ETH does not have to win the Europa League this season

I really dislike such binary ways to judge our managers. Context always matters.

Di Matteo won the champions league. Should he have received a 5 year contract on the back of that?

Just like oles second place finish. I don’t care. As long as it’s clear the team is taking big steps to forming a title winning squad id stick with the manager.

If it’s evident we have reached our ceiling with the manager then we should sack regardless of 2nd place finish or what
 
I'd like us to win the Europa League - it's a great competition, and most of the teams we're facing are pretty much CL contenders year in year out.
 
Anything can happen in a cup competition so no. We probably should have won it more under Fergie but even as the best teams it's difficult.

No EL and outside top 4 would be a failure, do one of them and he's achieved expectations.
 
We might be favorites but we are still odds against winning it. Juventus are still in it and would be much higher up in Serie A if not for their points deduction and they've been far better in 2023 in general - so it'd be foolish to dismiss them. I think 6/4 is actually too short, I think 2/1 would be more accurate.
 
Nah, I'm not having that. Yeah it'll be a dissapointment but any manager can lose a one off game, we've already won a trophy and we're on course for a top four finish as well. If that's all we end up with at the season then it's good season (compared to recent ones) There's definite signs of progress and we can build on that for next year, hopefully with new ownership!
 
Well, it is Europa League, all teams are second tier for one reason or the other… and the bookies, as usual, just follow the punters, not the other way round. That’s to say such a short quote is just for mugs (and fans).
 
I really dislike such binary ways to judge our managers. Context always matters.

Di Matteo won the champions league. Should he have received a 5 year contract on the back of that?

Just like oles second place finish. I don’t care. As long as it’s clear the team is taking big steps to forming a title winning squad id stick with the manager.

If it’s evident we have reached our ceiling with the manager then we should sack regardless of 2nd place finish or what

Very much agreed.

We finished 2nd under Mourinho in 2017 and on that basis you could have argued that we were on a good trajectory. But if anyone actually watched us objectively under Mourinho in the second half of that season, it wouldn't have been hard to see we were pretty awful and going nowhere anytime soon. Of course we gave Mourinho a new contract that year...
 
If we get top 4 ( third preferably ) and win nothing else this season then it will still be regarded as a great season.

If we can win the Europa or FA Cup as well then it becomes a truly brilliant season ... win both then we might as well regard ETH as some kind of genius.
 
Win a cup and nail top 4 was pretty much the universal definition of what a successful first season under ETH would be. We're on course to achieve that.

I don't recall anybody stating "must win the Europa" at the start of this season.
 
We are favourites but cup competitions require luck. City have been CL favourites since Pep joined basically and still hasn't won despite making it far every time.
 
Might be psychological effects of years of failure.

Or just attention-seeking.
Surely the main psychological effect of that would be actually taking failure and disappointment for granted?

If we were to suddenly find ourselves in a real title race next season, I probably wouldn't know what to do and I'd be convinced we're going to lose five in a row at any time.
 
or it will be his first failure as manager for us.

The current title odds are: Man Utd 2.5, Juventus 6.5, Roma 6.5, Leverkusen 9.5, Sporting 11, Sevilla 13, Feyenoord 15, Royal Union 31

Yes betting odds aren't really directly predictive of team quality but we are clear favorites and fully healthy the best team left.

The rewards of winning this competition are also greater than anything else we can achieve this season. We would get the first seed in the Cl groups and a chance at the Supercup. If you had to pick between top four and the Europa only a fool would pick top 4. The FA cup is tricky because it has been longer since we've won it last and I'd love for us to win it but the Europa is the objectively better prize.

I think the PL nevertheless remains the basic measure of success, and I will care more about how that goes than I will about the EL. Even though I have no quarrel with your analysis of the respective benefits.
 
Cups are not must wins, luck plays a bigger role in them.

Similarly you can‘t say ‚Ten Hag must get us top four,‘ because realistically there are eight teams good enough to challenge for those spots.

Sounds like a thread title made by an Ole fanboy.
 
It's a failure every time we don't win a trophy we enter, isn't it? We set out to win every trophy, so if we do not, then we failed in our objective within that competition. It's a bit of a nothing statement to say if he doesn't win the Europa it will be a failure. I think even ETH would agree with this assessment as he has high expectations for himself and the team and a very direct way of speaking.

However it doesn't necessarily mean the manager must win a particular trophy or else he is judged to be a failure. That's where we start to look at the wider context of that season and the team's development. We have already won something, we're on track to achieve what was a realistic league expectation and the team has definitely developed significantly.
 
Since when did the Axe of Managerial Judgement hang upon the outcome of the Europa League?
 
Winning Europa league> finishing 2nd,3rd,4th (unless your in the title race till the last few games).

But ETH would be mad not to go all out to finish in the top 4. Anything can happen in a cup competition especially in a final.

Also if we make top 4 I'd rather win the FA cup which would most likely mean beating City.
 
I'd like us to win the Europa League - it's a great competition, and most of the teams we're facing are pretty much CL contenders year in year out.

Yep. Its the fact that the CL teams are in it which will be a good test.

We will be facing these teams in groups and KO of CL, so we have to show that this is the level we can compete at.
 
