Given the mounting injury problems, what will constitute a good last third of the season?

After nearly 10 years of winning bugger all I would sack off top 4 to win the FA cup and Europa League. We would still get Champions League qualification and City won’t win the treble.

I get the finances for qualifying in the Champions League but this only benefits the owners and not the club. United have traditionally spent more when we haven’t made top 4. What’s the point in being the Champions League if we have no realistic chance of winning it? I’d rather we built a team to at least challenge for the title first.
 
Real pity because EL could of been winnable considering the opposition left but with our thin squad and terrible "luck" against Sevilla there is no way I can see us winning it.
FA Cup seems impossible due to the quality of the opposition rather than the number of games.
So I guess finishing top 4 would be the good ending.
 
Josep Dowling said:
After nearly 10 years of winning bugger all I would sack off top 4 to win the FA cup and Europa League. We would still get Champions League qualification and City won’t win the treble.

I get the finances for qualifying in the Champions League but this only benefits the owners and not the club. United have traditionally spent more when we haven’t made top 4. What’s the point in being the Champions League if we have no realistic chance of winning it? I’d rather we built a team to at least challenge for the title first.
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Kind of encapsulates how I feel. I like seeing United win things.

That said, Spurs are crap so I could see us getting Top4 anyway.

Injuries or not, Sevilla were literally handed 2 goals, they’re crap! We should still win that tie, we only lose if we mentally collapse which after Thursday is probable but not a forgone conclusion.

It’s time for players to step up.
 
Agree with those saying no way we can win the two cups... will be tough to finish in the top four given we still have to go to Spurs and Brighton and we don't know if Rashford will be fit for those. I'd say finishing top four will be a huge achievement, which is what I said at the start of the season – and it will be "good enough" for me in ETH's first season (the mickey mouse cup is a bonus).

We absolutely have to beat Forest, West Ham, Bournemouth, Villa and Fulham. I'm guessing we'll need to get something from the Chelsea game too and have to hope that they haven't hit some sort of form by then.

It's good news that Newcastle also have to play Spurs and have Arsenal (who might just be able to win the title that day - PS no one ever trusts my maths, with good reason!). We might just be looking for the scousers to do us a favour against Spurs too - that'll be the day they decide to play like the U-11 donkey team
 
A win tomorrow is imperative as next week it's spurs v Newcastle. If the barcodes win, that leaves us 3 points ahead of spurs with 2 games in hand. I think that should be enough to secure top 4.
 
Von Mistelroum said:
For me, the best possible end to the season would be getting a buyer lined up for Maguire.

Seriously though, top 4 needs to be the priority. Even if that means being more defensive in our approach to cover for what will be a piss poor defense.
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I agree with this, look on the bright side Maguire is now in the shop window for 10-15 games and he must be fit like Lindelof as neither have played too much football this season!

We should play counter attacking football in some of our 5 away games we need 5/6 wins from 9 games not easy when your playing rivals for top 4 and Europe - Spurs, Villa, Brighton and teams trying to stay up. But we do have more options than people think and could do something radical in selection against spurs who play 343 or Brighton away. I would play the same 343 with D De Gea, Dalot(RWB), AWB(RCB), V Lindelof(CB), HM(LCB) , L Shaw(LWB) , Casemeiro (CM), Bruno(CM), Antony(RS), AM(CF), MR(LS)

We could even move shaw To LCB and leave Lindelof or Maguire on bench and play Fred of Malacia at LWB.

For Forrest on Sunday which is a must win game now, I think we should go to a 4-2-3-1 and go all out attack, we need 3 points at all costs in this game as spurs will likely beat Bouremouth so I think ETH needs to get 3 points even if it’s a 1-0 scrappy win, this is the team I would pick; D De Gea, AWB, V Lindelof, H Maguire, L Shaw, Casemeiro, Bruno, Sabitzer, Antony, Martial, Sancho

Subs - J Butland, T Malacia, D Dalot, Fred, Mctominay, Rashford if fit or Elanga, Weghorst, Eriksen, F Pellistri

Next Thursday against Sevilla I think Rashford will be fit so I would pick this team;
D De Gea, AWB, H Maguire, V Lindelof, L Shaw, Casemeiro, Eriksen, Sabitzer, Antony, Martial, Rashford

ETH should show the team what the Sevilla manager said about them and let his quotes do the team talk. That front 6 will terrorise Sevilla. Look when you see what we’ve still got left in midfield and attack it’s not nearly as bad as the doom mongers we’re preaching, Most of our squad players have been underused so should be relatively fit so we can still finish top 3 in league and have a real go at one of the others cups. I think we have to drop out of either FA or Europa though to finish strongly in PL and it’s seriously it’s about time Weghorst started scoring goals even from the bench plus I’d like to see Sancho and Antony become more clinical and chip in with more goals and assists too.
 
