Expectations for the New Season

Top 4 and win the Europa League. With a healthy squad and a good transfer window, we’ll look and play a lot better under ten Hag.
 
Remember the geese said:
You cannot demand top 4 after the season we have just had. The expectation should be to challenge for top 4 and go far in the cups.
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So in Ten Hag's third season we should not demand top 4 which was the bare minimum for every manager before him. Your last season is not and should not be your baseline. We severely underperformed, the squad is easily good enough for top 4. If we can't aim for top 4 then what are we doing here.
 
Remember the geese said:
You cannot demand top 4 after the season we have just had. The expectation should be to challenge for top 4 and go far in the cups.
Click to expand...

100% can? He got it in his first season, and last season hopefully was just a blip. We weren't even that far off top 4, and we were shit. Getting top 4 doesn't actually take that much, it's a dog fight where everyone loses and it's a bit of a mess. In Ten Hag's 3rd season, we should be consistently good enough to achieve it, at the minimum.
 
Remember the geese said:
You cannot demand top 4 after the season we have just had. The expectation should be to challenge for top 4 and go far in the cups.
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ETH has spent 400m so far. That will rise to 550m+ this summer. There can be no excuses. We should be putting in a title challenge.
 
Remember the geese said:
You cannot demand top 4 after the season we have just had. The expectation should be to challenge for top 4 and go far in the cups.
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Rista said:
So in Ten Hag's third season we should not demand top 4 which was the bare minimum for every manager before him. Your last season is not and should not be your baseline. We severely underperformed, the squad is easily good enough for top 4. If we can't aim for top 4 then what are we doing here.
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I think that you are both right to some extent. You can't demand top 4 or even expect it based on the way things went last season, we should be we can't because last season put major question marks over this team and only on pitch performances can answer them.
 
Patch the leaks that saw us fail miserably this past season, and achieve the bare minimum of a top 4.

No excuses left.
 
Judas said:
Kind of impossible to really say before I see what the squad looks up. But in theory, same as last season. Top 3, a trophy, and a style of play that works and is actually convincing. Don't be depressing to watch. Actually look like we're going towards something positive.
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When you say ‘top 3’ do you mean specifically that 3rd place is a success?
 
Judas said:
100% can? He got it in his first season, and last season hopefully was just a blip. We weren't even that far off top 4, and we were shit. Getting top 4 doesn't actually take that much, it's a dog fight where everyone loses and it's a bit of a mess. In Ten Hag's 3rd season, we should be consistently good enough to achieve it, at the minimum.
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We should be in a fight for 4th with lots of different clubs. City and Arsenal are guaranteed you'd imagine. Liverpool might drop off slightly, so there are two spots available to Villa, Chelsea, Liverpool, Spurs, Newcastle and us. No guarantee at all.
 
Remember the geese said:
We should be in a fight for 4th with lots of different clubs. City and Arsenal are guaranteed you'd imagine. Liverpool might drop off slightly, so there are two spots available to Villa, Chelsea, Liverpool, Spurs, Newcastle and us. No guarantee at all.
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There's no guarantees in life, but we should be getting top 4 3rd year into a project where so much has been spent. As I said, we were dirt last season, and weren't that far off. If we failed to make top 4 again it would be pretty woeful. No excuses left.
 
JPRouve said:
I think that you are both right to some extent. You can't demand top 4 or even expect it based on the way things went last season, we should be we can't because last season put major question marks over this team and only on pitch performances can answer them.
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It's pretty obvious that we aren't so much better than the likes of Villa, Chelsea, Liverpool, Newcastle and Spurs that we can be insistent on top 4 being a given.
 
Remember the geese said:
It's pretty obvious that we aren't so much better than the likes of Villa, Chelsea, Liverpool, Newcastle and Spurs that we can be insistent on top 4 being a given.
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Chelsea and Liverpool are starting a new cycle, would you not be bitterly disappointed if they end up finishing ahead of us, with all the time and money that's been invested under Ten Hag? I would be. We should be a lot more comfortable and further along. If we're not, it's a failure.
 
