We aren't winning the league any time soon. Things will go back to normal next season but for years now, we seem to lack the interest in far too many games. Had we applied some more intent against Leeds, we could have pressured City but we're always fumbling in so many games.
“United don’t even fancy it” - Carragher
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We just don’t have the depth in our squad to compete on all fronts during the course of a season and it will definitely show in the next few days. For wide players, city can call on Sterling, Torres, Silva or Mahrez. We have Rashford, Greenwood, James and Diallo. It just does not compare. City have two players for every position.
At some point it feels you are more trying to convinces yourselves than anybody else
The league is almost over, what could have been, nobody knows. Nobody. So it is a very subjective thing to evaluate what could have been. There is no point in denying the possibility of one or the other outcome.
I think it’s huge kudus to Ole to get us anywhere near considering the squad compared to City
Yeah when you consider Ole didn't get any of his targets last summer it's a remarkable effort indeed
Don't get me wrong delighted we got Edi but needed a CB/CDM & Sancho/Grealish too
These 2 seasons have demonstrated the winning formula for EPL. Liverpool with their Best 11 playing week in week out, win enough games during 2/3 of season and can afford to play like shit after season re-open. City has so much depth in squad, and the genius of Pep in managing without Aguero, In fact, they are so comfortable with this strike-less formation that they probably won't go for a target-man in future.
We must rectify 2 of our flaws if we want to seriously challenge the title next season. No more sleep-walking 1st half, need to play with intensity and concentration throughout 90min. Squad players need to earn their wage. Key players like Bruno, Maguire need resting while the team can still win without them.
We should have beaten Liverpool and missed some guilt edged chances
Should have seen out Everton
And that Sheffield United home game was fxked for a number of reasons
At the very Least we should have 5 more points and maybe even 7 more
A striker like Kane or haaland would get us 5-10 points more easily
We aren't far behind. A class DM saves us points too imo
Should have seen out Everton
And that Sheffield United home game was fxked for a number of reasons
At the very Least we should have 5 more points and maybe even 7 more
A striker like Kane or haaland would get us 5-10 points more easily
We aren't far behind. A class DM saves us points too imo
Completely agree. I think any sensible fan accepted (especially in covid times) that a place in the champions League and a challenge for everything else would be a big step in the right direction given where we were last season and the season before, and the age of our squad suggest a bright future. How many Manchester United fans would have bet on us finishing ahead of Liverpool at the start of the season?
How many Fans expected Liverpool to experience the season they had? Loosing lots of players through injury first and most of their form shortly after. Certainly just as many as the ones expecting Chelsea to compete having seen the investment in the summer... I know, this is a rhetorical question because the majority on here feel, there is only one answer to this question. And I get it - United, team and manager exceeded expectations. And doing it admirably and in style. But, if we focus not on the season as a whole, but only on the question "Did we get the absolute maximum out of this season?" and asking that question not to be negative or to complain but to identify areas to improve on, there is a discussion to be had.
Seeing Chelsea beating City on the weekend, going toe-to-toe with them, advancing to the CL-Final, to me, this feels like an upward trend. We don't know, what will happen to Liverpool next season, will VVDs return enable them again to play to their best? Are too many of their players not hungry enough? What about City? What if they win the CL - will Pep be able to motivate them for next season? We don't know these things - but there is a good chance, that next season might be more challenging than this one. Maybe we will see injuries to key players ourselves, maybe even more teams will adapt their play to match our strength - will we again be able to come up with a solution? This season has been a very good chance to get something. Even though 12 month ago, it didn't really look like that.
Lets not wait until we assembled the "perfect squad". This underdog mentality doesn't suit us. Look at the type of football we are playing these days with the available personal. Indicating that we would need 3 or 4 starters before even thinking we can challenge to me feels like a disservice to the players we have and it feels like a bit of a mental block. "We know we are not perfect so we don't expect anything until we are perfect to make sure, we don't get disappointed". Many imperfect teams won titles. So should we.
Ehhhhh and yet nobody gave us the time of day for playing half a season last season without Pogba and Rashford. Did we get the absolute maximum out of this season? Well, yeah, almost. We will probably come second. Is that acceptable? Sadly it has to be. At times, Alex Ferguson came second to City. It's hard to compete with the unlimited funds of an oil state. Real Madrid have given up even trying. Football is going to be WEIRD for the foreseeable future.
He's right though. We didn't. If we hadn't dropped stupid points against Arsenal, Sheffield and the like City would have been under enormous pressure right now.
If we had won all our games we would be top of the league.
If my auntie had balls, she'd be my uncle.
In those games it was evident we weren't motivated enough. Both the fans and the club were satisfied with 2nd position.
We are not there yet and there is still a huge amount of room for improvement. What's important at this stage is the owners recruit the players we need to take us up another level and don't use the pandemic and protests as an excuse to just keep our heads above the water. The summer will be interesting to say the least.
maybe we can see progress - it’s not being happy about being 2nd.
Are you not happy with the progress we have made in the last 2 years, or do you honestly think we should have been winning the league this season? Furthermore, would have done if we were “motivated enough”.
We need a bit better quality to be challenging.
We weren't too bad against Leeds. Its the games against the likes of City, Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal etc. earlier in the season that have cost us. Where we didn't have the balls to try and go for a win and kept playing as if 0-0 draws were good results just because they were against decent sides.
That and the run we had where we kept picking Martial up front nearly every game for 2 months, despite him being quite possibly the worst performing player in the entire league at the time.
