Not in the Race?

[Red & White]

As soon as there was talk of a title challenge our form fell off a cliff. There’s your mentality. Hopefully now that ridiculous notion has been put to bed we can try and get some form together for the run in. After the awful start to our season we were never going to sustain the good run and actually win the league. The problem isn’t so much a couple of poor results, it’s bouncing back quickly to stay in a comfortable position for a top 4 finish. Unfortunately, when it’s bad, it’s really bad for us under OGS, as the great form and poor form timeframes tell you since he came in.

We’re lucky everyone around us is struggling, too. Pleased to see Everton just lost to Fulham, gives us a second chance to get going again next week at home to Newcastle. Surely that’s a solid win and none of this chasing a goal in the last 20 that we seem to be doing every week.

 

[McGrathsipan]

As soon as there was talk of a title challenge our form fell off a cliff. There’s your mentality. Hopefully now that ridiculous notion has been put to bed we can try and get some form together for the run in. After the awful start to our season we were never going to sustain the good run and actually win the league. The problem isn’t so much a couple of poor results, it’s bouncing back quickly to stay in a comfortable position for a top 4 finish. Unfortunately, when it’s bad, it’s really bad for us under OGS, as the great form and poor form timeframes tell you since he came in.

We’re lucky everyone around us is struggling, too. Pleased to see Everton just lost to Fulham, gives us a second chance to get going again next week at home to Newcastle. Surely that’s a solid win and none of this chasing a goal in the last 20 that we seem to be doing every week.

Mate weve just struggled against WBA and lost against Sheff Utd.

To try and predict anything with this shower of players is just madness I think. The players should they play well are capable of winning 6-0 but equally as capable as losing a goal after 20 seconds and fecking about for the rest of the match with no ideas. There was no ideas today. No ideas ever against a low block.
Teams are hitting us on the counter and today we were lucky not to lose.

We are in dreadful form and the manager doesnt have it in him to change it. He should have the guts to try something new

 

[UNITED ACADEMY]

I do agree Citys form is bordering on scary but my argument is it's not because they're so much better than us that they're 8 points ahead but more because of our own doing. Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal were all there for the taking but we chose to be more conservative but if we want to win titles we need to learn from these types of games. Playing not to lose instead of playing to win will not win us PLtitles.

Where we lost momentum was the SU game. People can say there's no easy game in the PL but surely, surely, surely we had to beat the bottom of the league club who were sitting there with only 5 points? Once again that has nothing to do with City being better than us but our own doing. Since that game we may have knocked in 9 against Southampton but letting off a horrible Arsenal side and losing a last second equaliser was also our own doing. We could/should have been a lot closer even if City do have a better team than us. Put it down to inexperience but personally I don't think Ole will have a better chance at winning the PL and should be going all out for it.

My apologies. I agree City have a much better squad than the Leicester champions squad. I thought you were implying that Leicester won the PL by not playing good football which I would have to disagree with. Even though their points tally was relatively low compared to the last few seasons I still think the side that played the best football overall won the league that year.

This is pretty much almost the same squad & XI as last season and last season we showed lack of consistency so this season also to be expected that we still don’t have the squad to show consistency and that’s why before the season started people expected 75-80 points max this season. End of the day, only Man city have the squad to show that consistency thus it’s not missing opportunity.

 

[RRCE]

Anyone who thinks we’re actually in a title race just isn’t dealing in reality. We haven’t been in a title race for weeks, if we ever really were (which, in my opinion, we weren’t). We’re in a top four battle, and with this Manager and squad, it will be a tough fight to make it.

In some respects, Ole has done quite well. He’s steadied the ship and tried to instil a traditional United spirit in the club. That said, he’s consistently shown his limitations as well. His squad selection is baffling at times. His willingness to overlook the current form of individual players is troubling, and he’s too loyal to his favourites. He has a small group of players he trusts, and everyone else is an afterthought. He’s not proven himself to be consistently tactically astute. Somewhat strangely, he’s also lacked aggression at times. I understand prudent decision making and big picture thinking, but quite often it seems like he believes we‘re up against the teams he remembers playing against instead of the teams actually in front of him. His decisions have undoubtedly cost us points this year.

