The most in form team in the Premier League……

[cyberman]

Because only being 6 points behind leaders with less than third of the season gone isn't something impressive .

Why though? And nobody said it was impressive?
If we do end up 6 points behind then we’ve basically matched them against the league with the only difference between us being the game at OT. That’s a lot to work with. There’s no point in extrapolating results because we don’t play 12 teams 3 times a season.
I’m also dying to see some big league games at OT. From what I’m seeing we’ll have only played City at home in the first half of the season

 

[Wumminator]

Man Utd have beaten:
Luton; Wolves; Forest; Sheff Utd; Burnley; Brentford; Fulham.
All of those victories were marginal and unconvincing. Some downright lucky.

When we have played the better teams, they are completely exposed. We shipped four against FC Copenhagen. We have a goal difference of minus three.

We are playing, consistently dreadful football. And we are sixth. Sixth.

And some fans think there isn't anything to be concerned about?

This is what happens when the culture of the club regressess. Expectations lower.

Chelsea, City, Liverpool... I could go on and on about clubs who would not accept this. Liverpool lost form.last season and Klopp made it very clear, publicly that it wasn't acceptable, things have to change, and he was responsible. And you can see the development, and it will continue because you can see he is changing things.

ETH?

The man is lost. Completely lost I'm afraid to say.

You are right. Chelsea wouldn’t accept being sixth. Sixth. Imagine if they were below that in the table right now? They’d refuse to accept it.

And Liverpool? Finishing outside top four? They wouldn’t accept it. Much different culture at those clubs.

 

[lex talionis]

So many ways to look at the same glass filled only halfway with water. Half full or half empty? Pure delicious water or filled with toxic shit?

It is literally hard to believe that we’re only 6 points off the top of the table but here we are. City tore us apart, so no complaints in the under the circumstances. We ground out close wins over bottom feeders, but even top clubs have those days. The two losses I really regret were v Spurs and then Arsenal, both of whom we had by the balls but let them go due to dire finishing.

The most productive way to look at this is that we’ve been playing poorly but have found a way to grind out results. If we can improve our finishing and bring back our back line we can realistically finish in the top four. But next summer someone at the club has to get a grip on ETH’s transfer projects which for the most part have been really poor and not just in hindsight.

 

[brewers]

Finally someone not wetting themselves , good post lex

 

[UnitedSofa]

Nah, don't fall for that shite. The 4 wins were Luton H, Fulham A, Brentford H, Sheff United A, all torturous one goal victories against poor opposition, with 3 of the goals coming in injury time.

Yes, the positives are despite how poor we're playing and our injuries we're still capable of ekeing out results against the "bottom third" teams in the league. It's something to cling on to at least.

But I don't think any United fan seriously believes our current form would be enough to beat the top half teams. Forget even City, Liverpool, Arsenal, would we be confident of beating Villa, Newcastle, Brighton if we were to play them next week?

Funny thing is, if we’d had spanked them 4/5-0 you’d have given similar excuses.

We’re the most in form team and 3 points is 3 points. They all count at the end of the season.

It bodes well in building momentum and confidence within the team. Which in turn you’d hope improves the mood & then help to produce better results.

This forum loves to shit on itself constantly. Complain when we lose but then complain when we win. Sure it’s not a convincing win but a win’s a win.

 

[ayushreddevil9]

 

[Oscar Bonavena]

Prior to yesterday we had played 4 games against teams above us in the league (Arsenal, City, Spurs, Brighton) (we've subsequently leapfrogged Brighton after yesterday's win)

We lost all 4 by a combined scoreline of 2-11.

I think that's a more accurate reflection of where the team is currently at than scraping wins against relegation candidates.

Maybe I'm wrong and the evidence of our eyes is deceiving us, but the next 7 games won't lie, we'll know where we stand after that.

 

[tenpoless]

Top of the form league. Get in!

 

[Adisa]

Positive thing is we haven’t been cut adrift of the top four race.

 

[fallengt]

Treble is at hand, everyone can sense it. We're pushing pressure on other teams
Pep's knees are already feeling the weight.

 

[UnitedSofa]

Prior to yesterday we had played 4 games against teams above us in the league (Arsenal, City, Spurs, Brighton) (we've subsequently leapfrogged Brighton after yesterday's win)

We lost all 4 by a combined scoreline of 2-11.

