I would be very happy.
What happens if we finish third and win the FA cup?
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Are we gonna make a thread for every possibility? There's nothing Van Gaal can do in a month to fix 2 years and £250m. Fair enough if he hadn't scraped it and we actually looked alright.
I'd be happy for him to stay in that circumstance. We had an absolutely terrible spell this year and a big part of that was injuries, another reason is our playing inconsistent younger players and rooney completely off form up until the turn of the year as well as the fact we are in massive transition again due to bulk buying and selling. I remember when we were top in September and it was looking like it being us vs city for top and everyone was raving about how well set up we were, we still have that squad, if we added griezemann, sanches and mahrez I think we would look great. I know that's obviously a huge ask and probably 200 million right there but i'd be on board.
If FA Cup and third, I'd be less annoyed if we kept LVG. We'd have had a better season than everyone else bar Leicester (probably) by that account.
Only idiots who couldn't see that we were actually pants were saying we were well setup. Mainly pushing that 'fantastic defence' crap. Let someone else spend £200m.
This3rd
We'll be in the champions league and have won the fa cup for the first time since 2004. All the rest is hypothesising, it is possible that lvg both will or won't be here
This 200M is thrown about very easily, Di Maria and Martial account for more than half of that spending and Di Maria clearly did not work out and while we took a 15M loss, we recouped about 45M of it. Otherwise his biggest expenditure came with Herrera, Memphis and Shaw.
Sorry to disagree. The performance was not justified for him to stay. There are excuses for results, bad form, but there is no excuse for bad management that seeing us score so few goals and create so few chances in most games. It's hard to trust LVG with the new signings since the signings we made under his reign were well without hindsight. However, only Blind and Martial are the only 2 can be seen as good signing. The rest are not up to expectation. Not talking about the money spend, but the sheer numbers of not working/underperforming signings should ring the alarm on the management. New signings need time to settle, that's normal. However, for majority of them to fail at the same time to settle/up to the job, someone has to take responsibility.
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We still have the most clean sheets in the prem don't we? our defence is good.
No worries, I figured it wouldn't be a popular opinion. The squad is in such a state of flux in my opinion that its just very difficult for new players to settle. When during the season Juan Mata actually plays as the captain its just clear that we are in huge transition and don't have enough players who have been with the club for long enough to take on responsibility, as the players bed in this should happen more and more though. For instance this season Blind has become a more important player and one of our most vocal in the same way this could happen with players like Schneiderlin, Lingard and others who've been blooded this season next year. on paper at least a starting 11 of De Gea, Shaw, Blind, Smalling, Darmian, schneidi, schweini/Herrera, mata/rooney, Martial and two new comers like greizemann and mahrez would be a terrific team and that's what I mean, I think we are a few maybe not all too realistic signings away from having a very good starting 11 and decent squad overall. My qualifier is us getting third or even fourth and FA cup though. I think success like that would do a huge amount for our junior players and improve them significantly.
I don't think we're really good in defense. We made good stat due to the risk averse style the bores everyone involved. However, looking at the goals, chances we commits, our defense is very shaky. For example, we could have lost the game vs Everton on a different day when Lukaka could convert the chance. De Gea and luck played big part in preventing us to concede more.
I am in no way anti LVG. If he's a little younger and can offer a little longer term, then I can see us sticking to his philosophy. However, 3 year time and progress shows that we haven't improved much and still too far to his ideal finished product. It's reasonable that another year wouldn't be enough. It's too risky with LVG's retirement and us left with an unfinished rebuild. Finding a manager who can continue from where LVG left is very hard, we don't want to restart again. Giggs camp sounds like they want to go back to United way, not many has similar philosophy as LVG. Acquiring capable coach is difficult too.
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I actually think the risk averse style is understandable though, because you wouldn't want your cms or defence being risky otherwise you get the backlash we see on here when players like barkley or stones do something daft, it leads to soft goals, so in reality you only want your front four to have a free licence to try things, this is the same for most teams. Our front 4 aren't up to scratch and that's the problem, which is why I am suggesting a couple of players such as a RW and CF would improve us tremendously. Our front players clearly can do what they like, when you see Martial or Depay running his man all game long or rashford pulling out his tricks you know theyre not being told to play it easy, I think Mata on the other side is naturally quite risk averse which makes it seem worse than it is.
@Brightonian what a load of crap.
It's mourinho that needs to fix the mess caused by moyes and lvg, not the other way around.
It's mourinho that needs to fix the mess caused by moyes and lvg, not the other way around.
I'm not really sure what your point is? We still spent it and I'd still rather have someone else spend it again.
Doesn't matter. Watching the games you can tell our defence is not. The goals we were conceding when everyone was championing that sheeple theory were embarrassing. They'd just counter and rip us apart while we struggled all game to get into their last third.
