Can we get top 5?

[jderbyshire]

Yeah I think we'll finish 5th, and Ole would've been sacked under normal circumstances but the loophole will keep him in the job.

It'll be his Mark Robins moment.

Next season he will guide us another treble, knocking Liverpool off their perch once again, becoming one of the greatest managers to ever grace the Premier League.

White text.

 

[Havak]

We will have to go on quite the run which will need to involve not losing against Chelsea tonight IMO. Personally, I think our chances will slim to none if we are beaten by Chelsea given the run of games we have coming up. Hopefully, the players and staff take this as an opportunity rather than a negative thought. We have the chance to beat teams around us, so we have to make the most of it. However, I do believe failure against Chelsea and/or Watford would be extremely close to the final nail in the coffin and we might as well go all-in for the Europa League method of qualification again. We play Chelsea & Spurs very soon, while they also play each other, so it's a massive few weeks incoming. If, for example, we lost both of those and they play out a draw or something, I really can't see us being good enough to overtake either of them. Right now, I expect:

Liverpool
Man City
Leicester
Tottenham
Chelsea
Man Utd

To be the top six, as we have a very favourable end to the season, but a very tough next six weeks or so.

 

[sunama]

If Rashford didnt get injured I wouldnt have any doubt. Haven't scored a league goal since he got injured though.

Is this correct?
Surely it can't be.

 

[Hawks2008]

We've won 9 out of 25, how many would we honestly win from our last 13? Tough fixtures, we have Spurs, Chelsea, Everton, and Leicester away from home where we have been abysmal and furthermore teams like Sheffield, Watford, Palace, and Southampton which all have the potential to be banana peels. We're facing teams around us and teams fighting for the place in the league, we have winnable games for sure but I don't think there's an easy one with the way we've been playing.

So many of these players have been letting us down year after year and we're expecting them to bail us out now? We're not getting CL bar a crazy run in Europa.

 

[sunama]

Next season he will guide us another treble, knocking Liverpool off their perch once again, becoming one of the greatest managers to ever grace the Premier League.

I'd love for that to be the case, but Ole's own standards are so low, I don't think he'd even bother trying to win that many games.
At no stage this year has he stated that what is happening is unacceptable. He keeps saying that in a few years we'll be a good side.
When he first joined, he famously said that 2nd place is unacceptable, but now that we are in 8th, he doesn't seem to care or have any standards.
It's almost as if personal/professional pride has completely gone out of the window. If he got relegated, he still probably wouldn't admit that he has done a terrible job.

I wonder if he has just given up and is merely waiting for the sack (like Jose did in his final season).

 

[M Bison]

I dont think we'll make top 5 unfortunately.

I just cant see where the goals are going to come from, the hope is that with Bruno and Pogba playing the same midfield it gives us a lot more in the final 3rd but we're relying on Martial to bring the goals which i just cant see.

 

[RedBanker]

If we win 10 out of 13 then yes.
But we will most likely win 4 out of 13.
So no top 5 for us.
Maybe a fair title of your thread could be "Can we get top 15"?

 

[Rozay]

Obviously we can.

 

[cyril C]

Is this correct?
Surely it can't be.

This is correct. Norwich was the last game that we scored a League goal. The rest are FA and league Cup rubber stamp game.

 

[Sparky Rhiwabon]

I doubt we're capable of enough consistency to get top 5 but I firmly believe we can get a top 10 finish, maybe even 6th which is what I optimistically predicted pre season.

I expect we will be aiming for 5th now rather than 4th, which I think will be a mistake

 

[Paul_Scholes18]

We can still get first. I trust in matematics. The universe is crazy enough to have some tiny odds to mess it up for Liverpool.
Even if they got Zeus, Odin the entire Marvel series behind them.

Answering the question we have a good chance for top 5. Although we need to get a good run soon.

 

[londonredmaniac]

I don't think we will tbf

 

[Bestietom]

If we get beat tonight against Chelsea, we can forget about top 5. Winning Europa League will be our only way into Champions League.

 

[SpyLuke10]

In all honesty, our next games are Chelsea, Watford, Everton, City, Spurs and SU. I can actually see us picking up 3 points max from those games.

