Manchester United secured three points in Moscow without the services of our four best performing players this season: Ryan Giggs, Wayne Rooney, Patrice Evra and Darren Fletcher.
Ahead of our trip to Anfield on Sunday, half of these players will be available, but who do you think we need the most?
“On the injury front I can’t give a clear picture, there are still some doubts about Rooney and Fletcher,” said Ferguson. “Rooney is always desperate to play, that’s the nature of the boy. Of course, you can’t let that cloud the realistic side of things. It’s going to be important how he does in training on Saturday. We’ll see if Wayne does train on Saturday and then we’ll have a better idea. Patrice is fit, and Ryan is also fine, but Ji-sung is out unfortunately. Everyone is fit from after Wednesday’s game in Moscow.”
Darren Fletcher works harder than probably anyone else on the team and would be just what we need to put off and pressure Mascherano/Lucas/Gerrard in the centre of the park.
Patrice Evra has been consistently good this season, proving to be incredibly reliable in defence as well as supporting the attack. What might make him less needed is his position isn’t as vital and we have good cover in Fabio and O’Shea.
Ryan Giggs has made the difference between us winning and losing on several occasions this season thanks to the number of assists (5 in 5 starts, as well as the ball which lead to Diaby’s own goal in our 2-1 win over Arsenal).
Wayne Rooney is our best player and currently only three players have scored more than him in the league. He had a blinding start to the season but went off the boil in the couple of games leading up to his injury.
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I think with Giggs and Evra fit, those 2 will start, while Fletcher is having a great season I think both Anderson and Carrick have shown good form recently, therefore the player we would miss the most is Wayne. It will be a tough and close match, only 1 goal in it I suspect and Wayne is a player that can get us a goal out of nothing. Lets hope he’s fit enough to play some part on Sun.
Fletchers the key man
Fletch. we fail miserably in big games without him
Evra is supposed to make it according to Fergie. but I think Fletcher is key, berbatov and owen are good enough to score past the scouse
No brainer!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yh9sVG5Cbmk
I think we need fletcher the most…as we have no replacement for him…carrick n and not upto his level…scholes would be tired…for wayne we have owen or can play 3 in midfield…
Flecth. In this game I almost think Rooney is a hazard with his temperament. Flecth will break up their attacks and start ours… he’s key. Especially since Giggs and Evra probably will start… otherwise it would be between him and Giggs
Fletch!But in an ideal world,i would like all 4 of them to make it this Sunday.I think i might pray a bit tonight.
On current form, 1. Fletcher 2. Giggs 3. Rooney.
Fletcher.
Giggs is our best set-piece taker(they can’t defend them), creates loads of chances in open play..no question..Fletch if they were in better form..
Wazza for me given he is the spearhead of our attack and with the intent of going there to win and not settling for a draw. Carrick will do a fine job. what if we apply the same with the dippers. do we prefer tranny Torres or Stevie Me ? gotcha be Torres without a doubt.
i meant ‘do we prefer tranny Torres or Stevie Me to miss the game’
I dont care if both of them play…its upto us that we win or lose as we’ll control the game…
@Wazza:I want them both to play mate.I think last year’s game at Anfield proved that we can be too complacent for our own good.So i think that our players will be on their toes only if Gerrard and Torres play.Especially Nemanja who has to make amends for last season.
I dont care if both of them play…its upto us that we win or lose as we’ll control the game…if we dont make mistakes we will win it
voted for fletch but if u ask me out of all our injured players id rather have hargreaves back
@costas :my thoughts the same i too want them to play…
Fletcher. Who would have believed this three seasons ago? As I have said repeatedly though I reckon they will all start. Well Fletch, Giggsy, Rooney and Evra.
@Costas : your right with that aspect but the United players will very well know now that there is no room for complacency with or without Torres and stevie me. if Rooney isn’t fit then it has to be a 4-5-1 guaranteed which worries me more because of the slow building attacks.
