Top Four Race 2018/19

FootballHQ

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Oh Man United certainly in pole position now....win 2 of Liverpool/Man. City/Chelsea/Arsenal games and I think that will be enough for 4th unless you start dropping points away to likes of Wolves and Palace which could happen if you mix up the team like you did v Burnley.

Amazing turnaround in just 7 weeks though.
 

Gasolin

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Oh Man United certainly in pole position now....win 2 of Liverpool/Man. City/Chelsea/Arsenal games and I think that will be enough for 4th unless you start dropping points away to likes of Wolves and Palace which could happen if you mix up the team like you did v Burnley.

Amazing turnaround in just 7 weeks though.
What about Fulham? We rotated 6 players and still won so. We can mix and win.
 

Random Task

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Higher GD than both Arsenal and Chelsea
Which is a monumental achievement considering we were +0 on the day Ole descended from heaven to save the club.

I still find it hard to believe the change in our club since that glorious day.
 

FlawlessThaw

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Oh Man United certainly in pole position now....win 2 of Liverpool/Man. City/Chelsea/Arsenal games and I think that will be enough for 4th unless you start dropping points away to likes of Wolves and Palace which could happen if you mix up the team like you did v Burnley.

Amazing turnaround in just 7 weeks though.
A lot depends on if we get past PSG, despite their injuries I wouldn't bank on it. Mid January I had us finishing top 4 but had assumed we would not beat PSG.
 

FootballHQ

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What about Fulham? We rotated 6 players and still won so. We can mix and win.
Wolves is a much trickier away game than Fulham who regularly concede 3-4 at the Cottage. You beat Fulham 4-1 in the last days of Mourinho after all.

TBF I can see Man. United and Arsenal both dropping points at Molineux. Very difficult opponent for the top teams home and away.
 

Mick321

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Hopefully we get our usual win at Arsenal in a few weeks and we'll be well on the way.
 

cyberman

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Wolves is a much trickier away game than Fulham who regularly concede 3-4 at the Cottage. You beat Fulham 4-1 in the last days of Mourinho after all.

TBF I can see Man. United and Arsenal both dropping points at Molineux. Very difficult opponent for the top teams home and away.
We rotated v Arsenal as well?
 

newsdevil

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This is really incredible. Anyone have the betting odds of finishing top 4 when Ole took over?
 

FootballHQ

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We rotated v Arsenal as well?
Just love playing at the Emirates. In fairness you win there and that will probably finish off Arsenal in the race so Man. United certainly have very good chance of finishing 4th now if you emerge unscathed from this tricky next few weeks coming up. Of course beating Liverpool and running PSG close will push confidence levels up even higher.
 

Adisa

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Credit to Jamie Redknapp, he called us for top four the day after we sacked Mourinho.
I thought he was on drugs.
 

Organic Potatoes

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I think that’s about right for the top four on balance. Hopefully Arsenal will Arsenal-up their historical late season top 4 push and finish up short.
 

Kapardin

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Just love playing at the Emirates. In fairness you win there and that will probably finish off Arsenal in the race so Man. United certainly have very good chance of finishing 4th now if you emerge unscathed from this tricky next few weeks coming up. Of course beating Liverpool and running PSG close will push confidence levels up even higher.
I'd be more confident if it wasn't for the fact that our midfield depth is absolutely shite. Apart from McTominay who seems capable of chipping in now and then, we have no adequate back-up to Matic-Herrera-Pogba.
 

Lam

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Ours to lose now. Have to definitely win against Chelsea and not lose at Emirates.

And if we win against Pool, we will be safe.
 

FootballHQ

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I'd be more confident if it wasn't for the fact that our midfield depth is absolutely shite. Apart from McTominay who seems capable of chipping in now and then, we have no adequate back-up to Matic-Herrera-Pogba.
The trio has worked very well under OGS. Under previous manager it was very defensive restricted (see the cup final). Matic is on I think 8-9 yellows so he'll get two match ban shortly.

