Lowering expectations?

Im a little concerned about the game tomorrow. Were coming off a less than impressive showing against a very resilient Bolton side. Our backline (specifically Evans) seems to be making some elementary mistakes and gifting our opponents very good looks at our goal. United trainThat kind of generosity has to come to an end. News as well that Rooney, Scholes and Giggs will miss this encounter makes me squirm even more nervously. Then again, it isnt all bad news with Carrick making the trip and Rio being rumored to potentially start in the heart of defense alongside Vidic. As Ivor has alluded to in his post, a short break might be just what Evans needs to refocus and recharge. I would be surprised if Carrick gets the start tomorrow considering hes been out for so long. Then again, our options in the center of the field arent plentiful. With our biggest influence on games missing (Scholes), where will our creativity come from?

Valencia have outstanding wingplayers in Mata, Joaquin and Pablo. I imagine that we play with 5 across the middle so that we have the extra players to drop back deep and cover their speedy wingplay. Park would seem like a logical inclusion especially in the big European nights when strategy and tactics are prized so highly. Nani would flank him on the opposite end and play alongside a midfield 3 of Fletcher, Anderson and Carrick/Gibson? With Fletch and Ando reinforcing the center of the park, and Gibson or Carrick hopefully providing some vision and impetus going forward, we should be a pretty solid defensive unit in the middle third. If we do go with this formation, how will Berba do? Based on current form and the fact that hes shown (ie against Everton) that he can be the lone striker, I fancy us surprising them with a goal from one of our midfield players making runs from deep.

The next question that is posed then is whether or not we can score enough goals so that we win t! he game. A clean sheet is such a rarity these days that our gameplan seems to be to score n (whatever the opposition scores) + 1. Valencia will not make that an easy proposition. They top La Liga with 4 wins out of their first 5 games and absolutely destroyed Bursaspor IN Turkey two weeks ago. Playing in the hostile grounds in Turkey has never been easy for any of the top European teams, which makes the 4-0 win even more impressive.
We would like (not necessarily need) a win tomorrow in light of our disapponting draw from the first matchday. But with the personnel available for selection, together with the shakiness of our defense, a draw (probably a score draw) would not be a bad result to come away with.


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