Thinking the unthinkable : Winning the League next season - It's alright, we're on

Dominos

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No chance we're only 1 player away.

We lack top class players and depth in attack.

Our right wing has been a massive gaping hole for years, Greenwood has been promising in terms of goals scored but hasn't yet developed the all round game to say the position is solved, and we don't know his best position long term yet.

Our current back ups in case of injuries Lingard and Mata who tend to contribute nothing productive these days.

We need at least a couple of very good attacking players. Potentially a centre back partner for Maguire.

I actually like both our full backs and am baffled by the hatred of Shaw on here, but neither of them are good going forward, adding a full back who is productive in attack would be big boost also.
 

Infra-red

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A few decent results does not a season make.

We had purple patches under Van Gaal and Mourinho, too - they never went anywhere. It's too early for this kind of giddiness.

We're currently 5th in the table - let's focus on trying to avoid the humiliation of two consecutive seasons outside the Champions League, before we start pondering title wins.
 

0le

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First 11 is capable of top three. Squad depth is poor though.
  • We need another central defender. I just don't trust Bailly, Tuanzebe can't stay fit and is unproven and Jones & Rojo are useless.
  • We are okay on the fullback positions provided Laird can stay fit and develop into the player we think he can. Shaw/Williams/AWB is fine.
  • We need a defensive midfielder to cover Matic. Not sure if we can rely on McT or Fred to develop in that role or whether Garner is ready.
  • We need another creative midfielder for when Pogba/Bruno need a rest or get injured. Pereira, Lingard, Mata are not good enough.
  • We need a winger. Rashford/James/Greenwood isn't enough. Hopefully Chong develops further. Sanchez can't handle the PL anymore.
  • Martial/Ighalo is fine for the strikers role.
Unless we get lucky with injuries, it is unlikely we will make a title challenge. Maybe the year after we can with the appropriate transfers.
 

The Boy

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If we can get a better centre back, one with pace to burn
Skim reading the thread and read this as .... one with space to bum

Not sure what that says about me, but it would offer something no one else does on the pitch.
 

UNITED ACADEMY

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The best part about this team is that our goals can come from both our attack & midfield. However, I don't think it's realistic to say we can win the league with just one signing. I think minimum we need a RW, CB & the more consistent version of Rashford & Martial to give us chance. Otherwise, it's going to be difficult unless if Liverpool lose Van Dijk for more than 6 months. If we are talking about the season when Chelsea or Leicester won the league, I would say yes but this Liverpool team and also City last season are not easy to catch with our current players.

Let's wait until next season is started for 3-4 months then we can start talking about it.
 

The Boy

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I think you don’t need much, if I was Ole I’d hope to get Sancho, Grealish and Rice.

All three fit his transfer profile, Sancho gives you depth across the front three - Rashford, Martial, Greenwood, Sancho, Sanchez and Ighalo?

Midfield you’d have creative cover for Bruno and Pogba with Grealish - Pogba, Bruno, McSauce, Fred, Grealish, Matic with Rice for cover, Mata and Garner?

Defensively I think you’re fine as you are, as others have mentioned Laird is promising, so you’d have at full back Dalot, AWB, Shaw, Williams, Laird

And centre back Maguire, Lindelof, Tuanzebe and Bailly

Lose Jones, Rojo, Lingard and Pereira and I think that’s a title challenging squad with good depth and strength on the bench.

If you needed to thin it out abit you could pop Mata into the lose column, but I think he still has something to add.
 

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Kind of a RAWK thread years ago. Good end of the season, we've the best players, add 1-2 and we'll challenge for the title!
 

shamans

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This thread annoys me. We should be aiming for the league every damn season. Top four should be nothing but a consolation for not getting into the league.

If a cohesive Leicester can win the league than so can we. I have 100% faith. If we sign a red hot attacker (preferably a right winger) we will compete for the league. Believe!
 

shamans

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I think you don’t need much, if I was Ole I’d hope to get Sancho, Grealish and Rice.

