Get behind the manager and club

Majima

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Are we back to this? Mindless loyalty against the evidence of your own eyes?

A business analyst at Glazer HQ would say that Manchester United is merely a product, just like Coca Cola or Anusol or Marmite. The big difference is that it enjoys insane levels of brand loyalty, such that the seller can devalue the product dramatically without reducing demand. And it therefore makes economic sense to do just that. That's where we are and it's the stupidity of the ultra-loyalists that makes it all possible.

To put it plainly - if Coke execs pissed in a red tin, you wouldn't pay to drink it. Why do you pay for this?
Not a single Ole inner has responded to your post. Says it all.
 

b82REZ

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Nope I don't. Ole's only goal so far has been to get top 4. He did that.

This season hasn't even got to half way point yet. If he doesn't improve and get us back in contention come spring time then you'll all have a point. Until then he hasn't failed has he? We are well in a top 4 race and looks good to get out of a tough CL group.

Come back in May. If we're 5th or lower then there's a discussion to be had.
Your lack of self awareness is staggering.
 

Gasolin

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It's possible isn't it? You can only work with what you currently know.

Ole obviously had a much stronger 2nd half of the season than first half but two things played a huge factor in that; Bruno, and three months of a lockdown. Assuming we don't go and sign someone with an impact like he had again in January (very likely) and that there isn't another lockdown and we continue with this sort of schedule (incredibly likely) then it becomes very difficult to compare last season to this other than we had poor starts in both, albeit it's also fair to say that we had a tougher start to this season than last, too.

Maybe things will pick up in the second half again like you're saying but it's hard to see it with such a brutal schedule, to be honest. I really don't think it's crazy to say our points total so far could be a fair reflection of our points total at the end of the season. Probably 60-65 points, maybe 70 if we get better. Not great at all.
If you agree that City in that model would only get 57 pts, then yes, I fully agree with everything you are saying. It's all possible. I do think 2 years ago, we were also able to win properly in the 2nd half of the season so I think it's more than possible. But yes, it's all suppositions as of now. We will have to see how it plays out, and hope the fitness issue is getting resolved and focus is coming back to the team. Should we manage to have a better first half than 30 pts out of 54 pts, we can expect at least top 3 in my mind. Especially considering how the gap to the top is lower already. How well we do in this 1st half is going to determine if we can reach higher pts tally, and potentially, a higher position in the league.
 

Siorac

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Nope I don't. Ole's only goal so far has been to get top 4. He did that.

This season hasn't even got to half way point yet. If he doesn't improve and get us back in contention come spring time then you'll all have a point. Until then he hasn't failed has he? We are well in a top 4 race and looks good to get out of a tough CL group.

Come back in May. If we're 5th or lower then there's a discussion to be had.
I never thought AWB was good enough
Well so far Wan Bissaka's goal has been to make us more solid defensively and he did that. This season hasn't even got to half way point yet. If he doesn't improve you'll have a point. Until then he hasn't failed, has he? Why do you then think he's not good enough? Come back in May if he's repeatedly beaten 1v1 by left wingers.
 

Gasolin

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Or we could just look at his entire time at United and see that he has a point-per-game ratio of 1.77, which is 67 points over a full season.

Also, for some inexplicable reason this idea that "United under Ole seems to be performing really well in the 2nd half of the season" seems to be gathering momentum and I'm not sure why. It happened once*. That's not a trend. And it'd be very hard to conclude that that one time was solely down to something specific in Ole's management style - the most obvious explanation would be that signing Bruno and the return of Pogba elevated the team. Your conviction that we'll definitely pick up more points in the second half of the season is based on little more than hope.

*yes, we did better in the second half of 18/19 than in the first. But he wasn't the manager in the first half of that season so it shouldn't really count as evidence that his teams are stronger in the second half of the season. Especially as we pathetically collapsed around March.
If you can ignore every piece of information, then yes, there's little to talk about. The point is that over 2 seasons, the 2nd half is always better for us under Ole. And we know that fitness is becoming more and more important the more we get deeper into the season, and it's one of Ole's primary concerns. You don't think it matters, but it seems to.

So no, it's not hope so far. Our hope is for now to be able to win more pts in the 1st half and keep the gap small enough so that we don't lose all chances too early in the league. After that, we can see how much pts we can get in the 2nd half, that's all.
 