I think that's a more accurate reflection of where the team is currently at than scraping wins against relegation candidates.

Maybe I'm wrong and the evidence of our eyes is deceiving us, but the next 7 games won't lie, we'll know where we stand after that.

Top of the form league. Get in!

Treble is at hand, everyone can sense it. We're pushing pressure on other teams
Pep's knees are already feeling the weight.

This forum is in a perpetual state of negativity. I swear.

For one we should have beaten Arsenal if VAR had done it's job. It feels like if we aren't beating teams by steamrolling them we're shite. Yes it's 'just' 1-0 wins and scrappy ones at that. But like I said previously a win is a win.

We've had injuries in double digits for most of the season and we're still doing relatively well all things considered. Yet, when other teams have 1 or 2 injuries (Spurs/Newcastle) it's a disaster and United are expected to play people off the park when we haven't had a steady back 4 all season.

I really don't understand the complaining that we're shite every single game. You know we're shite. You know we haven't had a consistent team/back 4 for a while and yet you expect different with each passing game. However when we're on a roll and doing quite well, you'd all say "Yeah but we're still shite because we got steamrolled by the better teams!" Key word there being 'better'. Winning leagues and getting top 4 positions are all about beating the majority of the league and what's in front of you. So what if we can't beat the top 3-4 teams if we finish within the top 4. (yes that's possible top 4 positions isn't determined by beating the top 4 teams, there's 15 other teams to get points off of.)

It's like you go into each game expecting them to become amazing overnight, despite going into it, fully expecting or knowing how the team is going to play.

 

[Oscar Bonavena]

This forum is in a perpetual state of negativity. I swear.

For one we should have beaten Arsenal if VAR had done it's job. It feels like if we aren't beating teams by steamrolling them we're shite. Yes it's 'just' 1-0 wins and scrappy ones at that. But like I said previously a win is a win.

We've had injuries in double digits for most of the season and we're still doing relatively well all things considered. Yet, when other teams have 1 or 2 injuries (Spurs/Newcastle) it's a disaster and United are expected to play people off the park when we haven't had a steady back 4 all season.

I really don't understand the complaining that we're shite every single game. You know we're shite. You know we haven't had a consistent team/back 4 for a while and yet you expect different with each passing game. However when we're on a roll and doing quite well, you'd all say "Yeah but we're still shite because we got steamrolled by the better teams!" Key word there being 'better'. Winning leagues and getting top 4 positions are all about beating the majority of the league and what's in front of you. So what if we can't beat the top 3-4 teams if we finish within the top 4. (yes that's possible top 4 positions isn't determined by beating the top 4 teams, there's 15 other teams to get points off of.)

It's like you go into each game expecting them to become amazing overnight, despite going into it, fully expecting or knowing how the team is going to play.

No, I don't expect different. I'm fully aware we're shit. I'm just sick of it is all. And I'm losing patience with the "we're actually not that bad" brigade who seem to be satisfied with or make excuses for mediocrity.

There was a banner in OT with the images of Keane, Robson and Cantona emblazoned with the word "standards".

I judge each and all United players and teams by the words on that banner.

 

[TheReligion]

It's what happens when unfunny people are given a bit of authority over those they cannot hope to realistically beat in a fair argument/discussion.

Then again, it could be worse. Could be yours.

I think @moses is rather funny myself

 

[Rightnr]

I think @moses is rather funny myself

Wasn't him/her though.

 

[AndySmith1990]

As usual when we have a bad season, we'll do enough to narrowly beat the shit teams and we'll get our arses handed to us by the better teams. We'll finish around 6th in the end

 

[TheReligion]

Wasn't him/her though.

The mods are omnipresent

 

[Zed is not dead]

No, I don't expect different. I'm fully aware we're shit. I'm just sick of it is all. And I'm losing patience with the "we're actually not that bad" brigade who seem to be satisfied with or make excuses for mediocrity.

There was a banner in OT with the images of Keane, Robson and Cantona emblazoned with the word "standards".

I judge each and all United players and teams by the words on that banner.

I’m not sure some people are happy saying we’re not that bad.
But once we said « we’re shite » then what?

Everyone knows we’re shite and have been for a decade yet our worse position in the league at the end of a season was 6th.
Granted it’s not enough for United but that’s a fair reflection of where we are as a club and as a team quality wise.