With the current squad 6th place at best. With four quality additions 4th.
 
Judas said:
There's no guarantees in life, but we should be getting top 4 3rd year into a project where so much has been spent. As I said, we were dirt last season, and weren't that far off. If we failed to make top 4 again it would be pretty woeful. No excuses left.
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Lots of club spend money. Such is life. We are in a scrap with everyone else. There's a chance we make it and every chance we don't. Missing out would hardly be a shock.
 
How can anyone set expectations before any of us know (a) what squad we will be working with and (b) what we're up against. Ask again in August
 
Impossible to say anything at this stage. Need the transfers sorted, and then we can define expectations.
 
romufc said:
Over to INEOS now on recruitment. The manager saga is postponed.
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Fixed that for you.

Expectations for next season:

Battle for 7th in the league.
Frustrating to watch.
No top players will sign.
No trophies.
New manager in place sometime between october and next summer.
 
Judas said:
Chelsea and Liverpool are starting a new cycle, would you not be bitterly disappointed if they end up finishing ahead of us, with all the time and money that's been invested under Ten Hag? I would be. We should be a lot more comfortable and further along. If we're not, it's a failure.
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Liverpool were miles better than us last season. They might drop off or maybe they won't suffer as much as people think. It's a big unknown. Chelsea have invested bucket loads of cash, so the money angle is pretty irrelevant. They have a new manager, but ten Hag finished third in his first season so it's perfectly feasible that Chelsea could too under Maresca.
 
Remember the geese said:
Liverpool were miles better than us last season. They might drop off or maybe they won't suffer as much as people think. It's a big unknown. Chelsea have invested bucket loads of cash, so the money angle is pretty irrelevant. They have a new manager, but ten Hag finished third in his first season so it's perfectly feasible that Chelsea could too under Maresca.
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I've just got very little excuses left to give Ten Hag. I back him, want him to succeed. But I've got very little patience left. I want to see results and a massive improvement.
 
CallyRed said:
Better home record.
More control in games.
Minimising chances being conceded.
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This sums up my thoughts pretty well, but a lot of it depends on how good our transfer window is.

We've seen clearly last season that most of the squad outside of the starters aren't equipped to play the proactive football that Ten Hag wanted us to, so either we need to fill out the squad with more appropriate cover (particularly at the back), or we need to adapt if key players get injured and play a more pragmatic brand of football.
 
Top 4 and deep trophy runs. Same as every season really.
 
Easy top 3 finish and looking like a team that is just a player or two away from a proper title challenge the next season

I’ll even accept no trophies if they do the above

In reality, I think we will struggle a lot again and be about 6th in November
 
Judas said:
I've just got very little excuses left to give Ten Hag. I back him, want him to succeed. But I've got very little patience left. I want to see results and a massive improvement.
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I expect a sustained challenge for top 4 and for us to continue to compete well for the cups. I don't see how anyone can expect anything more than that. We were dreadful last season and this would be an improvement on that.
 
CallyRed said:
Better home record.
More control in games.
Minimising chances being conceded.
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I agree totally and I think this would bring us very close to top 3 and titles. To achieve this, we'd need a very good CB and a DM as a must, and a backup striker. The other positions can be filled easier.
 
Judas said:
There's no guarantees in life, but we should be getting top 4 3rd year into a project where so much has been spent.
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I'd disagree with you on this point of the amounts being spent.
I just don't think that can be used as a stick to beat the Manager when we all know just how incompetent the previous recruitment team were.
The fact is that as a Club we have thrown hundreds of Millions down the toilet on the wrong players, and we seem to have been of the belief that because we spent £60m here and £80m there, that we would have a World class squad with a guarantee of at least top 4.

I think we have to draw a line under the incompetence of the past, and take a view from the new INEOS beginning, lets see where that takes us.
 