Also you have to consider that the teams still in there have beaten good opposition, they are all good teams. Anyone of them could give us a hard time. Sevilla is a serial cup winner.

Ten Hag just needs to do his best, which he is doing ( we have to win every game and compete for trophies), no need for this thread.
 
I don't think anyone in football "has" to win anything, but we really should be winning it.

Juventus/Sporting is a tricky but manageable semis, and Roma/Feyenoord/Leverkusen should be a beatable finalist.

Injuries and fitness permitting, I think we should be okay.
 
Easier said than done.

Get this thread in the bin!

This.
Poor ETH suffering from his own success. People keep forgetting its his first season, even Klopp and Pep struggled in their debut season. ETH out performed expectations and some dumbasses consider that the new baseline.
 
or it will be his first failure as manager for us.

The current title odds are: Man Utd 2.5, Juventus 6.5, Roma 6.5, Leverkusen 9.5, Sporting 11, Sevilla 13, Feyenoord 15, Royal Union 31

Yes betting odds aren't really directly predictive of team quality but we are clear favorites and fully healthy the best team left.

The rewards of winning this competition are also greater than anything else we can achieve this season. We would get the first seed in the Cl groups and a chance at the Supercup. If you had to pick between top four and the Europa only a fool would pick top 4. The FA cup is tricky because it has been longer since we've won it last and I'd love for us to win it but the Europa is the objectively better prize.
We're fully healthy? Rashford's health is uncertain and Garnacho is out - that's two pretty important players there. And I imagine there is some uncertainty over Martial and Eriksen, or at least their capacity to last a full 90 minutes.
 
We have no divine right to win anything. The main thing is that we attack every competition which Ten Hag does more than most.
 
OP lost me after the opening line, and I stopped reading. :rolleyes:

What a load of old rubbish. Waste of a post to be honest.

It’s bizarre the way some posters thrive on misery and can’t wait to brand the manager a failure.
 
The UEL doesn't exist in a vaccuum either. United so far has played 29 league games, 10 UEL games, 6 League Cup games (including a final that they won) and 4 FA Cup games, still being in contention for all of them so we're talking 16 more games for a total of 65 this season... A season that was one month shorter than usual because of the winter World Cup, in which most of United players (De Gea, Martinez, Varane, Shaw, Casemiro, Fred, Bruno, Rashford, Weghorst) added at least 4-5 more games. IMO the effort of a reduced group of players has been extraordinary, and I wouldn't ditch that for something like losing one of three finals.
 
We're fully healthy? Rashford's health is uncertain and Garnacho is out - that's two pretty important players there. And I imagine there is some uncertainty over Martial and Eriksen, or at least their capacity to last a full 90 minutes.

I didn't say we were, I said fully healthy we have the best team. This thread shows how lacking in comprehension skills people are. I said it will be a failure not that he should be sacked if he doesn't win it or he would be a failure or the season would be a failure or whatever else has been imagined.

Even got accused of being an Ole fan boy! what an insult.
 
Because if he doesn't, this is basically the season where we got completely and utterly humiliated by our biggest rivals in our worst ever loss. Need to somehow wash over that result with everything else.

This is a ridiculous comment if serious. One result does not define the whole season. It was a freak result where we fell to pieces in the second half after a decent first half. I would argue we were far worse in the loss at Newcastle. That was a shoddy performance.

We are a team that finally seems to be going through some positive changes and have shown clear progress in a number of areas. Picking up the league cup was great. Getting one or both of the Europa League or FA Cup would be ambitious, but are in it to win it in both competitions and I think we've done pretty well so far.

Our energy needs to go mainly into securing 3rd in the league. If we win nothing else, but finish third, we'll have had a good season and can look forward to next.
 
OP lost me after the opening line, and I stopped reading. :rolleyes:

What a load of old rubbish. Waste of a post to be honest.

It’s bizarre the way some posters thrive on misery and can’t wait to brand the manager a failure.

Agreed. Get top 4. FA or UEL is gravy to me for ETH. Obviously, rational posters know the amount of games are catching up with our players in this WC year.
 
In 10 years time, nobody's going to care that Liverpool finished 7th and we finished 3/4th. It's not even footnote worthy.

That 7-0 is a permanent stain on the clubs history. And he was the one who oversaw that happen, until he does something more notable in our history.
Then you may as well stop being a United fan as the 7-0 will always be there, even if ETH wins three PL and CL in a row.

The alternative is that you just get on with it. The 7-0 didn’t help Liverpool win the league. It didn’t kick-start their season. Hell most likely they won’t even qualify for the CL.

They are having a joke of a season after fighting for the Quadruple less than 1 year ago. That’s Moyes 2013/14 level bad. Actually it’s worse as they still have the same manager who should know better. Enough said.
 
In 10 years time, nobody's going to care that Liverpool finished 7th and we finished 3/4th. It's not even footnote worthy.

That 7-0 is a permanent stain on the clubs history. And he was the one who oversaw that happen, until he does something more notable in our history.

Who gives a shit, just like nobody gives a shit about 8-2 win vs Arsenal and multiple trashings we gave to them in that era.

Once season is over everyone moves on.

Permanent stain :lol: