{"id":12703,"date":"2026-01-24T20:26:38","date_gmt":"2026-01-24T20:26:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=12703"},"modified":"2026-01-25T20:31:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-25T20:31:09","slug":"home-to-shred-the-reds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=12703","title":{"rendered":"Home to Shred the Reds"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

And so to the Stadium of Stone, where we welcome, in the ironic sense of the word, Manchester United for Sunday’s late afternoon game, after three wins and a draw away in four competitions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It will be the 102nd time we have hosted them for a home league match since Newton Heath first travelled to the Plumstead enclosure, as the Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News called it, to be beaten 3-2 by Woolwich Arsenal in March 1895. Our Scottish international centre-forward Robert Buchanan “headed the ball through the Newton goal from a scrimmage, thus giving the Arsenal their winning point,” the publication reported. Memo to Mr Jover: In football, there’s little new under the sun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After Amorin<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our visitors will arrive greatly uplifted by their victory last weekend over their crosstown rivals under their latest interim manager, Michael Carrick. Shall we see the team that battered the Oil-landers with such combative vim and vigour, or will the wheel of false dawns that blighted the Red Mancs under Rubin Amorim before he was given the heave-ho, turn once more?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carrick is a go-to for United when they sack a manager. Their former player was caretaker after Jose Mourinho received his special P45 in 2018, and when Ole Gunnar Solskj\u00e6r faced the same fate in 2021. While he did not manage any games after Mourinho, post-Solskj\u00e6r, Carrick defeated Unai Emery’s Villarreal, drew with Thomas Tuchel’s Chelsea, and beat Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After failing to be promoted from caretaker to interim \u2014 Ralf Rangnick got the job, a decision as idiosyncratic as the choice \u2014 Carrick went off to become head coach of Middlesbrough in the Championship. In three seasons, he transformed them from relegation candidates into a team with expectations of promotion back to the Premier League. Having fallen just short of achieving that, he was sacked last July.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the Riverside and during his previous spell at the OT, Carrick employed a 4-2-3-1 formation that morphed into a 3-2-5 in possession and a 4-4-2 midblock when out of possession. There is nothing groundbreaking in that; a zillion English clubs play that way. Carrick’s twist was to use one of his full-backs, making late runs and early crosses, as the fifth attacker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Teeside, he had only one player well suited to the role, and that player was on loan for one season. In the lee of the Manchester Ship Canal, he has one for each side in Amad Diallo and Patrick Dorgu, plus wide forwards in Brian Mbueno, Matheus Cunha and Mason Mount, who are comfortable both dropping deep and cutting inside, leaving the flanks open for the late overlap and fast cross.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In last weekend’s victory over City, it was hard to see that as a core principle of Carrick’s tactics. While he abandoned Amorim’s 3-4-2-1 for a back four with two defensive midfielders in front \u2014 the 4-2 element of a 4-2-3-1 \u2014 Carrick selected an attacking formation more akin to a 4 than a 3-1 to target the Achilles heel of Pep’s new pressing system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pep has his entire team shift to the side where the ball is to create pressing overloads. Coupled with City’s usual high defensive line, this leaves large uncovered spaces on the opposite wing. Carrick had his players firing long diagonal cross-field passes into those vacant areas whenever possible, for whoever was free to chase down and head towards goal or deliver a cutback. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With City having 68% of possession and United defending with more conviction than they could muster under Amorim, time and time again, Man U looked to counterattack using a long pass out wide. Time and time again, they found one of their quick, powerful runners, the intentionally selected Amad, Mbuemo and Dorgu, with, as they say, acres of grass in front of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carrick, who was a tactically astute player \u2014 Louis van Gaal, when his manager at United called him a coach in the game \u2014 will know that Arteta will have studied how United dismantled City. He will need to do something different on Sunday. \u2018We have got our ideas on what needs to be done and how we need to get there\u2019, he said in his pre-match press conference, slipping effortlessly into manager obfuscation mode. Back to his tried-and-trusted basics, I would expect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The opposition<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 23-year-old Belgian, Senne Lammens, bought from Royal Antwerp in the summer for \u20ac21 million, will be glove-buttling. Dare I say it, he looks an uncommonly sensible piece of transfer business by United’s recent ker-ching standards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Against City, Carrick replaced the young players Amorim had included in his back three, such as Leny Yoro, 20, and Ayden Heaven, 19 and formerly of this parish, and moved 23-year-old Amad from right back to his natural position as a winger. In their place, was an old-school back four comprising Harry Maguire and Lisandro Mart\u00ednez at centre-back and Luke Shaw and Diogo Dalot at full-back. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the two Englishmen on the wrong side of 30, this is not a long-term solution. However, for now, especially with Matthijs de Ligt injured, it provides Carrick with a more experienced defence than the one that had the seventh-worst record in the league under Amorim. Nonetheless, it remains vulnerable, and I would expect de Ligt and Yoro to be starting by the end of the season. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If Carrick were sure to be still in post next season \u2014 Man U’s omniscient higher-ups had said he will not, regardless, although the gentlemen of the turf don’t believe them; Carrick is second favourite to be the permanent appointment \u2014 I would also expect Dorgu and Amad to be groomed as the full-backs. However, Shaw will probably play most of the games this season at left back, as he will be a better third centre-back than Dorgu when United shifts into their 3-2-5. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unless Carrick replaces Dalot or the Moroccan Noussair Mazraoui, now back from AFCON, with Amad at right back, he will have to decide which of United\u2019s expensively bought forwards \u2014 Mbuemo, Matheus Cunha, Benjamin \u0160e\u0161ko and, once he returns to fitness, Joshua Zirkzee \u2014 will warm the bench so he can fit in the 23-year-old Ivory Coast international.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carrick has also reinstated the out-of-favour Kobbie Mainoo in the pivot alongside Casemiro, who, at 33 and \u00a3350,000 a week, is not being retained for next season. Que surpresa!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some believe the next England team should be built around Mainoo’s elite press resistance and ball-carrying skills. However, Amorim preferred Bruno Fernandes in the deep-lying playmaker role, where Mainoo could have fitted into his system. Perhaps Amorim thought nobbiness was necessary for that Paul Scholes-like role. Still, Mainoo would have left this transfer window if Amorim had not departed first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Deploying the best players in their best positions is usually a reliable fallback for any manager. Against Man City, Carrick played Fernandes as a left-sided 10, where he likes to play. The higher up the field he is, the more threatening the Portuguese becomes to opposing defences. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fernandes and Mbuemo shared the false-nine duties of dropping out of the front four to receive the ball and pull a City centre half with them, creating more vacant space in behind. Saliba, who has been frequently appearing near the edge of opposition penalty areas lately, needs to be wary of being suckered into that trap. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I expect Fernandes and Mbuemo to reprise their City roles on Sunday, with Cunha, \u0160e\u0161ko and, let us not forget him, Mason Mount, coming off the expensively warmed bench when United are, hopefully, chasing the game. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Arsenal<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carrick will have his team as ‘up’ for a game against us, as it was for the City derby. Thus, I expect Arteta to start his strongest available XI, although I always do, and whether that includes Calafiori and Hincapi\u00e9 is anyone\u2019s guess. Mine is that Calafiori is fit, but not Hincapi\u00e9. If neither is fit, then presumably Benny Blanco comes in at right back and Timber shifts to the left rather than MLS start.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Raya<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Timber, Saliba, Gabriel, Calafiori<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00d8degaard, Zubimendi, Rice<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saka, Gy\u00f6keres, Trossard<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sunday’s is yet another must-win game, not least because Neville, Keane and company will be even more insufferable if we don’t. It will be a fierce scrap; these games have previous in that regard. We\u2019ll also have to move the ball around quickly to negate our visitor’s newfound defensive industry, while cutting off the supply lines to what is a potentially potent attack. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do all that, and, with the home support behind the team, we can take it 2-0 to secure our first clean-sheet double over the Red Mancs since 1901-02.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Enjoy the game, ‘holics, near and far.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

And so to the Stadium of Stone, where we welcome, in the ironic sense of the word, Manchester United for Sunday’s late afternoon game, after three wins and a draw away in four competitions. It will be the 102nd time we have hosted them for a home league match since Newton Heath first travelled to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12703"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12703"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12703\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12717,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12703\/revisions\/12717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}