ALL OF EM’
King Eric @ 18:34 = you stole my line ! Three years ago, Fletcherinho was pesona non grata among the so-called “supporters”; now, he’s seen to be an even more important player than the new daddy. Absolutely amazing – but, of course, if anyone was listening then SAF told you so !!!!!
I think back to Rome and immediately think of the huge Fletcher sized gap that Messi, Iniesta and Xavi exploited all evening and cant help but think he’s our big game player. He’s developing an almost Keane esque stature. Remove anyone from our treble winning midfield and it would’ve been worse the wear from it but inspite of Becks’ assists, Scholesy’s late runs into the box and Giggsy’s dribbling without Keane nothing went the way it was meant to. Same thing without Fletch. He’s the heart of the team.
Darren Fletcher leading the poll with 114 votes to Rooneys 102 – who could ever have predicted that two or three years ago!
Fletch has certainly won the love and respect of United fans, we are all converted cap’n Fletcher!
fletcher he has been immense this season. hey it’s very difficult hope they all make it. they’re all world class i guess.:-)
Fletcher all the way. Our midfield looks world class when he’s playing.
Fletcher. We need him to play these big games as he always preforms well in them. I would like Rooney to play as well, as him and Berba together can create a lot of problems for Liverfools dodgy/awkward defence. Hopefully they would all play! We have to win. Simple.
Definitely would’ve picked Evra if not for the solid showing of Fabio in Moscow.
Fletch is incredible, but Carrick, Ando and Scholesy aren’t bad, are they?
Rooney is the true no-brainer, as there is no equal replacement in the team. Berba doesnt score as often and Owen looks shaky.
Giggs doesnt need to start; just needs to make an appearance at some point.
Fletch all the way. The lad is immense, end of.
As someone said earlier though, having Hargo back wouldn’t hurt either!!
I’ll pick Fletcher, followed by Giggsy.
We need to dominate the midfield to win the game.
It would be great to see Fletcher start but hopefully not at the expense of Carrick. This would be the perfect game for Rooney to come back and find his goalscoring form again.
I hope Giggs will play. Rooney i know will be good but i am afraid of his temper. If he always show the frustration at his team mates, i afraid he might spoil the team morale. I go for giggs, evra and fletcher.
well my answer is Cantona :p because they were asking him to come back to Anfield this year
Wow!…we nd 2 c our favourite hangreaves…ope cantona wil descent 2 anfield n c wat da pools wil say abt 18 titles!…n i hope he sneaks in a beach ball!lol!
Fletch by a mile. OK, maybe not a mile, but with him in the park, we don’t have to play 4-5-1 so Berba can have Owen up front even if Rooney misses the match. And that’ll just be brilliant.
I have to say that of the four Ryan Giggs is the most important to us. I think if Rooney is out we can play with Dimi alone upfront or we can start Owen with him and play 4-4-2. If Fletch is out then also we have Anderson to take his place, although not same quality as Fletch but he can do the job. If Evra is out then we have O’shea/fabio who played really well in moscow.
But if Giggs is out then we will struggle to create chances as Scholes has been a bit of a let down this season (he hasn’t played enough this season that might be the reason i think he is not up to his usual standard although against Spurs he was a class above everyone else) and carrick is not looking confident as of now. Who else can take the place of Giggs? I have to say at present no one can provide even half the spark that Giggs can, so hoping and praying he will be 110% fit for tomorrow’s match.
@kel agree with u mate, bout rooney… i think berba and owen should start… their partnership really look dangerous.. since wazza is not fully fit.. i think he should sub berba or owen in the 2nd half
I would say Rooney but Fletch very close.I’m a bit worried about Carrick being in the middle.
Rooooooo! We need to kill them off. Berba will get a brace tomorrow. Fletcher is needed too though. Only hargo can push fletch to the bench. We need the tough guys. Yeah! Wish brown or rafael could play.