We’re a top 4 team at best, Europa League team at worst.
We’ll have some good run of games, some bad runs. Scraping wins, undeserved defeats, games With nice football played, games with boring football played.
That’s what a season is. As Gattuso would say « sometimes maybe good sometimes maybe shit »

We need to keep adding quality to the squad if we want to see us dominating, even then you won’t have overnight change.

 

[Galactic]

We are not allowed to be positive in the caf.

 

[SonOfFergie]

No, I don't expect different. I'm fully aware we're shit. I'm just sick of it is all. And I'm losing patience with the "we're actually not that bad" brigade who seem to be satisfied with or make excuses for mediocrity.

There was a banner in OT with the images of Keane, Robson and Cantona emblazoned with the word "standards".

I judge each and all United players and teams by the words on that banner.

Those standards were set when we were the top dog in England, when we could buy whichever player in England we liked and most in the world. When we had financial muscle over rest of the league, a structure in place and a legendary manager at the helm who had 100% authority in the club.

Todays standards are that we now have 18 years of leeches Glazers milking the club dry. Disfunctional management of the club top to bottom. Nonexistent strategy of the way club should be run. Scouting and transfers that are unmitigated disaster and because of that a playing squad missing in so many areas and to top it of we had lots of managers that didn't have much say and were a yes men to the management (Moyes, Ole, Ralf). So those are our standards now. A long cry from times gone by. And until we get an ownership and competent management structure in place we will be going nowhere.

 

[moses]

I think @moses is rather funny myself

Thanks. I only vaguely remember that tagline. But I do remember him wanting our players fined after we won. I think that top notch punditry needs to be noted.

 

[TheReligion]

Thanks. I only vaguely remember that tagline. But I do remember him wanting our players fined after we won. I think that top notch punditry needs to be noted.

From memory it was when we beat Fulham away last season. After they posted it Garnacho bagged the late winner.

Thought it was you that gave out the tag!

 

[moses]

From memory it was when we beat Fulham away last season. After they posted it Garnacho bagged the late winner.

Thought it was you that gave out the tag!

Well I'm a bollix, no prizes for guessing.

 

[Todd]

3 behind Liverpool, 5 behind Spurs and 6 behind City actually.

No, no, and no, though

 

[Jeffthered]

You are right. Chelsea wouldn’t accept being sixth. Sixth. Imagine if they were below that in the table right now? They’d refuse to accept it.

And Liverpool? Finishing outside top four? They wouldn’t accept it. Much different culture at those clubs.

I'm astonished at the level of petty commentary on here at times. It's v clear the general point I'm making. Look at the title of the thread. Chelsea have spent bucket loads and changed their manager twice since ETH has arrived. Because they aren't tolerating what's been happening. Liverpool have changed much of their team. Look at how they pull Brentford apart today.

We don't look like we are as focused, or unified, towards a single way of playing. We're happy to struggle to beat sides that are nowhere near the top of the table, and we do this consistently. All teams will drop points, no games are easy, for any Prem team. But to suggest that we're doing better than we may think is just madness.

 

[Snow]

No, no, and no, though

Don't be dumb. I'll quote you again:

We're not 6 points off the top, we're actually 6 points off from 4th, in reality. Liverpool will demolish Sheffield tomorrow so Spurs will be in 4th on 26 points, which means we're 6 points adrift once goal differential is considered. And City will easily do Chelsea so we're really 10 points adrift from the top.

Tottenham are on 26 points and we're on 21. 26-21 is 5. It's not 6. Goal difference doesn't count until 38 games are tallied.

We're 7 point's off the top now, not 10 like you claimed and even if City had beaten Chelsea it would have been 9. Not 10.

Lastly, Liverpool were playing Brentford, not Sheffield. It's astounding how incorrect you were.

 

[Rightnr]

I'm astonished at the level of petty commentary on here at times. It's v clear the general point I'm making. Look at the title of the thread. Chelsea have spent bucket loads and changed their manager twice since ETH has arrived. Because they aren't tolerating what's been happening. Liverpool have changed much of their team. Look at how they pull Brentford apart today.

We don't look like we are as focused, or unified, towards a single way of playing. We're happy to struggle to beat sides that are nowhere near the top of the table, and we do this consistently. All teams will drop points, no games are easy, for any Prem team. But to suggest that we're doing better than we may think is just madness.

You're wasting your time.

That particular Caf philosopher only gets it after someone bumps these dumb posts in a couple of weeks when we get embarrassed due to our shite play.