If we finish top 4 and with a trophy already in the bag im happy. Anything else is a bonus. A lot to look forward too going forward under ETH.
 
Start of the season Top 4 was all I was really expecting , So if we can hold off Spurs then for me that is good enough. Fa cup and UEFA cup would have been nice added to the Carling cup but would rather secure 4th.
 
Top-four and I will be fine.
I wasn't expecting too much anyway.
 
Progression in football isn’t linear, could easily finish Top 4 then get knocked out of the champions league & not get as far as we are currently in the cups this season.

Now we are where we are I will be disappointed if we don’t win more. That’s not saying berate the team if they don’t but I’d hoped this ‘it’s ok to fail’ nonsense had left with the last permanent manager.

Minimum expectation is to compete & see where the land lies at the end of the season.
 
If we don't get top four it will because EtH was extremely unsophisticated in his handling of a limited squad in four tough competitions. Even Ole knew to play the B team in the cups.

Of course this is more than balanced by the extraordinarily good job EtH has done in every other respect.
 
Ditch the FA and Europa cups and solely concentrated on top four finish. ETH has achieved enough already considering what he had to start with.
 
Top 4.

I have hopes for Europa league, but for FA even if we manage to get past Brighton there's no way we can stop City with one of Maguire/Lindelof starting.
 
Top 4. We already won the Carabao Cup so progressing in either Europa or Fa Cup (given our injuries) would only be a bonus.
 
Overall you'd have to say a top 4 finish and a trophy would be a successful first season but even with our problems I still hope we can get one more trophy at least. Even given the fact of what happened on Thursday I still think we should be favourites against Sevilla at their place. I'd be disappointed if we lose because we're a far better team and those were two ridiculous goals we conceded. IF we get past Sevilla we have the prospect of a very tricky game against Juve or Sporting but it's not impossible, and the final should be against an easier opponent. I fancy us more in those games than i would against a rested and very in form Brighton and a final with City in the FA cup.
 
Top 4. That's crucial. We are a club that should be in the CL, even if our prospects of winning it are fairly low at the moment.

Playing in the Europa is not the best situation for us economically or for what we should be associated with as a club, but hopefully we can make the best of it. I think our chances of winning that have taken a real dip with the injury situation. We probably need our best players, not only to get past Sevilla, but the likes of Juventus are not going to be mugs. So that has become pretty complicated to win now, albeit we still have a shout. I don't neccessarily "expect" to win that now, I'm more hoping than expectant.

Similar story with the FA Cup. That looks even harder, with a competent Brighton team which we would only be slight favourites for, then City.

So overall I would say I am totally confident of top 4, hopeful of the Europa but not expectant, and not at all confident about the FA Cup. I think top 4 and a trophy in the bag is already a pretty solid season, so I think to some extent these are free hits for the manager as long as he gets the job done in the league. I doubt he is looking at it like that, I think he'd be really disapointed not to win another trophy from this position, but that's just my viewpoint.
 
SAFMUTD said:
Top 4.

I have hopes for Europa league, but for FA even if we manage to get past Brighton there's no way we can stop City with one of Maguire/Lindelof starting.
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City would be heavy favourites of course, but I’m pretty sure both Maguire and Lindelof have been involved in wins against them. People are going way over the top with regard to the shortcomings of these two guys.
 
Northstand said:
City would be heavy favourites of course, but I’m pretty sure both Maguire and Lindelof have been involved in wins against them. People are going way over the top with regard to the shortcomings of these two guys.
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It's not only Licha and Varane. It's Rashford and Shaw also injured and Eriksen not fully recovered.
 