All three fit his transfer profile, Sancho gives you depth across the front three - Rashford, Martial, Greenwood, Sancho, Sanchez and Ighalo?

Midfield you’d have creative cover for Bruno and Pogba with Grealish - Pogba, Bruno, McSauce, Fred, Grealish, Matic with Rice for cover, Mata and Garner?

Defensively I think you’re fine as you are, as others have mentioned Laird is promising, so you’d have at full back Dalot, AWB, Shaw, Williams, Laird

And centre back Maguire, Lindelof, Tuanzebe and Bailly

Lose Jones, Rojo, Lingard and Pereira and I think that’s a title challenging squad with good depth and strength on the bench.

If you needed to thin it out abit you could pop Mata into the lose column, but I think he still has something to add.
Rice would be a luxury at this point and I don't think we have the money for Sancho and Graelish but one of them should do. I think we won't upgrade on Lindelof but that is key for me. Maguire needs a pacey defender and it seems Bailey is more interested in getting injured with acrobatics than forming a sustained partnership.
 

Rish Sawhney

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Jesus there should be some sort of moderation process for creating threads like this. I know we're all positive here but lets not lose all sense of perspective. I'd be just happy with a genuine title challenge without having to worry about not making top 4 next year.
 

Offside

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Yeah these threads are pointless. We could go from fighting relegation to winning the league like Leicester or finish the season strongly but fail to kick on and this is just a RAWK thread from 2002. Who knows where things are going with football. One step at a time.
 

The Boy

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Rice would be a luxury at this point and I don't think we have the money for Sancho and Graelish but one of them should do. I think we won't upgrade on Lindelof but that is key for me. Maguire needs a pacey defender and it seems Bailey is more interested in getting injured with acrobatics than forming a sustained partnership.
Bit harsh on Bailly, I think, noone is interested in getting injured and he's performed brilliantly recently when called upon!
 

tjb

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It's possible if we have the luck of no injuries. For us to guarantee a challenge, we need to improve our quality in depth.
 

acnumber9

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That's the thing isn't it. Stick Vidic or Rio or Stam in there. I don't think it improves us that much.

It's maybe a weak area. But we've had better centre backs who were greater liabilities (Silvestre)
Not for title winning teams. He was either out of the team or at left back. And he had better partners than Harry Maguire too.
 

ruskyline

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Rice would be a luxury at this point and I don't think we have the money for Sancho and Graelish but one of them should do. I think we won't upgrade on Lindelof but that is key for me. Maguire needs a pacey defender and it seems Bailey is more interested in getting injured with acrobatics than forming a sustained partnership.
We don't need to upgrade Lindelof. He's not our weakest link. Our biggest problem is not having a proven goal scorer, someone who's young. Victor Osimhen sounds like a great fit to me, if for whatever reason Sancho doesn't work out. He's only 21 years old and he scored a goal in every 2 games. He can compete with Martial. I haven't seen anyone look into Victor Osimhen in this forum.
 

UNITED ACADEMY

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It's possible if we have the luck of no injuries. For us to guarantee a challenge, we need to improve our quality in depth.
It's always confuse me why do we need to improve the quality in depth if the focus is to challenge the league rather than trying to improve the starting XI and few option from the bench.

United 06/07 is one of my favourite league title winner, that squad doesn't have enough quality in depth and we won the league because our starting XI are quality. IMO quality in depth is only if we are aiming for double or treble.
 

ruskyline

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It's always confuse me why do we need to improve the quality in depth if the focus is to challenge the league rather than trying to improve the starting XI and few option from the bench.

United 06/07 is one of my favourite league title winner, that squad doesn't have enough quality in depth and we won the league because our starting XI are quality. IMO quality in depth is only if we are aiming for double or treble.
Totally agree. Those who say we need to improve the quality of our depth, do they technically mean we should buy players are not that much better than our starting 11? It doesn't make any sense.
 

