Cup treble for me please
Europa league priority
- Thread starter Devil81
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik and Imran hold a long overdue conversation about United's awful league form with 1 win in 7. They discuss a disappointing draw at Bournemouth, a not so disappointing draw against Liverpool and a crushing defeat at Chelsea - Is time nearly over for Erik Ten Hag?
Then in a special second half of the pod, Nik welcomes Natalie ( https://twitter.com/natalie_17) to discuss the fortunes of Manchester United Women as they booked a place in the FA Cup Final after a historic first ever win vs. Chelsea.
This should be a priority and I hope we approach it with a level of urgency and pride. We have a big squad of players and they should be utilized and kept fit with these games. I'd hate to see us crash out early because the players are hard to motivate (something Jose said he struggled with in the season he won it).
- It's a way into the Champions League
- The club has gone 5 years without a trophy
- It starts the new era with a clear sign of progress
Of course it should be. For prestige, CL qualification, mentality, financial reasons (I think it's like you reached the quarter finals in CL) and coefficient (I think again the winner goes in the first seed).
Brain McClair got the winner the last time we won the Super Cup against Red Star Belgrade in 1991.This should be a priority and I hope we approach it with a level of urgency and pride. We have a big squad of players and they should be utilized and kept fit with these games. I'd hate to see us crash out early because the players are hard to motivate (something Jose said he struggled with in the season he won it).
Also I've never seen us win the Super Cup and it's annoying we've have lost every single time I've watched a final. That's three defeats now-99, 08, 17
- It's a way into the Champions League
- The club has gone 5 years without a trophy
- It starts the new era with a clear sign of progress
Yup. Unfortunately i wasn't really old enough to see it and it's the only modern trophy i've never seen us win...man I've been spoilt by our success
According to the betting odds we're 40% to get top 4 and 14% to win the EL. Even if that's wrong, it's a massive gap.
Liverpool look vulnerable, so it's 5 teams for 3 spots.
I think people forget how strong the Champions league 3rd place teams dropping to the Europa League are this year. Right now it's Ajax, Atletico Madrid, Inter, Frankfurt, Salzburg (and could well be Chelsea), Celtic (and probably will be Leipzig or Shaktar), Copenhagen (probably Sevilla) and Juventus (who might have a new manager and be good again by then). So, you're probably looking at 4-5 teams at least on our level and some frisky underdogs. The fixtures are coming hard and fast and we have no idea if Eriksen and Varane will both be healthy and we're probably a much weaker team than we've seen so far without them, so even one missing a single knockout game could be enough to knock us out.
Liverpool look vulnerable, so it's 5 teams for 3 spots.
I think people forget how strong the Champions league 3rd place teams dropping to the Europa League are this year. Right now it's Ajax, Atletico Madrid, Inter, Frankfurt, Salzburg (and could well be Chelsea), Celtic (and probably will be Leipzig or Shaktar), Copenhagen (probably Sevilla) and Juventus (who might have a new manager and be good again by then). So, you're probably looking at 4-5 teams at least on our level and some frisky underdogs. The fixtures are coming hard and fast and we have no idea if Eriksen and Varane will both be healthy and we're probably a much weaker team than we've seen so far without them, so even one missing a single knockout game could be enough to knock us out.
Talking about priority. Even if we 100% prioritized EL we're far from having 50% chance to win it. I'd give 45% chance at best.
Not only we need to beat the finalist. We also need to get there first. The SF and QF have good teams that would have no problem beating us fair and square.
At this rate it's a bigger success chance to aim for top 4 and ignore the rest.
Snubbing our nose? Not really. We cant guarantee we win it so it's just a safer bet
Not only we need to beat the finalist. We also need to get there first. The SF and QF have good teams that would have no problem beating us fair and square.
At this rate it's a bigger success chance to aim for top 4 and ignore the rest.
Snubbing our nose? Not really. We cant guarantee we win it so it's just a safer bet
Making it a priority doean't mean we'll win it. What if Roma and Arsenal also make it a priority? We give our best in every competition, fight for the cups and try to get top 4. Only way to go on about it. We're not going to rest our best players on Sunday against Liverpool, City, Spurs or Arsenal because we have Europa on the coming Thursday. Top 4 is very doable, as much as winning the EL.
We have to make winning the EL a priority to give us the insurance policy we need, as the competition for top four in the PL is brutal.
No, that doesn’t mean benching the starting XI the previous or following Sunday, but it means some of our older players such as Ronaldo and maybe Casemiro, now that McTominay has found a new gear, will have to be rested from time to time.
No, that doesn’t mean benching the starting XI the previous or following Sunday, but it means some of our older players such as Ronaldo and maybe Casemiro, now that McTominay has found a new gear, will have to be rested from time to time.
Group and early knockout stages play the youth and second team. If we qualify to the later stages then we start to take it seriously by fielding best 11. However, PL should still be priority.
The Mickey Mouse cups Carling and FA Cup let's give the youth some valuable experience and the 2nd team some game time. Don't risks our first 11 at all. It's really not worth it.
The Mickey Mouse cups Carling and FA Cup let's give the youth some valuable experience and the 2nd team some game time. Don't risks our first 11 at all. It's really not worth it.
I don’t think it’s fair for youth players to take a step back in the latter stages of the Europa if they were responsible for us getting there in the first place. I don’t think we’d win the Europa. I suspect we’d be lucky to get 4th