Manchester United

Pogba won't be playing the first match of the season as he received two yellow cards in the Coppa Italia last year and his suspension has been carried over to the Premier League. 

@SportyShubh He was booked twice in last season's Coppa Italia, which results in a one-game ban. This has been transferred to England.

— The FA (@FA) August 12, 2016

Also, Januzaj is loaned out to Sunderland for the season. 3 Man U players going there in one week; that David Moyes connection.

Januzaj to come back to Old Trafford and have the game of his life, calling it now.

not this season, at least. Can't play against parent club

Decent victory this morning, was good to see everyone had bought into Mourinho's system and methods. But it showed the contrast already between LvGs ways and now - players have very defined roles out of possession and there is more freedom and risk involved in possession. 

Valencia looks back to his best (which isnt great but still decent) and Bailly looks like he could become a commanding CB. Even Fellaini looked alright. 

Rooney and Zlatan play well together and I was impressed with Zlatan's work rate - he often sat in when Rooney / Martial / Mata had gone past him and we lost the ball. 

Take the three points and look to improve - when Mkhitaryan and Pogba get settled its going to look like a very good squad. 

I thought Rooney was poor, yet again. I've been a big defender of him for a long time but with players like Pogba and Mkhitaryan coming into contention for midfield spots he's going to have to play very well to maintain a starting spot.

I also have my doubts about his effectiveness when played behind Zlatan against a top tier team, no pace through the middle and that gets even worse if Mata is on the right.

Still, plenty to be happy about, Bailly looks the real deal and Valencia is playing better than he has in years. Definitely a title contender this season if Mou can hold the dressing room together for long enugh.

Rooney back to Everton next summer. Heard it here first folks. 

He doesn't need more money but probably should take the biggest cash offer from either the CSL/MLS

I think Rooney is the kind of bloke who would consider an American Hotdog "foreign food" and would be quite happy staying in England for his whole career. 

I am not saying Rooney was great but he certainly wasn't poor - his passing accuracy was above 90% and he did everything he needed to in the game. Worked well with the CMs and actually didnt get too deep to get the ball which he did so often last season. He and Zlatan actually compliment each other and pace is not the only thing needed to play up front. 

The main difference I have noted is that everyone is working for each other and there is a higher tempo to the team - both in attack and defence. Its a good sign

In a lot of ways I think the issue with Rooney is that his natural position is as a second striker in a 4-4-2 but so few managers play that way these days that he usually gets asked to do another role. He seems too slow and immobile to playas a winger or wide forward, not creative enough to be an attacking mid, and not comfortable enough holding the ball up aand playing with his back to goal to be a target man like Zlatan is these days. He's a passable sole striker but not dynamic enough in that role these days to justify a spot in a team with title ambitions.

Spot on for me CT.

For the last 2 seasons at least I thought both ManU and England would have been better off without him on the pitch. 

I think any judgement of United players based on the past two and a half seasons is largely influenced by the people in charge. No one bar De Gea and Smalling has looked decent as their roles have been so restricted and unusual that they have not been able to express their own abilities ahead of the role they have been asked to perform. 

If you took Rooney out of the equation for both United and England, you would have just had another player doing the same thing with less experience and determination than Rooney and you would still get the same result.

He may not be the same player as he was when he was 25-28 yo but you still have the same guy who is going to put the hard work in and sacrifice his own personal accolades for the team. (the transfer saga of him leaving was in pure conflict with SAF - not the team)

Seems like low expectations for the highest paid player at the club.

As for his role in the England squad it's all hypothetical obviously, but I don't think you'd have a like for like replacement. In an attacking role you'd have a younger, faster, fitter option and in the midfield you'd have a player who is actually used to playing there and able to control, distribute, and tackle under pressure. Either way, it wouldn't just be another player doing the same thing, the whole balance of the team would be different. 

Agree. Too many people expect Rooney to be exactly the same player he was 5 years ago. 

One thing for sure, he has the football nouse, the vision and the determination. Also the fact that he has achieved more than most players in England and will therefore always be a target for the tall poppy syndrome from Utd supporters and particularly from those  that hate MU.

But hey, I actually don't like either Utd or England so I'm clearly hating on the guy because of that.

I was not actually replying to your comment, but having said that he is still good enough to be playing for Utd. 

I am a club man first and have criticized  Rooney many times in the past. If he were not up to it then I would have no qualms about him being dropped to the reserves or transferred. Regardless of who he had ended up with I have always known he had quality.

I first saw him before he left Everton when he played for England in the 2004 Euros in Portugal.     I was surrounded by England fans at the time and they loved him. I was impressed with him then although he was  still a kid.