Adisa

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"Get behind the club" one of those phrases that lack meaning.
 

Bilbo

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You can support the team, and still provide critique, or even over the top criticism on this, an inconsequential internet chat room
You can, but that doesnt mean that this couldn't be a healthier forum. Something is wrong when the Ole out thread is getting more posts than a post match thread straight after a game.

When people care more about resuming that argument than actually analysing the football itself, that's got to be a sign that the argument has gone beyond the relative state of the football team
 

tomaldinho1

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Are we back to this? Mindless loyalty against the evidence of your own eyes?

A business analyst at Glazer HQ would say that Manchester United is merely a product, just like Coca Cola or Anusol or Marmite. The big difference is that it enjoys insane levels of brand loyalty, such that the seller can devalue the product dramatically without reducing demand. And it therefore makes economic sense to do just that. That's where we are and it's the stupidity of the ultra-loyalists that makes it all possible.

To put it plainly - if Coke execs pissed in a red tin, you wouldn't pay to drink it. Why do you pay for this?
Exactly this. Football (generally sports as a whole) is such a great business when it comes to brand loyalty & the majority of us would follow United even if Ole got us relegated. Football fans are 'sticky' although when you think of it, it doesn't make sense because the manager is actually far more relevant than the bricks and mortar/badge/history of a club regarding what you actually pay to watch on the pitch. That's the point, this is isn't free - it costs a huge amount of money every year just to watch a PL team on tv, let alone when you can visit stadiums.

Having said that, this season is the first time since I started supporting United 30 years ago or so that I've found myself indifferent to actually watching the game, I'll have it on but I'm hardly engaged, because we are becoming a manifestation of everything I dislike in football - negative setup, not exciting to watch, no consistency, almost never score from open play & that's despite having so many top level players across all positions. There is a time and a place for pragmatism and WBA at home is not it. Even under LVG when it was boring I could appreciate what we were trying to do and LVG's passion was evident for everyone to see and it's that human element I really miss at the moment, with Ole everything is by the book/predictable and we just seem to be in 2nd gear...everyone's aware it's a bit average but somehow everyone's happy with it. Maybe it's the lack of fans and also VAR being so slow and emotion-killing that plays into me feeling that way in fairness but I really hope something changes soon.
 

glazed

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Not a single Ole inner has responded to your post. Says it all.
The top red mentality is that if you stay loyal then you will eventually be rewarded by the football gods with success, as happened under SAF. And it will be all the sweeter because you kept the faith in the dark times. And meanwhile your faith will make you a bigger person within the club hierarchy - a sacred figure who has the deepest belonging, rather than the plastic glory hunters in their armchairs. A 'proper fan' is an almost holy figure in his own eyes.

But what they are missing is that the Glazers don't give a toss about them or their fantasies, and nor are they, the Glazers, even wanting or trying to succeed in SAF terms. Rather, they are deliberately placing the club at the point where they can spend the least amount of money to get the most revenue. Which is roughly fourth place in the league. So ironically the top red becomes the Glazers' biggest enabler.
 

romufc

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Are we back to this? Mindless loyalty against the evidence of your own eyes?

A business analyst at Glazer HQ would say that Manchester United is merely a product, just like Coca Cola or Anusol or Marmite. The big difference is that it enjoys insane levels of brand loyalty, such that the seller can devalue the product dramatically without reducing demand. And it therefore makes economic sense to do just that. That's where we are and it's the stupidity of the ultra-loyalists that makes it all possible.

To put it plainly - if Coke execs pissed in a red tin, you wouldn't pay to drink it. Why do you pay for this?
You wouldn't pay for the product, but if Coke execs pissed in the tin, you wouldnt be having a go at the manager would you?
 

Tapori

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My word we don't half have a bunch on moany self entitled brats in our fanbase. 4 wins from 8 isn't amazing but neither is it disastrous. We're 5pts behind Chelsea having played a game less than them and also above City.

We've lost 3 games. Okay not great but look at the context of them. 2 of the 3 defeats we've had you can easily put down to fitness. Palace (loss), Brighton (win) n Spurs (loss) were all far sharper than we were and it was clearly evident. We were fortunate to beat Brighton too of course. The PL did us no favours with the start to the season. Same applies to City. Only half of our squad even played a bleeding friendly ffs. How is that fair? I think Palace played 2 friendlies, 1 league game and 1 Carabao cup game before we played them. How is that fair in any world? We were massively up against it as I said we were going to be when I made the article about resting players in the Europa League in July. We'd already secured CL football at Leicester. We should have sent Bruno and a few other key players on their holidays and forgot all about the EL. Would have been nice to win but it wasn't a priority. You win the EL to get back in the CL not to parade down the streets.

And putting the schedule aside for a second....we've also had our captain arrested, players testing positive for Covid, Mason losing a close friend to suicide among other issues. And not only all that....Ed Woodward has once again messed up another window at the club. Seriously that guy has more lives than a cat. How on earth he still has his job is beyond me. People talk about Ole being out of his depth....Jesus christ. What does that make Woodward then? He's a disaster.

Has it been a great start? Not at all. But all things considered it's been far from the disaster some fans are painting it to be. We're already among the chasing pack for top 4 and we've barely got going so far this season. The best is yet to come for us. Win the next 2 and we'll be right up there and that's a lot earlier than we were up there last season.
Well said.

Boohoo I cant deal with banter on social media and me mates so I'll back losing to get rid of Ole over supporting the team because we aren't at Liverpool's 5+ years of one manager levelz..
 

Nou_Camp99

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Your lack of self awareness is staggering.
What's he failed at then?

First season he steadied the ship. Second season he delivered top 4. This season is 8 games in.

He hasn't failed......yet. Long way to go as yet. If he gets two consecutive top 4 finishes that will be the first time we have done that since 2013 so basically since SAF.
 

R.N7

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OP has certainly changed his tune from the Mourinho era:

We're 7th in the league and already out of the cup. His handling of a situation he created interests me not.

He needs to go. And so does Pogba. Get rid of them both and move on.
One of the most damaging things Solkjaer has done is to make everyone accept mediocrity.
 

Bilbo

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The top red mentality is that if you stay loyal then you will eventually be rewarded by the football gods with success, as happened under SAF. And it will be all the sweeter because you kept the faith in the dark times. And meanwhile your faith will make you a bigger person within the club hierarchy - a sacred figure who has the deepest belonging, rather than the plastic glory hunters in their armchairs. A 'proper fan' is an almost holy figure in his own eyes.

But what they are missing is that the Glazers don't give a toss about them or their fantasies, and nor are they, the Glazers, even wanting or trying to succeed in SAF terms. Rather, they are deliberately placing the club at the point where they can spend the least amount of money to get the most revenue. Which is roughly fourth place in the league. So ironically the top red becomes the Glazers' biggest enabler.
Absolute hogwash. Every single word of it.

You really believe that the only reason anyone wouldn't want our manager sacked is because they think it makes them a better fan? What about if they thought he was doing a good enough job to warrant more time? Is that really so hard to understand?
 

Siorac

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The top red mentality is that if you stay loyal then you will eventually be rewarded by the football gods with success, as happened under SAF. And it will be all the sweeter because you kept the faith in the dark times. And meanwhile your faith will make you a bigger person within the club hierarchy - a sacred figure who has the deepest belonging, rather than the plastic glory hunters in their armchairs. A 'proper fan' is an almost holy figure in his own eyes.

But what they are missing is that the Glazers don't give a toss about them or their fantasies, and nor are they, the Glazers, even wanting or trying to succeed in SAF terms. Rather, they are deliberately placing the club at the point where they can spend the least amount of money to get the most revenue. Which is roughly fourth place in the league. So ironically the top red becomes the Glazers' biggest enabler.
They are fecking that up though, spectacularly: we spend title-challenging money for top 4 fights. It's not exactly Arsenal 2006-2014 - that, I think, would be the Glazers' dream. Instead we keep breaking transfer records just to go nowhere.
 

Siorac

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Absolute hogwash. Every single word of it.

You really believe that the only reason anyone wouldn't want our manager sacked is because they think it makes them a better fan? What about if they thought he was doing a good enough job to warrant more time? Is that really so hard to understand?
If that were the case, they wouldn't immediately resort to insulting those who disagree. Read the first line of this OP and tell me it's NOT about considering himself a superior fan to the rest of us.
 

