Right, yesterday afternoon I sat down to figure out the probable lineups for this pre-season friendly between Man United and Lyon. Felt like doing something quick after lunch. Grabbed my laptop, opened about fifteen tabs – yeah, my browser groaned a bit.
Started where everyone does these days: Twitter, obviously. Searched for #MUFC and #OL. Found the usual chaos. Some “ITK” accounts shouting about this player starting, that player being rested. Half the tweets contradicted the others. Funny how that works. Scrolled past endless arguments about Maguire and McTominay’s futures. Didn’t help much.
Digging Through the Mess
Switched tactics. Went straight to the club’s official app news sections. Man United’s feed was buzzing about the US tour ending, Lyon’s had stuff about new signings. Actual lineup clues? Zilch. Pre-season friendlies, they never give the game away early. Annoying.
Remembered some team-specific forums I lurked on years ago. Dusted off the login for “The Red Devils Nest” and “Les Gones Talk”. Users were piecing together scraps:
Trying the “Official” Route (and Failing)
Thought maybe paid sites might have insider whispers. Peeked at a couple big sports news outlets’ predicted lineups. Pure guesswork. One had Mount starting as a false nine? Yeah, no. Another still had De Gea in goal. Out of date or just lazy? Probably both.
Realised I was spending way too long on this for a friendly. Need to just make a call. Opened a notes app.
Making My Predictions
Took a breath and went with logic based on snippets:
For Lyon, guessed Lacazette misses out. Saw Tolisso might play deep, Cherki pulling strings. Fullbacks are anyone’s guess.
Typed it out quickly on the blog. Called it “My Best Guess Based on Rumours, Jet Lag, and Ten Hag Being Cryptic“. Hit publish. Went to make tea. Already saw comments arguing my choices minutes later. Surprise surprise. People take friendlies way too seriously sometimes. My prediction was probably half wrong anyway. I’m bad at this.
On another note, why are these apps always pushing notifications? My phone buzzed non-stop about player sales all evening. Trying to cook dinner and it’s “MAGUIRE UPDATE!”. Who cares! Just let people be. Nearly burnt the veggies because of some random Fabrizio Romano ping. These clubs bleed you dry with ticket prices, then the apps buzz you to death. It’s exhausting.
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