It's not so much that Rooney isn't amazing any more, it's that surely Pogba or Mkhitaryan (personally I fancy Lingard as a RM and Mky as CAM) will be lining up his position.

Completely agree. Still think England and ManU would be better off without him.

Feels like he's holding them back for me, time to move on. 

Well actually, just keep him please ;)

Agree about Mkhitaryan and Pogba but Lingard  right now is overrated. May have scored two goals at Wembley but I don't think he that good.

Would certainly not be in my starting 11.

So tomorrow morning at 7:00 United will be playing at home against Southampton, who are coming off a 1–1 with Watford. How do you guys predict the match will go? My prediction is it'll be a dire 1–0 to Mourinho's side. Bailly will have a good match, and this might be perhaps Rooney's last start in a while for United, unless he either gets dropped already or has another match like last one where he loses the ball twenty times but somehow scores eventually.

Could see United losing with a Pogba injury. Would serve us right for all this ridiculous hype.

It depends what team he puts out. If all the new signings start then we could score 2/3 goals.

The hype is coming from the media rather than the club.

The majority is coming from the media.

Man United on at 7am tomorrow ??

Yes

Just flicked through the ManU twitter feed after reading this.

Wow. I guess they gotta milk the cash cow.

ManU/Soton and Liverpool/Chelsea are two bloody good fixtures for it first up as well. 

Dude, we announced the signing in the middle of the night (UK time) so we could time it for the best global exposure in order to run a "#pogback" campaign with a TV ad. The media has been relatively quiet in all honesty.

Great game this morning. Pogba looked superb, as did a lot of other players. For the first time in a while it felt like a pitch full of world class players, even with Fellaini in the team.

If I was being picky then we let to many cross in and a better final touch from Soton could have seen a different result.

Love this Saturday morning thing. It's absolutely fantastic.

Sat morn footy is bloody great!

Well that was pretty daunting to watch as a non-ManU fan. 

Just a different team than the last 3 years. Very strong and athletic, right across the park.

I would give Ibra, Pogba, Bailly and Rooney all 10/10's on those performances. And Mata does look like the weak link. Some nice creative stuff but just about the only player in the side who isn't physically strong, gave it away badly a couple of times. 

It was like Rooney read my comments on here! He was very influential, Mourinho has found a great role for him  amongst these players. If he keeps that up he'll have a huge season, and will silence me and many others. 

Pogba was excellent, and in an impressive way, silenced a few of the doubters around here to some degree I would say - he didn't go missing at all, very prominent right throughout, and it wasn't just 'youtube clip' stuff. Just really strong on the ball, winning tackles, excellent distribution, getting his head up when he turned. What a player he looks. 

That Bailly looks scarily good too. Big and technical, but also fast. 

How would Moyes and van Gaal have gone if ManU had been able to sign these players previously? Where they were looking for pogbas, baillys and ibras, they were getting schneiderlins, rojos and falcaos, even though the same money was all there, and the same people from ManU negotiating deals. 

Is it Mourinho's relationship with Mendes and the likes? 

Good to see things have returned to normal at Old Trafford. Diving gets a penalty. I didn't think so at the time and the replays show that there was no contact. Has The Special one unveiled a new Drogba? A shame as the two sides were evenly balanced until then. Pogba looked very good and so too Imbranovich. Good to see Luke Shaw getting a start. So much trouble with injuries in the past. He looked quite good. Not sure what the special one will do with Mata. On this form I would be keeping him.

6 points for United, fair enough, that first goal was excellent in planning and execution and I have been bagging Rooney, yet today I thought he did well. He got on with his job quietly and efficiently. Some of his passes were excellent.

Also, if there's one thing I'm not surprised about is Pogba looking good and having a great performance. All the "doubters" on this forum that thought he'd be crap are deluded—the only possible way he doesn't have a good season is by getting injured, otherwise he'll be beast for United. A few bad performances for France means fudge all, and club football > international football, so his good career at Juventus is more important than a few matches for France. I look forward to seeing more of Pogba, no doubt he'll become one of the best players of the world. Shame he went to United though.

I reckon the Play maker role for Rooney. I thought he was quite good in midfield.

After 4 games last season we had 7 points so I expect a lot more than that in the next couple of games.

Love reading all the negative things that have been mentioned in the last few weeks and to see most of it was rubbish. We deserved the win but still nowhere near where we will/should be in a few weeks. The players that have copped the most flack actually proved their worth this morning and will only get better. 

Agree with the comment about our defense. Individually good but poor as a unit. We had the same problem last season which I mentioned but was slammed as we had conceded so few goals.Hopefully JM will sort this out.

Still need to buy another top player or two.