We're a dark horse in next season's EL

[Bubz27]

I've never had us down as one of those teams who can't be great and challenge for the CL. I think of Liverpool 05 and Chelsea under Di Matteo. Both fairly shite but had the ability to go on a good cup run. With us, I've always felt we need to be really good to have a good cup run. Every year we've got to a CL final in my lifetime, we've been champions of England. The 4 Liverpool have been to, they've only been close to the top in England once.

That's one reason I don't feel like we could. I don't feel we've got the steeliness required to go to the Bernebeu or Allianz and keep a clean sheet or get a positive result.

Another reason is Martial and Rashford (for now). I think they're brilliant and to my family I've said for a few years we need to act like them 2 are young Rooney and Ronaldo. They won't hit their heights, obviously. But when they were young, Chelsea were the top team. They won that League Cup and got the feeling of winning under their belts. I think both went about 3 years without a CL goal as well. Rooney scored on his debut and then had a drought, from memory.

Then there was the winker season. We played Roma. Ronaldo got 2. If I recall, those were his first goals in CL proper for us. Then we went on to win it the following year. Those 2 seasons when we won something and they started scoring in Europe, we went from strength to strength. It also helped that as Chelsea's great team peaked and aged and went down, ours was timed to Peake perfectly. (That's what we have to do with these Liverpool and City teams in my opinion.)

Obviously Rashford and Martial have scored in CL. But they haven't played that much CL football, that many big CL KO games. Things like that come with experience, regular CL campaigns.

 

[thesheriffjw]

Short answer. No

proving it again tonight with no desire to win.

lingard, pereira, fred, mata, james. All are simply not good enough snd should be nowhere near 1st team. Theyre fighting for their careers and quite frankly, they are shite agsinst an even shyter team in lask

utd need better squad players than those listed

 

[Cabin Clown]

Going forward I think we're as good as anyone. We can't cut it with the top defensively on a consistent basis though. So the answers no.

 

[Ali Dia]

I keep changing my mind on this. If we can keep our best 11 out for all the games then yeah we can probably beat anybody on our day. We are already a good counterattacking side which should bode well for the tough away games.
There’s always a But: We will get injuries and the squad still isn’t good enough to carry the loss of form players. if we lost Bruno to injury how many people would still see us as a dark horse for the CL. Look what happens when shaw or Rashford get injured. We are paper thin on quality.

 

[drdoityourself]

We'd go bankrupt. Think of on how many transfers Ed has put in extra millions if we win the CL.

On a more serious note, why not? We've been getting results against the best teams under Ole, the starting eleven has improved tremendously over the last few months, and United seem to be one of the few big clubs that sees absolutely no shame in parking the bus if a result is needed, which could be vital in an European away game.

 

[Stookie]

Nah, nowhere near.

 

[ReddBalls]

Short answer. No

proving it again tonight with no desire to win.

Yet still won, even though we already were through and the ones playing the game had played maybe 300 mins between them since march.

 

[thegregster]

We could be playing Sevilla and Inter in the next few weeks.

These are the sort of teams you would have to be beating to be considered a dark horse. Lets see how we do against them.

 

[Samid]

Let’s do this!

 

[Paxi]

First time seeing this thread. Obligatory

 

[Remember the geese]

The darkest of horses after that group! Exciting though and I believe we can compete with any of them.

 

[cyberman]

To win it we need Bruno and a striker to catch form, creating and scoring when we dont deserve to

 

[elmo]

Caf jinx strikes again

 

[Siorac]

We're a horse so dark that we should probably steer clear of American police.

 

[Paul_Scholes18]

We look like a horse set for third place in that group! Let's see if Ole can make progress and take us from third to second!

 

[pascell]

We need to massively shore up the defence if we're to make it out of the group.

 

[El Zoido]

Why do we constantly have these stupid threads that are quite clearly going to look ridiculous months down the line.

 

[thepolice123]

Surely you meant the EL because we are getting knocked out.