I reckon finishing in the top 10 will be a struggle for us. This is a real worry.

what a delusionally pessimistic comment. If i was to predict, I would say we'll win at least one of the games out of chelsea city and spurs. also at least 2 out of watford everton SU. lets say...chelsea D watford W Everton W City D spurs W SU D ---just as an example.

 

[Kurton]

We can still get first. I trust in matematics. The universe is crazy enough to have some tiny odds to mess it up for Liverpool.
Even if they got Zeus, Odin the entire Marvel series behind them.

Answering the question we have a good chance for top 5. Although we need to get a good run soon.

Liverpool is 41 points ahead of us. we can get a max of 39 points from our remaining games. I think you live in some parallel universe.

 

[wolvored]

I think it all depends how we play tonight. Ole has been banging on how the break will do the team good. If it's the same shitshow and we lose then no we wont get top 5 imo. On the other hand if we do play a lot better and win that would put us in a very handy place. Obviously we would need chelsea spurs everton sheff u and wanderers to feck up bad as well

 

[wolvored]

what a delusionally pessimistic comment. If i was to predict, I would say we'll win at least one of the games out of chelsea city and spurs. also at least 2 out of watford everton SU. lets say...chelsea D watford W Everton W City D spurs W SU D ---just as an example.

We wont go through all those games without at least 1 defeat.

 

[Paul_Scholes18]

Liverpool is 41 points ahead of us. we can get a max of 39 points from our remaining games. I think you live in some parallel universe.

Probably and poor math , but I was also thinking about corruption and points reduction related to Man City.

 

[Kurton]

Probably and poor math , but I was also thinking about corruption and points reduction related to Man City.

Cool man, how do things work over there ? anyways I'd rather Liverpool win the league than mancheater city, Pains me saying but also that we are cannot affect Liverpool winning the league even if do the impossible and win all the remaining games so early in Feb.

 

[romufc]

what a delusionally pessimistic comment. If i was to predict, I would say we'll win at least one of the games out of chelsea city and spurs. also at least 2 out of watford everton SU. lets say...chelsea D watford W Everton W City D spurs W SU D ---just as an example.

Delusional? Maybe you have a different meaning to it that I do.

United win ratio this season - 36%

You think we will win 3/6 - 50% win ratio (looks more delusional)

Now we look at games we have played Europa and PL results:

After Astana lost 2-0 to West Ham
After AZ lost 1-0 to Newcastle
Won after Partizan V Norwich
Won after Partizan v Brighton
After Astana drew to Villa
Drew to Everton after AZ

After Europa we have a win ratio of 33%

We havent scored a goal since Rashford Injury.
We havent won a league game at the bridge
Everton / Spurs / Chelsea / Watford / SU / City are all in better form than us.

 

[meamth]

Cool man, how do things work over there ? anyways I'd rather Liverpool win the league than mancheater city, Pains me saying but also that we are cannot affect Liverpool winning the league even if do the impossible and win all the remaining games so early in Feb.

There is no sane United fan prefers a Liverpool title win..

I'm having what you're smoking.

 

[JG3001]

If you go by current trajectory, which I’d argue is the best indication, we’re due 19 points from our last 13 games (5 wins, 4 draws, 4 losses).

Is 54 points going to see us get 5th all things considered? I highly doubt it.

Feels like a double edge sword making the CL like that anyway, supposedly attracts the players we need but keeps on the manager who should be let go.

 

[Maccataq]

I wonder what happens if we get top 5 and CL next season but Ole had a condition in his contract to finish in the top 4...

It won't be based on position, it will be based on CL qualification. There is a situation (albeit unlikely) where England could lose a CL spot and it drop to 3 places so they would need to cover for that eventuality. In any case, it just gives the board the opportunity to sack the manager with less compensation so in that situation it would be down to whether they can get a better manager in. If they don't have someone lined up, it would be cheaper to keep Ole and let's face it, our board love a cheap option.

 

[2 man midfield]

Looking at the tough fixtures coming up we could easily be 15th by the end of March. On the other hand, we suit the big games so we could just as easily be 4th, and therein lies the problem with us - you never know which United will turn up.

 

[Forevergiggs1]

We could but we wont.

 

[Crashoutcassius]

Yes of course

 

[meamth]

We're the kings of big games aren't we?

Of course we can. I'm being optimistic here.

