How far off is this squad from a title challenge?

Berbasbullet

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That’s that for a title race, need to make sure we’re in the top 4 now.
 

McGrathsipan

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:houllier: :lol: :lol:

Well it was fun while it lasted.
Away to lego heads resurgent arsenal next - that is going to be painful
 

Paul778

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So we've got good results, but we've never played with the swagger of a real title contender. It's been nice to be top but a correction has been a long time coming.

Too safe with the ball. Almost feel we should have put Diallo in to actually try something.
 

dove

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The fact that our coaching staff is non existent during games doesn't help too tbh.
 

Foxbatt

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Making decent team selections and bringing on the subs at the right time would go a long way.
 

RepardReece

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This match tonight is why we're not winning the league. Martial/Rashford's work rate is absolutely appalling. Fernandes has not been the same player when playing alongside Pogba & Ole rotating the players in the premier league is absolutely shambles.

City are a good few levels above us.

3rd place, FA Cup Semi final and Europa League Semi final exits?
 

I_live_cement

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That performance should tell you everything you need to know. One of the worst teams EVER in the Premier League, and they've beaten us at home. I'm absolutely gobsmacked.
 

Zelex

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The team is still a work in progress. This was definitely a reality check though. Forget the result for a sec, this was not the performance of "title challengers".
 

SAFMUTD

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Seriously we need better back ups, the quality drop between the starters and the subs is huge.

We need a proper goalscorer and a world-class manager. Not saying Ole is not a good coach, but he's not great and we are competing against City and Liverpool who have better squad and managers. We need a manager that at least can be at their level, anything less would require us to have a much better squad than them which would be really hard at this moment.
 

Yakuza_devils

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Actually, many posters knew we are not really capable of challenging. We had too many jammy wins.

Also, today individual brilliance run out of luck too.
 

thegregster

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We are done.

We wont even make top 4 this season. The Ole bubble has burst.
 

Borys

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This is not squad or individuals issue. At some point if no attackers are performing you have to look at managers.

This team is not coached. We only do the simple stuff, and repeat the same not working moves for 90'.
 

Womp

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You're overrating the squad.
He really isn't. I don't give a feck how shite you think the players are, the insistence on slow, predictable passing and movement isn't down to the players. If anything, I'd argue, it's the players' individual brilliance which is the reason this manager is still even in a job. If not for Bruno, Pogba, Rashford etc. coming up with moments of individual brilliance the past few months, forget top of the table, we wouldn't have even made top 4 last season.
 

Slevs

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Very far. We're not winning the league with Martial leading the line.
Rashford gets vastly overrated as well on here.
 

Mockney

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I can’t take bottling a title challenge against our rivals... but bottom of the table at home is a bit much
 

pratyush_utd

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This team is full of bottlers. Speak and speak with nothing to show when it matters. No wonder it lost 4 semi finals in one calendar year. Our supposedly best player loses ball for fun and struggles to complete pass. We can't defend corners at all. And we keep gifting silly goals. With that defence, we aren't going anywhere.
 

Poborsky's hair

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Fully expected a feck up like this. I don't think Ole's a PE teacher but really if we had a more progressive coach we could easily win games like this without really breaking a sweat. I mean he might be an average coach who cant make us consistently perform but can he just not have brainfarts in his selection at least? What the feck is he thinking not starting Fred and making zombie player like Matic start especially when he didnt play last week and proved his fitness is one of the best in the league to play even twice in the week. WTF.

Martial useless, I wouldnt mind we sold him for 10million, why does he happen to finish game after a performance like that? What a nothing player. Bruno Fernandes. really we shouldnt be fecking around signing Grealish, he's the most consistent and creator of chances and Bruno's absolutely horrible games are piling up faster than we thought. Wasn't he supposed to be fresh?

DDG what an absolute coward, his cowardness will cost us again.
Telles nothing player but I understand we might have wanted to rotate here.

People are curious and oblivious I criticise Solskjaer in the main thread so much but it is clear he's not a top manager for a club like ours. At the very least motivate the players to be up to the speed we need and if things don't work out, don't sit on the bench for 45 minutes do nothing. Simple instruction to play the ball faster would be the very least I'd expect. Clueless against by far the worst team in the league. Yeah title run, of course.

And a dodgy game against Arsenal coming up and it's where we are. Plus WHU the best set piece team in the league in the FA cup.
 

Devil81

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Telles, Matic and Martial.

Those three had a negative effect on the team tonight for me.

Martial is in such bad form I wouldn't have him anywhere near the team, Telles hasn't looked up to it from day one and playing Matic you lose all the energy in the midfield that frees up Fernandes and Pogba.
 

Sandikan

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That was fun for 2 weeks.
Back to being grateful that City are looking good and can keep Liverpool away from the title now.

And also that we still have the FA cup that the hard of thinking were happy to write off.
 

RonaldoVII

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He really isn't. I don't give a feck how shite you think the players are, the insistence on slow, predictable passing and movement isn't down to the players. If anything, I'd argue, it's the players' individual brilliance which is the reason this manager is still even in a job. If not for Bruno, Pogba, Rashford etc. coming up with moments of individual brilliance the past few months, forget top of the table, we wouldn't have even made top 4 last season.
Typical knee jerk post. I'm not defending Ole but a lot of them players aren't as good as we'd like to think.
 

SER19

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Back to being grateful that City are looking good and can keep Liverpool away from the title now.

And also that we still have the FA cup that the hard of thinking were happy to write off.
City's subs will win that. This was the mother of all false dawns
 

Offside

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We just got shown up tonight with everything that’s wrong with us.

Ball retention - you won’t see a worse display from anyone.

Defending - 1 in 3 of Sheff Utd’s goals this season have come against us.
 

I_live_cement

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The over reaction is magnificent.
Both sides are taking it to extremes.

We are not going to win the league this season, and we are also not going to drop out of the top 4. The improvement is definitely a positive but you have to call a spade a spade: that was a disgusting performance against a terrible football team.
 

Womp

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Actually, many posters knew we are not really capable of challenging. We had too many jammy wins.

Also, today individual brilliance run out of luck too.
Exactly, but it's still annoying as feck losing to such a fecking rubbish team. This season, despite the fact that we never really were going to win it - will imo be our only opportunity to win it. Ole is never going to be anywhere near good enough as a coach - and Liverpool and City had a drop off in their performances. With Pep and Klopp sticking around, with the opportunity to revitalize their teams, anyone that genuinely thinks Ole will ever get us a title is kidding themselves.
 

Zlatan 7

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We just lost to a team that had 5 points from 19 games. Won one game all season.
Yea it’s a dreadful result tonight, Dreadful. But it’s one game, how can be people be so quick to right off the manager and players again and lose all hope of a good season after just one game. I just find that amazing
 

Sandikan

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City's subs will win that. This was the mother of all false dawns
Expectations are the killer.
We all thought we'd cruise this in a low gear and rest a couple for Arsenal.

We've massively pressurised that game now, and they're on the way back up again.

If we'd just drawn it, it would have been something, but that min before their winner was true keystone cops nonsense.
 

Cardozo

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What a bunch of knee jerk muppets in here. Considering we had one of the worst starts to the season in recent history with terrible home form and still sat top of the league at the mid point. One loss doesn’t put an end to us being in the mix.

Yes we played shockingly but usually bounce back from these and go on a decent run so calm down.