 

[Zen86]

We’re a dark horse in that we’re clearly not one of the favourites

 

[Forevergiggs1]

Some people think we can win it this season but for me absolutely no chance. If we're supposedly going to struggle to get top 4 how are we supposed to beat teams like Bayern, Liverpool, Madrid, Juve, etc etc.

To be honest id be happy to get out of the group stage. Depending on how we play that for me would show real progress.

 

[murali_red]

Caf jinx strikes again

Let's hope it's not all dark after group stage

 

[Ali Dia]

With the right signings and momentum going into the season we had an outside chance. I don’t really see it anymore to be honest

 

[NJM78]

We won't even come close.

 

[Josh 76]

Some people think we can win it this season but for me absolutely no chance. If we're supposedly going to struggle to get top 4 how are we supposed to beat teams like Bayern, Liverpool, Madrid, Juve, etc etc.

To be honest id be happy to get out of the group stage. Depending on how we play that for me would show real progress.

Liverpool 2005.

This is a cup competition .
Focus on getting out of the group then it's a new completion in Feb. Anything can happen.

 

[Infra-red]

Nobody would see us coming, that's for sure - must be 10 sides stronger than us in the competition.

 

[AJ Bullet]

Yeah it would be nice to fluke a CL ala Liverpool in 05 or Chelsea when they scammed it. Judging by the group draw the luck isnt with us in it just yet though.

 

[Giggsy13]

We’ve had some great sides fail to deliver in Europe, so I highly doubt this group is capable of pulling off a surprise. We’re lucky if we get out of our group!

 

[ShinjiNinja26]

Dark horses to get through the group stage maybe.

 

[AJ Bullet]

We’ve had some great sides fail to deliver in Europe, so I highly doubt this group is capable of pulling off a surprise. We’re lucky if we get out of our group!

The 2002 side with Van Nistelrooy and Veron really should have got past Leverkusen into the final at least at Hamden. Still angry at that one.

 

[Moiraine]

Wow that thread. Let me find Samid in Oslo somewhere...

 

[peridigm]

If PSG and Lipzig take equal points off each other we could sneak it.

 

[ayushreddevil9]

If PSG and Lipzig take equal points off each other we could sneak it.

Ideally we would want PSG to kick the shit out of RB.

 

[Giggsy13]

The 2002 side with Van Nistelrooy and Veron really should have got past Leverkusen into the final at least at Hamden. Still angry at that one.

Sadly there are quite a few moments including that one. Even 2010, in the clear against Bayern then a Rafael red and that Robben goal. I’m confident we would’ve beat Lyon and ultimately Inter in the final that year. Sir Alex owned Jose by that point.

 

[ClaytonBlackmoorLeftPeg]

Bring it on. This is why we wanted to be back in the CL. Big games, big nights. I’m excited.

 

[El Zoido]

Ideally we would want PSG to kick the shit out of RB.

They won’t.

 

[Suedesi]

Why do we constantly have these stupid threads that are quite clearly going to look ridiculous months down the line.

Because a large chunk of our support is delusional or bored - or both

 

[sunama]

Absolutely no chance. No CL win so soon. Have you seen how good Bayern, Juve, Real, etc are?

Bayern just signed Leroy Sané and they still have Coutinho. Powerhouse signings.

This is not Football Manager.

Agreed.
But you need to remember that a lot of people on this forum don't follow foreign leagues and don't realise just how good foreign clubs are.
The first good club we come up against - we'll get knocked out.
The win against PSG, 2 seasons ago really was astonishing, but we can't rely on astonishing results to take us to a CL final.
I would say that we are at least 3 years away from competing for the EPL and CL.

The other problem is that we struggle to score goals from open play and rely heavily on penalties, but that's a discussion for another day.

 

[Infordin]

Manchester United, like Barcelona, is a club who can only do well in the UCL if they have an amazing team.

We can’t finish 5th in the league and win the CL. That’s something Real Madrid or Liverpool would do.

 

[WR10]

Greenwood will win the Ballon Dor

 

[Darlington Padgett]

Manchester United, like Barcelona, is a club who can only do well in the UCL if they have an amazing team.

We can’t finish 5th in the league and win the CL. That’s something Real Madrid or Liverpool would do.

Football Heritage?