In anticipation for the Europa League campaign 2022-2023

Bastian

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Mejbri
Can we field a decent young team in the group stages and still be competitive?

------------------------Vitek
Laird-------Mengi-----Tuanzebe*---Williams
------Garner----Galbraith----Mejbri
Amad------------------------------------Garnacho
--------------------McNeill

Bench: Heaton, Jurado, Fernandez, Iqbal, Hansen-Aaroen, Pellistri, Hugill

*if not sold

If we're knocked out in the group stages, loans for those in January who won't get game time in the league.

Would make this all a lot more palatable, and actually exciting.
 
We say this shit every time and end up playing a strong team and it costs us in the league. I hate the Europa League.
 
Longest trophy drought in 40 years, winning gives you Champions League football... but yeah let's throw arguably the 3rd biggest competition we can play in.
 
Bubz27 said:
We say this shit every time and end up playing a strong team and it costs us in the league. I hate the Europa League.
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I know. We do have loads running down their contracts or likely retiring, some who are completely alienated here, etc. And - this is the optimist in me - maybe we'll appoint a progressive manager who will have to teach them from scratch and discard those who aren't up to it (which Rangnick is hopefully compiling a dossier on), so there's a chance we'll look at Arsenal and realise that focusing just on the league is way easier if you're attempting to revolutionise your team. Coupled with the fact our loan dealings are generally awful.
 
KeanoMagicHat said:
Longest trophy drought in 40 years, winning gives you Champions League football... but yeah let's throw arguably the 3rd biggest competition we can play in.
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We cannot chase both. We are too shit. I thought this was obvious.
 
There's still 9 games in the league. I know we are shit but it's still early to draw conclusions about our final league position.
 
Need to win it. Stop the drought and get the all important coefficients. From 2024 the CL is extended to 36 teams and two of the spots will go to the highest non-qualified teams on the coefficients. Keeping our coefficients high will be our ticket to CL every season even if we fail to get top 4.
 
No, that team would lose every game.

Key players shouldn't be playing but we'll still have enough overpaid dross stuck around to stay reasonably competitive.
 
Half those players probably won’t even be here next season.
 
Do people seriously think we can challenge on both fronts, with playing on Thursdays? It's a huge barrier to optimal league performance. The sensible thing to do is not prioritise it, but prioritise the league and focus on the long term, giving our young players bona fide game time in a competition we more or less discard.

But I guess most people refuse to take any backward steps in order to take more forward steps. It's all about the short-term whilst we all want to complain about the long-term being ignored.
 
el3mel said:
Ole competed in the league? When did that happen?
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How are we going to compete for the league with 100 goal scoring, 95 point odd City and Liverpool? Not going to happen for a few years and has nothing to do with whether we are in the EL or not.
 
Don't jump the gun. Villa and Palace are next 2 games for Arsenal and I can see them drop points in both the games. We may be back with slim chance for Top 4.
 
Its only in England that the Europa isnt rated.

All over Europe the second European competition is thought of fairly highly/important.

Also gives access to the group stages of the CL.

We should be trying to win this competition and do well in the league as a bare minimum.
 
Someone says this same shit every time, although usually they have the decency to wait until we've actually qualified for the EL.
 
I didn’t know this, can you explain it in more detail? For example, I assume it might mean Utd. get into the CL with a fifth place finish because of the coefficient you mention? Surely you don’t mean they will still get in with a mid-table finish (because of their history) ahead of a less famous team who finish higher? That can’t be right, can it?
 
Nah, this is nonsense. Play the strongest team ffs.

If we top the group, it's the same amount of games as playing in the CL.

Let's try and win the thing, if the players can't compete on more than front, they shouldn't be here
 
Bubz27 said:
We say this shit every time and end up playing a strong team and it costs us in the league. I hate the Europa League.
Click to expand...
Have to disagree. Not once has Europa cost us since Fergie, although we might have needed the extra rest in 2012 under him. Since playing in the EL became a regular occurrence for us though, we won it in 2017, came 3rd in the league in 2020 (unbelievably) and came 2nd last year, also unbelievably. We ought to pay it the respect it deserves by playing a strong team as we won’t be winning anything else anytime soon.
 
Bastian said:
Can we field a decent young team in the group stages and still be competitive?

------------------------Vitek
Laird-------Mengi-----Tuanzebe*---Williams
------Garner----Galbraith----Mejbri
Amad------------------------------------Garnacho
--------------------McNeill

Bench: Heaton, Jurado, Fernandez, Iqbal, Hansen-Aaroen, Pellistri, Hugill

*if not sold

If we're knocked out in the group stages, loans for those in January who won't get game time in the league.

Would make this all a lot more palatable, and actually exciting.
Click to expand...

I think all United fans are up for this sort of thing, but unfortunately, the club makes 4.5m for each home game at Old Trafford, so going out of the Europa League in the early stages could mean a loss of 30m in gate receipts and another 30m in sponsorship deals and TV money. That is a lot of money to throw away when you have the overheads and wage bill that we have.

I think it is unlikely that we will field a second string squad if there is a possibly of being knocked out.

As a fanbase, we need to get away from this sort of snobbery that we have for certain competitions. We have qualified for the CL loads of times in the last decade, and we have been knocked out whenever we played anyone half decent. People would rather watch us take a spanking against a big team, than see us win a trophy. I don't get this mentality at all. At the start of every season, the slate is wiped clean and there is always another game on the horizon. People are already moaning that next season is a write off! Seriously, get a grip. Only one team can win the CL, and we are way way off being anywhere close to that. Quarter finals at best.

We are not dining at the top table anymore, and we need a full re-build of this current squad to get anywhere near the elite clubs. If we can build some momentum, with a new mentality, an identity and a defined style of play, which stems from the academy and right into the first team, then where better to explore this new era, than taking scalps in the Europa league, where the pressure is less intense.

