Expectations for the 2026/27 season

BuzzKillington said:
Now the transfer business has been done, what are peoples expectations for this season.

I’m expecting some negative predictions because most of you are a bunch of bedwetters, feel free to go ultra negative as it makes it easier for the rest of us to quote you later on in the season.
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Will be hard to quote anyone with a head so firmly stuck in the sand.


As for the predictions:

Premier League: At best 4-5th. If we have some rather untimely injuries, we could easily slip to 6th/7th. Will also largely depend on other teams, I guess especially Liverpool and Aston Villa. Not convinced by either of these teams, but you never know.

Champions League: We'll make at least the Playoffs. Could go out there and then, or in the subsequent Knockout-Round. This team/squad isn't equipped for European football and even making it past the league stage can probably considered a success. Not getting trashed by Bayern at home would be welcome.

Domestic Cups: Entirely Draw dependent. With an alright draw a Cup win is always possible. Even at its worst this team has been capable of decent one-off performances. If the draw is less forgiving and we regularly play the second string team though, I wouldn't be surprised if we won't make it very far. In that case even the upcoming Brighton game could already spell the end of our League Cup run.


There. The subpar transfer window has probably set us up for failure, but at this moment in time, we're all allowed to have some hope of a half-decent season. Or at least not a terrible one as some many in recent years. I doubt Ineos' standing even among their most ardent supporters could survive another lower table finish and/or an early managerial dismissal.
 
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My first concern is a pattern we've created in the last 13 years of finishing in the CL places and then dropping right back out the following season.

We've taken top 4/top 5 for granted so many times the last 13 years - five different managers have taken us from CL spots the previous year, to outside the CL spots the following season. I reckon you could go back to the summers before we missed out on CL and you would find our fans very confident we'd finish in the CL spots. Every time the club and the fans use the logic of "well we finished in CL spots last season and logically we shouldn't have got any worse, so CL qualification is locked up for this season", and it doesn't seem to work out very well. So when people laugh off the idea that we could have a bad season, I'd love to see what these same people said each summer the last 13 years because I very much doubt they predicted the numerous meltdown seasons that we have had.

We're also in a weird position this time where everything we achieved last season was done with the minimum amount of games possible. So we don't really know the true level of this team when we're on a level playing field with the rest of the contenders i.e competing in four different competitions.

I think Arsenal win the league and City are still likely top 2 or 3. I think Chelsea will have the same benefit we did last season of no European games and take advantage of that and finish 3rd.

I would have United 4th. Liverpool look a mess and have question marks all over the pitch. Spurs still look a mess but they do have no Europe which will help but hard to rate their new look team highly until they show something on the pitch. Newcastle lost a load of their best players, and Villa got gutted of about 7 of their best players so I don't see how they can be in the top 5 running.

Going into the season with just one first team left back is criminal, and Shaw looks completely washed in pre season and the first two PL games, and is likely to get injured at some point. That could easily cost us this season. The final pre season game against Milan and two PL games against relegation fodder are a bit concerning - we look like we can't defend for shit.
 
Given our limited transfer business, I think we’ll end up getting a respectable 5th place in the league noting that we will lose games we’re expected to win in those post-CL game hangovers we used to have.

I genuinely think we’ll make it to the quarters of the CL which would be an excellent achievement.

I don’t think we will prioritise the domestic cups. Not by intention but because of squad depth and injuries.
 
Woziak said:
I think we’ll struggle massively in Europe and go out at round of 32 so early February, think we go out of both cups very early like Brighton in Carabo Cup and Fa Cup 4th or 5th Round so I’m anticipating 52 Matches and therefore we will be ok in EPL.

Can’t see Spurs or Villa finishing that high, think Brentford, Brighton, Everton and Leeds pose bigger threats.

The EPL comes down to wins and Carrick seems to have something about him to have a 60% win rate at the end of the season, his team will score goals but they will also concede plenty!

