At the beginning of the season, I said I'll be happy if this team finished top 4. At this point of the season, the team has outperformed my expectations. Even with Casemiro out, I have confidence in this team and even more so ETH.
Race for top 4 | Finito.
- Thread starter Andycoleno9
- Start date
They're done. Today was the final straw for them
They were done before today and if they don't start waking up soon they'll be looking over their shoulder
Exactly.I've come to realise there are just some posters on here who aren't happy unless they're moaning or predicting doom. Sabitzer and Fred should be more than enough to get the results against Leeds and Leicester, especially at home.
While I don't feel we can win the title this season. There's nothing stopping us aiming for second. I'd much rather spurs win tomorrow.
It's not in United's best interest though, Spurs losing increases the likelihood we finish top 4 which has to be our main aim in the PL this season
A draw would be best since there’s still so many games left. Most points dropped.
Looks like Chelsea and Liverpool are out of the race.
It is Man utd, Newcastle and Tottenham fighting for the 2 spots, United and Newcastle are the favorites for sure
It is Man utd, Newcastle and Tottenham fighting for the 2 spots, United and Newcastle are the favorites for sure
Would only say that IF we beat Leeds twice and City win/draw against Arsenal. Just hope we can cope without Casa in that Elland Road cauldron.
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Pity their game with Brentford is at Emirates because after back to back defeats they could have been troubled at Community Stadium
Bros it is not "title race" thread btw..
I hear ya but if City win top 4 should be pretty much in the bag.
Yeah I hope so. I am too pessimistic probably, because I rate Casemiro factor insanely high in this season success so far. But yeah, we should win this.
The challenge against Leeds and Leicester will be scoring goals. Defensively we are much stronger than previous season’s, but we still do not create enough chance’s and this is a department where Casemiro and Eriksen will be difficult to replace, as Fred and Sabitzer do not add the same creativity. Good thing is that Leeds and Leicester are normally teams that are open to play football and not just sit back and defend.
I’ll take a City win today. Any talk of us being in the title race is crazy. Let’s look over our shoulder, go for top 3 in case Liverpool or Chelsea wins the CL, and hope that Rashford stays fit.
I’ll take a City win today. Any talk of us being in the title race is crazy. Let’s look over our shoulder, go for top 3 in case Liverpool or Chelsea wins the CL, and hope that Rashford stays fit.
I think top 4 is almost there. I hope City beat Spurs so there is a lovely gap between them. I don't see Chelsea and Liverpool anywhere near top 4. Both teams has issues winning against lesser opponents. Old Trafford is now a fortress, we can beat anyone here. We might win all our remaining homes games. If City beats Arsenal over 2 legs and if we keep winning our games. It would be an interesting season. Forward we match.
If spurs lose today I think the top 4 race is over with Chelsea and Liverpool being so far off and spurs having a lot of negativity around them all season with conte's style
Can’t see us being caught. Think the top 3 is as it is, don’t know which order it will finish though. Obviously there’s still a lot of football to be played. But I think the fight for 4th is between Newcastle and spurs. We’re winning our home games which is a good sign, we’re hard to beat now. Just need to work on our away games and try and match our home form.
We need to reorganize the front four, maybe push Rashford uptop until Martial returns and bring in another link up player in either Sancho or Garnacho in his place. I'd be tempted to drop Antony but I think he brings a lot intangibles like off the ball work and passing which maintains the offensive momentum.
If the front four has the right balance between creators and goalscorers you can get away with little to no midfield creativity. With Rashford and Bruno we are good for a couple of goals per game so we need to maintain that solidity in the backline for now.
I would however not write of especially Chelsea when it comes to winning CL, and then we need to finish top 3.
Nice 3-3 draw today with City and Spurs with lots of red cards is the best result I think.
Great weekend though. Not one team in the top 4 race getting points
Unless you count Brighton and Brentford... both continuing to impress!
Great weekend though. Not one team in the top 4 race getting points
Unless you count Brighton and Brentford... both continuing to impress!
Chelsea or Liverpool winning the CL doesn't impact the top 4 race. Believe the only impact would be in an English side won the CL and EL and both of those sides finished outside the top 4.