James Peril

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We live in a democracy, well at least most of us do and Manchester United the club is firmly placed in a country that practices it. Manchester United is a corporation, football is a business, these players earn a hell of a lot of money and we need to match it with earnings. Messing with blind faith on a football forum is incredibly naive, what on earth is the purpose? Out of the thousands of fans on here, millions in the world, the criticism towards the current manager will be perfectly weighted and there is nothing such a thread can change. The holier than thou-mentality does not make anyone a better or more important fan than someone who is more negative and spends more time asking for change. As soon as the game starts, everyone will be rooting for United to win expect for the very few in a minority. Who cares about them, really? Even in the perfect world under Sir Alex, I am sure there were negative people wanting to sack him even after a trophy was in the bag. The world is full of idiots - especially on an anonymous internet forum, the extremities will always appear.

For me; keeping blind faith is equally as ignorant and harmful as being overly negative and finding problems where there are none. We should never reward incompetence, "staying with the manager" is not a United-thing, the argument of keeping Sir Alex on after a rough start isn't valid anymore, we find ourselves in 2020 - there are far too many financial consequences involved. Awarding mediocrity when it comes to managers and players is incredibly dangerous - it paves way for mediocre results, lack of development, demotivated players, stagnation, lower collective demands among fans - and falling behind others that are on a better path. Suddenly we are 5-10 years behind the best teams because we have failed to replace those who are not able to perform up to task. To conclude; "getting behind the manager" is not something I am going to do if I have made my mind up about his glaring incompetence and lack of development with a group of players that are capable of producing much, much better results and entertainment. I will in no way wish for losses so that he is kicked out sooner, but I cannot pretend to be happy whilst we are served a product in a world of entertainment that is way behind what I feel is possible. After two years, we have great players in and out of the team, the tactics change seemingly based on forum opinions (yeah, I actually think the man in charge reads this forum) and most importantly, we are not able to integrate chemistry between great attacking players. We are behind even Brighton when it comes to utilizing the player collective, which is very alarming.
 

Freeney

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”Get behind the manager and the club” is the definition of sheep talk. No Wonder this club have no ambition with fans that demand nothing and accept mediocrity.
 

M16Red

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Childish response. I said I won't back him. 'I' being the key word there for the hard of thinking.

If you want to continue to back the fraud go ahead. He's treated this club awfully. The amount of money we invested in him to bring him back and he's barely broke sweat for us in a red shirt. Ability is there. Effort sadly isn't. Don't think he's very football savvy at times either which is why he gets the ball taken off him so often in our defensive 3rd.
Very brat like hay. :devil:
 

Majima

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Whats the point in commenting on a post that compares watching United to drinking piss?
But that's what watching us is like right now. 2 years and hundreds of millions. And this is what we've got to show for it. We still can't see any evidence of a coherent plan. Can you tell me what Ole's plan is for us at home? Can you explain why we start every single match like we've overdosed on valium? 2 years is some managers whole tenure. LVG only lasted that, and it's not like we didn't get to see his philosophy in action by that time. So how much longer are we supposed to wait for it to fall magically into place?
 

Nou_Camp99

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OP has certainly changed his tune from the Mourinho era:


One of the most damaging things Solkjaer has done is to make everyone accept mediocrity.
Changed my tune how exactly? Pretty consistent on Pogba tbf.

And Jose had to go purely because he gave up. He decided to sulk and play Mctominnay at CB at Westham. But I will still maintain to this day that Woodward should have gone before even Jose did. Woodward is the biggest failure at the club. Always has been.

Ole hasn't even failed yet. So far he's only had one full season to judge and he achieved the goal. The new one is 8 games in. If he doesn't meet his goals this season he gets the boot. He hasn't even been given the chance to fail or succeed yet and fans want him gone. It's crazy.
 

Chesterlestreet

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the Glazers don't give a toss about them or their fantasies
Obviously true.

they are deliberately placing the club at the point where they can spend the least amount of money to get the most revenue
If that's the case, they're not only greedy - but stupid, incompetent, what you like. They have tossed away millions. Having - maintaining, through constant contract renewals - one of the biggest wage bills in world football simply isn't in line with a basic "penny pinching" approach.

If you have zero ambition beyond keeping your team there or thereabouts (the top four trophy - which is worth what exactly in terms of income?), you don't sanction world record transfers and insane individual wage deals freely. Unless you're an absolute idiot, that is. But then you are - precisely, and foremost - an idiot, and not a cold, calculating penny pincher.
 

Siorac

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It literally happened twice, 2 times 2nd half of the season.
The first time it "happened" he wasn't the manager in the first half of the season! You understand that, right? That makes quite a bit of difference. He improved on MOURINHO, not on his own performance.
 

romufc

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But that's what watching us is like right now. 2 years and hundreds of millions. And this is what we've got to show for it. We still can't see any evidence of a coherent plan. Can you tell me what Ole's plan is for us at home? Can you explain why we start every single match like we've overdosed on valium? 2 years is some managers whole tenure. LVG only lasted that, and it's not like we didn't get to see his philosophy in action by that time. So how much longer are we supposed to wait for it to fall magically into place?
This annoyed me so much on Saturday. Surely, you set your team out and say, lets get at them in the first 10, press them get the ball show them we mean business. This is OT you are coming.

Instead, we laid the carpet and said welcome to OT, please familiarise yourself with the pitch the dimensions and we will sit off you and wait for you to give us the ball.
 

Majima

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The top red mentality is that if you stay loyal then you will eventually be rewarded by the football gods with success, as happened under SAF. And it will be all the sweeter because you kept the faith in the dark times. And meanwhile your faith will make you a bigger person within the club hierarchy - a sacred figure who has the deepest belonging, rather than the plastic glory hunters in their armchairs. A 'proper fan' is an almost holy figure in his own eyes.

But what they are missing is that the Glazers don't give a toss about them or their fantasies, and nor are they, the Glazers, even wanting or trying to succeed in SAF terms. Rather, they are deliberately placing the club at the point where they can spend the least amount of money to get the most revenue. Which is roughly fourth place in the league. So ironically the top red becomes the Glazers' biggest enabler.
I can't understand the top red mentality. SAF didn't succeed because he was given time, he succeeded because he was the goat. If Ole had broken up the Old Firm dominance, and won European trophies with Aberdeen, then I would be all for giving more time. But you don't give time for times sake. Do they think Bayern would have been so dominant last season if they hadn't got rid of Kovac? I get the impression the 'top red' has suspended reality altogether though, with their success coming from their unwavering faith in their master instead.

I think the the Glazers would love to see us win for the bragging rights. I can't imagine they enjoy seeing us play so poor. But I agree that the Glazers are only after the CL places to keep us relevant, and would let the club somewhat rot. It's this apathy why I think they're massively incompetent too. They let poor managers waste hundreds of millions, without any footballing structure to guide them, only to repeat it all again a few years later. They could have gotten a much better return on their money if they had admitted they didn't have a clue what they're doing, modernised the football side, bringing in a dof to oversee each managerial change, retaining some continuity instead. It's crazy to think after 8 years of failure, these hot shot businessmen are still repeating the same mistakes.
 

Strelok

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OP has certainly changed his tune from the Mourinho era:


One of the most damaging things Solkjaer has done is to make everyone accept mediocrity.
Tbh it's not him.

It's a result of 7 years of repeated disappointment and people finally understand and accept the reality that we're no longer the pinnacle of English football. And we won't come back anytime soon. As long as Ed and the Glazers are here.

We have no proper RW for like 5,6 years. Tell me what club want to win big silverwares did the same. We're merely a club with no direction, no leadership and our biggest ambition is top 4 every year.
 

VP89

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Tbh it's not him.

It's a result of 7 years of repeated disappointment and people finally understand and accept the reality that we're no longer the pinnacle of English football. And we won't come back anytime soon. As long as Ed and the Glazers are here.

We have no proper RW for like 5,6 years. Tell me what club want to win big silverwares did the same. We're merely a club with no direction, no leadership and our biggest ambition is top 4 every year.
Whilst all this is true, the fact remains that our manager has a very talented squad to work with. There is little excuse to not build on last season after he was provided with a quality LB, striker and midfielder.
 

