Aston Villa v Manchester United

Basically, I expect nothing. So pleasant surprises would be (in no particular order) - 
a) unlikely draw;
b) even unlikelier win; or
c) at the very least, a good performance

Now. If b & c could be combined, that would be the best Christmas present since my Amiga 500 back in the day 

Playing a back 3 then?? Would of like to have seen bacuna & Grealish start to be honest. UTV

Three at the back Okore, Vlaar, Clark. Lowton, Cissokho pushing up, Sanchez, Delph, Weimann, Agbonlahor, Benteke. (According to Trent on VT).

villabromsgrove wrote:Three at the back Okore, Vlaar, Clark. Lowton, Cissokho pushing up, Sanchez, Delph, Weimann, Agbonlahor, Benteke. (According to Trent on VT).

Well that's extremely unlikely!

Back 3 of Jones, Evans and Carrick. Should be confident we can get at them. I'm not though.

Will be DELIGHTED to be proven wrong. Delighted!

Lowton to Benteke, Benteke scores!

I hope so!

To be honest I think there may well be an example this afternoon of Man U playing properly with 3 at the back, and us trying to do it but instead pretty much playing with a back 5, like we basically always do when Lambert tries this.

Great goal for villa

Benteke goal from free kick. United have all the possession, villa cannot settle, panic setting in, typical Lambert tactics.

Army villain wrote:Benteke goal from free kick. United have all the possession, villa cannot settle, panic setting in, typical Lambert tactics.

The tactics are shit but the players are doing well regardless. The back 3 look decent together

Half time and please let this continue in the second half. We score, we don't fall back into panic defend mode. We had one period of actually passing the ball around until the linesman gave it back to ManU. Two games of new formation and tactics and aside from going into damage limitation 10-man mode in the last match our team actually looks good. I'm not sure what has happened to Paul Lambert but he appears to have done what we all wanted him to do (no, not resign, give us the football we know our players can play). As with being forced to play Okore and Clark, it might be the absence of Cleverley and Westwood that has brought on this formation. Which is looking good. The right hand channel doesn't appear to be used much, I suspect Cissokho, Delph and Gabby is a better option than Lowton, Sanchez and Wiemann but then the goal came from the right.

I'm really hoping we get to see the same in the second half but even if we fold I think this first half could prove to be a turning point in the season. We can pass the ball around and can play and all against a team that should be better than us, and all with different formation and tactics.

Thinking about it, I wonder if ManU thought we'd play a 4-3-3 as usual?

Anyway, a fantastic goal and a well played first half.

The back four of Man U will be petrified of Benteke now so we should exploit that and not sit back.

We'll need to score another to get anything out of the game but credit to Lambert for the new system which has mainly flumixed Van Haal.

C'mon lads don't let old Morph down this time with a family full of Man U supporters. I desperately need some bragging rights this Christmas and it's been a long, long time in coming.

Can't keep soaking up pressure and expect not to conceed. Lowton notgot the pace against Young , poor marking on Falcao

It's 1-1 Falcao Lowton cannot cope with young, young great cross in goal

Grealish warming up

Di maria coming on for man u

Rvp going off for him

Lowton getting Mullered by Young

Lowton cannot cope with young, young keeps sending the balls in, need to cancel out young or more goal coming,

Was also going to say Lowton will start losing it, and fouls will come into it.

Usual official bias to MU. Ball definitely out, ffs Young reacts Gabby off

Gabby won the ball, 50-50 challeng, Young is a pussy

Agbonlahor gets sent off for endangering Man Utd's winning run.

To many cheats in football, we need tv footage on situations, just like the rugby, young plays up.

Have Young back at Villa? I'd sooner see Clark snap his leg off