As for the squad, we simply don’t defend nearly well enough to be legitimate contenders. The Maguire - Lindelof pairing has been a major problem for a long time now. Ole persists with it, perhaps feeling that the alternatives are even worse, but until it’s fixed this team is going nowhere. Fred and McTominay are both good players, but as a pair they aren’t nearly creative enough. Without Pogba in there, there virtually no creativity, which makes it extremely difficult for Bruno. Teams swarm him and he drops very deep looking to get on the ball. That’s not where he’s at his best. Bruno is clearly our best and most nfliential player, but the way we line up in many games makes his life exponentially more difficult. Rashford,, Martial, Cavani and Greenwood also have plenty of talent, but none of them have performed at a consistently high level this season.

Overall, the squad still lacks quality. 3 or 4 starters are still needed. Ole isn’t a good enough Manager to make a group of players greater than the sum of their parts. I do believe that we‘re generally going in a positive direction, but we’re a country mile away from being actual title contenders.

 

[sparx99]

City have been unbelievable lately not taking anything away from them. But with CL games coming up and still some tough fixtures ahead you would expect the busy schedule may start to see a drop off in their form.

We have to win our next couple of games and then beat City. If we did that we could give ourselves an outside chance of catching them but we’d have to be brilliant and they’d have to fall away quite a bit.

 

[Red00012]

City have been unbelievable lately not taking anything away from them. But with CL games coming up and still some tough fixtures ahead you would expect the busy schedule may start to see a drop off in their form.

We have to win our next couple of games and then beat City. If we did that we could give ourselves an outside chance of catching them but we’d have to be brilliant and they’d have to fall away quite a bit.

I like your optimism but we haven’t a hope of catching them . You mentioned they have CL and a few tough games coming up but we’ve EL which you could say is worse because of Thursday / Sunday games and our next 5 PL games are Newcastle followed by Chelsea , City , West Ham and Leicester.

City have Everton midweek and the way our season is going you’d be hoping City beat them as we will be fight for Top 4 before we know it.

 

[Mike Oxard]

It's highly unlikely that our first XI is going to be playing in the Europa League. Whereas City will be going all out in the Champions League. The mileage may rack up in their legs. I ain't saying it's a sure thing. Just that we need to do our part to be close in case they Devon Loch.

We’d be mad not to play our first 11 in the Europa League. It’s a trophy and it’s our level at the moment, so we should embrace it.

 

[Nikelesh Reddy]

Managers said UTD, not in the title race? Other pundits disagree, some think City will get a blip.
Is this a comment from a manager, letting the board, owners know there is still players needed to compete for a title?
Or is it just trying to deflect, the cockups and defend his players. I just think a win against Everton when, the next day 2 teams chasing the title play each other would have put UTD in a far better position.

City will comfortably win the league...Finishing 2nd and staying within 6-10 points of the eventual champions would represent serious progress.Last season we finished 3rd and were 30 points behind the champions...If we finish 2nd and if we are let’s say 8-9 points behind City,that’s certainly good steady progress in my view...

 

[nmm85]

Since we went top of the league after beating Burnley and everyone jumping on the '21 train we've gone on to drop 11 points out of 21. Seems like the mentality of the club were just happy to be in a title race rather than actually win the league. Also think the adrenalin of getting to that top spot kept us going and as soon as we got there we just relaxed a little and lost some steam.

I never thought we would win the league but this form is concerning. We are lucky to still be second and really need to pick up some form and a spark to kick us on towards our toughest run of games this season. I think introducing Amad to the first team could help give that little spark we're missing.

 

[Hughie77]

City will comfortably win the league...Finishing 2nd and staying within 6-10 points of the eventual champions would represent serious progress.Last season we finished 3rd and were 30 points behind the champions...If we finish 2nd and if we are let’s say 8-9 points behind City,that’s certainly good steady progress in my view...

Yes agree, its progress I'd take that, then strengthen in summer window, so we can put in a serious title hunt.

 

[Judas]

City have been unbelievable lately not taking anything away from them. But with CL games coming up and still some tough fixtures ahead you would expect the busy schedule may start to see a drop off in their form.

We have to win our next couple of games and then beat City. If we did that we could give ourselves an outside chance of catching them but we’d have to be brilliant and they’d have to fall away quite a bit.

It's stupid to be talking about catching City at this point. There's zero point looking up, we need to be focused on what's going on below us now. We're showing the sort of consistency that puts top 4 under threat, its daft talking about the title.

We're not winning all our games for the rest of the season, we'd need to do that to get close to them. City are probably losing two more league games this season, at most? Unless they suddenly crumble, pretty much every game I expect them to win, either comfortably or do enough to win.

 

[sparx99]

It's stupid to be talking about catching City at this point. There's zero point looking up, we need to be focused on what's going on below us now. We're showing the sort of consistency that puts top 4 under threat, its daft talking about the title.