Mo Caine

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I get behind the club as in on the pitch. Nobody is behind us as a club off the pitch so you're clutching at straws massively there mate.
i don't think you can do both, and thats problem, more people like you think you can do both, nothing will change your way.
 

crossy1686

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Are people really saying "I want it now" or are they saying "We've waited long enough". There's a massive difference.

I think we've waited long enough to see Pogba justify his fee and World Cup winner's medal, or for Rashford and Martial consistently show they are fulfilling the potential we all saw in them a couple of years ago. Or for our defence to be a strong, reliable platform for the team to build on, or for us to develop a way to break down stubborn teams, or to establish a style of play which defines what sort of a team we are.

Most people know that Greenwood and Williams, for example, need time to learn and develop. But the majority of the squad have had plenty of time and it's just not showing consistently in their individual and collective performance, apart from the exceptional game now and then.

When you put this against a backcloth of what our squad earns compared to others, it doesn't encourage people to be patient, which is a natural reaction.

I agree that under SAF we were spoiled in the sense that we won silver regularly but that was down to the combined exemplary efforts of the manager, coaches, players and Board. No-one can say as fans that we are spoiled today but we have three recent semi-final defeats to reflect on and maybe that says something about how we are equipped or not to get back on the perch.
No there's not.

Just because 8 league games into a new season, with 90 points still to play for, you feel like you've waited 'long enough' doesn't mean you're entitled to anything. It's exactly the same as saying for 'I want it now because I don't want to wait anymore'.

I think most of us are on the same page regarding Pogba. It's time he left for new pastures and we spent his money on a Grealish or Sancho, you won't find many arguing against that.

Greenwood needs time, he's just turned 19, youth are inconsistent and there is always a chance you can overplay them and cut short their careers. Also, he's had some personal issues with the suicide of his friend and the media going to town on him so it's a good idea to keep him out of the team for a while. Williams on the other hand looks like he may not have a United future, only time will tell.

You take Pogba and De Gea out of our team and our squad earns a competitive wage in comparison to those around us, and that does not account for the likes of Jones and Lingard who are on £100k and don't even play.

Patience is a virtue. We've improved year on year and the players you mentioned are all getting better but they are inconsistent. With consistency, we will be a much, much better team.
 

lex talionis

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If I recall, we had a worse start last year and got 66 points, so I am not sure why we would get less points this season?
We can't be "sure" of very much, admittedly. We can't be sure that we won't win 28 of our remaining 30 league matches, but that seems highly unlikely to come to pass.

The point at hand is that we have, at least so far, regressed from our performances last season. Regression is a serious worry for United supporters who are desperate for progression. We all expected to be knocked back a bit for a year or two after Sir Alex stepped down, but we're now 6 or 7 seven seasons into this transition and we really can't argue that United have improved in any meaningful way from what we saw under Van Gaal and Mourinho. So no, we can't be sure that we won't get to 80 points or more, but we have no reason to believe on the basis of what we've seen so far that we'll match our points total of 66 last season. Our play is arguably worse and we've been gifted points on the back of questionable referee decisions (pk's not awarded to West Brom and previously Brighton) that if awarded and assuming the pk's were converted would have us on 4 fewer points today. We can't ride this luck much longer.

That said, it wouldn't take much to lift us from poor performances to very good performances. If Martial and Pogba can find their form once again we're a squad that can compete well with any other in the league (bar Liverpool, perhaps) and go on a long run of wins. We're all waiting for those two to kick into gear this season. When they do, 66 points is well within reach.
 

Strelok

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Whilst all this is true, the fact remains that our manager has a very talented squad to work with. There is little excuse to not build on last season after he was provided with a quality LB, striker and midfielder.
First, our squad is not very talented, I'd say decent. Even Spurs have a better squad than ours.

Second, you really think he'd beat Liverpool or City to the title in a normal season after adding VDB, Telles and Cavani?
 

romufc

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We can't be "sure" of very much, admittedly. We can't be sure that we won't win 28 of our remaining 30 league matches, but that seems highly unlikely to come to pass.