If we assume that he wins 60% of his 36 games left, that’s 21 wins from 36 matches, most of them will be at home. Even if he loses 10 more and draws 5 that’s 71 points which will comfortably in the top 3/4.

Why am I so confident because he seems to know what he wants and so far he managed United in 22 matches I don’t count friendlies, he has 15 wins 4 draws and 3 Defeats, he currently has a 68% win rate overall or 67% in the PL with 14 out of 21 wins.

He also has an awful lot of firepower in this squad plus I believe that young attacking players like Shea Lacey, T Thompson, Victor Musa, Noah Ajai, JJ Gabriel, Abragimov and Jayden Kamarson are all coming through.

Let’s get behind Carrick, he’s been let down massively but he gets the club and is going to have a real go trying to play attacking football and at times, we will be awful but in other spells we’re play some exhilarating football!
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The win rate that you are quoting is Carrick with a fresh full strength squad. We won't have that till Feb by your own calculations - the CL group stages itself will mean Licha, Maguire, Shaw, Dalot, Cunha, Mbeumo, and maybe even Bruno will be stretched thin - which means we rely on depth and it means that's we'll drop points. So that 60% will not be over 36 games, maybe half of that. I think once we're out of cups and CL we can finish strong, and that's how we'll salvage 6th. I think our first choice XI, when fit and fresh, are a good side under Carrick - but that's not going to be enough this season.
 
Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and City have better squads and better/more proven managers. They're more likely to finish ahead of us than behind us, although I wouldn't discount the possibility of one or more of them having a bad season. There's a group of sides who I expect to be battling for 5th, which includes Villa, Brighton, Newcastle, Spurs and maybe even Brentford - I think United will be somewhere among that group.
 
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After the transfer deadline, can see the team has no chance finishing the top 8 (even top 10 !!). City, Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea, Aston Villa, Spurs, Newcastle. I put the Spurs and Newcastle there simply because can see the ambition and determination from their owners, they are supporting their manager and building the team to win something, unlike ours.

I can see United finish in the mid-table in the Championship League, struggle in the knockout round, then finish the Champion League.
Also, there is no chance for any of the domestic cups neither. I believe we all will not be too surprised if the team gets eliminated by Brighton in the EFL cup on the third round.
 
Infra-red said:
Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and City have better squads and better/more proven managers. They're more likely to finish ahead of us than behind us, although I wouldn't discount the possibility of one or more of them having a bad season. There's a group of sides who I expect to bee battling for 5th, which includes Villa, Brighton, Newcastle, Spurs and maybe even Brentford - I think United will also be somewhere among that group.
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I think you're being very generous counting Liverpool. They have question marks from back to front just like us really.

Allison injury prone for a while and declined from his peak, Van Dijk massively declined and doesn't really have an established partner alongside him, awful full backs who can't defend, Bradley injured, Ekitike long term injury, unbalanced midfield that keeps leaving their defence exposed, Isak looks a shell of his former self, Wirtz a mixed bag, wingers unbalanced as they have five right footed players and zero left footers - they have no right wingers in the squad just players filling in there.

They also have a manager trying to implement a high pressing physically demanding style that I'm not convinced his squad is equipped for, whilst also managing more games and a CL campaign for the first time in his career.

Arsenal, City are better and Chelsea will benefit from no Europe like we did last season so I'd agree they'll be top 3.
 
Infra-red said:
Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and City have better squads and better/more proven managers. They're more likely to finish ahead of us than behind us, although I wouldn't discount the possibility of one or more of them having a bad season. There's a group of sides who I expect to be battling for 5th, which includes Villa, Brighton, Newcastle, Spurs and maybe even Brentford - I think United will be somewhere among that group.
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Only Arsenal have a PL proven manager at a top team. Maresca was sacked at Chelsea. Alonso sacked at Madrid (wrongly) but has zero PL management experience, a proven winner in Germany. Iraola is so far a mid table manager so we’ll see. Chelsea, City and Arsenal have better squads, Liverpool have more holes than the titanic.
 
