Mourinho losing to Wenger in an absolute crunch game? Yeah, that'll happen
Top 4 race 2016/17
- Thread starter Yorkeontop
- Start date
But it won't happen. This is like when people say we're fecked if we lose one of Costa, Hazard, Kante or Luiz. Until it happens, that's just fantasy.
Spot on my old friend! I sense a bit of optimism in your post.
Except Kante we are fine if missing one of the others. In fact we used to miss both Kante and Costa in one match due to suspension, Hazard in another match due to injury and then Costa again when we played Leicester at their home this season. We won all those games without conceding a goal.
hi there mate... yeah, I am optimistic. Think we have enough quality to win Europa and get to top 4. Not sure about FA Cup (that Chelsea draw was the worst we could get!). The problem is fatigue. We look jaded and that could hit as when the fixtures pile up.
On what planet do we have a small squad? We're the team with the biggest squad depth in this league with some prominent players from previous years barely getting play time.
The likes of Martial and Miki have hardly played this season and are still very fresh compared to the rest.
Arsenal and Wenger, I can't remember the last time they did one on Mourinho and Spurs beating us happens more in fairy tales than in reality.
The toughest away game would be City and we have Chelsea at home. Not to mention we're extremely hard to beat in the league hence the long unbeaten streak.
Also our record against the top side his season happen to look mediocre because most of them happen at the beginning of the season when we were quite a shamble who couldn't string results.
Fixture congestion will be a problem though.
Martial has hardly featured this season and been in and out. Miki had been out for a good 3-4 months, came into the first team then a bit in and out due to injuries.
We're stacked in attacking department. Mata has been in form this season which means even with Miki out we could still field a strong front 3 in Ibra, Martial and Juan. When Martial is out which he's mostly been this season we're still potent in attack.
Pogba has proven himself a physical beast and doesn't get injured, same as Herrera. We also have Carrick in midfield.
In defense apart from left back the other sideside are filled with good defenders and we have numbers. Jones, Bailly, Smalling and Ross, that's 4 CB who happen to be fit as we speak then Valancia and Young at RB with Antonio another beast who doesn't get injured.
City don't have the same depth as us. They're good in attack but going down there isn't much to write home about depth wise. Heck their first choice defense is shambolic and their best midfielder is an oldie Toure.
Fernando is Fernando, a hard man I guess. Ikay is predictably in an hospital room.
Are you kidding? None of those players are indispensable. We won't suffer if any one of them gets injured except for Zlatan. We have good depth in our squad in all other positions. Martial hasn't even been in the team for a lot of our recent games. Mhkitaryan didn't play at the start of the season. If we lose one of Herrera and Pogba, we have Carrick who can fill in. There is no heavy reliance on anyone except for Zlatan. Yes it will be shitty if we lose Zlatan for a few games but we are fortunate cos he hardly ever gets injured.
If Chelsea lose Hazard, Costa or Kante on the other hand, it is very possible that the wheels will come off. Not sure who the replacements would be for them.
In fact who would replace Moses and Alonso if they get injured or suspended? They don't seem to have anyone challenging them for starting places?
Really?
Last 4 1/2 PL seasons
Played: 9
Utd wins: 3
Spurs wins: 3
Draws: 3
Both scored: 11
I would say that in recent times it has been fairly even and that would be because for the first time in a long time the sides are at similar levels.
Tottenham will bottle it? they finished above us last season and have done 2 of the last 4 seasons. They have also been on form similar to ours. Why would they bottle it?
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they'd just juggle the team around and put in Willian and Fabregas, probably move Pedro up top or stick in Batshuayi, they would be fine and the chances of Hazard, Costa or Kante all being injured at the same time with 12 games to go is so small I've no idea why the heck I'm posting this.
Conte doesn't rate Batshuayi. He signed him for 33 million but then only subs him on for 1-2 minutes at the end of each game. He doesn't even get to start cup games, and when Costa was dropped, they played with zero strikers upfront instead of starting him. There is no way they would stick him upfront. They would play with Pedro, Hazard and Willian upfront instead. None of them are actual traditional strikers. They're fortunate that the only times they've had to do that was against inferior opposition. I'd like to see how that would work out against a top team. I think they would struggle playing 3 wingers upfront against tougher opposition.