Class of 63

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We don't need to upgrade Lindelof. He's not our weakest link. Our biggest problem is not having a proven goal scorer, someone who's young. Victor Osimhen sounds like a great fit to me, if for whatever reason Sancho doesn't work out. He's only 21 years old and he scored a goal in every 2 games. He can compete with Martial. I haven't seen anyone look into Victor Osimhen in this forum.
Napoli bound.
 

Green_Red

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We have a very good team but let's not get away with ourselves. We are still a fair bit behind City and Liverpool. Go and look at their current seasons points tally and last seasons and compare our points in both seasons.

If we are contenders with 6 games to go next season I will be shocked.
 

Green_Red

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Totally agree. Those who say we need to improve the quality of our depth, do they technically mean we should buy players are not that much better than our starting 11? It doesn't make any sense.
What happens if Bruno and Pogba get injured? Then we need depth to be able to bring in players to the starting XI that can do as well as Bruno and pogba can. Doesn't have to be identical, just well enough to win games. If that happened now we'd be fecked. We need squad depth.

06-10 we had effectively 2 teams.
 

Shark

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Totally agree. Those who say we need to improve the quality of our depth, do they technically mean we should buy players are not that much better than our starting 11? It doesn't make any sense.
They mean that you can't rely on players like Lingard, Andreas and Mata as squad players if you're going to challenge for titles. Look at our results when we were forced to rely on them in the first half of the season as proof. It's absolutely vital we bring in players like Sancho, VDB and Grelish to rotate without losing miles of quality.
 

Ace Krampus

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What happens if Bruno and Pogba get injured? Then we need depth to be able to bring in players to the starting XI that can do as well as Bruno and pogba can. Doesn't have to be identical, just well enough to win games. If that happened now we'd be fecked. We need squad depth.

06-10 we had effectively 2 teams.
If Pogba and Bruno get injured, then we're not winning the title. Add talent when/where you can, sure, but we don't need depth as much we need health and there's no guarantee of that; total crapshoot.
 

amolbhatia50k

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Not happening.

I'll take us playing exciting attacking football and finishing within 10 points of the champions, making us a team that's capable of challenging.
 

Eire Red United

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We're nowhere near Liverpool and City. If Pogba/Bruno goes down injured we are in trouble.
We are up there if we keep playing the way we have since Bruno arrived. Thats unfair to say as well, take out Aguero/De Bruyne or Mane/Trent or Van Dijk and they would struggle too, naturally enough.
 

ruskyline

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They mean that you can't rely on players like Lingard, Andreas and Mata as squad players if you're going to challenge for titles. Look at our results when we were forced to rely on them in the first half of the season as proof. It's absolutely vital we bring in players like Sancho, VDB and Grelish to rotate without losing miles of quality.
It's insane how expensive these players are. Grealish is reportedly a done deal for $93 million. Sancho I don't see it to be less than that. It's just nuts to think we have to spend almost $200 million just to get 2 players so next year we finish top 4 strongly.. Levy, Tottenham owner thought he made such a good decision by no spending money after they reached the UCL final. Just 1 year later they are not even guaranteed to finish top 10! Or Aston Villa, they spent $100 million when they were promoted and apparently that was still not enough. I'm sure if Man Utd doesn't make it to UCL this year, surely world class players like Sancho will not want to be here and the likes of Pogba, Bruno will sooner or later start making transfer requests. I think this year is the most critical year since SAF left. It does seem like we are about to go to places next year, but without UCL, we can get behind at least another 5 years or more and all the progress we made so far will be for nothing.
 

amolbhatia50k

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A few decent results does not a season make.