My gut feeling, 8th at best this season. Our squad won't be able to handle the amount of games and Carrick will struggle to handle the pressure of the full-time gig. One injury to Shaw and we're fecked down the left, another injury to Sesko and we have no striker.
 
Arsenal, mam city and Chelsea are definitely in a better position than is , squad wise so fully expecting them to finish above us. Best we might manage is 4th-5th position and making it to CL.

Good thing that villa and Newcastle are significantly weaker this summer and Spurs unlikely to pose a challenge at the top end of the table
 
Surprised with the negativity in expectations. Except for Casemiro leaving, we have managed to keep last season's squad together to provide continuity in our progress. We have strengthen the midfield as we should and have a couple of youngsters in the fringe.

One thing I expect is we will finish above Liverpool. May their 100M pound signings continue to flop.

Top 4 finish in the league.

Getting to last 16 in CL.

Domestic cups will not be priority and I see us playing our 2nd string here. Semi finals at least for one of the cups.
 
Finish PL between 5-7
Won't reach CL round of 16
No cups.

Our sole goal should be to qualify for CL as it seems that's what the management wants. If we focus entirely on PL then it is possible to qualify for CL next season.
 
Can honestly see us being mid table. There are so many better squads and teams than us at present. We would have to play out of our skins every game to challenge for a European spot.
 
BuzzKillington said:
Now the transfer business has been done, what are peoples expectations for this season.

I’m expecting some negative predictions because most of you are a bunch of bedwetters, feel free to go ultra negative as it makes it easier for the rest of us to quote you later on in the season.

Im feeling positive about the business we’ve done and the position the team is in, so I’ll try and start this off on a positive note.

League

I reckons we’ll finish second or third, I fancy arsenal might run away with it this year as they have the most stable team and setup. But they were really lucky with injuries last year in the large part, and their best players have been ran into the ground over the meat 12 months. So, if we can just stay in and around it come March, number 21 may be on its way.

There’s been a lot of change at most of the other traditional league challengers. I think our fairly restrained business may actually suit us as long as we can get a little lucky with injuries.

Champions league.

I’d be happy to make the knockouts this season. Whilst I’m happy we have decent names to play again and I’m looking forward to it, every game looks both winnable and a potential humbling for different reasons. Regardless I reckon we’ll get some crackers, and not doing that Thursday/Sunday grind will be great regardless.

Cups

We’ll win one of them, not sure which, but I fancy a cup this season.

What are your shouts for this year?
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League will be a four horse race between Arsenal, City, United, and Chelsea. I think we will finish as high as second.

CL - expect us to make the semis.

Cups - League Cup will make the final. FA Cup we wi crash out earlier than expected
 
Infra-red said:
Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and City have better squads and better/more proven managers. They're more likely to finish ahead of us than behind us, although I wouldn't discount the possibility of one or more of them having a bad season. There's a group of sides who I expect to be battling for 5th, which includes Villa, Brighton, Newcastle, Spurs and maybe even Brentford - I think United will be somewhere among that group.
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Arsenal and City (with recent additions) are a clear first and second probably. Outside of that nobody is a sure bet for top 4. Chelsea doesn't impress me let's see but they are an injury or two away to being toothless in attack and defense doesn't inspire confidence. Without Enzo any injury to Caiceido they will be light in midfield as Lavia is also always injured. Liverpool? Worse than us. Gaping holes in the squad. Shit defence. Isak and Wirtz underwhelming, Ekitike out with long term injury. They will struggle this year. United let's see if Sesko will be up to speed soon and if Baleba can make an impact we hope he will then we will be fine even with issues in defense.
 
A poor, shallow squad that can't compete on more than one front. Trying in the Champions League would be pointless and jeopardize the Premier League campaign. The smart thing to do would be to go out early, which is likely to happen anyway.

Premier League finish anywhere between 7th and 10th, largely because of injuries. Could finish higher with a bit more luck.
 
moodyred said:
Surprised with the negativity in expectations. Except for Casemiro leaving, we have managed to keep last season's squad together to provide continuity in our progress. We have strengthen the midfield as we should and have a couple of youngsters in the fringe.