Yeah, although losing Kante would worry me heading into the run in. On paper Fab and Matic should be more than capable of carrying us through, but dark memories of last year would start to set into my poor traumatized brain..
Any of the attacking guys though and we'd be fine. We have great attacking depth.
Martial hasn't been in the team because he hasn't been good this season. His replacements have been wank as well. Mkhitaryan didn't play at the start and we were crap if you recall? Carrick seems on his last legs and needs to be rotated. If Herrera or Pogba are out, Maruane comes in. Lingard ain't all that either. Our squad is inflated with mediocre players
He's started 5 cup games, and had 16 league appearances this year (I was actually surprised it was that high when I checked). He certainly doesn't seem to have Conte's trust yet, but I wouldn't write him off just yet. If he was totally out of the managers plans I'd have expected him to leave on loan in January, it wouldn't have been hard to find a club.
He played 93 mins in PL.
6 times he played just 1 min in the game.
5 times he played 6 mins or less in the game. (2 3mins, 2 5mins, 1 6 mins)
He barley played in the league.
Well if that happens it isn't because we have a small squad. The options are there to replace those players should they get injured, and actually Martial didn't feature in quite a few of our games and we coped, despite the drop in quality. I would suggest olayers like Mata and Rashford are as good as any of the top teams' cover in attack and defensively we're very well stocked.
We might struggle a bit with fatigue because Mourinho is a bit reluctant to rotate but historically, he always keeps a small squad and this United one is bigger in numbers than most of his other sides. If he considered that a problem I'm sure he wouldn't have sold Schneiderlin or Memphis in January.
I still wouldn't wheat him off too quickly.
I was just giving some context to "he made 16 appearances in PL" post.
Yeah it's way too quick to write off a player. He never got a chance.
What's wheating someone off? Does it involve a baguette?
We've been unbeaten since October. Their form has been nothing like ours
roonster09 said:
After the last time you lost in the league, there were five points separating us.
Now, 4 months and 16 (in your case) and 17 (in our case) games later .... Five points separate us. You have a game in hand at the Etihad I believe?
I'm not saying that we'll finish above you but even assuming you beat Man City away, gaining 37 points over 17 games as opposed to 34 points over the same period is hardly form that is worlds apart is it?
Don't think anyone here is saying he's crap or 'wheating him off'. Just pointing out that for whatever reason, conte hasn't been too eager to use him. He got on for one minute even in the match Costa was dropped for didn't he?
Ah ryet, I looked agrain and noaticed it this time.
Im taking everything into account though, every competition.
Even then the unbeaten run is just a stat, it shows how difficult it is to beat us. Our actual good form (imo) starts from when we beat you. Everton away was the lowest point of our season, people were ready to lynch Fellaini and disgard defensive Jose back to 2008 where his outdated tactics belonged!
That's fair enough but performance in the FA cup or Europa league has no real impact on league performance. Being good in one doesn't mean anything for the other competitions.
You'll get no argument from me about cups. You'll almost certainly win more cups than us this season (2 vs likely 0, perhaps 1 if we're lucky) but I just don't see how the form is nothing like each other in the league.
From last time you lost, its 34 vs 34 (with you having a very difficult game in hand).
From when you beat us, its 26 (for us) vs 24 (for you). Again, with that game in hand for you.
I'm seeing an almost identical league form there, over a period of 10 games and over a period of almost 20. That seems like form that is very much similar to yours.
We were 6 points behind you before the game at OT, not that it matters that much tbh.
I still think our points total doesn't reflect our performances in that time, too many dominating performance only to miss open goals and concede late equalisers from the oppositions only attack.
It still amazes me that it took until November for Jose to realise putting Fellaini on to defend a lead is ill advised.
