas could play and we wouldn’t have a significant drop off in our level.
Both and Hendo and Fabinho out for a significant would be pretty tough to handle. Can only imagine Milner playing as a 6 there. We’d be very unlucky to lose both of them for 2+ months though (although it could happen).
I actually think we could manage Jota and Firmino both being out. Salah moves to CF, probably Jones slips into a wide position. Origi has proven that he can deliver at times - although inconsistently. Minamino has also shown an eye for goal as long as we can get the ball to him. It would be enough.
City I think are the most vulnerable to poor squad depth. It’s actually remarkable how few players they have below the first 14/15 names (and they never really rotate). If Foden gets injured I just don’t see where their goals are coming from, and they are already lacking in them - failed to score in three games already this season (our title winning season we failed to score in just six games - including the youth team playing against Villa in the Carabao Cup). Luckily for them they never seem to get serious injuries. Curious.
On a completely unrelated note - have we seen any new stories about Guardiola’s relationship to that clinic in Madrid he sends all his players to?
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A lot can happen until AFCON (especially injuries).
I’m trying to split the season into stages and the current stage ends next week with the last international break.
Next stage ends with the CL group stage.
And after that we have 6 league games until AFCON starts.
I am expecting us to be top of the league at some before the end of the year but that is not important.
It’s important to be in the mix when the CL k.o. stage starts. That’s usually where City has cope with pressure etc.
Looking forward to the Spurs v Utd game tomorrow evening.
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It’s Ramon Cugat in Barcelona.
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Not looking forward to having to support the Saudis this weekend 
A draw would do nicely and keep them in relegation
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Yeah this is a worry.
Different talk about when we will lose Mo, Mane and Naby.
Will they have to go after boxing day games for quarantine reasons or will we be able negotiate holding onto them until the crucial Chelsea game on 2nd January…
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Tasty day in the PL today.
The sun is shining and I have received an 8hr pass, off to the pube for some pints.
My mood is sky high, and ever the optimist, I’m thinking the Geordies and Palace will help us out today.
Go you good things.
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