Points countdown until top 4 is secured | 1 point left, 2 games to go | Can almost taste it...!

The question really should be "can we get third?" but it's "can we not bottle the top 4?" which is absurd. Even if we do get top 4, there are so many questions that have to be asked over how we've handled the latter half of the season.

With the way we're currently playing, we look very shy in front of goal. I don't think any win is a certainty right now. We're underperforming. ETH really needs to stamp his authority and get these feckers playing again.
 
At this point I feel like our best chance is for Liverpool and Brighton to drop points at least once. With our attacking problems it seems most likely that we'll drop enough points to play it into their hands.
 
At this point I feel like our best chance is for Liverpool and Brighton to drop points at least once. With our attacking problems it seems most likely that we'll drop enough points to play it into their hands.

Brighton will as they have Arsenal, City & Newcastle

Liverpool MIGHT draw with Villa(?)

With our lack of goals I just can’t see us winning any game before the end of the season.

THEN we’ll get creamed by City on the cup final, bringing a real downer to the end of the season.
 
Anyone remember at the start of this thread when people were like we’d cruise these fixtures and get top 4 with ease. Wonder how those folk are feeling now. Hopefully Villa can stop Liverpools charge as could you just imagine if they pip us to 4th.
 
Was pretty calm up until now about the race for top 4. Wasn’t overly brash about our chances but felt confident that we could do it.

After today, my feeling has changed. I’m not sure that this team has 9 points in it. We look dead out there, we look physically and mentally shot to pieces and costly mistakes are happening too often. Yes, there are easier games awaiting us but you have to play to a certain level in order to win those games and we aren’t coming close to that.

ETH is fortunate enough to be gifted a rare 6 days to fix this. This will be a crucial period for our season. The players get a bit more recovery time and the manger has time to re-organise the team. We just have to get this right!!!

Yeah these last couple of games combined with scousers win against Brentford has definitely battered my confidence of us getting top 4. Why did we have to blow that lead against Sevilla
 
Brighton will as they have Arsenal, City & Newcastle

Liverpool MIGHT draw with Villa(?)

With our lack of goals I just can’t see us winning any game before the end of the season.

THEN we’ll get creamed by City on the cup final, bringing a real downer to the end of the season.

God City at Wembley is like facing your worst nightmare right now. No one bother coming at me with we beat them in January either
 
Those 3 points dropped in injury time vs Arsenal and Palace are looking huge now.
And Tottenham, and Brighton. You can find many games this season where we didn't see it out

The 2 worst results I'd look back on are Southampton at home and Leeds at home.

Lower half teams at home are your bankers, these are must win.

Games against top half teams, away from home, you have to expect dropped points given we're a bit shit.
 
The 2 worst results I'd look back on are Southampton at home and Leeds at home.

Lower half teams at home are your bankers, these are must win.

Games against top half teams, away from home, you have to expect dropped points given we're a bit shit.

Yeah we had that Casa sending off which set us back against Southampton and he was suspended for Leeds at home
 
Failing to pick up a single point against Brighton and West Ham is a disaster. Some people were thinking along the lines of "we needed 3 more wins anyway" but it's not true.

If we'd have picked up a draw or 2 draws against Brighton/West Ham, we could be going into the final needing 2 wins 1 draw 1 loss, or 2 wins 2 draws. Just as a safety net in case we failed to win 3 games.

Now, it has to be 3 wins. We're only allowed 1 slip up in the final four games rather than 2.
 
Should beat wolves at home and it should give the boy’s confidence again. They won’t play like how they been playing in front of the fans. Beat wolves and I reckon we’ll beat Bournemouth away as it’s the last away game they’ll want to win it. Should be fine
 
Failing to pick up a single point against Brighton and West Ham is a disaster. Some people were thinking along the lines of "we needed 3 more wins anyway" but it's not true.

If we'd have picked up a draw or 2 draws against Brighton/West Ham, we could be going into the final needing 2 wins 1 draw 1 loss, or 2 wins 2 draws. Just as a safety net in case we failed to win 3 games.

Now, it has to be 3 wins. We're only allowed 1 slip up in the final four games rather than 2.

Frankly we can't afford any slip ups,however doubt we are capable of only dropping 3 points out of 12. Doesn't make any difference that 3 are home games either as some see that as a safety net
 
We can presume we will score enough goals to get across the finish line given our recent form. Sad but reality.
 
Frankly we can't afford any slip ups,however doubt we are capable of only dropping 3 points out of 12. Doesn't make any difference that 3 are home games either as some see that as a safety net
Of course it makes a difference. Our home form has been terrific all year, our away form against decent teams has been garbage. West Ham have been a decent team all season, but had some shit luck to drag them down there. They are closer to the top half teams like Spurs than they are to relegation fodder.
 
The 2 worst results I'd look back on are Southampton at home and Leeds at home.

Lower half teams at home are your bankers, these are must win.

