I want to put it very simple, we have to score more goals, so I expect us once and for all to play football that will provide us with 80 league goals, then maybe just maybe we are in some kind of contention and things will shape out for themselves.
Expectations for season 2023/2024
- Thread starter Andycoleno9
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik @Rood and Imran @Annihilate Now! start with the good news by celebrating Manchester United Women's emphatic FA Cup win over Spurs at Wembley and the future of manager Marc Skinner.
Then it's the bad news and the ever worsening form of our Men with losses to Arsenal and Palace.
Finally the main debate - ETH Out now or keep him until the end of the season - if not longer. Are you Team Nik or Team Imran?
Will do well to finish same position as last season. Everyone has improved some teams more than us over the summer. We will probably struggle to score once again unless our new striker really hits the ground running unlike our recent attacking buys of the last few years. Mount or Antony need a great season if we are to have one for me…
Looking at our starting line-up and signings, I'm struggling a little to decide whether we've kicked on enough.
Onana is a great upgrade and I think we'll have a great season with him.
Mount - I'm indifferent over, right now. He wouldn't have been my first choice for a signing, and I don't really know what ETH's plan is for him. I don't see it, yet.
Højlund - I'll admit that I'm a bit deflated that we won't be seeing him straight away. It's taken the wind out of the excitement, in my opinion. We needed goals, we have someone who we think will fix this...but we won't see him just yet and it's unclear as to when exactly we will see him.
And...that's it. The more and more I dwell on it, the more I'm struggling to see how exactly we're going to improve on what we did last season. We're also hoping that Antony is going to improve from last year, Sancho is going to be majorly improve, and Rashford is going to keep his rich form for scoring goals.
Personal opinion is that we're still light at the top end. We did very well to obtain 75 points from just 58 goals last season. If you look at last year's table, there's somewhat of a correlation between the amount of goals scored and points obtained. It's almost 1 for 1. Arsenal had 88 goals for 84 points, Newcastle had 68 for 71, City had 94 for 89, etc. Then, there's us with 58 for 75. I expect us to get third again, but maybe with a few more goals. Something like 70. Maybe.
I'll be hugely disappointed if we have no more signings coming in, put it that way...
Onana is a great upgrade and I think we'll have a great season with him.
Mount - I'm indifferent over, right now. He wouldn't have been my first choice for a signing, and I don't really know what ETH's plan is for him. I don't see it, yet.
Højlund - I'll admit that I'm a bit deflated that we won't be seeing him straight away. It's taken the wind out of the excitement, in my opinion. We needed goals, we have someone who we think will fix this...but we won't see him just yet and it's unclear as to when exactly we will see him.
And...that's it. The more and more I dwell on it, the more I'm struggling to see how exactly we're going to improve on what we did last season. We're also hoping that Antony is going to improve from last year, Sancho is going to be majorly improve, and Rashford is going to keep his rich form for scoring goals.
Personal opinion is that we're still light at the top end. We did very well to obtain 75 points from just 58 goals last season. If you look at last year's table, there's somewhat of a correlation between the amount of goals scored and points obtained. It's almost 1 for 1. Arsenal had 88 goals for 84 points, Newcastle had 68 for 71, City had 94 for 89, etc. Then, there's us with 58 for 75. I expect us to get third again, but maybe with a few more goals. Something like 70. Maybe.
I'll be hugely disappointed if we have no more signings coming in, put it that way...
Top four is our ceiling really, huge reliance on Casemiro, no regular striker and lack of quality squad depth mean another third place finish would be a good season.
That keeps ETH in his job and hopefully with new owners at some point this season club can make big strides in near future.
That keeps ETH in his job and hopefully with new owners at some point this season club can make big strides in near future.
Yeah, that seems a sensible expectation to me. It’s a bit of a treading water season in my view. If we can get comfortably into the top 4 and be competitive in Europe that would be fine, given the signings we’ve made.
