No new signings plus Pogba and Lukaku leave — what would be our ceiling?

[DSG]

If we didn’t sign another player this summer, Pogba and Lukaku leave and Ole remains in charge, what would be our absolute ceiling in terms of PL and cups?

Tuanzebe steps up to PL quality CB.
Greenwood gets 25 appearances and scores 10 goals.
Fred, Andreas and McTominay step up to the next level and cut down mistakes.
Rashford finally fulfills his massive potential and bags 25+ goals
Daniel James is a good signing, gets 35 appearances

I’m going to say 4th in the PL, assuming a bit better performance by the defence.
League Cup winner
FA Cup quarters
Europa League quarters

 

[romufc]

If Pogba and Lukaku leave, we are getting No way near top 4.

Fred, Andreas and McTominay... I can think of at least 6 teams who have a better midfield than that, let alone defence and attack.

 

[VanGaalyTime]

Think we might make top 10 without any new additions and Lukaku leaves. With a new CD, CM, RW and CF we'll get top four.

 

[marktan]

Top 6 for me. Creatively we're still to reliant on Pogba turning up, which was we saw under Ole's first 3 months goes really well when he does, but when he doesn't we're dire.

 

[SteveW]

If we didn’t sign another player this summer, Pogba and Lukaku leave and Ole remains in charge, what would be our absolute ceiling in terms of PL and cups?

Tuanzebe steps up to PL quality CB.
Greenwood gets 25 appearances and scores 10 goals.
Fred, Andreas and McTominay step up to the next level and cut down mistakes.
Rashford finally fulfills his massive potential and bags 25+ goals
Daniel James is a good signing, gets 35 appearances

I’m going to say 4th in the PL, assuming a bit better performance by the defence.
League Cup winner
FA Cup quarters
Europa League quarters

That's hugely ambitious. We'd be completely fecked with those 3 and Matic as our only midfield options. Mid table candidates.

Won't come to that imo. Pogba will stay and we'll sign a midfielder.

 

[mitchmouse]

If Pogba and Lukaku leave, we are getting No way near top 4.

Fred, Andreas and McTominay... I can think of at least 6 teams who have a better midfield than that, let alone defence and attack.

we may as well let that JD Sports twat buy us

 

[romufc]

we may as well let that JD Sports twat buy us

So much for biggest club more like biggest joke club of year.

 

[Von Mistelroum]

If those two leave and we sign nobody, or even if we sign Maguire, we'll genuinely struggle to stay in the top half.

 

[Ekeke]

6th would be expected if we lost Pogba and Lukaku with no replacements

 

[romufc]

If those two leave and we sign nobody, or even if we sign Maguire, we'll genuinely struggle to stay in the top half.

And that isn't over exaggerating. Without replacing them we are in real trouble.

 

[R'hllor]

6th with performances of 14th

 

[DSG]

I generally agree that 4th is crazy. But, this is if everything goes right — our absolute ceiling.

To be clear, you don’t build a squad so that your best case scenario is 4th. It’s just, with 3 weeks left until the transfer window closes there is a possibility that we do not sign another player and both Pogba and Lukaku leave.

 

[Tom Cato]

The club won't sell Paul Pogba if we're not bringing in any CM upgrades regardless. We don't have to sell the player and the brass know better than to leave the team gutted when they already came out and said that they would support the manager in the market.

Lukaku might be sold because he's a extremely valuable player that's not in the managers plans, so he's considered expendable. Paul Pogba is the exacty opposite of Lukaku

 

[buckooo1978]

given what's gone on at Arsenal and Chelsea we've a chance at 4th

Pogba (no way he leaves this year) is amongst the top players in the league so if Ole can get some consistency out of him he will be brilliant with outlets like James, Rashford and Greenwood.

Marcus looks sharp and hopefully ready to move up a level with Lukaku almost 100% leaving. I think Lingard/Martial have been given major wake up calls with the talk of Greenwood playing vrs Chelsea - time for them to step up

AWB will improve us defensively but we are still weak at the back - we know we will get lots of 6/7 out of 10 performances from Jones, Smalling and Bailly with brainfarts- I'm hopeful McTominay can play more regularly in place of Matic and Fred can improve - the lack of protection for the defence is a major problem and we looked fairly open against Leeds at times from what I saw.

Nevertheless even with these weaknesses we've a shout of 4th place. We might be under pressure at the end of the season as we try to balance a 4th place battle plus Europa League knockouts

if we add Maguire/Another CB I'd say we are going to challenge Spurs for 3rd - a dedicated ball winning defensive midfielder who can pass and we'd really be back in the mix

 

[CM]

If Pogba were to leave we'd definitely struggle for top 4, thankfully it doesn't look like that will happen this summer.

I don't see Lukaku as much of a loss at all and to tell the truth, will be pretty glad to see the back of him. 28 goals in two seasons when he was undisputed first choice for most of that time isn't exactly great, especially for a player whose best trait is being a natural goalscorer.

 

[Sterling Archer]

Forget Lukaku. If Pogba leaves, Wolves finish ahead of us.

Honestly, with the signing of Diego Costa they're likely to finish ahead of us as is. I think people forget how instrumental he was in Chelsea's record breaking season. Going to be massive for them.

We don't have any single signing yet that will have that kind of impact.

 

[Sambob]

I think that we might be pleasantly surprised this season, even if Pogba goes, we have a lot of creative young talent, and we are faster now. If we get a centre half that can control the ball and run with it then we are already improved over Lukaku, and we have those in the kids coming through.

We have a better defense now too with Maguire coming in and AWB, i think we can do good things already but would like another signing or two.

 

[hubbuh]

So much for biggest club more like biggest joke club of year.

