Qualify for the Europa League or exit Europe?

[Yagami]

Europa league. That's our current level so an opportunity at winning it again is fine by me. Plus, it gives us more opportunities to potentially give some youth players game time. Mainoo will get it regardless now so I'm thinking more Amad, Gore, Mejbri, etc.

 

[m1tch]

Europa League. These players won't get any better if they play more or less often, but with more games there is more chances for younger players to get on the pitch. Short of a new manager bounce I don't see us qualifying for the UCL with or without the extra Europa games. I also don't see us going that far into the latter stages considering how we've faired against Gala and Copenhagen home and away.

 

[FortunaUtd]

Generally speaking, what is the point of playing, or supporting, if you do not want your team to compete as much as possible?

And specifically, the EL is arguably our level right now, it is a good tournament with some potentially interesting opponents, and a rather big trophy.
It brings in money, it provides another chance to CL qualification, and also we would add to the PL coefficient which might contribute to the PL having 5 CL spots next season.

I do not like the attitude of wanting to finish below because we feel above. It smacks of misguided arrogance to me.

 

[Ian Reus]

What da feckery is this?

We are United. We don't shy away from any match.
We should be fighting with our last breath for every single match.

 

[RedRocket9908]

We would be better going in to the Europa than having no European football at all as the Europa would be our best chance of not ending the season trophyless

 

[Flanders Devil]

Normally I would say let's give Europa a red hot go, but I think longer term we'll benefit from more training and seeing if ETH can get the team playing how he wants. Then we'll know who we neee to keep v who we don't.

The catch is we have a decent size squad, just lack depth in quality. Plus I don't think we'd realistically win it this year.

 

[Zed 101]

I don't think we will beat Bayern so may not even be a consideration, I don't think we are good enough to perform in Europa and I don't think frequency of games is our problem in the Prem so TBH it is a shitshow every which way you turn

 

[Eric_the_Red99]

Europa is clearly closer to our level so why wouldn’t we want to play in that tournament. We desperately need our underperformers to rediscover (or discover, in some cases) their form, and they’re not going to do that sat at home on weekday evenings. We don’t really need more rest days.

 

[Dansk]

I'd rather not qualify for the EL. Better to focus 100% on a top 4 finish (or possibly top 5, though it's unlikely if both we and Newcastle get knocked out). If I thought we were massive favourites to win the EL, I'd be more interested in that, but I can't see it. We've been *awful* in Europe.

 

[joedirt87]

I don't think we will beat Bayern so may not even be a consideration, I don't think we are good enough to perform in Europa and I don't think frequency of games is our problem in the Prem so TBH it is a shitshow every which way you turn

We will beat a Bayern B squad but there will be a winner in the Gala/Copenhagen game putting us into Europa. A fitting way to continue our hellish European campaign for this season.

 

[SAFMUTD]

Exit

 

[The Cat]

Europa and use it as a way to give the youngsters and bench warmers more games and anyone returning from injury.

 

[Teja]

Exit, too many games. Just focus on the league.

 

[Ollie Derbyshire]

No European football and concentrate on going for the title. Plenty of time to train and work on our system.

 

[Henrik Larsson]

Exit. Actually for the next few years it should either be CL football or focus on the league in my opinion. European football on Thursdays just seems so detrimental. Winning the Europa League was hardly a great experience, only covered up flaws and relieved some short term pressure.

Chelsea's Conte, Leicester's title run are two examples of teams that massively seemed to benefit from being able to have their main focus on the league, instead of playing in Russia or Ukraine every other Thursday.

If I was in charge at United I would actually only focus on the PL, forget about all other Cups for the next few years. Only possible exeption CL-football because it brings in the big bucks and prestige. Sole focus should be on winning our first Premier League since SAF retired, otherwise we might end up like Arsenal not winning the league for 20 odd years or Liverpool not winning it for 30 years.

Winning the PL or possibly the CL is the only thing that could really change the future of this club, so all the focus needs to be on that.

 

[Maluco]

Can’t believe there are so many voting for exit. We are nowhere near good enough to challenge for the league and I want a chance to realistically win a competition.

We should be going all out in that game to have European football after Christmas.

 

[Henrik Larsson]

Can’t believe there are so many voting for exit. We are nowhere near good enough to challenge for the league and I want a chance to realistically win a competition.

We should be going all out in that game to have European football after Christmas.

All our managers have applied the same logic as well, also with their jobs constantly being under pressure they've had the short term fixation on instant success to relief such pressure. This has brought us nowhere other than winning some 'meaningless' trophies after which the fans still weren't too happy and managers still lost their job creating inconsistency and another circle of short term thinking by the next manager who again had the pressure on him to deliver something quickly. Finishing second in the league brought us nowhere either.

Only thing that could change our fortunes is either winning the PL league (or the CL), so I can't see another solution than just fully focus on that. Of course it's not easy - or even realistic, but with the resources we have literally just focussing on league games for 3 or 4 years straight, who knows... Even after this terrible start of the season we're only 6 points off 1st place.

 

[Flying_Heckfish]

Out. This team needs a few games as possible, maybe then we might see the best XI.

 

[fergiewherearethou]

Can’t believe there are so many voting for exit. We are nowhere near good enough to challenge for the league and I want a chance to realistically win a competition.

We should be going all out in that game to have European football after Christmas.

