Our Progress

[acnumber9]

How much progress are we actually making? As things stand we’re sitting 15 points behind the league leaders. We were dumped out of the Champions League at the first stage. We’ve made no domestic finals.

Most would agree our squad is better than it was three years ago and Solskjaer deserves credit for that. With that being said, should results not be better? Is limping to second in possibly the worst Premier League season really a sign of progress? Are we actually any closer to a proper title challenge?

 

[amolbhatia50k]

Our progress is overstated. The squad management has moved along well but the actual football is not going places anytime soon. Ole needs to get someone to coach this team properly if he's unable. Our football is such a chore.

 

[RedBanker]

Football wise is there really any progress? We have conceded more home goals than in any of our 58 previous seasons. Points wise even the spent Mourinho took us to 82 with a shittier team than now.

We have more or less been the same since SAF. Don't know what's next really. Feeling very low.

 

[laughtersassassin]

It's very overstated.

Anyway I'm not bothered at this stage. Just win the final so we can try push on.

Lose the final and it's not a good season even if people want to pretend that it is.

 

[sullydnl]

If you were pessimistic, you could argue that we have mostly progressed because we have better players thanks to the likes of Bruno & Cavani arriving and Greenwood emerging. As opposed to us progressing in term of good coaching and management making us a better functioning unit, which is what you'd expect a top class manager to bring to the table.

The progress is there though, for whatever reason. Even leaving aside finishing second, just watching us this season has been better (albeit with plenty of frustrating games thrown in and a lot of goals conceded). Let's not underplay just how poor we were for long chunks of previous seasons too.

 

[Godfather]

We are on course of 5 more points than last season. What a huge fecking progress that is

 

[VidaRed]

Football wise is there really any progress? We have conceded more home goals than in any of our 58 previous seasons. Points wise even the spent Mourinho took us to 82 with a shittier team than now.

We have more or less been the same since SAF. Don't know what's next really. Feeling very low.

You can bet your arse saf wouldn't have taken off greenwood and cavani when were chasing a game if we were waiting for the cl final and league games were essentially not that important. Never would have happened.

 

[Regulus Arcturus Black]

We’ve progressed for sure, but everyone on both sides of the fence should accept that we look likely to end the season just a few points ahead of Leicester and not a massive amount more than last season. Put simply, a shit load of work still needs to be done.

 

[Nick7]

Our progress is overstated. The squad management has moved along well but the actual football is not going places anytime soon. Ole needs to get someone to coach this team properly if he's unable. Our football is such a chore.

This is my view of it too. Better squad than we’ve had in a while, but it’s not being reflected on the pitch. Results in the league haven’t been bad but our performance this season in the league should be the bare minimum.

 

[charlenefan]

How much progress are we actually making? As things stand we’re sitting 15 points behind the league leaders. We were dumped out of the Champions League at the first stage. We’ve made no domestic finals.

And if we beat Leicester, Liverpool and Fulham we're 8 points better off. We've taken our foot off the gas over the last week/been forced to in one of the games due to the scheduling. It's fine margins

It's disappointing how the season is finishing in the league but I'm not surprised about the knee jerk reactions such as yours

 

[ivaldo]

As things stand? We're in a final of a major European Cup. We qualified for CL at a canter, while breaking multiple records in the process, and now we are in cruise control. A few poor results at the end of the season when we have absolutely nothing to play for doesn't change the considerable improvement we've made this season.

 

[ivaldo]

And if we beat Leicester, Liverpool and Fulham we're 8 points better off. We've taken our foot off the gas over the last week/been forced to in one of the games due to the scheduling. It's fine margins

It's disappointing how the season is finishing in the league but I'm not surprised about the knee jerk reactions such as yours

Bingo!

 

[AshRK]

We are on course of 5 more points than last season. What a huge fecking progress that is

I don't think 5 or 10 points can quantity the progress. I am disappointed with the way we are ending the season but for me europa final would determine how much actually we have progressed. We need to win the europa. Couldn't care if we finish with 74 or 80 points.

 

[charlenefan]

Bingo!

 

[Ludens the Red]

There have been positives this season, away form, comebacks etc. Cavani, Bruno, Shaw.
But overall I think progress has been very marginal and definitely massively overstated.
I remember Neville stressing a few months back that it was important to finish strongly and be a good 2nd, getting points in the late 70’s early 80’s to show substantial progress. We’ve failed miserably to do that.

Unless we beat Wolves, which I suspect we won’t as we have to send out the reserves. Points wise we’re going to finish with the third joint lowest points total for 2nd place in twenty years. 2011 and 2016 being the two other years.
Overall it has to be said we’ve not been a great runner up.

Winning the Europa is massive now. We’re only five points better off than we were last season so ultimately any league progress can be quantified as fairly average but winning a trophy would be jumping over a significant hurdle.

 

[Pexbo]

Our progress is overstated. The squad management has moved along well but the actual football is not going places anytime soon. Ole needs to get someone to coach this team properly if he's unable. Our football is such a chore.

Our football has improved massively in the last 18 months. We’ve had bad patches and purple patches but I don’t think there is any doubt we have improved in every area of the pitch. I think people forget just how bad we were when we have had teams made up from the likes of Fellaimi, Pereira, Lingard, James, Mata, Matic and Young.

 

[el3mel]

Well it depends on next season. At the moment we seem like we're becoming a consistent top 4 team. If we challenge for the title next year it'll be right to consider what we're doing as a progress. If it's the same a lot of questions will have to asked.

At the moment I mostly actually pretty content with the team. We have a very good squad with a lot of quality players, we're starting to get consistent top 3 finish in the league and can win a European trophy. Nothing not to be optimistic about at the moment. There're still a lot of problems in our play style and coaching but I have seen worse.

Of course, things change fast. Say we lose the EL final, the mood would be fecking shit entering the market.

 

[dove]

And if we beat Leicester, Liverpool and Fulham we're 8 points better off. We've taken our foot off the gas over the last week/been forced to in one of the games due to the scheduling. It's fine margins

It's disappointing how the season is finishing in the league but I'm not surprised about the knee jerk reactions such as yours

And if we won all our games that we didn't, we would have had 114 points. Fine margins.

 

[acnumber9]

And if we beat Leicester, Liverpool and Fulham we're 8 points better off. We've taken our foot off the gas over the last week/been forced to in one of the games due to the scheduling. It's fine margins

It's disappointing how the season is finishing in the league but I'm not surprised about the knee jerk reactions such as yours

But we didn’t. And we still wouldn’t have been challenging for the title. This isn’t a knee jerk reaction. I’ve been asking questions about how much progress we’re actually making for a while.

 

[Regulus Arcturus Black]

And if we beat Leicester, Liverpool and Fulham we're 8 points better off.

If we won every game we’d be on 111 pts.

We were never likely to win all 3 of those, “foot off gas” or not.

 

[rimaldo]

i’m not sure you can take too much from the last 2 seasons, covid has had a massive impact and playing pretty much every 3 days for the best part of 18 months takes it’s toll. we’re clearly phoning in performances at the minute, hopefully we can turn it back on for the final.

city are in the unique position of having 2 world class players for every position and able to rest and rotate without losing too much quality. their style of play doesn’t seem to take as much out of their players either. everyone else has struggled for consistency and even city haven’t been immune from that.

is ole the right man long term? i’m still not convinced. who else would i replace him with? i couldn’t say. i’ll be happy if the new dof role does its job and we start building an ethos that doesn’t rely so much on a single manager tying everything together. i don’t think what we want exists in a single person nowadays and it’s vital our whole set up is correct. i think we’re better placed for that than we have been since fergie left. as long as we continue to improve then i’m happy. i’d expect us to be better this time next year though and if not then someone needs to have a think if we have the right people in the right positions at the club.

 

[laughtersassassin]

And if we beat Leicester, Liverpool and Fulham we're 8 points better off. We've taken our foot off the gas over the last week/been forced to in one of the games due to the scheduling. It's fine margins

It's disappointing how the season is finishing in the league but I'm not surprised about the knee jerk reactions such as yours

What if we lose the final? Taking our foot off the gas is all well and good if we win but lose and it's a bit of a disaster.

Especially when you consider we are coming up against a side below Real Sociedad.

Safe to say it all rests on one game.

 

[Smores]

We'll find out next season is the only real answer.

For me we've progressed but not hugely. I've no idea if we'll find ourselves struggling against better competitors next season or really kick on. It'll be interesting to see.

 

[Desert Eagle]

As things stand? We're in a final of a major European Cup. We qualified for CL at a canter, while breaking multiple records in the process, and now we are in cruise control. A few poor results at the end of the season when we have absolutely nothing to play for doesn't change the considerable improvement we've made this season.

There are two European competitions mate. We're in the minor one and got kicked out of the major one. Lowest points total for a second place team in about 20 years. This is after a low point total to get top 4 last year. Major European cup

 

[bond19821982]

75 points was my target when the season started - just 3 more wins from last year.

We are ending on 71. People can argue its only 4 points but the target was also only 75 points.

Think our progress is exaggerated . We just need a better manager or a coach atleast.

