When do we go Europa or bust?

Nou_Camp99

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We clawed our way back into top 4 last season from an impossible position only to lose it again after we lost our early OGS momentum. So it can be done again this season. However if we do it, I fear we would lose it again like last time as keeping up that form till May is unlikely.

That leaves Europa League as our best route back into the CL. Right now I don't think we have the quality to win the thing sadly. Midfield and forward options just too light. However if we made a couple of good signings in January who weren't seen as huge gambles then who knows. We are currently second favs to win the thing behind Arsenal. Probably some English bias in those odds but there you go.

Will the club take a gamble knowing the rewards of winning it might bring or will they be patient and take the hit of another season out of the CL.
 

VP89

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Too early to think about that yet. After the winter break we will get a better idea.
 

rcoobc

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I totally forgot that

a) the Europa League gave us a chance to get into the Champions League
b) people thought we were good enough to win the Europa League
 

Paul_Scholes18

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I think we can win it if we avoid injuries and maybe add 1-2 players in January. The teams in the europa league do not look that strong right now. The teams from Spain and Italy are not as strong as they used to be I think.
 

rcoobc

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When is the break?
February is the winter break. 5 games are being played 1 week, 5 games the next, giving everyone a week off.

Although he could have also meant the Christmas period as that also gets called a winter break at times
 

buckooo1978

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I think we will need a couple of signings - there's bound to be some quality dropping into the tournament and I think this current side hasn't the same experience that is important in the latter stages of tournaments

no reason why we can't win it with a decent draw, a relatively fit squad and a signing or three
 

SER19

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It's always a stupid idea. Cup competition. A red card, a few injuries, a bad ref, anything can make it end.

This obsession with returning to CL at all costs has had at least a small part in our rash signings and lack of plan.

Id sooner another year out of it if it meant another window of good signings and a full season of incremental improvement until May. If that coincides with a good europa run, then great
 

rcoobc

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Why aren't we good enough to win it?
Anyone can win it, but I don't give us a good chance of winning 5 knockout ties (even over two legs)

You have clubs like Sevilla in it who have a better pedigree in the Europa League and are doing better in the league.

When we won it, we were a Mou team - i.e. hard to beat
 

thegregster

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By the time the knockout rounds of the Europa league hapoens we will have played 26 PL games.

So by then we should have a fair idea where we are.
 

Untd55

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Are we good enough to win the Europa League? We have scored 5 goals in 4 games in a group of very weak teams. On top of that, 3 of those goals came in one game. It is not a promising outlook.

Also, teams such as Red Bull Salzburg, Inter Milan and Valencia may be dropping into the Europa League. I think it will be very difficult to win it this season.

We will not be getting top-four. Chelsea and Leicester will beat the majority of teams. We are currently 9 points off City; do you really think we are going to catch them?
 

Wumminator

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Anyone can win it, but I don't give us a good chance of winning 5 knockout ties (even over two legs)

You have clubs like Sevilla in it who have a better pedigree in the Europa League and are doing better in the league.

When we won it, we were a Mou team - i.e. hard to beat
We're favourites for the Europa for a reason.
 

Ekeke

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I think we could potentially win it with the current team if our tournament route is favourable and Ole gets us playing somewhat close to how he had us playing last season.
 

el3mel

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With such thread thin squad, very long EL route and how the schedule tends to be more congested and fitness drops and injuries start rolling around March and April, I can't see how we are going to win this competition.

Best to achieve will be QF or SF imo.
 

rcoobc

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Wait until it gets towards time for the knockout stages and see how vastly different that is
Well either we'll have an upturn in form whist someone like Leicester drops away increasing our chances. Or we'll have a downturn and have no chance.
 

shaky

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It's always a stupid idea. Cup competition. A red card, a few injuries, a bad ref, anything can make it end.

This obsession with returning to CL at all costs has had at least a small part in our rash signings and lack of plan.

Id sooner another year out of it if it meant another window of good signings and a full season of incremental improvement until May. If that coincides with a good europa run, then great
Well said. I couldn't care less about playing in the CL until we are ready to actually contend for the trophy. Being a CL team hasn't helped us at all in recent seasons. It only ends up being a source of more disappointment and discontent when we get knocked out. "Big names won't come unless we have CL football" is always the argument I hear against this stance but I really don't mind about that. We had no CL to offer this summer, yet it turned out to be one of our better transfer windows in recent memory, despite (or maybe because of) the lack of superstar names. Yearly improvement is the only target I care about. The rest will take care of itself in time.
 

VP89

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When is the break?
February is the winter break. 5 games are being played 1 week, 5 games the next, giving everyone a week off.

Although he could have also meant the Christmas period as that also gets called a winter break at times
I meant just post Christmas. We may well be in the running of top 4 in Jan.
 

