"I have the feeling United are coming back," said Pep Guardiola is my idol in jinx attempt

horsechoker

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https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/63433207

"I have the feeling United are coming back," said Guardiola.

"Finally United is coming back - I've seen it on Thursday [the 3-0 win over Sheriff Tiraspol], and against Chelsea in the first half [of the 1-1 draw last weekend].

"I said I like what I see of United right now. There will be a lot of teams like United fighting. That's why you have to fight to qualify for the Champions League and fight for the title."
 
horsechoker said:
https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/63433207

"I have the feeling United are coming back," said Guardiola.

"Finally United is coming back - I've seen it on Thursday [the 3-0 win over Sheriff Tiraspol], and against Chelsea in the first half [of the 1-1 draw last weekend].

"I said I like what I see of United right now. There will be a lot of teams like United fighting. That's why you have to fight to qualify for the Champions League and fight for the title."
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I think it should be fairly obvious to anybody who has seen us play. I am certainly well aware that's there's a LONG way for us to go yet before we can be considered as seriously capable of challenging for major honours, however, I saw the transformation in Arsenal when Arteta went in, even after all the criticism he took, and I see the same with ETH at United....in fact, I'd say we're making progress much faster.

I have been mega-impressed by everything ETH has done so far, I can honestly see him being thought of as one of the best managers in the World within a year or two
 
Our goal should be trophies for the next few years, challenging City for the league is still a few seasons away. The worry is if Newcastle makes a headway with their new financial strength and it becomes even harder to just make champions league
 
Is that Pep’s “Charlie Adam is £50m for his corners alone” attempt?
 
We're not back at anything yet. Lots of improvement yet to come before we return to the days of spanking city.
 
So far… ETH has done a superb job. There has been 3 absolutely terrible results. First two games of the season and then at City. Let’s not forget we had almost a month off before we played one of the best teams in the world.

If we can go through the rest of the season beating the majority of the top 6 like we’ve done (not city) and playing good dominating football and showing some class, good times will
Come.

I think the biggest outcome of that will be that players want to come again, top players. Too long have we had to overpay for mediocre. The market is harder than ever. Chelsea, City and Newcastle have unlimited funds, as do PSG and Real Madrid and Barca magic up money. Liverpool, and Bayern have recent success so we have to be attractive. I believe Ten Haag is getting us there. Top 4 is a must and I believe we’ll get there.
 
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Quietly optimistic. There have been many false downs in the last 10 years therefore I am not getting my hopes up. Just taking it one game at a time, hoping for improvements in our performance, good team spirit etc. Recruitment also has been good. Positive signs so far, but let's wait and see before declaring United are back.
 
horsechoker said:
https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/63433207

"I have the feeling United are coming back," said Guardiola.

"Finally United is coming back - I've seen it on Thursday [the 3-0 win over Sheriff Tiraspol], and against Chelsea in the first half [of the 1-1 draw last weekend].

"I said I like what I see of United right now. There will be a lot of teams like United fighting. That's why you have to fight to qualify for the Champions League and fight for the title."
Click to expand...
Unlike follicles that don't come back!
 
Its obvious to anyone watching that we are improving month on month rather than week on week I think, as in looking at August to September to October we have improved at a rapid rate. I am starting to feel confident before games that we can win this game and even the Chelsea and Newcastle game we were the better side, but couldnt find the net enough.
We played City after a 4 week slump of no premier games, so we could be even further ahead if we had have had played the Palace and Leeds games and maybe not have had the heavy defeat.
 
For me we will know when we are back when the manner of the way we lose games shift.

What I mean by that is when City and Liverpool lose games they're still usually statistically dominant (more shots, more of the ball, etc).

If we start dominating teams (and of course winning more) and when we drop points we can genuinely say the opposition were lucky then we are on the right path. I don't expect a linear journey to the top and think we could easily finish 5th this season.
 
One thing is for sure...Erik has the upper hand on Pep when it comes to being understood.
 
Berbasbullet said:
For me we will know when we are back when the manner of the way we lose games shift.

What I mean by that is when City and Liverpool lose games they're still usually statistically dominant (more shots, more of the ball, etc).

If we start dominating teams (and of course winning more) and when we drop points we can genuinely say the opposition were lucky then we are on the right path. I don't expect a linear journey to the top and think we could easily finish 5th this season.
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Agreed, think we already saw a taste of that in the draw against Chelsea.
 