I don't think not fancying it enough has anything to do with it. I can't think of many games this season where we dropped points because we didn't try hard enough. Cavani fit and in the team all season and a better CB partner for Maguire and I think we'd be up there with City.
Not sure either way on next season as I don't think we're far off at all but you also know City and Chelsea will improve again so we need to do the same to not just slip back further behind...which I have no confidence in us doing but then Ole has improved us considerably the last two years despite me being sceptical, so who knows.
And if City hadn't dropped stupid points they would be under no pressure again. They are/have been better than us, simple as that.
With the numbers flying around last year it just wasn't feasible and we weren't the only big club that didn't spend big. I do agree though, we need some big signings and it has to be this summer, otherwise we are going to fall behind and probably out of the top 4 next year.
City won 20+ games in a row (all comps), it’s impossible to compete with. I don’t agree that we didn’t fancy it, we’ve just lacked a bit of squad depth and quality at times. Also lacked a cutting edge in certain games (0-0 draws against the bigger teams), but we are still a work in progress.
If my grandmother had wheels, she would have been a bike
Says who?
Everyone here thought they were absolutely there for the taking because of their shite form and we showed them to much respect as if they were the Liverpool of Old.
We should have whipped them and arsenal. We should them both to much respect.
The bookies had them odds on.
Obviously you think that the Caf (who predict that we will win basically every game) know more. We should all be rich.Those games going differently could have affected everything that came after them in some way.
It's like when someone goes, after losing 1-0, "if we'd gotten that penalty and that goal hadn't been wrongly ruled out for offside, we'd have won the game 2-1." Things don't work like that. If you'd gotten that penalty, it would have changed the game and that ruled out goal wouldn't have happened.
Oh feck me, the bookies also had Liverpool as15/8 second favourites for the league, it means feck all.
Liverpool were absolutely there for the taking for what’s it’s worth, and we all know it.
Let Leftback get back to claiming we’re a better side with Martial over Cavani.
I assume you thought they had as much chance of winning the league as West Brom then? Because it means nothing right?
If you are saying you and the rest of the Caf can consistently predict football results better than betting markets you're wrong.
Still want Ole sacked by the way?
I’ve changed my stance twice on Ole, wanted him out in Dec 2020, admitted that once Jan went by we had to give him the season and improvement in the second half should mean another season for him.
Wanted him gone again this season after our utterly crap start and then lame CL exit, but quickly got brought around again and couldn’t be happier for it. Delighted the club showed faith and patience and delighted to eat humble pie.
I can’t guarantee a shit first half of next season won’t have me wanting him moved on again, because that’s just my personality.
I rate our squad you see, massively, you don’t, you had us as what, the 5th best in the league for fecks sake? that’s where the difference lies, I expect so much of these players because I fully believed they should be doing what they are now. You were saying in December that 5th is ok because that’s where you see the squad, especially after our poor start. Well the squad has shoved those words so far down the back of your throat.
Thing is, as with Ole, I’m delighted to say I was wrong, delighted. People like yourself though, feck me it’s a struggle for you, still acting now like our Liverpool performance was a good result or that Martial makes us a better side than Cavani. It’s really good to just say, I was wrong.
So I was wrong on Ole, you were outrageously wrong on our squad quality and on Cavani, you were probably the only person in the World still arguing in April 2021 that we’re a better side with Martial, I’ll happily admit my stupidity because well, being a footy fan is in it’s very nature, rather stupid.
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4th best squad, and still do. Chelsea are in the CL final, Liverpool have been decimated by injuries. Call it 'outrageously wrong' if you like. Ole's done an excellent job to get us where we are with this squad.
As for Martial his last league game was the 2-0 win over City which many agreed was a very good performance. Interestingly 4 days before that you were making excuses for Cavani's poor displays in the same position:
"utterly pointless being a number 9 at United currently".
I notice you didn't reply at the time of that post on Martial you've bizarrely dragged up twice now. I made that comment on the 4th April BEFORE Cavani has performed significantly better compared to the rest of the season. The whole team has performed better in the last month, the return of Pogba being key. Martial hasn't had chance to be part of it so I'm not going to write him off yet.
And don’t forget you had us behind Spurs too like.
Ridiculous, as proven without any shadow of a doubt by the league table for two seasons running, not a fecking cup competition that we stupidly got ourselves knocked out of.
I believe we were at least 6 points behind Spurs at the time and I thought we'd finish behind them, not that they had a better squad. You've tried twisting that one before. Chelsea had a significantly underperforming manager for half a season. Fortunately we didn't as some of us could see.
Wow, a massive 2 wins?
So you thought we had a better squad than Spurs but that we couldn’t make up two wins in 7 months?
Stop chatting utter shite, you’ve massively underrated this squad just as you massively underrated Cavani.
I mean, let’s not pretend you didn’t write this just 2 months ago man. Your attitude towards this squad has always fecking stank.
I suppose you expected West Ham would be currently 5th with their squad as well because it's such proof of being massively wrong or right.
I didn't massively underate Cavani at all. I never really had a strong opinion when he joined. His form in the last month is vastly different to the rest of the season (when I got fed up with his injuries and lack of impact) and I'm happy with that.
Another out of context post dragged up. Made pre City game after 2 wins in 8. We've done brilliantly since then.
3 out of 4 also isn't bad (if Liverpool finish above Leicester).
Stilll doesn't change my mind that this squad is still behind the other 3. Important summer.
Even SAF had a problem with that.
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