Tuchel, Pep, Klopp will be with full squad next year. Do you really think we will put a title challenge next year ?

 

[edgecutter]

We are on course of 5 more points than last season. What a huge fecking progress that is

That includes a full season of Bruno, it really should be more.

 

[ivaldo]

Unless we beat Wolves, which I suspect we won’t as we have to send out the reserves. Points wise we’re going to finish with the third joint lowest points total for 2nd place in twenty years. 2011 and 2016 being the two other years.
Overall it has to be said we’ve not been a great runner up.

Winning the Europa is massive now. We’re only five points better off than we were last season so ultimately any league progress can be quantified as fairly average but winning a trophy would be jumping over a significant hurdle.

You're removing ALL context to come to this assertion. We've taken our foot off the gas these last few weeks because we've been SO much better than those below us. If we had more of a challenge, we would have more points on the board. Why is dead rubber factoring into the success/failure of our season?

It's fecking tragic people (not you specifically) are using these meaningless games to reignite thier shitty agendas against our players/manager after being proved utterly wrong throughout the season.

 

[acnumber9]

I think people forget just how bad we were when we have had teams made up from the likes of Fellaimi, Pereira, Lingard, James, Mata, Matic and Young.

This is kind of my point though. Given we’ve a better team should results not be better?

 

[amolbhatia50k]

Our football has improved massively in the last 18 months. We’ve had bad patches and purple patches but I don’t think there is any doubt we have improved in every area of the pitch. I think people forget just how bad we were when we have had teams made up from the likes of Fellaimi, Pereira, Lingard, James, Mata, Matic and Young.

We did get 2nd place under Mourinho with 10 more points than Ole is managing in his golden season.

I think we have the squad in a better shape than we had 18 months back and hence the results are correspondingly better. However in terms of the collective - the fluidity, the organisation, the cohesiveness, I don't see any marked progress reflecting in our peformances. For example in Lampard to Tuchel you can see the quality of the coaching coming through. Under Ole it's all the same. All I can hope is that he buys amazingly this summer as I don't think his coaching will lift us to any great heights.

 

[Nickelodeon]

We were the worst 3rd place team in quite a while. We’re going to be the worst 2nd as well (and that is if Leicester don’t win both their games).

Stats suggest that we haven’t improved as much as others have regressed for us to be in this position.

 

[SER19]

We are on course of 5 more points than last season. What a huge fecking progress that is

So are city. I have huge concerns now but points total isn't a good measure always.

 

[MonkeysMagic]

I love the blind optimism of some that this team is going places under Ole!

Problem with blind optimism is that it doesn't win you anything and neither will Ole!

 

[Leftback99]

We've definitely progressed but the first XI needs some major upgrades to do any better. Key position is CM.

 

[Bilbo]

Its blatantly obvious that we're a far stronger team than we have been in recent seasons

 

[Dobba]

You can bet your arse saf wouldn't have taken off greenwood and cavani when were chasing a game if we were waiting for the cl final and league games were essentially not that important. Never would have happened.

What, the guy who brought Andy Cole off with 9 minutes to go of a Champions League final we were losing? The issue you appear to be missing is us not having an Ole level striker sitting on our bench.

 

[90 + 5min]

How much progress are we actually making? As things stand we’re sitting 15 points behind the league leaders. We were dumped out of the Champions League at the first stage. We’ve made no domestic finals.

Most would agree our squad is better than it was three years ago and Solskjaer deserves credit for that. With that being said, should results not be better? Is limping to second in possibly the worst Premier League season really a sign of progress? Are we actually any closer to a proper title challenge?

Lot of progress.

Taking of foot from the gas pedal when we have 2nd / 3rd place in hand is normal. What we are seeing is us preparing for the final.

 

[Godfather]

And if we beat Leicester, Liverpool and Fulham we're 8 points better off.

Or if we beat any of the other teams we lost points to. What an idiotic argument.

 

[charlenefan]

And if we won all our games that we didn't, we would have had 114 points. Fine margins.

If we won every game we’d be on 111 pts.

We were never likely to win all 3 of those, “foot off gas” or not.

you two should marry, you've clearly on the same wave length

 

[vanrooney]

just let us win a trophy and this season is a clear progress

 

[hobbers]

We're only 5 points better off than last season. Last season we were fecking diabolical bar that brief period before and after lock down. This season our form against the other big 7 teams is pitiful and far worse than last season. 2 wins in those 12 games.

If we win the final that will obviously be a bit of progress, but if we lose then all the doubt aimed at Ole will be right back to maximum and rightly so. We're not a club that's proud of "just" finishing in the top four and "just" going long into cup competitions when we bottle out of all of them when it matters most.