Southend v Manchester United (LC - 7/11 - 1945)

[onenedkelly]

Id start with Fletcher, I just wouldn't play him and Sheasy together to be honest.
I honestly don't think Sheasy or Silvestre should play after the shambles in Denmark, they were terrible.

[schmeichelstarjump!]

no disrespect to southend but copenhagen are alot better than southend plus the pitch in copenhagen was terrible even at southend the pitch should be better.

[7even]

Sir Alex Ferguson insists he will field a more experienced Carling Cup side when the Reds travel to Southend United on Tuesday evening.

The current cup holders were within a minute of being taken to a penalty shoot-out by Crewe in the third round until a dramatic winner from 18-year-old substitute Kieran Lee put the Reds through.

"We don't want another Crewe experience on Tuesday night so I'll be taking a stronger team to Southend," said Sir Alex.

"We're taking Ronaldo, Rooney, O'Shea, Fletcher, Silvestre, Heinze, Brown, Richardson... and Tomasz Kuszczak will be in goal. So we're taking a good squad.

"Although I've got some good young players in the Reserves they are definitely too young for this situation. Reserves football nowadays is just an extension of youth football and therefore doesn't provide the same challenges of playing in the football league.

"We've got around fifteen players out on loan at the moment who are gaining good experience but it means I'm restricted in terms of being able to play some of our young players in the League Cup as we used to do.

"However, players like Kieran Lee, Ryan Shawcross, David Gray and David Jones will still be involved against Southend."

United were given a timely reminder of the unpredictability of Cup football in the last round, and it is something Sir Alex is hoping to safeguard against when they face Steve Tilson's Championship side on Tuesday.

"Cup games have that sudden death thrust about them and you can be knocked out in a second," acknowledged the United manager.

"You have to really play well in cup ties because if you're a bit off the boil you can end up being embarrassed and you certainly don't get any second chances in the cup.

"In my experience, teams from the lower leagues are always very enthusiastic, committed and all desperate to play well against a side like United. They are also usually very good from set-pieces - that's an area in which they can trouble you. But hopefully we've got our homework right.

"We've watched Southend's last three games and hopefully we've got the right picture of them. I think we got it right against Crewe, but on the night Crewe excelled.

"We're very lucky to still be in the competition and hopefully we can progress further," he added.
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[redom]

I'm glad he's going to use a blend of both because it will help those younger players if they're playing with a few of the senior squad, hopefully we'll produce a better display then against Crewe and come through it without too much trouble.

[Red Yank]

Smart move on Fergie's part. I know we have to prioritize which competition we play our experienced players in but we don't want to embarrass ourselves either. The line up he's taking sounds good.

[Sky Sports 1]

nyjorge said:

Smart move on Fergie's part. I know we have to prioritize which competition we play our experienced players in but we don't want to emvbarrass ourselves either. The line up he's taking sounds good.

Yeh, he's probably more concerned about interrupting the teams form, there might not be many first team starters playing, but like against Copenhagen if you make a few mistakes like that and against smaller teams it might interrupt league form, dodgy stuff.

[jay87]

hmm adding either Ronaldo or Rooney was something i think Fergie could have done against Crewe but we got the through. Great to see him taking both against Southend. But i hope Richardson and Heinze actually turn up for the game unlike the last round.

[schmeichelstarjump!]

i think he is taking those players because he knows southend will be well up for the game plus they are better than crewe who we nearly slipped up against.

[Rais.n.Hell]

anyone know where i can probably stream the game?? ....on myp2p.eu, the link only provides 2nd half...i dont wanna miss it even a bit...any help fellas???

also i say 3-0....lets kick some butt!!!

[7even]

I agree with that approach. Field a strong team, and win matches, thats what footballs about. Young kids needing first team exposure and the experience of a competitive league must go on loan. If they're not yet good enough to represent us, we got to send them away to a team which can really take advantage of their talents. Our liability might be someone else's asset.

Cup games or not, we need to put on the game face every time and bust the opposition's balls. I miss the fear United instilled into every opposition from 1997-2000, teams coming to OT were pissing themselves... and we don't seem to have that clout anymore. We didn't get like that by consistently beating the good or very good teams, we got like that by mauling the lesser opposition. We put 6 goals past Brondby once and 5 the next time, and then followed it up in the league with a 8-1 thrashing of Nottingham with a substitute scoring 4 !! Add to that 3-3 draws with Barca and putting 6 past Newcastle and 5 past Arsenal next season.. Thats what gets noticed by all teams, big or small, and they start fearing the fact that they're screwed if United brings that game to the pitch. I hope we can bring back those days.

- Dhruvk

[Scott]

We should start with our strongest team, get the game won, and then take off Ronaldo and Rooney.

[Sky Sports 1]

United Lineup according to MUTV:
Kuszczak
O'Shea
Brown
Sivlestre
Heinze

Ronaldo
Fletcher
D.Jones
Richardson

Smith
Rooney

Subs:Heaten, Evra, Shawcross, Rose, Lee

[missunited]

Anyone watching the pre match on Sky? God I hate Tim Lovejoy, he donno what he's on about... he is really annoying, obvious that Sky don't care about the Carling Cup looking at who they have covering it. Nice to see Lee Sharpe there though. Brown will captain the team tonight by the way... right lets hope they go out and get a couple of early goals, I really cannot take a replay of the Crewe match.

[ballymenared]

Things not lookin good at 1 down - Class goal though

[tomo]

Half time one nil down. Uh oh.