The good, the bad and the ugly / season 23-24

[golden_blunder]

Good
Emergence of Mainoo
Development of Garnacho
Hojlunds impact in his first season
New partial owners who are finally restructuring the football side
U18 side
Dalot form
Maguire form
McTominay goal return

Bad
Injuries galore
Sancho situation
Coaching decisions taken particularly around tactical setup
Antony wing play
Embarrassing CL performance in easiest group
Decline of Casemiro
Fitness of Varane

ugly
Greenwood situation
Football played by 1st team
Martial, Shaw fitness yet again
19 defeats
Negative goal difference
Rashford form
Toxic fan base arguing over everything
Old Trafford broken in places

I’m sure that there are lots more for every section that I’ve missed

 

[sugar_kane]

Good
Emergence of Mainoo
Development of Garnacho
Hojlunds impact in his first season
New partial owners who are finally restructuring the football side
U18 side
Dalot form
Maguire form
McTominay goal return

Bad
Injuries galore
Sancho situation
Coaching decisions taken particularly around tactical setup
Antony wing play
Embarrassing CL performance in easiest group

ugly
Greenwood situation
Football played by 1st team
Martial, Shaw fitness yet again
19 defeats
Negative goal difference
Toxic fan base arguing over everything
Old Trafford broken in places

I’m sure that there are lots more for every section that I’ve missed

Would add Casemiro's form to bad/ugly

 

[Wilt]

GOOD ….riddance
Antony
Rashford
Sancho
Greenwood
Others…

BAD
Ten Hag
8th
Minus goal difference
Finishing bottom of CL group
Record losses

UGLY
United has become a laughing stock
Press/media
Stadium falling to bits

HOPE
New ‘proven big club’ manager who won’t be overwhelmed by the size of the job
New players, preferably young who want to play for United, not just for money
No more ridiculous contracts creating unsellable players
Genuine title challenge within 3-4 years
New stadium

 

[Mr. MUJAC]

Good
Emergence of Mainoo
Development of Garnacho
Hojlunds impact in his first season
New partial owners who are finally restructuring the football side
U18 side
Dalot form
Maguire form
McTominay goal return

Bad
Injuries galore
Sancho situation
Coaching decisions taken particularly around tactical setup
Antony wing play
Embarrassing CL performance in easiest group

ugly
Greenwood situation
Football played by 1st team
Martial, Shaw fitness yet again
19 defeats
Negative goal difference
Toxic fan base arguing over everything
Old Trafford broken in places

I’m sure that there are lots more for every section that I’ve missed

I would also add...

GOOD

Women winning the FA Cup and their juniors
Reaching the FA Cup Final (particularly the win over Liverpool)
Away fans

BAD

Marcus Rashford form (if he was in last years form we would be 3rd or 4th with 20+ extra goals)
Poor loans/need for so many loans to start with (Sabitzer/Weghorst last season leading to Reguilon/Amrabat this season)
No experienced centre-forward (been a problem for 6+ years but it really hurt us this season)
Recruitment strategy overall
26 different defensive partnerships (a result of the injuries)
Former players continuing to pile on the negativity

UGLY

The press drive me nuts - incredibly poor interviewing skills at press conferences and the constant digs (but that has always come with the territory)
The Football Club introducing a range of new policies that further alienates supporters (17/19, general ticketing issues such as ballot process, stopping access to Carrington to watch youth team etc)
The lack of leadership (hopefully changing)

 

[tomaldinho1]

Honestly what a season to be a fan, we've had some ups and downs but this should be seen as, hopefully, our most important season post SAF because of Ineos arriving. Everyone should raise a glass to any dilution of Glazer ownership and, though 11 years too late, things are changing. Whether the new management are terrible or good, we don't know, but Sir Jim is putting his hand in his pocket which is immediately an improvement.

Positives.
First time maybe post SAF? We have a crop of players all around the late teens/early twenties who seem hungry to succeed and actually good. Also very promising signs from academy teams.

• Mainoo is class
• Garnacho is improving and though he's a selfish feck, he's got the right attitude/work rate.
• Hojlund I think has had a great debut season, lots of upside there.
• Amad look a really unique player, not sure if he's the future on that RW but maybe more inside? Either way, another promising youngster.
• Kawambala, seems solid as a squad player at a minimum.
• Forson, unconvinced but haven't really seen much of him.

FA Cup is alive. Unlikely we win but 2 FA cup finals in 2 years and losing to the biggest cheats in professional football both times, isn't terrible.

Senior player core. I like what I see from Dalot, Licha (hopefully he stays fit), Bruno this season, I also think Onana has been good enough. There have been ups and down, particularly with the latter two at the start of the season, but if we think of creating a spine and building a team to get to the elite level in 2-3 seasons, these guys can be part of that. Maguire is also very solid as a backup CB and was good this season when called upon.

The club is finally shifting, or looking like they will shift, a load of the older or underperforming players who have hung around too long. There's a real sense of this being as new dawn.

Negatives.
Injuries, someone has to get to the bottom of this.
CL campaign, Onana had a stinker.
Goal difference, this one I still find so weird, we never got hammered like we did under ETH last season and Ole before (CPFC 0-4 was by far the worst result) but we just leaked goals all year. Yet again though, the issue was scoring not conceding when you look at the league table and see that Chelsea, Newcastle, Villa and Spurs all conceded more than us and that brings me onto the main disappointment this season: Rashford.
22/23: 56 apps, 30 goals, 10 assists.
23/24: 42 apps, 8 goals, 5 assists.
Will be intriguing to see what happens this summer with him.

 

[Revan]

Good
Emergence of Mainoo
Development of Garnacho
Hojlunds impact in his first season
New partial owners who are finally restructuring the football side
U18 side
Dalot form
Maguire form
McTominay goal return

Bad
Injuries galore
Sancho situation
Coaching decisions taken particularly around tactical setup
Antony wing play
Embarrassing CL performance in easiest group
Decline of Casemiro
Fitness of Varane

ugly
Greenwood situation
Football played by 1st team
Martial, Shaw fitness yet again
19 defeats
Negative goal difference
Rashford form
Toxic fan base arguing over everything
Old Trafford broken in places

I’m sure that there are lots more for every section that I’ve missed

Hard to add anything here, OP nailed the season’s summary.

But. We have to argue for everything in this forum. So, I have to add the FA Cup performance against Liverpool in the good category, that was the most enjoyable match I had since the PSG match in 2019.

Hopefully we win the FA Cup and add another good in what was a very bad season.

 

[Andycoleno9]

Good:
Dalot's form.
Some world class goals
Mainoo
Cup final
Garnacho

Bad:
Injuries
Playing football without any plan
Signings didn't make much difference
City toying with us in both games

Ugly:
McTominay as striker
CL debacle
Sancho
Greenwood
Glazers staying

 

[Yagami]

Good
Emergence of Mainoo
Development of Garnacho
Hojlunds impact in his first season
New partial owners who are finally restructuring the football side
U18 side
Dalot form
Maguire form
McTominay goal return

I would also add...

GOOD

Women winning the FA Cup and their juniors
Reaching the FA Cup Final (particularly the win over Liverpool)
Away fans

Good:
Dalot's form.
Some world class goals
Mainoo
Cup final
Garnacho

@tomaldinho1 was the only one to mention him so far but I'd add Amad to the "good" category as well.