 

[Wumminator]

I'm astonished at the level of petty commentary on here at times. It's v clear the general point I'm making. Look at the title of the thread. Chelsea have spent bucket loads and changed their manager twice since ETH has arrived. Because they aren't tolerating what's been happening. Liverpool have changed much of their team. Look at how they pull Brentford apart today.

We don't look like we are as focused, or unified, towards a single way of playing. We're happy to struggle to beat sides that are nowhere near the top of the table, and we do this consistently. All teams will drop points, no games are easy, for any Prem team. But to suggest that we're doing better than we may think is just madness.

We are doing better than you think. You are comparing the highs of other teams with us. Just support the club and stop comparing us negatively to teams like Chelsea when we’ve been consistently better than them.

 

[Cantonagotmehere]

Never seen a fanbase play down their own wins like this before

So true. We are in a very bad spot but we have got some results. It's the internet message board act like a tabloid mentality.

 

[Cantonagotmehere]

This forum is in a perpetual state of negativity. I swear.

For one we should have beaten Arsenal if VAR had done it's job. It feels like if we aren't beating teams by steamrolling them we're shite. Yes it's 'just' 1-0 wins and scrappy ones at that. But like I said previously a win is a win.

We've had injuries in double digits for most of the season and we're still doing relatively well all things considered. Yet, when other teams have 1 or 2 injuries (Spurs/Newcastle) it's a disaster and United are expected to play people off the park when we haven't had a steady back 4 all season.

I really don't understand the complaining that we're shite every single game. You know we're shite. You know we haven't had a consistent team/back 4 for a while and yet you expect different with each passing game. However when we're on a roll and doing quite well, you'd all say "Yeah but we're still shite because we got steamrolled by the better teams!" Key word there being 'better'. Winning leagues and getting top 4 positions are all about beating the majority of the league and what's in front of you. So what if we can't beat the top 3-4 teams if we finish within the top 4. (yes that's possible top 4 positions isn't determined by beating the top 4 teams, there's 15 other teams to get points off of.)

It's like you go into each game expecting them to become amazing overnight, despite going into it, fully expecting or knowing how the team is going to play.

Preach.

 

[Maroon Lucifer]

This forum is in a perpetual state of negativity. I swear.

For one we should have beaten Arsenal if VAR had done it's job. It feels like if we aren't beating teams by steamrolling them we're shite. Yes it's 'just' 1-0 wins and scrappy ones at that. But like I said previously a win is a win.

We've had injuries in double digits for most of the season and we're still doing relatively well all things considered. Yet, when other teams have 1 or 2 injuries (Spurs/Newcastle) it's a disaster and United are expected to play people off the park when we haven't had a steady back 4 all season.

I really don't understand the complaining that we're shite every single game. You know we're shite. You know we haven't had a consistent team/back 4 for a while and yet you expect different with each passing game. However when we're on a roll and doing quite well, you'd all say "Yeah but we're still shite because we got steamrolled by the better teams!" Key word there being 'better'. Winning leagues and getting top 4 positions are all about beating the majority of the league and what's in front of you. So what if we can't beat the top 3-4 teams if we finish within the top 4. (yes that's possible top 4 positions isn't determined by beating the top 4 teams, there's 15 other teams to get points off of.)

It's like you go into each game expecting them to become amazing overnight, despite going into it, fully expecting or knowing how the team is going to play.

Thank you!!!

 

[mu4c_20le]

Never seen a fanbase play down their own wins like this before

Hard to picture madrid fans celebrating hard fought wins over Luton and Fulham but maybe just be

 

[Ekeke]

I mean its classic supporter bias to only look at the last 5. As soon as you look at the last 6 games, or the last 4 and less then we arent the most in form premier league team. Still among them though so the points arent bad at all. Unfortunately despite being the "in form team" for 5 matches we're still only 6th

The obvious problem here is you have to pick out and put to the side a 1-0 champions league win over Cophenhagen, a 3-0 loss to Newcastle in the cup and a 4-3 loss to Copenhagen in the return match. So its a bit silly to frame it with only the positives and ignore all of the obvious negatives that give some context. Its a chore to watch but we're picking up points in the premier league. Luck might change

 

[KikiDaKats]

I mean its classic supporter bias to only look at the last 5. As soon as you look at the last 6 games, or the last 4 and less then we arent the most in form premier league team. Still among them though so the points arent bad at all. Unfortunately despite being the "in form team" for 5 matches we're still only 6th

The obvious problem here is you have to pick out and put to the side a 1-0 champions league win over Cophenhagen, a 3-0 loss to Newcastle in the cup and a 4-3 loss to Copenhagen in the return match. So its a bit silly to frame it with only the positives and ignore all of the obvious negatives that give some context. Its a chore to watch but we're picking up points in the premier league. Luck might change

Those negatives are all good for us, better now than the tail end of the season.