We're not winning all our games for the rest of the season, we'd need to do that to get close to them. City are probably losing two more league games this season, at most? Unless they suddenly crumble, pretty much every game I expect them to win, either comfortably or do enough to win.

I don’t really see the difference in approach though. We have to win every game we possibly can to secure 2nd, 3rd or 4th.

Might as well be trying to be positive and chase them down even if it is just to finish 6pts behind instead of 15. It would be good practice and set us up for a proper go at it next season.

Not to mention that it only takes one poor result for City and us to beat them for the pressure to be back on. Obviously they are huge favourites I just don’t see the point in coronating them early.

 

[croadyman]

I don’t really see the difference in approach though. We have to win every game we possibly can to secure 2nd, 3rd or 4th.

Might as well be trying to be positive and chase them down even if it is just to finish 6pts behind instead of 15. It would be good practice and set us up for a proper go at it next season.

Not to mention that it only takes one poor result for City and us to beat them for the pressure to be back on. Obviously they are huge favourites I just don’t see the point in coronating them early.

If I really believed any two of Everton, Arsenal & West Ham could take points off them then I wouldn't feel so gutted about the points we have dropped in the last seven games, Unfortunately they have turned up the volume on us without Aguero & KDB and we had no response to it at all.

 

[MattofManchester]

I've forgotten about the title race. We have to get back to securing our place in the top 4 first.

 

[croadyman]

I've forgotten about the title race. We have to get back to securing our place in the top 4 first.

Yeah going to watch some champions league on Weds rather than City make it a 10 point gap, shame really because looked like it was going to be an interesting game before we buckled against Sheff Utd

 

[cyril C]

We’d be mad not to play our first 11 in the Europa League. It’s a trophy and it’s our level at the moment, so we should embrace it.

Ironically, it was the same attitude on FA. What if we have rested most of the 1st teamer in the Westham game, such as Maguire, Lindelof, AWB, Fred, and played Tuanzebe, Jones, Mata, Williams instead? Do you think a well rested Best 11 would have a better chance against WBA? In fact, had we done the same against Liverpool we would have avoided the Sheffield defeat, probably no more Westham game. Southampton knows exactly what is their priority and get what they wish for against Arsenal, likewise Arsenal knew their priority. I am not saying Wolves knew their priority, but Southampton did that clearly.

So here you are, if you wants Cup, something have to give, or taking a risk that some of you wish we had not.

 

[Paddy B]

City have been unbelievable lately not taking anything away from them. But with CL games coming up and still some tough fixtures ahead you would expect the busy schedule may start to see a drop off in their form.

We have to win our next couple of games and then beat City. If we did that we could give ourselves an outside chance of catching them but we’d have to be brilliant and they’d have to fall away quite a bit.

Fair comment. I know we are playing very well but there is a long way to go. This idea that the title is over is crazy. I remember well United being 8 points ahead of City with 6 games to go in 2012...there are still 14 games left. Of course, I hope nothing like that happens this year and we win it easy...haha!!!.

 

[sparx99]

Ironically, it was the same attitude on FA. What if we have rested most of the 1st teamer in the Westham game, such as Maguire, Lindelof, AWB, Fred, and played Tuanzebe, Jones, Mata, Williams instead? Do you think a well rested Best 11 would have a better chance against WBA? In fact, had we done the same against Liverpool we would have avoided the Sheffield defeat, probably no more Westham game. Southampton knows exactly what is their priority and get what they wish for against Arsenal, likewise Arsenal knew their priority. I am not saying Wolves knew their priority, but Southampton did that clearly.

So here you are, if you wants Cup, something have to give, or taking a risk that some of you wish we had not.

I kind of agree this season. Usually the schedule allows for us to compete on multiple fronts without having to overtly prioritise. This season though we should have maybe made the league a clear priority. the schedule is so busy and there was an opportunity at the beginning of January to get in front and put our foot down.

 

[cyril C]

I kind of agree this season. Usually the schedule allows for us to compete on multiple fronts without having to overtly prioritise. This season though we should have maybe made the league a clear priority. the schedule is so busy and there was an opportunity at the beginning of January to get in front and put our foot down.

10 years ago perhaps we could get our result with minor rotation of 2-3 key players. Had martial Tuanzebe Greenwood step up like McTom, then perhaps yes we could still conquer multiple fronts. Perhaps people forgotten how much we were hanging on a thin line against Southampton, Wolves, Burnley and so on, so when luck run dry, we are back to square 1.