One thing I expect is we will finish above Liverpool. May their 100M pound signings continue to flop.

Top 4 finish in the league.

Getting to last 16 in CL.

Domestic cups will not be priority and I see us playing our 2nd string here. Semi finals at least for one of the cups.
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Yes we have mostly kept the squad but we do not have the squad depth to compete on all fronts. Last season we were fine playing one game a week but then once we started to play multiple games in week this is where we came unstuck.
 
Is it 4 or 5 places for the UCL this year? If it’s 4, I think we’ll definitely struggle.

Arsenal and City are already way clear. Chelsea have the upper hand as they don’t have European football.

That leaves one place for Liverpool and us, plus the usual 1-2 surprise teams that inevitably join the race.

If anything, the gap between us and the top teams has gotten bigger.

If I’m being honest, I’d say it’s a 50/50 chance that we make the top 4. It’ll probably come down to how many points are needed this year. I think we’ll manage around 65 points. On average, you need around 70 for top 4, although there have been a few seasons where 65 has been enough.
 
moodyred said:
Surprised with the negativity in expectations. Except for Casemiro leaving, we have managed to keep last season's squad together to provide continuity in our progress. We have strengthen the midfield as we should and have a couple of youngsters in the fringe.

One thing I expect is we will finish above Liverpool. May their 100M pound signings continue to flop.

Top 4 finish in the league.

Getting to last 16 in CL.

Domestic cups will not be priority and I see us playing our 2nd string here. Semi finals at least for one of the cups.
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We have an above average squad in terms of quality, but the lack of depth is a massive concern. Last season, plenty of our results could have gone either way, and dropping out of the cups early was basically a blessing in disguise. We also got an exceptional season out of Bruno, which is going to be very difficult to replicate.

I can easily see us finishing top 4 and making the last 16, but I can just as easily see us finishing 8th and getting knocked out in the UCL league phase. That's the reality of where we are.

Assuming that because the squad looks better on paper, we're suddenly going to rack up 75+ points. I'm not convinced. We could just as easily end up around 55-60, and then it comes down to how weak the rest of the league is.

Basically, I wouldn't be surprised by either outcome. Top 4 wouldn't shock me, but neither would another mediocre league finish. That's hardly the level of certainty you'd want going into the season.
 
Squad looks better but the first eleven somehow looks weaker?

Unless one of the new signings can match Casemiro's form from last season, I'd argue our best eleven last year was better. Not to mention Maguire and Shaw aging a year and no longer getting to play just once a week.
 
The EPL is highly competitive and it only take an injury or two + one or two wrong signings for a club to end up lingering at the lower half of the EPL table. I'd say anything between 5th and 10th is possible.
 
JustOneMoreRebuild said:
Is it 4 or 5 places for the UCL this year? If it’s 4, I think we’ll definitely struggle.

Arsenal and City are already way clear. Chelsea have the upper hand as they don’t have European football.

That leaves one place for Liverpool and us, plus the usual 1-2 surprise teams that inevitably join the race.

If anything, the gap between us and the top teams has gotten bigger.

If I’m being honest, I’d say it’s a 50/50 chance that we make the top 4. It’ll probably come down to how many points are needed this year. I think we’ll manage around 65 points. On average, you need around 70 for top 4, although there have been a few seasons where 65 has been enough.
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You don't know until towards the end of the season whether it's top 4 or 5.

It's based on how English teams perform in Europe this season.

But given the strength of English sides every year, it's a pretty safe bet that it will be top 5 every season.
 
3rd to 5th is the safe bet given everything we've seen from us under Carrick and the extra strain we'll have from the CL.

Compared to last season we do have more quality depth. I don't see us falling apart everytime we need to make a sub.

Rashford - Cunha
Mbuemo - Amad
Mainoo - Tielemans
Baleba - Santos
Martinez - Heaven
Maguire - De Ligt (if fit)
Dalton- Mazraoui

Those are the positions I'd say the quality isn't too much of a drop off.

