Midweek Outlook (16 Mar 2011)

   Manchester United vs Olympique Marseille  

Secretly deep down, I was hoping we lose the FA Cup to Arsenal with the reason captured in the Plurk on the right.

Sure, it appears that we are on course for the treble but if we ask ourselves deep down, is this the team to do it?

If it were the 1999 team, I say hell yeah! This current one? This one who struggle with away games? This one who struggled to beat Crawley Town by a miserly goal?

I don't think so.

That being said, I say it is better we do not spread ourselves too thin and instead, focus on getting enough resources to accomplish the achievable tasks at hand. If we are overwhelmed, then perhaps we should sit down and see what we should focus on and what we should give up.

First on my list are the domestic cups since the payout is short of what we like. Sure, there is a nice trophy that comes with winning but the prize money is mere pocket change and a spot in the Europa League is nothing to a team who operates at the higher European Champions League level.

My original strategy, in the Plurk, would have worked except for a minor flaw. We were assuming that Arsenal was able to beat our B-team of 7 defenders. Rats.

So we now have the disadvantage of having a more hectic EPL fixture compared to Arsenal while the bright side is that we now have the psychological edge over them when we meet again at the Emirates in April, having beaten them last weekend...... with a B-team.

Coming to tonight's game, we had a disappointing first-leg failing to score any away goals. Still, with home advantage tonight which we are expected to win, we do not have to worry much.

As long as we can keep a clean sheet, we can't lose. With that in mind, we should crank up the fire power and put in a couple of goals past Marseille's net and seal the deal.

For some strange reason, Roberto Mancini comes to mind when I think of Didier Deschamps. Deschamps is the lesser of the two evil i.e. Mancini where the latter gave up the game prior to the kick-off whereas Deschamps still relish a "slim" chance.

Team sheet-wise, we welcome the return of Valencia from that horrific injury but I doubt he will make it to the starting line-up. Rooney should be up front with Hernandez while Carrick and Nani are back on active duty.

Ferdinand is still missing. Otherwise, we would have a very confident defense partnering Vidic.

Bookies are favouring ManUtd and giving the home side a 1-ball handicap and a 2.000 decimal odds to beat it i.e. we should be looking at a comfortable win since 1X2 odds is 1.48 for a home win. Punter's wagers are skewed heavily in favour of ManUtd at 78%.

My take is that we will win this 2-0 easily since no French team has ever won at Old Trafford.

JayWalk's 2010/2011 Track Record to-date (15 Mar 2011) : P101-W53-L48

- Voxeros