Saying all this I think it'll be Arsenal and Liverpool who miss out so... Yeah. Good talk
I sure all teams from 2nd 6th can claim that, just from a City perspective
City should have won at home against 'boro (dominated but conceded last min equaliser) Everton (dominated + 2 missed pens), Chelsea (squandered numerous chances and hit bar at 1-0) Spurs (sterling pen not given at 2-1 and numerous chances squandered), Soton (awful finishing)
I guess Liverpool and Spurs have plenty of similar stories, though not sure on Arsenal who have often seemed to scramble a last min goal out of nowhere this season.
Ah sorry, I was counting the points total from after that game.We were 6 points behind you before the game at OT, not that it matters that much tbh.
I still think our points total doesn't reflect our performances in that time, too many dominating performance only to miss open goals and concede late equalisers from the oppositions only attack.
It still amazes me that it took until November for Jose to realise putting Fellaini on to defend a lead is ill advised.
Saying all this I think it'll be Arsenal and Liverpool who miss out so... Yeah. Good talk
And agreed, your performances have been good throughout the season and I always thought it was a slightly false position when you were 10 points behind 4th or however many it was. Though I think all of the teams will probably have games in which they've dropped silly points!
I also think three of the teams will be Chelsea and the two Manchesters (though that doesn;t mean I think they'll finish as 1-3). I hope we get the 4th spot, wherever that is in the league. And the FA cup. Not asking for much.
Overall though, I think you'll end the season top 4 and with 2 trophies, which isn't a bad return at all.
Liverpool and Arsenal missing out...wouldn't complain about that at all.
Strange thinking there. Matchweek 11 we were 3 points behind Spurs. Matchweek 25, we are 2 points behind Spurs. So we are nearly identical over a long stretch of matches, in terms of points collected. Unbeaten isn't the main aspect of form. Its how many points you are getting per game which determines how big a threat you are. Might you have forgotten Spurs were without Arry for 10 weeks and didn't win for 10 games or something? Their form was as bad as ours at the start and like us, they have recovered and picked up the points per game to get them back into contention.
Agreed. people are focusing too much on who is unbeaten etc. City have lost more games than us but are ahead as they have had better form over the course of the season. Chelsea have lost the same amount of matches but have had better form all season
You are not counting Everton in. They are not making it, but as they have an outside chance, they are gonna be difficult to play against.
Liverpool's next four fixtures are Arsenal (H), Burnley (H), City (A), Everton (H). Going by their season so far it wouldn't surprise me if they won the three tough games and lost to Burnley. But, they're playing a lot worse now than they were at the start of the season, so each of those games could be a defeat. I'm hoping they draw against Arsenal and City and lose the other two.
Yeah agree hopefully Pogba Zlatan and Mykytarin keep fit. Some summer from Jose.
Oops, wrong thread
Interesting, I had us as only getting 2 points from the 3 away (Arsenal/Spurs/City) games as well.
- 1 Chelsea 89
- 2 Man City 79
- 3 Liverpool 77
- 4 Man Utd 76
- 5 Tottenham 75
- 6 Arsenal 74
You're right, this is no thread for a Spurs fan.
Team P - GD - Pts
1 Chelsea 26 - 36 - 63
2 Tottenham 26 - 32 - 53
3 Man City 25 - 22 - 52
4 Arsenal 25 - 26 - 50
5 Liverpool 26 - 22 - 49
6 Man Utd 25 - 17 - 48
Arsenal beat Liverpool and they are 4 points clear of them with a game in hand.. surely would kill off Liverpool but not great for us. Hope for a draw (and a win for us).
1 Chelsea 26 - 36 - 63
2 Tottenham 26 - 32 - 53
3 Man City 25 - 22 - 52
4 Arsenal 25 - 26 - 50
5 Liverpool 26 - 22 - 49
6 Man Utd 25 - 17 - 48
Arsenal beat Liverpool and they are 4 points clear of them with a game in hand.. surely would kill off Liverpool but not great for us. Hope for a draw (and a win for us).
This season would be so much better if Chelsea weren't so darn good.
Imagine this title race if Chelsea had 10 less points.
Imagine this title race if Chelsea had 10 less points.