MDFC Manager said:
Agreed, think we already saw a taste of that in the draw against Chelsea.
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Absolutely! We have strung wins together in the past but then very quickly came back to earth. Chelsea was a great example, a game we could have won and had more of the ball.

I think the results might not quite match the performances yet as we're early in the process and we are awful at finishing :lol: but I am so happy with that I am seeing.
 
Just trying to crank up the pressure on us. I see you, Pep.
 
We have a couple of very important transfers we need to get right. Find a top quality centre forward, this will cost a lot of money so we really need to get it spot on. An eventual replacement for Varane ( I know he’s only 29 but injuries means he will miss a lot of games) be good to get them in sooner so he can bed in whilst Varane is still playing.
We then need to move on some players who arnt good enough and/or don’t fit the football ETH wants to play.

Get these right and we are cooking!
 
Adam-Utd said:
Just trying to crank up the pressure on us. I see you, Pep.
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That was also my initial reaction.
But Pep isn't going to say something stupid just for the sake of it.
And anyway. Even if he hadn't said this, I believe that we are on the long road back to at least be able to challenge.
There is thought and structure after years of nothing.
 
For the first time in years, we are delivering cohesive performances.
You're watching our games and not thinking "do these guys even train"?
We are not where we want to be but I don't think Pep is flattering us.
 
Adisa said:
For the first time in years, we are delivering cohesive performances.
You're watching our games and not thinking "do these guys even train"?
We are not where we want to be but I don't think Pep is flattering us.
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This. We were unlucky not to get more points from Newcastle or Chelsea by playing comprehensively. All this came only 2 monts after getting slaughtered by brighton and Brentford. We are improving.
 
He’s such a troller. I’ll never forgive him for hyping up Maguire when we were linked with him. “He’s fast, so fast”.
 
To be fair he is absolutely right though. You can see signs of it as we watch them every game. We are chalk and cheese based on last year.

When’s the last time we’ve dominated in large parts against Liverpool, Arsenal, Spurs and Chelsea (away).
 
Pep’s appreciation is the usual sweet candy before they slaughter oppos without mercy. :lol: That said, Ten Hag has surely raised your floor base, yet the difficult part is to start contending again for real: if he’s the right manager, then it’s more supertop players + all the club components running behind the manager as a single unit. Hopefully, you will be fully ready by the start of next season, which would be a great achievement after ten years in the dark.
 
I know we’ve had false dawns before but this does feel somewhat different. I think for the first time since 2014, we’ve got a project that’s building towards something. Jose and Ole always felt like treading water a bit.
 
2 man midfield said:
I know we’ve had false dawns before but this does feel somewhat different. I think for the first time since 2014, we’ve got a project that’s building towards something. Jose and Ole always felt like treading water a bit.
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Agree. Previous false dawns we’ve had have all been based on a series of good results and not neccessarily performances.

But now we’re actually seeing convincing performances even in matches we fail to win. You can just see ETH slowly working towards his end goal with drastic improvements in the fundamentals.

Previously it was a difficult watch seeing a group of players looking lost with the ball and bereft of ideas. We used to be grateful just to string a few passes together.
 
I do think we are getting back to the level we were at .. but CIty have raised the bar. we have plenty of catching up to do.
 
You better believe it!! Warn your players pep… we’re on our way back!!! We’re going for number 21! While your still trying to catch up…
 
Chief123 said:
To be fair he is absolutely right though. You can see signs of it as we watch them every game. We are chalk and cheese based on last year.

When’s the last time we’ve dominated in large parts against Liverpool, Arsenal, Spurs and Chelsea (away).
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Liverpool and Arsenal was mostly counter, though we started those games(first 10-15 minutes) in dominant fashion.

But Tottenham and Chelsea we were the dominant team. Signs were already there in the Arsenal game where they couldn't get out of their own half in the first 15 minutes and we only switched to a counter attacking style after we got spooked by Martinelli disallowed goal.

I've been following us very carefully and I'd say since that City game in the second half we've dominated all our games since(though there is the argument that they made some changes and took the foot off the gas, still changes came at around 70th minutes). City battered us in that first half but we out played them second half, be shot on goals or possession, and we haven't let up ever since.
 
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