Games against top half teams, away from home, you have to expect dropped points given we're a bit shit.
Eh the Leeds game was among a great run in general, those games will happen occasionally and in those circumstances. Southampton is a home banker that the red card and ref fecked us out of (not calling pens).
 
Of course it makes a difference. Our home form has been terrific all year, our away form against decent teams has been garbage. West Ham have been a decent team all season, but had some shit luck to drag them down there. They are closer to the top half teams like Spurs than they are to relegation fodder.

We haven't been in such poor form going into home games since scousers at start of season. Got very lucky to beat Villa as well and fear dropped home points is coming
 
We wont get top 4 , you heard it here first. The biggest bottle job of the decade. Feck the lot of them.
 
The question really should be "can we get third?" but it's "can we not bottle the top 4?" which is absurd. Even if we do get top 4, there are so many questions that have to be asked over how we've handled the latter half of the season.

With the way we're currently playing, we look very shy in front of goal. I don't think any win is a certainty right now. We're underperforming. ETH really needs to stamp his authority and get these feckers playing again.

players (some who are average) got tired. That’s what’s happening. We do not have a squad big and strong enough to compete in 4 competitions in a season. We were actually doing well, until April when the level of energy dropped.

shy in front of goal? Well, that’s what we get for having martial and weghorst as our strikers. In the league, we’ve scored 49 goals in 34 games as compared to 89 for city, 83 for Arsenal. Newcastle, Tottenham, Brighton and Liverpool all scored 60+ goals so far.

i’m worries about the remaining 4 games to be honest
 
Eh the Leeds game was among a great run in general, those games will happen occasionally and in those circumstances. Southampton is a home banker that the red card and ref fecked us out of (not calling pens).
Just because we won some games either side of it doesn't mean dropping points at home to relegation fodder isn't a bad result. The games where you concede a late goal will also happen occasionally.
 
We do not have a squad big and strong enough to compete in 4 competitions in a season.
Some geniuses on Redcafe pointed this out earlier in the season but they were told they have a losers mentality and we shouldn't prioritise competitions, and we should just go reach all the finals and finish top 4 and it will be amazing.

If we'd have just rested our first team in Europa we could have avoided this mess. In the end it our efforts were all for nothing as we didn't even have the squad to get past a lower half Spanish side.
 
Just because we won some games either side of it doesn't mean dropping points at home to relegation fodder isn't a bad result. The games where you concede a late goal will also happen occasionally.
For sure, that's why I wasn't too bothered by dropping points at Palace in the grand scheme of things. Looking every group of fixtures as a set of 5 and setting targets from those is a way I kind of look at it. We aren't a team who can win multiple games in a row yet, we simply don't have the personnel up top or in goal to be able to do that, and so its proven.

The games that annoy me more than others or shouldn't have happened are Southampton, Sevilla (home mainly, as that tie should've been done at home), and Spurs away. Others are all pretty much normal (in terms of win/draw/loss, not how bad the defeats were) over a set of games.
 
Some geniuses on Redcafe pointed this out earlier in the season but they were told they have a losers mentality and we shouldn't prioritise competitions, and we should just go reach all the finals and finish top 4 and it will be amazing.

If we'd have just rested our first team in Europa we could have avoided this mess. In the end it our efforts were all for nothing as we didn't even have the squad to get past a lower half Spanish side.
Sure but we are still in pole position for top 4, in the fa cup final, and won the league Cup. We are stumbling over the line sure, but like... So long as we get top 4, then it's all fine and the right decision in the end isn't it?

I just don't like the idea of tossing competitions, even if it might help other competitions. Sets the wrong precedent, especially for a club that has been on a 6 year trophy drought before we won it this year. I think Ten Hag understood how important that was too.
 
Anyone remember at the start of this thread when people were like we’d cruise these fixtures and get top 4 with ease. Wonder how those folk are feeling now. Hopefully Villa can stop Liverpools charge as could you just imagine if they pip us to 4th.

What I'd like to know from those people now is, what in particular was it in our recent performances that led to their confidence?

I'm a "newbie" on this forum but I've been watching United teams for over 30 years, and as naive as I am, even I know that if you have a team that can't score for shit at one end, continuously gets overrun in midfield, and has a keeper/defensive combo that is always on the brink of some calamity or other no matter how well they're apparently playing, that it's not a good recipe for winning football matches.

Plus we're being chased down by a team with a history of putting multiple winning runs together at the end of the season.

And we were all gaslit into thinking we were "bedwetters" for having these misgivings, despite the evidence of our own eyes!

But still, I definitely think we'll win our last 4 games, no problem.....
 
We wont get top 4 , you heard it here first. The biggest bottle job of the decade. Feck the lot of them.
This.

I never understood some folks in here being so confident we'd get the 3 points against West Ham.