 

[Winrar]

This forum is in a perpetual state of negativity. I swear.

For one we should have beaten Arsenal if VAR had done it's job. It feels like if we aren't beating teams by steamrolling them we're shite. Yes it's 'just' 1-0 wins and scrappy ones at that. But like I said previously a win is a win.

We've had injuries in double digits for most of the season and we're still doing relatively well all things considered. Yet, when other teams have 1 or 2 injuries (Spurs/Newcastle) it's a disaster and United are expected to play people off the park when we haven't had a steady back 4 all season.

I really don't understand the complaining that we're shite every single game. You know we're shite. You know we haven't had a consistent team/back 4 for a while and yet you expect different with each passing game. However when we're on a roll and doing quite well, you'd all say "Yeah but we're still shite because we got steamrolled by the better teams!" Key word there being 'better'. Winning leagues and getting top 4 positions are all about beating the majority of the league and what's in front of you. So what if we can't beat the top 3-4 teams if we finish within the top 4. (yes that's possible top 4 positions isn't determined by beating the top 4 teams, there's 15 other teams to get points off of.)

It's like you go into each game expecting them to become amazing overnight, despite going into it, fully expecting or knowing how the team is going to play.

What use is getting Top4 when we just whimper and crash out of the group stage, just like how it'll most likely happen this season?

Results are one thing, we don't have to dominate every match we play, but we've labored through every single match this season with no sense of progression from what we built on from last season. Hard not to be pessimistic at this point.

Now we have large parts of the fanbase just content with making Top4 and "only" being 5 or so points behind City, Liverpool, Spurs, etc with 12 games played. The standards have been lowered, so don't be complaining if/when City and Liverpool overtake us in trophy count.

 

[always_hoping]

Positive thing is we haven’t been cut adrift of the top four race.

Yes it's a positive thing, 12 games into this season United have 21 points just two points off their their total after 12 games last season


As the saying goes there is no easy games in the Premier league and that's more true than ever when you have a current United team deprived of confidence with a 2nd choice back 4 and no natural CDM, bedding in a new keeper and young striker so one should not be expecting to cruise through any Premier league game.

In 2021 Livepool with a similar set of defensive injuries ended up losing at home to Burnley,Brighton,Everton,Fulham without scoring themselves.

 

[gajender]

Positive thing is we haven’t been cut adrift of the top four race.

Nobody half decent gets cut adrift of top four race unless they completely implode , any decent run over 6-8 games would put you right back in it at any stage of the season we have seen that time and time again .

 

[mu4c_20le]

In 2021 Livepool with a similar set of defensive injuries ended up losing at home to Burnley,Brighton,Everton,Fulham without scoring themselves.

I remember the talk at the time was that their squad was burned out after winning the CL, then back to back title challenges with city to the last day. Injuries affect everyone, but not as dramatic as that, or completely destroying our game plan.

 

[Spaghetti]

I don't think it's very useful to talk about "form" and only include one competition.

Since the international break, United's form is 4W3L.

In the two L in the Champions League, we were actually playing really well until the red cards.

In some of the league games, we missed loads of chances; if one or two more had bobbled in, the attitude would be different.

 

[The Siege]

This is one of those statistics that got made because the media needed to put United on a pedestal before they can throw us off it again.
We're in rubbish form, beating bottom 5 sides with last gasp goals and hanging on for dear life. I'm glad for those results, don't get me wrong, it's great to be grinding out the points when things are rough, but this is no time for the team to pat itself on the back.

 

[mu4c_20le]

This is one of those statistics that got made because the media needed to put United on a pedestal before they can throw us off it again.
We're in rubbish form, beating bottom 5 sides with last gasp goals and hanging on for dear life. I'm glad for those results, don't get me wrong, it's great to be grinding out the points when things are rough, but this is no time for the team to pat itself on the back.

This guy gets it