- TOP 4 finish
- Style of play
- Not getting outplayed by everyone
- Not conceding 20 shots per game

Not optimistic at all, givie him a new contract is suicide imo
 
With ETH in charge I suspect there will be little change to what we've seen since winning the league cup final. It's been downhill since, no control in the majority of games, inability to create against teams sitting deep, we'll only good in some matches, mainly cup games where it's all or nothing.

I still think the team will be plagued with injuries, they won't miraculously clear up, some of these players are just very injury prone and due to the limitations and style of football we play, we get more injuries than most. That will continue to be the excuse ETH will cling to as to why he can't implement his ideas, despite the fact that even when he had a full strength squad, he barely rotated and that was the start of the injury issues.

So my expectations remain low given what I've seen in the past 18 months, unless ETH significantly revamps his own ideas and he finds a system or tactic that can improve his shortcomings.
 
JPRouve said:
I think that you are both right to some extent. You can't demand top 4 or even expect it based on the way things went last season, we should be we can't because last season put major question marks over this team and only on pitch performances can answer them.
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It's not too disimilar to what it was like when Ten Hag arrived. Sure, we had a bad previous season but we were right to demand top 4 because the squad was better than that. With another transfer window, we should not be going into manager's third season without expecting top 4. A manager who wouldn't insist on suicidal tactics would have achieved top 4 even last season even with the injuries.
 
A lot depends on signings however as of now:

1. Top 4
2. +GD and good football to watch
3. Better transfer window in both ins and out
 
Largely a continuation of this season. Based on the last 18 months of football I'd expect an eventual 6th placed finish, likely with a period of looking diabolical after picking up 3-4 first team injuries.

Playing style wise, I don't imagine we'll have much control in games but I think we will be much more refined in transition phases, so I expect to see us blitz a few teams. Though I also think we'll persist with a pretty poorly shaped midfield in and out of possession, so we'll continue to struggle closing games out and we'll probably get blitzed by a few teams ourselves.
 
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quadrant said:
Never see the point in setting really specific targets. We could get 85 points & 100 goals but finish 5th in a bonkers season, or scrape 4th with 65 points by virtue of having the least awful meltdown. We could win the Europa League but never face a decent team along the way. There's so much context and chance involved with your final positions it seems pointless.

For me the main things I want to see major progress in are

- More goals and more consistent threat.
- Better game management.
- Lower xGA. While our actual goals conceded was fair, both the stats and the eye test tell a different story.
- Some standout wins against big teams. We did it in the cup, but our record in the league was woeful. We need to make teams worry about coming to Old Trafford.
- A sense of a new core of players emerging we can build around. There's too many players knocking around now that feel like they'll be gone in a season or two.
- A clear sense that our transfer strategy has changed. No more 28-30 years olds getting big contracts. A focus on getting 22-24 year olds so they can settle and have their prime years here.

Solid progress in all those areas and I'll be happy.
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Solid post
 
Just looking for signs of progress really. We need to add at least 6 quality additions to the squad and get rid of a lot of chaff. I can't believe that we have the money to buy 6 quality players for all those positions, so we will potentially just buy 2 or 3, get another in on loan and hope for more youth players to make a breakthrough. We will probably also need to depend on other squad players having a "good year" compared to last time.

Even if we did "go large" and buy 6 players they will need time to settle. Will just look for us being able to mix things up / offer a different threat in a game and for our attacking players to play as a unit rather than 3 attackers who just run towards goal with their head down.

The highest priority is clearly sorting out the midfield, so if that is what we end up spending money on then that will improve us enough to be challenging for top four. To be mounting a real title challenge we need to solve our issues at the back and going forward right away too, but I can't see that happening.
 
RedBanker said:
Finally the manager part of things is settled. The powers that be chose stability and now that this will be his third season in charge with the humongous investments made till date, what would be the expectations?

For me top two finish and Europa League would be the expectation. Don't really care about domestic cups.
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wow, you are in for a long and probably disappointing season.

Well, OTT with your expectations. If he succeeds and gets 2nd and the Europa League, it would be a monumental success
 
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