Believe United and Arsenal are the only English sides left in the EL.
Would the 4th placed team have to play in the qualifying rounds?
No, they'd all go right to the group phase.
Thanks.
I'd rather not have Spurs breathing down our neck while Casemiro is out for 3 games.
No doubting that Casemiro is a class act and I wish he was available. We still have a high energy midfield available to us and that is important against Leeds. Though of course in this league, any team can beat anyone on their day.
My understanding was that an English team outside the top 4 winning the EL would not affect the 4th placed qualification for CL, whereas if a team outside of top 4 won the CL the it will affect the 4th placed, but happy to be proven wrong.
It would however still kill me if Liverpool or Chelsea were to gain access to next year’s CL that way.
It’s the start of feb plenty of time for us to be in the hunt if arsenal collapse completely. If spurs win we just have to try and not drop any points before getting closer to Arsenal…if we close the gap to around 7 pts…then I’d happy being that far behind with 5 games left to play…
Surely we are hoping for a City win today? At least I am. With our midfield struggles, we need to be looking to secure the top four spot, rather than looking up in the table. It's Arsenal we would need to catch anyway. ETH has done a wonderful job, but we can't expect to continue this win-rate with our lack of squad depth and busy schedule. Also, I want a more exciting title race that Arsenal just being 8 points clear until it's mathematically secured.
A country is allowed to have maximum five teams in the competition. If Chelsea win CL they become the fifth team, on top of top 4 that qualified through the league. The only way 4th placed team misses out on CL is if top 4 consists of City, Arsenal, Spurs and Newcastle and then CL is won by Chelsea + EL is won by United. In that case two teams that qualified through European competition will get their spots but the 4th placed team will miss out. Very slim chance of that happening and even then that scenario is reliant on United winning EL so we wouldn’t care.
A draw ideally, keeps a gap between us and Spurs and then City a within reach.
Then a City win, keeps the gap between us and Spurs but City put pressure on Arsenal and that may cause them some psychological trepidation.
Lastly Spurs win, the gap would be as we were prior to this week but the bigger the safety net for us the better.
Arsenal will be in the mix soon enough too.
Also our run-in... 5 favourable games at the end I would say!
Sounds preposterous, but wouldn't discount Brighton, especially with Newcastle not having Guimairaes for another 2 games
10 home matches for us. Win all of it and that will guarantee 72 points for us.
That should be enough for top 4.
That should be enough for top 4.
Not preposterous. They are playing as well as anyone and we still need to go there. Their run in is slightly more difficult than ours though.
Spurs have the probably the best run in on paper after today. We don't want them any closer.
Great PL weekend (other than Casemiro's red card) so far. Newcastle now have 4 draws and a a win in their last 5 league matches, with their next 5 games being: Bournemouth (A), Liverpool (H), Brighton (H), City (A), Wolves (H). Certainly could drop some more points in those.
On Spurs-City game today: think City win or a draw would be best outcome for us. City win keeps Tottenham 6 points behind us (them having played 1 game more than us), while a draw keeps City close.
Title charge was unrealistic imo even after win vs City and even more now. We've got 4 competitions and don't score enough to be in the race this season. Next season it could be more probable.
On Spurs-City game today: think City win or a draw would be best outcome for us. City win keeps Tottenham 6 points behind us (them having played 1 game more than us), while a draw keeps City close.
Title charge was unrealistic imo even after win vs City and even more now. We've got 4 competitions and don't score enough to be in the race this season. Next season it could be more probable.
Newcastle are the ones that the jury is still out on. Had it been Chelsea or Liverpool in that position, the top 4 would be done!
so we are 8 points behind the leaders with 17 games to go and you all are giving up?
A few more weeks before anyone can comfortable say the Top 4 is done...by the end of Feb it will be a lot clearer.
United need to get in a good place to win the final, if a few points are dropped in the league is no big deal, just get the first trophy for EtH and then secure Top 4...season done!
United need to get in a good place to win the final, if a few points are dropped in the league is no big deal, just get the first trophy for EtH and then secure Top 4...season done!
Think we’re a dark horse but I just can’t see us dropping points at home. Team spirit is on a high and the supporters are turning OldTrafford into a raucous den of approval.