Think just stick with two and bring in a Mata or Lingard to play in the 3 behind the striker although that will mean Pogba can't push on as much.
 

hellohello

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Credit to Jamie Redknapp, he called us for top four the day after we sacked Mourinho.
I thought he was on drugs.
He wasn't the only one, I had United at 4th before season started and also had you finishing 4th when Jose got sacked, give me some credit too although I was close to changing my mind! The reason I didn't was because I wasn't impressed by Chelsea and Arsenal and I thought you had enough quality to finish ahead of them. Before this season started I thought there would be a clear top 4 with Arsenal and Chelsea lagging behind by quite a few points so that's part of why I still backed you when you were far behind.
 

Leftback99

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Well i'm glad to be proved wrong, i predicted in August that we wouldn't be in the top 4 all season and we've finally made it. Looking at the fixtures though it's impossible to call how it's going to finish between us, Arsenal and Chelsea now.
 

AgentP

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The trio has worked very well under OGS. Under previous manager it was very defensive restricted (see the cup final). Matic is on I think 8-9 yellows so he'll get two match ban shortly.

Think just stick with two and bring in a Mata or Lingard to play in the 3 behind the striker although that will mean Pogba can't push on as much.
Matic is on 5 yellow cards mate. You scared me for a second there.
 

Minimalist

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Turns out Mourinho was (clearly) the worst manager we've hired post-Ferguson. This just confirms it. Completely wrong for the club and a complete wanker.

Well done Ole.
 

Jazz

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Still one game at a time. Need to concentrate on Liverpool and not get ahead of ourselves. However, it's incredible, never thought we'd even be in a position to fight for 4th. 11 points off 4th we were not that long ago... amazing turnaround.
 

Raw

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It's so frustrating looking back to our results under Mourinho. We could have been comfortably in the top 4 and not be too far off the top :mad:
 

awop

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Such a fun season already and there's a lot more coming in the next few weeks ! :D
 

FootballHQ

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Think he has 6 but yeah @FootballHQ had me worried as well! Shaw has 8 yellows atm
Apologies, had a quick look on Soccerbase and misread two he picked up in Champions league. He got two yellows v Watford so dunno if the first one still gets counted and also got one v Derby in league cup, again don't know if that is seperate from premier league.

Would say if Shaw gets banned you can just move Young back to the left and give Dalot some more starts.
 

MDFC Manager

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Turns out Mourinho was (clearly) the worst manager we've hired post-Ferguson. This just confirms it. Completely wrong for the club and a complete wanker.

Well done Ole.
Each passing game is further confirmation that second place last season was just an expected and normal outcome, and not the stunning Nobel winning achievement that the acolytes make it out to be.
 

FootballHQ

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Each passing game is further confirmation that second place last season was just an expected and normal outcome, and not the stunning Nobel winning achievement that the acolytes make it out to be.
Mourinho would still be pointing out in interviews the "amazing investment" Leicester and Everton made in the summer in a how can we compete with this shrug of the shoulders.
 

rotherham_red

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Apologies, had a quick look on Soccerbase and misread two he picked up in Champions league. He got two yellows v Watford so dunno if the first one still gets counted and also got one v Derby in league cup, again don't know if that is seperate from premier league.

Would say if Shaw gets banned you can just move Young back to the left and give Dalot some more starts.
The Watford ones shouldn't as they led to a ban, but the Derby one will as it's still in domestic official competition
 

Adisa

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Each passing game is further confirmation that second place last season was just an expected and normal outcome, and not the stunning Nobel winning achievement that the acolytes make it out to be.
There's a newbie who I haven't seen on here since we sacked him.
He said kept insisting we were mid table quality.
 

Canagel

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Liverpool match is big for us. Getting 3 points and one less big match out of the way is vital. Especially as Chelsea still has to come OT later.

Arsenal has less big games but they will drop points. Wasn't that convincing yesterday in Huddersfield at all.
Such a good position we will be in if we won some of these big games.
 

peridigm

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Liverpool match is big for us. Getting 3 points and one less big match out of the way is vital. Especially as Chelsea still has to come OT later.

Arsenal has less big games but they will drop points. Wasn't that convincing yesterday in Huddersfield at all.
Such a good position we will be in if we won some of these big games.
We're not only playing for top 4, we're playing to diminish their chances of winning the league. That has to be extra motivation for Ole and the players. I never thought we'd be in this position 2 months ago. Football is fecking nuts.