Push for 2nd but Top 4 minimum.
Knock outs in the CL (depending on who we draw I hope for more).
Start seeing us be more consistent in controlling games and more goals.
Knock outs in the CL (depending on who we draw I hope for more).
Start seeing us be more consistent in controlling games and more goals.
I agree with all of this. Third or fourth is where I predict we'll finish and that would qualify as a good season. Anything else is a bonus. That includes any trophies.
Top 4..
We don't have enough goals or a convincing midfield. So top 4 is the limit I'd say. Hopefully with better football than last season.
Is that a good enough return on investment for the amount we've spent over the last 2 summers?
And if we're talking about starting point - Newcastle started off in a much worse position than us, and our now basically our peers having spent less (or just about even). What have they done right in the transfermarket in the last 2 summers, that we've done wrong?
Let's see where they finish before calling them 'peers'.
Last season they did exceptionally well but can they sustain that with CL games?
You may as well shut down half the threads on this forum then.
Anyways, I'll pose this question then - what are your expectations for Newcastle this season? And how much better off do you think we'll be vs them this season?
I think they're a good point of calibration for us - they've spent less than us, started off in a worse place so if we've done a good job (let alone a great job) we should put some clearance between us and them?
I wouldn't call them our peers, they couldn't beat us in the final when it mattered.
I think they'll end up in 5th this year. The addition of European football to their schedule makes things tougher for them. I like their squad and the way they play but I think people are jumping the gun on how good they will be this season because of that great start against the biggest swiss cheese defense in the league (if Villa continue to use that high line). Newcastle are an absolute threat, but I fancy us to end up with a more succesful season.
I think we're consistently failing to sign players who can actually elevate the team. Of the summer signings, only Onana is in that category - it's too early to expect that of Hojlund who is all about potential.
And that's another problem, by the way: the players we sign for their potential usually don't work out. Martial is the most obvious example but you can also look at Sancho.
As for Newcastle: their overall level remains to be seen. But I'd say it's a lot easier to catch up to the 70 point brigade we belong to then to take the next step towards a title challenge.
If I was a rational Newcastle fan I would hope to try and hit 4th but probably predict us to finish 5th or 6th. I reckon they are thinking they're a shoe in for top 4 though.
Issue for us is simply goals, we have no idea how good or bad Hojlund is. If he's half decent (let's say 15 league goals) I think we're clear of them comfortably, if he's Wout reborn maybe they will be our peers.
I'll honestly be delighted if he comes anywhere close to 15 league goals.
2nd in the league would be nice. Improved away form, score more goals, better in possession rather than looking like shitting the bed every time the opposition attacks us. A cup (or 2) and a decent run in the CL.
Same
Without credible firepower we can't compete City for title. But top 3 is achievable I guess. As a United fan that is clearly not my aspiration but as of now cannot assume without finding how good Hojlund is.
- 3rd in the Premier League
- Semi-finals in the Champions League
- Final in Carabao Cup
- Winners of FA Cup
- Semi-finals in the Champions League
- Final in Carabao Cup
- Winners of FA Cup
A decent cl run
Cl qualification in the league
Don't care about the domestic cups though a fa would be nice.
We're not good enough to win anything of note yet im afraid.
Cl qualification in the league
Don't care about the domestic cups though a fa would be nice.
We're not good enough to win anything of note yet im afraid.
I expect us to win every trophy in every competition we enter but I know it won't happen
Second in the PL, win one of the domestic cups and quarter/semi finals of CL would be doing good
Second in the PL, win one of the domestic cups and quarter/semi finals of CL would be doing good
Said it all summer provisionally on paper not much has moved by way of the quality that's been acquired this summer. It doesn't matter how good the manager is the success of a season is always determined by the player purchases so identification of the said players and how they relate to the philosophy of the team is everything. I have much confidence in ETH's philosophy but not much hope with the players that have been identified.