In some respects, it is the ambition of our club and fans that is holding us back, because we are trying to bridge the gap between ourselves and the the likes of City, Liverpool and Bayern, by throwing money at it. Trying to get a quick fix, instead of building something over a period of time.

We have got really good academy players, and this coming summer we are going to ship out many of the big names on big wages. This is a fantastic opportunity for someone like Ten Hag and his coaches from Ajax, to come in and re-build the entire squad.

The thought of what team runs out in August is exciting me, because I'm done with this current bunch!
 
MalaysianRed7 said:
Have to disagree. Not once has Europa cost us since Fergie, although we might have needed the extra rest in 2012 under him. Since playing in the EL became a regular occurrence for us though, we won it in 2017, came 3rd in the league in 2020 (unbelievably) and came 2nd last year, also unbelievably. We ought to pay it the respect it deserves by playing a strong team as we won’t be winning anything else anytime soon.
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Add context to the seasons.

When was the last time a team in the Europa League challenged for the league in England?

And if anyone says that's not our level, what the hell are we doing? That has to be the goal every year. Fail trying, yes. But try.
 
Samid said:
Need to win it. Stop the drought and get the all important coefficients. From 2024 the CL is extended to 36 teams and two of the spots will go to the highest non-qualified teams on the coefficients. Keeping our coefficients high will be our ticket to CL every season even if we fail to get top 4.
Click to expand...
Great point actually. With Newcastle also in the loop, I don't see us being guaranteed a top 4 position. This europa could be a blessing in disguise.
 
Wheato said:
I think all United fans are up for this sort of thing, but unfortunately, the club makes 4.5m for each home game at Old Trafford, so going out of the Europa League in the early stages could mean a loss of 30m in gate receipts and another 30m in sponsorship deals and TV money. That is a lot of money to throw away when you have the overheads and wage bill that we have.

I think it is unlikely that we will field a second string squad if there is a possibly of being knocked out.

As a fanbase, we need to get away from this sort of snobbery that we have for certain competitions. We have qualified for the CL loads of times in the last decade, and we have been knocked out whenever we played anyone half decent. People would rather watch us take a spanking against a big team, than see us win a trophy. I don't get this mentality at all. At the start of every season, the slate is wiped clean and there is always another game on the horizon. People are already moaning that next season is a write off! Seriously, get a grip. Only one team can win the CL, and we are way way off being anywhere close to that. Quarter finals at best.

We are not dining at the top table anymore, and we need a full re-build of this current squad to get anywhere near the elite clubs. If we can build some momentum, with a new mentality, an identity and a defined style of play, which stems from the academy and right into the first team, then where better to explore this new era, than taking scalps in the Europa league, where the pressure is less intense.

In some respects, it is the ambition of our club and fans that is holding us back, because we are trying to bridge the gap between ourselves and the the likes of City, Liverpool and Bayern, by throwing money at it. Trying to get a quick fix, instead of building something over a period of time.

We have got really good academy players, and this coming summer we are going to ship out many of the big names on big wages. This is a fantastic opportunity for someone like Ten Hag and his coaches from Ajax, to come in and re-build the entire squad.

The thought of what team runs out in August is exciting me, because I'm done with this current bunch!
Click to expand...

I think the responses in the thread show that almost no one here is up for this. And with the financials, if we were to seriously trim the squad and go relatively thin, rectify our wage structure, and hit a bit of a reset, we won't have that huge overhead. But more than anything, it is about prioritising the long-term over chasing losses over the short-term which again and again has proven to yield nothing but more losses.
 
Bubz27 said:
We say this shit every time and end up playing a strong team and it costs us in the league. I hate the Europa League.
Click to expand...

A Europa League win with a mid table finish is better than finishing top4 with no title challenge and trophies.

We are terribly inconsistent and don’t have the mentality and fitness for grinding out results on a regular basis anyway.
 
With ten hag we might actually win this fecking trophy.
 
We need to get used to winning things. As had been said, trophies aren't just for the ego. They are the actual end goal of playing. Top 4 is for the American owners and their bankers.
 
We're not even worthy enough to play in this competition
 
Try to win the damn thing, we haven’t exactly been spoiled with european success over the years, our record should be much better.
 
I love how we have this same discussion every time we're in the Europa league :lol:

But no, we should always go for whatever trophies we can go for. Sir Alex raised us all to go after every trophy we can. Added to that we've not won anything since first season Jose, which has been too long. Even further to that, with our next manager being either Poch or ETH, I could see them both wanting to pick up a piece of silverware in their first season.
 
Bubz27 said:
We say this shit every time and end up playing a strong team and it costs us in the league. I hate the Europa League.
Click to expand...
When has it cost us in the league? We finished 3rd and reached the semi finals. Then finished 2nd and reached the finals. We finished 6th under Mourinho when we won due to a full season of bad finishing, not silly dropped points due to rotation.

If anything, a good Europa League run has usually acted as a spring board to get some confidence in the league games.
 
Europa league>>>>>>>>>>2nd place. It carries the same prize of CL football and you know it’s an actual real life fully fledged trophy
 
brian017 said:
Europa league>>>>>>>>>>2nd place. It carries the same prize of CL football and you know it’s an actual real life fully fledged trophy
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This. I look upon Jose’s first season with much more satisfaction than his or Solkajaer’s 2nd placed finishes.

The EL adds to our club and European trophy count and provides direct CL qualification. Much better than a barren top 4 finish with no title challenge.
 
tentan said:
We're not even worthy enough to play in this competition
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As badly run as we are now, we are definitely worthy of this competition. In fact, we have done well in the EL in recent seasons. It’s a realistic trophy we can win, perhaps even easier than the FA or league cups.
 
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