Exactly, it's complete nonsense to aspire to play few games, what for? What do we gain from that? More training sessions? Keep our players in a crystal ball?
EL would mean a shot at the trophy and even a chance to qualify for CL next year as we are not within the best 4 from the PL and by the looks of it, it's hard to believe we will be this season.

 

[Maurice Setters Training]

Qualify. Keep our coefficient high. If we can’t get out of a group with Copenhagen and Galatasaray, then I don’t want us falling into seeding pot three and getting genuinely difficult group draws.

Also, I suspect we will come 5th in the PL, so we need English clubs to do well in Europe this season to get that extra CL place.

 

[RedDevil@84]

Exit. Don't really see a point in going to Europa.
Don't really understand the posters talking about one chance to win a trophy. Don't see it

 

[Amsterdam Devil]

Exit. No distractions, focus on the league and really build up the team with some new january signings.

 

[gaffs]

Loser mentality to want to be knocked out of Europe all together.

 

[norm87cro]

Exit Europe no question. This squad is far too thin for thursday games.

We have nothing to prove in the EL. We won all major Euro competitions and it would be futile to think we can be competitive on 2/3 fronts

 

[cyril C]

Exit Europe no question. This squad is far too thin for thursday games.

We have nothing to prove in the EL. We won all major Euro competitions and it would be futile to think we can be competitive on 2/3 fronts

The squad is not thin if you allow youngsters to play, particularly when loads of injured players will return. On the other hand, if ETH keep on playing the same 11, then perhaps early exit from ALL cup competition will be a good idea.

 

[Samid]

Congrats to the exit brigade.

 

[Bastian]

Congrats to the exit brigade.

I definitely prefer that. We can shed more players in January, we can focus on the league and most important of all we can actually use the weeks to train instead of just recover and prepare a match. That's vital. I can't remember when we last had that opportunity, maybe pre-season '22.

 

[Yorkeontop]

No midweek European adventure, sad.

 

[Samid]

I definitely prefer that. We can shed more players in January, we can focus on the league and most important of all we can actually use the weeks to train instead of just recover and prepare a match. That's vital. I can't remember when we last had that opportunity, maybe pre-season '22.

We're also fecking up England's coefficients meaning the other teams have to go deep in Europe for the PL to get 5 CL spots.

We're not finishing top 4 so it could be a while until we get back to the CL.

 

[RuudtheRed]

Given this season's form I don't think we could win the Europa League anyway. Probably for the best that we are now out of Europe completely and can focus on finishing top 4.

 

[Bastian]

We're also fecking up England's coefficients meaning the other teams have to go deep in Europe for the PL to get 5 CL spots.

We're not finishing top 4 so it could be a while until we get back to the CL.

Well, not playing in the Europa makes top 4 (I assume England will get 5 spots) a far more realistic ambition. That being said, I am more concerned with the long term if the club can hold steady and see this through a bit. Give Erik at least the season and support him in January (mainly with outgoings, but we need a striker and a defender). To change a style and culture at a dysfunctional club will take time.

 

[Samid]

Well, not playing in the Europa makes top 4 (I assume England will get 5 spots) a far more realistic ambition. That being said, I am more concerned with the long term if the club can hold steady and see this through a bit. Give Erik at least the season and support him in January (mainly with outgoings, but we need a striker and a defender). To change a style and culture at a dysfunctional club will take time.

The only thing he should be given is the boot.

 

[Bastian]

The only thing he should be given is the boot.

Oh I am aware of your feelings.

 

[el3mel]

Don't get how anyone can find this better for us than playing in any European competition. EL at least gave us something to look forward to midweek. Now we have nothing to do except struggling to finish 4th and the mighty Fa Cup. 6 more months of this.

Season is practically over for me.

 

[KeanoMagicHat]

Given this season's form I don't think we could win the Europa League anyway. Probably for the best that we are now out of Europe completely and can focus on finishing top 4.

If we aren’t good enough for the Europa League then how are we going to be good enough for top 4?

 

[frostbite]

We had a choice???

 

[sglowrider]

The downside with no Europa is that there will be on opportunities to play the kids -- not to say that ETH is a huge proponent of blooding academy or younger players in any European games. But now the option is dead.

We have a good or high potential of kids coming up, they need to have opportunities to gain some experience. It's becoming evident that ETH isnt the one for that.

 

[jimmyb2000]

I would always have gone for Europa League rather than exit Europe completely. Our European record is woeful for a club of our size so we need to be taking any opportunity we can to win a Euro trophy no matter what.

I foresee a big slump for us now with regards to league form and position. Sadly just dont think Ten Haag is up to the job now and its surprising how quickly its all gone tits up for him - after last season I was sure we'd kick on but so far its just been a season of very very narrow wins against lesser sides (bar Everton) followed by losses.

 

[DJ_21]

Probably best thing for us being out of Europe. Can now have full weeks to prepare for games. Focus on league and Fa Cup.

 

[Chipper]

If we aren’t good enough for the Europa League then how are we going to be good enough for top 4?

And if we're not good enough to win the Europa League this season so should exit Europe altogether, why do we desperately want to qualify for next season's Champions League? We have no chance of winning next season's Champions League even if we did qualify for it.

Edit: I'm not dumb enough to realise two aren't linked, get Champions League qualification money consistently to hopefully help build the squad up over a number of seasons etc. so that one day we might be good enough to win it or the Premier League. Still, I don't find just being in the CL for that reason much fun really. It becomes almost like supporting the balance sheet over the football team and the enjoying sporting achievement.