The point at hand is that we have, at least so far, regressed from our performances last season. Regression is a serious worry for United supporters who are desperate for progression. We all expected to be knocked back a bit for a year or two after Sir Alex stepped down, but we're now 6 or 7 seven seasons into this transition and we really can't argue that United have improved in any meaningful way from what we saw under Van Gaal and Mourinho. So no, we can't be sure that we won't get to 80 points or more, but we have no reason to believe on the basis of what we've seen so far that we'll match our points total of 66 last season. Our play is arguably worse and we've been gifted points on the back of questionable referee decisions (pk's not awarded to West Brom and previously Brighton) that if awarded and assuming the pk's were converted would have us on 4 fewer points today. We can't ride this luck much longer.

That said, it wouldn't take much to lift us from poor performances to very good performances. If Martial and Pogba can find their form once again we're a squad that can compete well with any other in the league (bar Liverpool, perhaps) and go on a long run of wins. We're all waiting for those two to kick into gear this season. When they do, 66 points is well within reach.
I do not like this penalty argument. People are actually forgetting how bad our football has been. Under Jose we used to have 1/2 shots on target all game. We are at least creating 6/7 chances now.

I don't quite recall the Brighton pen? Also, VAR has been consistent on the penalties like Bruno, Villa in the game earlier were not given a pen for a similar thing. Against Chelsea, Thiago kicked Rashford and a pen was not given. If we are looking at soft penalties against us, Martial's shirt was being pulled back too? But ofcourse that doesnt help the agenda so no one will mention it.

We need Martial to kick into gear, not Pogba because he will always be inconsistent.
 

lex talionis

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That's part of the problem that we have though. The POV of a Spurs fan is very different to ours, but it shouldn't be. I'm born and raised in Tottenham and know a lot of fans. They are delighted to be at the top of the table, and could not care less about their performances, but they've been unimpressive and their luck will probably run out.

Scrappy single goal victories over West Brom, Brighton & Burnley. All of those games could easily have gone the other way. Those opponents all had good chances to go in front. Outplayed by Everton, and choked a 3-0 lead at West Ham. United couldn't have bent over any more than we did against them. The only match they've been really impressive in was the win at Southampton. Spurs fans couldn't give a hoot and why should they? They know where they are in the pecking order.

Now imagine our own reaction to those sets of results and performances. We'd be picking apart every single game, as well as the City win. We wouldn't be using phrases such as 'United are playing well within the confines of what they have set out to do'. We still behave as though we have the best team in the league, and that makes no sense at all because we all KNOW that our squad has imperfections.
It seems to me most Caftards acknowledge that our squad has imperfections. And that there are serious problems with management that has led to the imperfect squad that we have and the dodgy performances we've been witnessing for many seasons now.

We're all a bit spoiled, myself included, from what SAF have us for more than two decades. But we're not irrationally spoiled, which is not a contradiction in terms. We've spent close to a billion in net transfer spend over the last decade yet we're still scraping by over clubs like Brighton and West Brom and losing to Palace and Arsenal. We're no serious threat to Liverpool for the PL trophy. And our play overall is inconsistent at best.

Spurs, on the other hand, have not won a trophy in ages and haven't spent anywhere close to what we have spent and here they are, a legitimate contender for the PL trophy (it will be Liverpool, but Spurs are definitely in the conversation) and they'll happily accept whatever tactics Mourinho provides them to get close to touching the trophy. Maybe their luck runs out or maybe they'll consistently grind out 1-0 and 2-0 wins, as United so frequently did in the last years of SAF's reign. Either way, they're accomplishing what they set out to accomplish and we are not, at least not yet.
 

lex talionis

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I do not like this penalty argument. People are actually forgetting how bad our football has been. Under Jose we used to have 1/2 shots on target all game. We are at least creating 6/7 chances now.

I don't quite recall the Brighton pen? Also, VAR has been consistent on the penalties like Bruno, Villa in the game earlier were not given a pen for a similar thing. Against Chelsea, Thiago kicked Rashford and a pen was not given. If we are looking at soft penalties against us, Martial's shirt was being pulled back too? But ofcourse that doesnt help the agenda so no one will mention it.

We need Martial to kick into gear, not Pogba because he will always be inconsistent.
Pogba brought down a Brighton player early in the second half. It was originally called a pk but the decision was overruled by VAR. I'm not sure it was the wrong call to overrule the original decision. We were fortunate, but it just might have been the right call.