I've not included Dorgu or Yoro there either, both of whom the jury is still out on and could go either way. Leaves Sesko, Bruno, Shaw, Lammens as the players we will struggle most if theres a long term injury.
 
League 7-9
Champions League - exit at the first knockout stage
FA cup - 4th round
League cup - whatever

I think we’re going to end up in big trouble over the late autumn/early winter through injuries and we’ll see a lot of the young lads in and around the first team.

There’ll be more pics of a dilapidated old Trafford and the atmosphere is going to be mostly horrendous.

Being pragmatic about the squad we have big holes in terms of depth and the drop off to some of the squad players is the difference between challenging champions league and fighting relegation. We still have massive question marks over the spine of the team (availability and age) and will be relying on Bruno pulling a rabbit of his hat again.
 
Feels like the summit of our ambitions would be 4th or 5th, possibly a domestic cup if we're very lucky but I doubt it. This is austerity era United, if we're not prepared to spend, the results will show on the pitch. We've skimped on our midfield rebuild and haven't strengthened anywhere else to offset that. I can't say confidently that Carrick will make it as far as January with the squad we've assembled.
 
We depend too much on key players to be available as our squad is too thin. We can make top 3 again if everyone stays healthy and Bruno is in top form
 
I am maybe naive but excited to see United as after a long time, we have many players who are press-resistant and good technicians, especially in the midfield. I am extremely tired of panicked hoofball everytime we are pressed.
 
I think we'll finish 5th or 6th. Due to playing more games our key players will be run ragged which will see us losing more games. Depending on the consistency of other teams competing for the top 4 I could also see us finishing as low as 8th, but I feel like 5-6 is a reasonable expectation right now
 
Somewhere between 4th and 10th, depending on form and injuries. At this point I honestly think either of those are as likely as the other so sit back and hope is my plan.
 
League: 4th
CL: Quarters
FA Cup: 5th Round
League Cup: Winners
 
7/8th in the league
Champions league: 10th-12th. Likely last 16.
League Cup: drawn Brighton, can't see past a defeat.
FA Cup: 5th round
 
It probably depends on how deep into competitions we go. If we’re mainly worrying about league games we will finish in the top 4. Might be tricky with extra games and may also depend on how others go. It isn’t as bad as people are making out though.
 
5th in the league.
SF of league cup
QF of FA Cup
QF of Champions Legaue

The lack of ambition in the summer transfer window, particularly in comparison to the other ‘top 6’ clubs is stark.
 
It depends on SO many things. Will our midfield signings work out? Can players like Martinez, Shaw and Mount stay fit? Can Šeško build on last season? Will de Ligt be back to this best when he's back? Can Rashford be impactful? Even when he's poor, he still has decent number of G/A. Can Lammens be as good as in his debut season? He was good first two games. Are we getting 24/25 Baleba or 25/26 Baleba? So many unknowns but that's probably the case with all the other rivals as well, except Arsenal.

Our defence looks too shaky atm for me to feel we can finish in top places or do much in CL. If defence improves, then we can hope for something.
 
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Still fairly happy with the setup for this season. The team is feeling settled in a way it hasn’t since Ole was in charge, despite bringing in a new midfield. It's been tumultuous ever since then and I think we'll benefit from the stability. Think we can get into the CL places again, and I think the Champions League will actually suit us, stylistically. A little less physical and with fewer low blocks. Not suggesting we'll win it, but I think we should get a few decent results under out belts.

To be honest, the real unknown is the other teams. Arsenal are a known quantity, but City, Spurs, Liverpool and Chelsea all have new(ish) managers and they've brought in a lot of new players. I doubt they will all click, and I doubt they will all flunk, so it’s hard to know what bar we're trying to reach.
 
EPL: Top 5 finish
UCL: Qualify for knock-out stage
Cups: Considering the depth of our squad, it doesn't matter
 
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