Chelsea Vs Manchester United - 2019/20 FA Cup Semi Final (19/07/2020)
My Pre-match thoughts
Chelsea CANNOT lose to Manchester United for a fourth time this season, the last time Chelsea lost 4 games against United in one season was 2010/11 when the two teams faced each other 5 times (Premier League, Champions League and Community Shield). Lampard and the players should not allow this to happen again and if they do, My experience through Instagram and other social networking platforms will be a disaster due to the memes incoming. This is also one of two competitions Chelsea could still get silverware with the other being the Champions League, where Chelsea need to overturn a 0-3 home leg defeat at Bayern Munich to meet either Barcelona or Napoli in the quarter finals, not an easy task at all.
United have been performing well since Lockdown (Especially Bruno Fernandes), therefore Chelsea NEED to be at their best in order to come out as FA Cup finalists.
My Prediction: Chelsea 1-2 Manchester United (full time score)
as a Chelsea fan, I really doubt it whether Chelsea will perform well for the duration of the match against an in-form Manchester United team, looking at previous results such as the disappointing defeats to Sheffield United and West Ham in addition to the shaky first half performance in Chelsea's quarter final win against Leicester City.
My Ideal Line-up
Why did I go with this formation?
If I was Frank Lampard, I would deploy a 3-4-3 formation as it was successful in big away matches against Tottenham and Arsenal not forgetting that this formation often results in a more solid defense, which is vital as Chelsea's defense this season is highly inconsistent. a 4-3-3 formation might also work as it did spark great performances against Manchester City twice this season despite losing one of the two encounters and it's also the formation in which the squad have been more familiar with this season. Giroud has been performing really well lately which surprised me that he was our 3rd choice striker pre-lockdown therefore I'm selecting him over Tammy Abraham to lead the attack against Manchester United. Willian was also really effective since Lockdown and Pulisic has been one of Chelsea's highest performers this season.
Due to my selection of a 3-4-3. Marcos Alonso is an obvious choice to occupy the left wing back position despite how slow he is and how he's better attacking than defending. During Antonio Conte's Chelsea, Alonso excelled as a wing-back when 3-4-3 was the formation to pick, hoping to bring back those performances from the 2016/17 league winning team. The central midfield was a hard one to pick due to the enourmous depth Chelsea has in that area (Picking from Mount, Barkley, Kante, Kovacic, Jorginho, Loftus Cheek and hopefully Havertz next season). I have picked Barkley due to his performances since lockdown despite how unpredictable his performance will be in addition to Kovacic, who proved to be one of Chelsea's most important players this season.
I believe that our Azpilicueta should occupy the right wingback position as opposed to being a CB due to how he needs to move up during attacking plays and how he needs to supply those quality crosses in for Giroud or Pulisic to score from, which leaves Reece James out on the bench, and finally for our back three I've chosen Zouma due to his recent performances and how he has been our best defender this year after Reece James (in my opinion), I've also chosen Tomori (if he's back from injury) and Antonio Rudiger.
Frank Lampard's selected side to face Manchester United (Official line up)
I predicted a 4-3-3 from Lampard but both sides pulled out 3-4-3 which doesn't surprise me, what surprises me is Caballero's inclusion in today's match, implying that Lampard might wanna take this game to penalties, which isn't a good sign, or hopefully it's because United are definitely getting at least 1 penalty tonight (because it's Manchester United!!!) and Caballero is good at saving them, Pulisic's presence on the bench rather than on the pitch bothers me but otherwise I'm satisified, especially with Kovacic featuring.
Kante is injured therefore he doesn't feature tonight however I am generally satisfied with his selected midfield. Looking at Manchester United's side, Pogba is on the bench which benefits us due to his quality, which is only if he wants to play. Ex-Chelsea player and Bakayoko's predecessor Nemanja Matic features in Manchester United's midfield in Pogba's place. Bruno Fernandes unfortunately starts against Chelsea today, Solskjaer has pulled out a pretty strong squad to face the blues tonight.
Full time, Manchester United 1-3 Chelsea
What a performance that was! My man of the match today goes to Mason Mount, I said that we needed to be at our best to come out as finalists and Chelsea absoluetly dominated the game and I certainly didn't expect Chelsea to score 3. We face Arsenal in the final, which we should be winning as we were the much stronger team overall this season but we shouldn't underestimate them, especially after that performance against Manchester City. 4-1 again inshallah!!