How bad do we really think it is?

[FerociousCorgis]

I've tried not to post too much and let things play out but if we miss out on fdj and don't get at least one cm in at that quality do people not realize how absolutely fecked we are? Somehow we will have an even worse midfield than last season and easily the worst it has been in my memory for united

 

[DRJosh]

I'm expecting a top 4 finish the season after next when ETH's philosophy is firmly embedded within the squad.

 

[Vapor trail]

ETH is the only way any fan can logically expect any decent season this campaign. The squad on paper is going to be significantly lacking but this could be a strength.

Consider Liverpool's spending over the years and the perception around individual purchases would have been terrible if United under previous managers targeted the same individuals with the exception of VVD. Mane, Salah, Firminho and Jota were hardly household names at the time but with a system and some coaching the narrative changes.

The good thing is the likes of Rashford and Martial both thrived with a technical manager which was under the tutelage of LVG. I recall LVG saying that Marcus was like a young Kluivert, it's that relationship with the coach alone which can raise a players level by 30-40%.

I do feel sorry for the squad with the developmental side of things, yes the players are on high wages but for the last 36+ months they've played under two Dinosaurs in Solskjaer and Mourinho. ETH hopefully brings a new horizon in this regard.

 

[mitchmouse]

McNeil isn’t ready yet. If you’d watched much of him you’d see that.

I'd pick him ahead of Martial every day

 

[izak]

Before the CR7 news it was dogshit bad, now it's a mess on all front, what a way to welcome ETH into his new Job.

 

[Teja]

You do realise Spurs have done a lot of good business. Chelsea are well ahead of us. Liverpool and City are taking top 2. Arsenal are trying to make progress.

I dont see us being in the top 5 with any reasonably believable budgets

Spurs / Chelsea are the teams to beat. I think Spurs will finish ahead of Chelsea this season and we will close the gap to Chelsea but finish 5th.

Arsenal in their best ever season have the same attacking stats as us in our worst. They're just not that great and they've managed to miss out on guys like Raphinha, Martinez. I predict that they'll regress this year. Not great attacking depth, midfield is still meh, LW is still meh and fullback positions are average.

If we rule out Ronaldo our current best possible eleven includes Dalot, Maguire, Shaw, McT, Fred, Rashford and Elanga/Martial. It's fecking terrible, worst we've ever been in living memory.

Even ETH, Klopp and Pep together wouldn't get such a stonkingly shit team into the top six let alone top four.

Yeah it's pretty dire but you're overstating it. We will make signings. If Ronnie leaves, we will probably go and backfill that position. Even assuming we don't and given the current speculation, we'll line up something like this:

DDG, Dalot, Varane, Martinez, Shaw, FdJ, McT, Bruno, Sancho, Eriksen, Martial / Rashford.

We'll be fine. The standard should be good attacking football this season and a top four finish.