Idiotic post. Then again, managing to insult the club based on highly unlikely hypothetical scenarios has become par for the course for many United fans.

 

[romufc]

Idiotic post. Then again, managing to insult the club based on highly unlikely hypothetical scenarios has become par for the course for many United fans.

How is it unlikely hypothetical? please explain?
Inter want Lukaku, and if we don’t sign anyone in next 3 weeks. There are 3 weeks where we cannot sign anyone and if Pogba pushes a move and someone bids £150m plus, it is possible.

Just cause you cannot accept it, and still think we are a big club, not my fault.

 

[Amarsdd]

Feck me! The media is clickbaiting all United fans with the end of the world bullshit and everyone seems to be lapping it up happily. For someone who only followed that and these fans would think the club is on the verge of administration and about to get relegated down from the championship.

For sure, there are some problems with the running of the club and couple of positions we don't have good quality in the team right now but there are a lot of things to be optimistic about for the coming season. We have bought two players that fit our requirements instead of buying whatever big name that was available like we did last few years. And we are most likely filling a couple of more holes in the team with Maguire and Bruno. We also have some youngsters coming through to play at least a minor role in the season which is always exciting. It doesn't look like Pogba leaves this summer and if Lukaku leaves we will be getting a more low-profiled replacement based on the noises coming out of the club. Even if we don't, Rashford and Martial seem to be in the right point of their development to take the main roles.

In terms of Ole's capability, I am very hopeful. We saw a definite gameplan and how it worked while the team's fitness was holding up in the first 10 or so games. The fluid 4-2-1-3 that we are looking to employ that Ash Westwood described in his United We Stand interview (after having full access to the training and coaches in the preseason) was interesting and fits what we have in our team well.

I think we will surprise a lot of people by how well we'll do the coming season. I don't expect us to win the league but we'll be a lot closer than last season.

 

[King Andow]

feck Lukaku the husky donkey, if he goes we're in a better place as Rashy, Tony and Greewny would all benefit with the minutes up top. Maybe Sanchez resurrect this season too, although highly unlikely. Now if Pogba leaves and he's not replaced, we are fecked, my friend. We don't have another creative enough midfielder able to dominate games. In that scenario, I'd use Gomes a lot more during the season. 6th to 8th in the league and maybe one cup, that would be it.

 

[Kostur]

Top 6 just like now.

 

[Teja]

We'll probably still be 6th, but a lot closer to Wolves / Everton / Leicester than we are now.

 

[M Bison]

How is it unlikely hypothetical? please explain?
Inter want Lukaku, and if we don’t sign anyone in next 3 weeks. There are 3 weeks where we cannot sign anyone and if Pogba pushes a move and someone bids £150m plus, it is possible.

Just cause you cannot accept it, and still think we are a big club, not my fault.

This is hilarious, you’ve contradicted yourself in your own post

 

[Canagel]

7th-8th

 

[Garethw]

6th would be expected if we lost Pogba and Lukaku with no replacements

I’d say more like 8th. We finished 6th with them both.

 

[M Bison]

Top 8 I think. I’d be fine with it too if it meant blooding the youngsters and getting rid of some of the bad apples.

I’d rather get beat having a team playing like they care, who actually want to be here and hurt when they lose, rather than the current inconsistency because a handful of players turn up when they fancy it.

 

[Ibrahimorich]

I don't think 4th is unreasonable without them. I don't think we would be favourites for it though. 6th probably most likely.

 

[USREDEVIL]

6th to 8th with some of the most shit football you've seen at United.

 

[Sparky_Hughes]

With our without them, top 3.

 

[Baneofthegame]

Top 3 at best, 7th at worst.

 

[LawCharltonBest]

The team would have more unity. The current players would step up & opportunities would open up for Garner, Chong and Greenwood. We’d be top 2

 

[USREDEVIL]

The team would have more unity. The current players would step up & opportunities would open up for Garner, Chong and Greenwood. We’d be top 2

Unity doesn't put the ball in the back of the net. Good passing to Martial and Rashford to score does though. I get it, we want a united team that plays for each other but we also need quality.

 

[norm87cro]

That is an unrealistic scenario and we all know it. But the level of the doom and gloom in the CAF has reached another dimension

 

[Fooza]

Some of you need to chill.

There's still just under 3 weeks left, and transfers can happen quickly.

Having said that, please don't tell me we will have a worse season without Lukaku. He was never right for United and he wasn't the top striker that we needed. I'm glad we getting rid.

 

[USREDEVIL]

That is an unrealistic scenario and we all know it. But the level of the doom and gloom in the CAF has reached another dimension

Pogba won't leave but Lukaku looks off, just trying to squeeze the last bit of money out of him. We are likely to sign Maguire but not sure on Bruno. There's a good chance we'll be somewhere in the middle of this scenario.

 

[dev1l]

That is an unrealistic scenario and we all know it. But the level of the doom and gloom in the CAF has reached another dimension

It ll soon be renamed armageddon cafe

 

[JPRouve]

Some posters managed to wum themselves.

 

[Rish Sawhney]

If Lukaku leaves and we don't replace him I expect us to have a more fluent attack that doesn't resort to just Ashley Young or Pogba lumping crosses in from the left hoping Lukaku would get his head on them.

I kind of wish our club was less focused on results and more on style. If we play a fast attacking style of football but end up finishing 6-7th that would not be the worst thing in the world. What worries me is that in the name of chasing success we sacrifice the entertainment value for fans which is what the point of football really is. As long as the players go out with the intent to entertain fans I'll be happy with the manager - win or lose.

 

[Catt]

So much for biggest club more like biggest joke club of year.

Just calm down a bit.