P-Nut

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Well either we'll have an upturn in form whist someone like Leicester drops away increasing our chances. Or we'll have a downturn and have no chance.
Exactly and then we'll be able to make a decision, we'll also know which teams are dropping in from the CL which will help assess the options.

To be honest, you can normally make the 1/4s of the Europa League without playing anyone too great.
 

rcoobc

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Exactly and then we'll be able to make a decision, we'll also know which teams are dropping in from the CL which will help assess the options.

To be honest, you can normally make the 1/4s of the Europa League without playing anyone too great.
Yeah, but even if you reach the semis and everyone else is strong - 2 X 50% chances is 1/4. Not much better than 1/5. (When odds say 6/1, that's actually a 1/5 chance.).

Cup competitions are hard.
 

P-Nut

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Yeah, but even if you reach the semis and everyone else is strong - 2 X 50% chances is 1/4. Not much better than 1/5. (When odds say 6/1, that's actually a 1/5 chance.).

Cup competitions are hard.
Yeah I know it's tough, but wining 2 50/50 games may well be our best shot at the CL.
 

SER19

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Well said. I couldn't care less about playing in the CL until we are ready to actually contend for the trophy. Being a CL team hasn't helped us at all in recent seasons. It only ends up being a source of more disappointment and discontent when we get knocked out. "Big names won't come unless we have CL football" is always the argument I hear against this stance but I really don't mind about that. We had no CL to offer this summer, yet it turned out to be one of our better transfer windows in recent memory, despite (or maybe because of) the lack of superstar names. Yearly improvement is the only target I care about. The rest will take care of itself in time.
100%. The longer we fixate on instant results no matter what the more chance we have a Liverpool like drought. Contunuing sorting the balance of the squad then look at where we are
 

Red00012

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Looking at the some of the games in CL we’d be better off in EL for another season. We’d be easily beaten in the 1st round of knockouts in CL. Building a squad of players that want to play for us would be a better short term plan.
 

Sandikan

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There's no need to put all eggs in any basket. Just one game at a time and see where that takes us.

The champions league isn't the be all and end all though. There's no real evidence being out of it hinders us buying players, as we all know the "best" window we had in the last 7 years was the Ibra-Pogba-Mhky-Bailly one. Yes some of those in the end didn't work, were short term, or were underwhelming, but it was definitely judged the best at the time and beyond.

But, just qualifying for the champions league and being garbage isn't any great shakes. We need to be able to compete when we're next in it.
 

tomaldinho1

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Anyone can win it, but I don't give us a good chance of winning 5 knockout ties (even over two legs)

You have clubs like Sevilla in it who have a better pedigree in the Europa League and are doing better in the league.

When we won it, we were a Mou team - i.e. hard to beat
Plus, even playing that pragmatic way, we almost lost to bloody Celta when Guidetti missed that sitter.

We are in with a chance but would say there are better teams than us currently in the reckoning
 

RamblingRebel

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A team like Utd should be looking to win every cup competition they are in regardless of reward....especially this Utd team. Need to start breeding that winning mentality amongst the players again. How many of the current squad has actually won anything?
 

Class of 63

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A team like Utd should be looking to win every cup competition they are in regardless of reward....especially this Utd team. Need to start breeding that winning mentality amongst the players again. How many of the current squad has actually won anything?
Apart from Grant, the recent acquisitions and the latest Academy Grads, all of 'em.
 

0le

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There is still a long way to go in the race for top 4. It seems unlikely but you never know. I don't see all four teams in the top 4 maintaining their good form. Leicester and Chelsea will have bad patches for sure.
 

FootballHQ

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A team like Utd should be looking to win every cup competition they are in regardless of reward....especially this Utd team. Need to start breeding that winning mentality amongst the players again. How many of the current squad has actually won anything?
About half the squad won the europe league two and a half years ago.
 

LInkash

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People talk about wanting to get an easy draw and worrying about getting Champions League teams who have dropped down but we are better against the big teams so maybe that would be a good thing. We drew against the champions of Europe, beat Chelsea twice, Leicester and the best Europa teams aren't as good as them.
 

Sky1981

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Europa league, while isnt actually champions league isnt a given. We could rest our players and go all out at Europa and it's still far from a 50/50 chance. The later stages of europa will have the CL dropouts.

We are one of the biggest if not the biggest name in the europa league on paper. But on the field we're not that strong, we barely had a draw with astana.
 

PeteManic

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We will see in February. Bt it is the best way into the Champions League for the club. There is no excuse not to win it.
 

flappyjay

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Still a very long way to go, a lot will happen between now and April and don't forget the Christmas fixtures, Injuries and dips in form. If we can keep up the pace until January and the club are willing to reinforce the midfield and a back up cf, we could make top 4.