SAFMUTD said:
It's not only Licha and Varane. It's Rashford and Shaw also injured and Eriksen not fully recovered.
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Well yes, I agree that makes a potential final against City even more difficult. But your comment was that there’s “no way” we could beat them with one of Maguire or Lindelof starting.
 
Northstand said:
Well yes, I agree that makes a potential final against City even more difficult. But your comment was that there’s “no way” we could beat them with one of Maguire or Lindelof starting.
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Well that's exaggerating obviously there's a chance. Slim chance though. I fear we might get totally humiliated. Can't take another one this season.
 
SAFMUTD said:
Well that's exaggerating obviously there's a chance. Slim chance though. I fear we might get totally humiliated. Can't take another one this season.
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So you’d rather not play them cause you’re scared of a potential negative. What is wrong with people? We’ve never won every game but you’ve got to be in it to win it.

The PTSD some of you exhibit after the last decade is startling.
 
AFC NimbleThumb said:
So you’d rather not play them cause you’re scared of a potential negative. What is wrong with people? We’ve never won every game but you’ve got to be in it to win it.

The PTSD some of you exhibit after the last decade is startling.
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PTSD it's exactly what it is. Next games will give us an indication of where were really at after all the injuries.
 
Mercurial said:
Top 4 would be enough for me. EL would be a cherry on top.
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Even given the injuries it would be disappointing not to add another trophy considering we are in the semi final of one and the QF of another.

A club like United should always have more ambitions than been competitive, we have morphed into Spurs.
 
SAFMUTD said:
PTSD it's exactly what it is. Next games will give us an indication of where were really at after all the injuries.
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We play them in the Final & lose, you feel like crap for a day or two, then compartmentalise the defeat & move on.

We play them & win, euphoria.

All but Martinez will be back this season, don’t write us off yet. Don’t lose at Spurs & Top4 should be a formality, let’s add a few more cups I say.
 
Hanging on to top 4 would be a good finish. If back in August the football gods had offered us 4th place and the league cup trophy, in ETH's first season, we all would've snatched that up as quickly as possible. That's a good first season and now in light of the injury crisis I'd be happy with that outcome.
 
Top 4, 70+ points, at least one more final is ok. 3rd place, 75 pts and at least one more title would be good before the last injuries, great now.
 
Josep Dowling said:
After nearly 10 years of winning bugger all I would sack off top 4 to win the FA cup and Europa League. We would still get Champions League qualification and City won’t win the treble.

I get the finances for qualifying in the Champions League but this only benefits the owners and not the club. United have traditionally spent more when we haven’t made top 4. What’s the point in being the Champions League if we have no realistic chance of winning it? I’d rather we built a team to at least challenge for the title first.
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If I could guarantee this, then yeah, I'd bite your hand off for it. However Top 4 is currently a much greater guarantee of CL football, considering we're already in poll position and can afford a few bad breaks. Too much of a gamble to risk it all on a cup comp sadly, as Thursday aptly demonstrated that absolutely anything can happen. But in theory I agree it'd be much more satisfying.
 
Top 4 and a trophy was always going to be a big success after last year. The fact that some lunatics asked ETH about a quadruple a few months ago doesn't change that. I thought we'd finish 6th and get nothing at the start.

Irwin99 said:
Priorities i imagine are:
  1. Top 4
  2. Europa League
  3. Fa Cup

Isn't the FA cup final only a few days after the Europa league final? It's probably hard to say which is the best trophy to play for but I think EtH would rather win in Europe than the FA cup.

Top 4 and one trophy would still be a good season all things considered but three trophies in one season would be a great start to the ETH era. It's looking very tough though with the mounting injuries.
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Plus Europa league is top 4 and a trophy in one. I don't think its rated as highly as the FA Cup in English football media but its probably of more use to us when top 4 isn't guaranteed.
 
There’s no way we’re winning the FA Cup or Europa, unless we get a generous slice of luck. Top 4 is our only hope.
 
Secure 3rd placing in the PL. All things considered and with full respect to Newcastle, I still feel over the course of entire season, we should have done enough to get 3rd.

For EL, like others, suffered enough over the years with Sevilla to know that we probably won't go through. We are cursed in losing to them.

FA Cup will be a bonus.

Last stretch of the season largely hinges on the mentality of the players. Not super optimistic.
 
we're 1/8 on to finish top four, so i expect that now and anything else is a bonus
 
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