Unless you are paying transfer fees out of your pocket, just ignore the numbers and deal with it. The club makes for too much money to deny a new manager a transfer budget because the previous one spent more.
I have no idea what drift you've got but it ain't mine. I'm saying I want a new manager.
That said, ignoring transfer fees doesn't fly with me. The tree isn't unlimited.
A sheeple theory is mainly when a narrative pops up from someone like Danny Murphy on MOTD then you hear people spouting it everywhere when its got no basis, something like Ighalo is a great finisher. United having a good defence is backed up by stats and watching us not concede all of the time.
The theory was made up on the back of us not conceding that many goals. Doesn't mean our defence was actually good. We played terribly boring possession football. We weren't even that good at that, but it stopped us conceding loads.
Yeah it was made up on the back of us not conceding many goals, that's pretty much the main criteria for judging a defence.
You seem agitated.
Yeah, if you're simple as feck.
You not grasping what is happening has extended to this.
On the surface it would make it appear like we've had an impressive season and ultimately I would have taken third and a cup at the beginning of the season. However, with the football we've served up this season and the inconsistency amongst the top sides we really would have fluked it to be truthful. Add on to that Van Gaal's popularity among the fans and I think his position at the club behind this season really is untenable. If he stays there really will be a fan revolt.
Over to the signs you've been dragged into an argument on the internet thread I go.
No argument here. I'm always right.
Fair.
It will be great as it was exactly my expectation from the beginning of the season 3rd + FA Cup or 2nd. I don't know why some people were thinking from the start of season that we have players that can lead us to win the league.
The board will be very happy with that. They can see it as a progress to go forward. From 7th to 4th to 3rd + FA Cup.
He will stay but the board might need to think again about budget since most of LVG signing has been awful.
But seriously, 3rd is pretty much almost unrealistic if we are looking at their fixtures. Most likely 4th place will be based on two things if we can win every games and Arsenal vs City game.
Yet Leicester can go from escaping relegation to winning the league but not us after spending £250m?
What Leicester achieved this season is called miracle. Leicester's realistic expectation was never be winning the league or getting a top 4. The only way for our current players this season in order to win the league is that we need a miracle. If fans think it is realistic to win the league with our current players from the start of season therefore it's called deluded.
No way would it be a miracle. The standard of the league is terrible and we have more than enough to challenge for the league. LVG has had a honker and stumbled on a system.
I wake up and realise I was only dreaming.
FA Cup and third place? I'll take it!
The season would still be a disappointment. We should have been in the mix for the league trophy, we should have at least made it to the second knockout round of the CL and we should have gone a bit further in the league cup. And the quality of our play, in both victory and defeat, should have been significantly better than what it has been.
The season would still be a disappointment. We should have been in the mix for the league trophy, we should have at least made it to the second knockout round of the CL and we should have gone a bit further in the league cup. And the quality of our play, in both victory and defeat, should have been significantly better than what it has been.
A possible domestic cup win should not save Van Gaal. It didn't work for Pellegrini for instance, who actually won the league a couple of years ago.
Pellegrini was already gone by the time he won the League Cup (considered a lesser trophy anyway) and won nothing last season.
Well, we haven't won a trophy this season and we also didn't win anything last season.
Are you a Bournemouth supporter or MUFC.
If Bournemouth, I can understand that you feel you had an impressive season. Many would've put you down as a relegation candidate.
If you are a MUFC fan: in what way do you think we have had an impressive season? And where is the white text?
You actually think we could realistically challenge the league with Fellaini, Schneiderlin, Lingard, Memphis, Darmian, Rojo and etc? This squad is the worst squad we ever had in these last 20 years. The standard of the league isn't terrible as any team in the league now are capable to win the games. It is now even more competitive. And we need much better players especially in term of consistency.
How can a team with teenager as their main striker is realistic to win the league without a miracle? There are more strikers in the league who are currently better than Rashford. It's true the manager's system is wrong but the manager's man management is poor as he thought it will be more than enough to start the season with only two forwards Martial and Rooney.
Well you're not understanding the theoretical angle of this thread and there was no expectation to win anything last season. City as reigning Champions were expected to win more.
Yes there was.
We had Falcao. Di Maria. RVP. Rooney. Carrick. Blind. DDG. Smalling.
With those players (immediately after the transfer window), many of us, me included, felt that we'd have a shot at the title.
I remember when our team played at MCFC's home ground, we fielded the most expensive team in EPL history and narrowly lost that game because we went down to 10 men.
Even LVG, in the new year, stated that we have a genuine shot at the title.
I realise that LVG has lowered standards, but expectations were ridiculously high after a great Summer transfer window and LVG (big name manager) installed at the helm.