 

[Bestietom]

Looking at the tough fixtures coming up we could easily be 15th by the end of March. On the other hand, we suit the big games so we could just as easily be 4th, and therein lies the problem with us - you never know which United will turn up.

Yep, one step forward two steps back. Consistency is something we don't have.

 

[sun_tzu]

2 out of us, spurs and chelsea (unless everton / sheff united / wolves have a great run in)

Got a nasty feeling Jose is going to piss on our chips when we play Spurs

 

[Sylar]

We have to win tonight. If we dont we either remain 5 points behind 5th or cut it down to 4 points.
Regardless that means 1 win in 6 (which is against the bottom team)

Then we play teams around us or ahead of us in everton, city, spurs and sheff united. There is nothing to suggest we can just turn around 1 win in 6 to winning 4 or 5 out of the next 5.

Anyway, we should be aiming for 4th and not 5th (given theres no guarantee about whats happening with the CL as there are appeals and all), and for that we need to win and pull chelsea back into it.

 

[Bestietom]

2 out of us, spurs and chelsea (unless everton / sheff united / wolves have a great run in)

Got a nasty feeling Jose is going to piss on our chips when we play Spurs

A win tonight is a must. Chelsea and Spurs meet this weekend.

 

[bosnian_red]

Is this correct?
Surely it can't be.

Well it's only been 3 league games, the liverpool loss, burnley and then Wolves. We beat City 1-0 in the cup and tranmere 6-0 during that time.

 

[Forevergiggs1]

Very unlikely. Spurs and Chelsea have stronger squads with more goal threat. Unless Bruno and Ighalo surprise me.

How on earth do Spurs have a stronger squad than ours? Last season we could of easily pipped Chelsea for that 4th spot but we bottled it big time. They changed manager, had a transfer ban and lost their best player whilst we spent almost £150m in the summer. Shouldn't we be closer Instead of seemingly further away?

 

[wolvored]

I'd love for that to be the case, but Ole's own standards are so low, I don't think he'd even bother trying to win that many games.
At no stage this year has he stated that what is happening is unacceptable. He keeps saying that in a few years we'll be a good side.
When he first joined, he famously said that 2nd place is unacceptable, but now that we are in 8th, he doesn't seem to care or have any standards.
It's almost as if personal/professional pride has completely gone out of the window. If he got relegated, he still probably wouldn't admit that he has done a terrible job.

I wonder if he has just given up and is merely waiting for the sack (like Jose did in his final season).

If those above him are not on his back and he can keep picking up his hundreds of thousands a month why is he going to rock the boat. He knows he shouldn't be anywhere near managing a team of utds size and is just enjoying the ride doing a poor job

 

[McGrathsipan]

100% no unless we can get 28 points from remaining games. We'd probably need to change the manager for that. Currently i cant see us picking up more than 20. We're so bad.

Well be 8th in my opinion and it'll be spun as success.

We've yet to hit rock bottom.
Its gonna get worse before we see green shoots of recovery.

 

[Karlos PFC]

No need to. Ole said that we dont have to be in the Champions league to attract top players

 

[yorkiered]

Knowing our luck will end up getting 6th one point from 5th.

 

[TRUERED89]

Don't think EUFA will take it away just like that, probably going to reduce it for one season.

If they took it away, nobody going to take this organisation seriously.

How are PSG escaping punishment ? That's another question.

 

[romufc]

Currently i cant see us picking up more than 20. We're so bad.

The maximum we will pick up is 18 points.

The current game to point ratio is 1.4
With the remaining games we are forecasting 18 points.

The hing is we need 6 points more than everyone else really, so do we think Chelsea, Spurs, SU, Wolves, Everton and even Arsenal will pick up less than 18 points in 12/13 games?

 

[Leftback99]

How on earth do Spurs have a stronger squad than ours? Last season we could of easily pipped Chelsea for that 4th spot but we bottled it big time. They changed manager, had a transfer ban and lost their best player whilst we spent almost £150m in the summer. Shouldn't we be closer Instead of seemingly further away?

I'm not interested in getting into a debate about where we 'should be' after spending whatever. That's for another thread.

Right now in the race for 4th/5th I believe we don't have the goals in us that Chelsea and Spurs do. We don't have a Son or the creativity Chelsea have. Like I say, unless Bruno and Ighalo hit the ground running.