The last game we won against Villa, we left gaps on our flanks you could park 2 Greyhound coaches in with room to spare on numerous occassions.
As a lifelong United fan I've never seen the amount of space provided to Villa from teams like Man City or Arsenal. It honestly left me gobsmacked. Even in primary school football we were taught to close down the space if an attacker is coming off the wing. It seemed like the Villa wingers could legit order a latte from Starbucks and have enough time to put the cross in.

This is a differnt team to the one we witnessed earlier in the season. No idea what happened or is happening in training to reduce us to this utter shambles of a team.
 
Yeah these last couple of games combined with scousers win against Brentford has definitely battered my confidence of us getting top 4. Why did we have to blow that lead against Sevilla

At the moment we are in a bit of a rut where we play alright for 45 min without taking our chances then getting battered for the 2nd 45 min because we just don’t have the legs and mental freshness to keep going. If we progressed vs Sevilla then I could imagine the same thing would keep happening. I think going out and being given this period to recover and re-focus could be a blessing.
 
Im hoping Villa do us a favour and revert to how they were playing before losing to us. I hope TH plays eriksen casemiro sabitzer and bruno and drops wegworst completely. Hopefully we beat Wanderers and it gives a bit of confidence back to the team.
 
This forum is incredible. Not many weeks ago many shouted we were in the title race. Now it sounds like we are fighting the relegation battle.

We have lost against Brighton, West ham, Newcastle and Liverpool away. That’s all. We would have taken this season asap, before we even started.

calm the F… down, we still have it in our hands. We still have a final against city. We still have huge improvements from a thin squad.
Yes we have played horrible the last couple of games, but 1 win and all will be over the moon.
We have a good fixture, we are home and the players will be up for it.
 
When we blow top 4 the only more annoying will be some of the posters on this forum deluding themselves by arguing that it is not a disaster or even disappointing and it is all for the better etc etc , they are the same posters who would have been arguing that getting stuffed 7 - 0 by Liverpool was no big deal either .
 
This.

I never understood some folks in here being so confident we'd get the 3 points against West Ham.

The last game we won against Villa, we left gaps on our flanks you could park 2 Greyhound coaches in with room to spare on numerous occassions.
As a lifelong United fan I've never seen the amount of space provided to Villa from teams like Man City or Arsenal. It honestly left me gobsmacked. Even in primary school football we were taught to close down the space if an attacker is coming off the wing. It seemed like the Villa wingers could legit order a latte from Starbucks and have enough time to put the cross in.

This is a differnt team to the one we witnessed earlier in the season. No idea what happened or is happening in training to reduce us to this utter shambles of a team.

our best center backs are injured…no organization
 
This.

I never understood some folks in here being so confident we'd get the 3 points against West Ham.

The last game we won against Villa, we left gaps on our flanks you could park 2 Greyhound coaches in with room to spare on numerous occassions.
As a lifelong United fan I've never seen the amount of space provided to Villa from teams like Man City or Arsenal. It honestly left me gobsmacked. Even in primary school football we were taught to close down the space if an attacker is coming off the wing. It seemed like the Villa wingers could legit order a latte from Starbucks and have enough time to put the cross in.

This is a differnt team to the one we witnessed earlier in the season. No idea what happened or is happening in training to reduce us to this utter shambles of a team.
Our fullbacks spend a lot of time central which leaves a airfield of space on the wings. Antony is shit at covering that space when AWW/Dalot go central.
Same on the left side which is compounded at the moment because Malacia is rubbish.
 
Half time against Spurs (27 April)
We only need 13 points from 8 games to guarantee finishing above Liverpool, and that's 3 of them in the bag now.
Full time
Okay, 12 points from 7 now. No sweat.
Post Villa
On track again. Easy. 9 from 6.
Post Brighton
9 from 5. But we knew Brighton were good. It's the Hammers next. Easy win.
Post WHU
Well that was shit. Getting a bit squeaky. 9 from 4. But we'll beat Wolves.
....except that their recent form is better than ours. As is Bournemouth's. By the time we've played Wolves and they have thrashed Leicester, we could be into
We'll be ahead of them as long as we win our game in hand.
 
Brighton will as they have Arsenal, City & Newcastle

Liverpool MIGHT draw with Villa(?)

With our lack of goals I just can’t see us winning any game before the end of the season.

THEN we’ll get creamed by City on the cup final, bringing a real downer to the end of the season.

If Wigan can beat Man City in a Cup Final, there is no reason why Man United can't too.
 
The positive side of me is thinking we realistically need a maximum of 3 wins, and despite our tiredness we're capable of beating Wolves, Bournemouth and Fulham and possibly Chelsea. If Leicester, Villa or Southampton can do us a favour our task gets easier.

The negative side is thinking I can't see us winning another game this season and I think being overhauled for top 4 by our biggest rivals, having been 12 points ahead of them at one point, would rival the 7-0 in terms of humiliation.

A week break will hopefully be helpful, 3 points against Wolves and things will start to look up again.
 
if we are going to screw this up can brighton do the impossible and run the table themselves? Can both arsenal and city just agree to let them win so that pool can get screwed over please