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Manchester United's Ryan Giggs passes the ball during his team's friendly match against Juventus at Old Trafford in England on Tuesday. (AP)
The big question ahead of the crunch Man Utd vs Chelsea Capital One Cup game on Wednesday is what formation Sir Alex will employ.
United employed a diamond formation in games against Newcastle United, CFR Cluj and SC Braga, and won all, and then went wide again with Antonio Valencia and Ashley Young against Chelsea and won that as well.
Ryan Giggs hinted in an interview (prior to the Chelsea game) with the club’s official website manutd.com that it could be wingers for the Premier League and the diamond in Europe.
"Maybe we'll need to use it in some big games - you might see it in Europe - but United, more often than not, will play with wingers," Giggs said at the time.
While the diamond packs more bodies in midfield and could choke the Oscar, Hazard, Mata trio; it was the wing play that got United the goals against Chelsea, exposing their weakness along the flanks.
In the interview Giggs said, "I think it's important to have flexibility. In the game against Newcastle at St James' Park, that first 20 minutes was probably the best football we've played all season. That was with the diamond.
"With Antonio missing the game and Ashley Young injured we were short of width a little bit. So the diamond made sense and it means we have that flexibility now.
"Wayne can drop deeper, Shinji Kagawa can play in the majority of midfield positions, Tom Cleverley can play behind the strikers... we have the sort of personnel where we can chop and change and play different systems.”
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