Newcastle for all the noise around the ownership etc have just made good signings. That is the foundation of their success nothing more nothing less. Arguably they have the better more balanced midfield than United which is astounding given the season before last Jonjo Shelvey, Willock, Hayden and Joelinton were first team members. You can't blame that on them having superior ownership its through the recruitment doing their jobs.
The team has improved on last season but so have all the main rivals. . Im hoping Mainoo comes good this season as we are still very light in midfield if casamiro is out. We really need that 2nd class holding midfielder.
3rd and a cup same as last year would be a result. . We are still some way off challenging city.
3rd and a cup same as last year would be a result. . We are still some way off challenging city.
Top 4 and more goals than last season.
If we manage to achieve similar results to last season, I'll be happy. The last decade we have blown hot and cold from one season to another. My hope/expectation is that we finally found some consistency, stability and from there we can work towards the big titles.
My take also. 3rd max. 4th likely. Quarter final exit in CL vs Benfica or someone
We came 3rd then 2nd under Ole. It amounted to nothing
I think we have signed the right players, I just don't think we've signed enough of them. Think we needed two forwards, and with our new striker being out of action, it feels like we're already a bit lacking in killer instinct up front.
In theory, with what we have available, that shouldn't be the case, but I'm not convinced that Sancho or Antony can put up the numbers required for their contribution.
In theory, with what we have available, that shouldn't be the case, but I'm not convinced that Sancho or Antony can put up the numbers required for their contribution.
Very true.
So much doom and gloom here.
People crying about Caicedo when we have fecking Casimero.
We are still lacking in attack but have a very good team.
Let’s see how a midfield of Casemiro, Mount and Bruno will work. I trust Ten Hag on that. People saying the midfield is not solid, but we have Casemiro organizing and Bruno and Mount who are workhorses and very good technically as well.
You don’t dominate in Midfield by having DM all across.
People crying about Caicedo when we have fecking Casimero.
We are still lacking in attack but have a very good team.
Let’s see how a midfield of Casemiro, Mount and Bruno will work. I trust Ten Hag on that. People saying the midfield is not solid, but we have Casemiro organizing and Bruno and Mount who are workhorses and very good technically as well.
You don’t dominate in Midfield by having DM all across.
Good football 
I’m revising my expectation. I’ll take Europa League now.
Thought it would be a top 3/5 campaign and it looks like it. We should do decent in the cups.
I think people are over estimating what other teams have done transfer wise.
There's still question marks over everyone. Even city, you could argue, are marginally weaker than last season and Arsenal could just as likely have a Liverpool 22/23 season as a genuine go for the title. Calm down!
There's still question marks over everyone. Even city, you could argue, are marginally weaker than last season and Arsenal could just as likely have a Liverpool 22/23 season as a genuine go for the title. Calm down!
My excitement and optimism for this season has now disappeared like the air from a popped balloon
Probably have to step these back a tad if we don't bring a few more in. To sell Fred and not bring in another midfielder would be mad. Still time though.
Top 6:
1. Arsenal
2. Man City
3. Liverpool
4. Chelsea
5. Newcastle
6. Man Utd
1. Arsenal
2. Man City
3. Liverpool
4. Chelsea
5. Newcastle
6. Man Utd
This thread is hilarious. This why I hate pre season and haven't watched a game for a number of years. It gasses you up then the realisation hits when you see your own players who d1cked all over Barca pre season, then struggling to keep up with the intensity of the mid table side (Palace, Wolves, Villa) who you play early on. That enthusiasm can get sapped so quick and it's a mutha f*cka. Personally, as I did not watch and pre season games I am more inclined to expect more of the same as last season as I am not inspired by our signings enough to expect a massive change. I feel we won't be able to control games enough to reduce the opposition to just clearing the ball away, whilst on the back foot, and thus every game will be more or less a dogfight
As the squad is now 6th place, cover needed for Casemiro and Varane also Hojlund would have to contribute to improve on 6th.