Your line up:
Rooney.
True, but It'd be sad to see a player like Juan Mata on the bench, because he is good enough to be on the first team, has lots of top level experience and is world class, but you're line up needs our attackers to track back and I think its more likely that Ander Herrera will track back than Juan Mata, so fair enough.
As for the defence, Marcos Rojo hasn't played yet and Phil Jones needs a run at centre back, so we might not need a centre back, but if you think we do need one, here are some options (I'll only list players who have a decent amount of top level experience):
Badstuber, Dante, Howedes, Hummels, Papadopolous (not that tall though), Rami, Subotic or Vertonghen.
Nick Powell (originally an attacking midfielder) can fight Ander Herrera for central midfielder or we can sign a decent youngster to compete with him if Nick Powell can't play well there OR promote a youth player who is good enough to compete with Ander Herrera.
Bayern Munich played that formation last season, but for it to work, your attacking players need to track back A LOT.
Not sure if Ander Herrera had enough energy and pace to track back that much, but pace might not matter,
Blind over Carrick for me.
Falcao rotating for Van Persie isn't a bad idea, if we keep all our current attacking players (includes signing Falcao permanently).
Overall, I think your line up is very good and I'd be very excited if we were to play that, but our players would have to track back a lot for it to work.
My line up:
As you'd expect, I'd go with the 4-2-3-1, because its the most balanced.
GK - De Gea - easily our best keeper and definitely good enough to be a starter.
RB - Rafael - is naturally a right back, unlike Valencia and I rate Rafael, but his fitness needs improving.
CB - Marcos Rojo - experienced at the top level and probably one of our better centre backs.
CB - Phil Jones - good, but needs to run at centre back. Either him or Blackett.
LB - Luke Shaw - has Premier League experience, but none in Europe. Marcos Rojo if not him.
DMF - Blind - is probably best as a defensive midfielder than a left back and probably our best one.
CMF - Ander Herrera - obvious, because Carrick only had one good season and Cleverley is Cleverley.
RMF - Di Maria - easily our best winger and you'd rather play a player of his quality in his best position.
AMF - Juan Mata - Its his natural position and Rooney is best as a striker.
LMF - Januzaj - better as a winger than Rooney and better than our remaining options.
CF - Falcao - better than Rooney and Van Persie. All can't play in their preferred positions at once.
we dont need to drop anyone just rotate based on form. oposition and injuries
Mata is absolutely useless, i'd get rid of him and try and get some money back while mugs might still shell out a bit.
Drop Januzaj & Herrera
Drop Mata. Rooney way more of a threat in front of goal and about the same in assisting/creating.
The only team I would be happy to see is this:
Falcao is a no.9 and therefore plays best in a 4-2-3-1 formation
I think Rooney is better than Mata as a player, but as a CAM I favour Mata
if he continues to play with 3 CB formation, he can't play januzaj and use dimaria to his full potential. he has to stick with valencia in the wing :(
It doesn't Mata, they won't finish in the top 4.
Definitely Mata over Januzaj. The Albainian is very overrated. I am also unsure if Rojo is capable of that position.
Rooney,Mata or RVP.
If you look at Bayern,Barca and Real. Even City and Chelsea nowadays they have strong players on the bench. So why not do the same??
We have an inexperienced defense that we will have to play with until january. The central midfield lacks depth.
Why not play a 4-1-4-1, its sort of turning into a widely used and effective formation nowadays.?
-----------------De Gea----------------
Rafael----Jones----Rojo-----Shaw
-------------Blind or Carrick---------
Di Maria-Rooney-Herrera-Januzaj
---------------Falcao or RVP---------
Picked Rooney ahead of Mata because of his work rate not because he is better. Van Persie is 31 injury prone, won't start every match so we can rotate between him and Falcao. Rooney is not as good as RVP and Falcao when it comes to finishing.
you can't drop mata. he man u's best player. in this season man u have managed to complete 10 assists and goals, 8 of those have come from mata. i'm not a man u fan, but your defense is really bad. van gaal is playing with three players at the back and to make things worse all three of them is inexperienced. the defense will let you down against good teams.
