Half way through the season. How are you feeling?

Irrational.

Full Member
Joined
Aug 10, 2011
Messages
33,619
Location
LVG's notebook
A pretty shocking way to end 2024 with a pathetic defeat to Newcastle, leaving us languishing in 14th with a -5 GD at the halfway stage of the PL season.

Is there any room for optimism or are we doomed to end the season on an all-time low?
 
I put £20 on us to get relegated after we lost to Bournemouth. We are sliding one way with no money to improve things and a manager unwilling to adapt to the squad’s strengths (there aren’t many). We have all the signs of a club that could get relegated including a selection of arrogant fans who don’t think we can. Threads keep being closed when the subject is discussed.
 
Completely beaten. Would be quietly optimistic with a glint of improvement to shape, fitness, attitude and so on, but it's getting worse

We're 7 points off relegation and probably lucky to be.
 
Josep Dowling said:
I put £20 on us to get relegated after we lost to Bournemouth. We are sliding one way with no money to improve things and a manager unwilling to adapt to the squad’s strengths (there aren’t many). We have all the signs of a club that could get relegated including a selection of arrogant fans who don’t think we can. Threads keep being closed when the subject is discussed.
Click to expand...
The R word will only be allowed to be discussed when it's May, we're in 19th and 4 points off safety with 2 games to go.
 
I feel like it maybe funny if we win Europa league and get relagated

Only championship team to ever played in CL? The state of us....
 
New global pandemic / nuclear conflict sounds less painful than watching United in second half of the season
 
We are not a bottom half team at the moment.
We’re a bottom third team.
The scrapings just above the relegation zone.
I can’t see where any hope will come from.

We kick off the 2nd half of the season at Anfield next weekend.
That’ll be a great start to the New Year.


.
 
Josep Dowling said:
I put £20 on us to get relegated after we lost to Bournemouth. We are sliding one way with no money to improve things and a manager unwilling to adapt to the squad’s strengths (there aren’t many). We have all the signs of a club that could get relegated including a selection of arrogant fans who don’t think we can. Threads keep being closed when the subject is discussed.
Click to expand...

What odds did you get?
 
I have faith in Amorim.

Just worried about the situation unfolding around him.

We've to go through a bit of a period of shiteness for actual change to happen, but i'm not sure some supporters or management will have the patience.

Our fixture list is more promising once we get past Liverpool.
 
Josep Dowling said:
I put £20 on us to get relegated after we lost to Bournemouth. We are sliding one way with no money to improve things and a manager unwilling to adapt to the squad’s strengths (there aren’t many). We have all the signs of a club that could get relegated including a selection of arrogant fans who don’t think we can. Threads keep being closed when the subject is discussed.
Click to expand...
I raised it on a new thread in early 2024 under Ten Haag and got castigated from pillar to post. I think the thread got closed as can’t find it. Ok we scraped some results to get ourselves into the top half but performances were very poor. I notice now though there’s less arrogance on here to the notion.
 
Feel like 2025 will be better. But the next 2 games will be shit. But after that and hopefully some transfer business, better...

Reasons for optimism:
  • I do have faith in Amorim, you gotta give coaches time and I think he's given us a good structure
  • Amad is quality and has world class potential
  • Mainoo is quality and has world class potential
  • Very happy with De Ligt and Yoro
  • Ugarte is an excellent midfielder and makes a huge difference
Reasons for despair:
  • Our center forwards are both pathetically bad. Though I do think Zirkzee is a better player than Hojlund, but neither are cut out for this league
  • We have no midfield depth for Ugarte
  • We have no left back or left wing back, doesn't matter what you call it, we don't have it so neither a 433 or 343 will work because of both this and the CF issue
  • We're the worst set piece side in the league
  • Onana is mediocre but will be our GK for another 5 years probably because of other bigger issues
 
I like the manager and think he can be good if given time so us improving the managerial situation is one positive I guess. The issue is that he's been fecked over having to take over midseason with a squad that is shit and doesn't suit him and there's massive dysfunction at the club which seems to be killing morale so there's a very serious danger he won't be here by the time next season starts and so he won't have had any time.

The players have mostly all been dogshit and the performances this season have ranged from uninspired to utterly appalling.
 
Up and down. At the minute I see us as a seesaw. Most of our players are sat in the middle. A few are sitting on the shit end and are outweighing the couple sat at the good end. I like Amorim but I’m definitely leaning towards us needing to change the formation to suit the current players. That said, it’s hard to see just a couple of transfers changing things that much so I’m not sure when we’ll actually see Amorim’s ideal team.
 
Still backing our manager.

January and summer windows crucial to bring in players that fit his system and getting rid of a few deadwood.

A new LB, CB, CM and STR to start will transform this team.

I believe we're held back by the current team.

Said it before but Vivell, Berrada and Wilcox need to play a blinder in the next two windows.

Still optimistic and hopeful for the future. It was always going to get this bad before it starts to get good again.
 
In genuine fear of seeing us getting relegated. But maybe that will not be that bad. Who knows. Who cares
 
Like those faces in the crowd tonight. Baffled, stunned and not sure where it goes from here. My only hope is that Amorim really is as talented as they say and can learn super fast
 
just looked at the table, weve scored less goals this season (21) than Leicester (22).and wolves have scored 10 more than us.
 
clinging onto the hope that some good business in January and then something will click, but it's very worrying atm, it's got worse since the City game
 
I don't know where we go from here. It feels like we're reaching the culmination of a decade of decline and rot.

There is no quick fix but it won't stop fans from demanding instant results whoever we hire.

We can't even spend our way out of trouble because all the money has been wasted.

We're in a mess, and we deserve it.
 
Chelsea have had some slightly similar seasons in recent times, but for us it feels more humiliating because we're Man United, teams like Newcastle love beating us to get back at 30 years of pain under SAF etc etc..

The unfortunate part of taking big risks is that along with a potential massive upside, you have to be prepared to go to zero at some point.

We have taken a huge risk appointing Amorim mid season. This formation requires specialist players with specialist roles that we simply do not have. He did not want to come mid-season because he knew this was going to be a huge challenge. Amorim told us this would come.

We just have to stay the course now. The only way out is straight through. If EtH was still here, yeah we'd probably be 9th or something, but would it be all pain no gain? Many of us say "oh I'd be willing to sacrifice some pain if it meant we had a coach with vision". Now we have it and it's despair and doom and gloom.
 
It’s just very deflating seeing professionals look so inept. My hope is that we are now at rock bottom (well, after Anfield on Sunday) and do believe Amorim can build something second half of the season.
 
Like we’re just on a continuous downward spiral, when you think it can’t get any worse, we somehow find a way to go 1 more.

It feels hopeless to me, I think if we changed the full starting 11 it wouldn’t make a difference. There’s something deep rooted that’s wrong, we magically make every single player that comes to the club worse, players that come through the academy start off with such hope and promise, and then they gradually dwindle until they’re deemed not good enough anymore.

On top of that, Ineos don’t seem to be doing anything to turn the ship around, their penny-wise, pound-foolish approach is depressing.
 
Feeling like it’s crazy that there’s now genuine a much better chance of a Manchester derby in the Championship than the Champions League any time soon. End of days…
 
You must log in or register to reply here.