We had purple patches under Van Gaal and Mourinho, too - they never went anywhere. It's too early for this kind of giddiness.
Agree. There's a reason we've seen the phrase false dawn used. We've had our promising rubs and periods before.
 

shamans

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Bit harsh on Bailly, I think, noone is interested in getting injured and he's performed brilliantly recently when called upon!
Was trying to be a little humorous. My point was just that he seems injury prone and can't (yet) be relied on. He has some excellent run of games but then gets injured and has a tendency to be a bit rash as well. Basically, we can't say he's anything more than a good rotational option right now.

We don't need to upgrade Lindelof. He's not our weakest link. Our biggest problem is not having a proven goal scorer, someone who's young. Victor Osimhen sounds like a great fit to me, if for whatever reason Sancho doesn't work out. He's only 21 years old and he scored a goal in every 2 games. He can compete with Martial. I haven't seen anyone look into Victor Osimhen in this forum.
I think Martial, Igahlo and Greenwood for the #9 spot is alright. Okay, it's not the squad depth you'd want for a league winning team but Martial has it in him to be the best striker in the prem. As for weakest links, who would you say it is then? To me it is clearly Lindelof. We've come a long way from average to good players like Depay, Schneiderlin Mikhitaryan at the club and I feel Lindelof is the last of that batch. I hope he proves me wrong but he's too slow and that not as good as Harry to warrant a place. Harry is slow as well but then he's a monster defender (I believe) and crucial to buildup play.

Although, despite Lindelof being the weakest link, I'd say right wing needs the most attention. Mason is too young to be relied upon yet.
 

ayushreddevil9

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This is what I don't like. Yes we are going through a good spell of form but thinking about winning the league next season is proper bs.

Let's try and finish in top 4 first.
 

shamans

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We are up there if we keep playing the way we have since Bruno arrived. Thats unfair to say as well, take out Aguero/De Bruyne or Mane/Trent or Van Dijk and they would struggle too, naturally enough.
Not really though. City and Pool have plenty of firepower in their squad. City more so but the likes of Shaqiri aren't exactly equivalent to our second fiddle of Perreira and Lingard. We can beat them on first teams though.
 

shamans

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This is what I don't like. Yes we are going through a good spell of form but thinking about winning the league next season is proper bs.

Let's try and finish in top 4 first.
You would prefer Mourinho-esque "progress" -- second place first? I made a thread on it then (which got locked) that every new season is a new opportunity. We've already seen the difference Bruno has made. A Jadon Sancho and this team will be a wrecking ball. We have to target the league every season at Manchester Untied. No excuses.
 

UNITED ACADEMY

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What happens if Bruno and Pogba get injured? Then we need depth to be able to bring in players to the starting XI that can do as well as Bruno and pogba can. Doesn't have to be identical, just well enough to win games. If that happened now we'd be fecked. We need squad depth.

06-10 we had effectively 2 teams.
If Bruno got injured, that’s fine, we still have Pogba & Sancho to offer creativity (if we sign him). If both Bruno & Pogba got injured then say good bye because that’s basically two our best player, it’s like saying what will happen in 06/07 season if both our best players Rooney & Ronaldo got injured.
 

treble_winner

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No chance we're only 1 player away.

We lack top class players and depth in attack.

Our right wing has been a massive gaping hole for years, Greenwood has been promising in terms of goals scored but hasn't yet developed the all round game to say the position is solved, and we don't know his best position long term yet.

Our current back ups in case of injuries Lingard and Mata who tend to contribute nothing productive these days.

We need at least a couple of very good attacking players. Potentially a centre back partner for Maguire.

I actually like both our full backs and am baffled by the hatred of Shaw on here, but neither of them are good going forward, adding a full back who is productive in attack would be big boost also.
I disagree with you.
Just like with Van Gaal's 2nd season, Manchester United is one Messi away from winning the Premier League next season.
If we have an attacker on the calibre of Messi joining us in the summer, I wouldn't mind us moving Wan-Bissaka to CB and form a 3-man CB of Shaw-Maguire-Bissaka. The two flanks can be left to Brandon William and Ethan Laird. Two academy talents of our own bombing on two sings is a tasty prospect.