Race for top 4 | Finito.

We can chalk up Bournemouth as a loss. Win the 3 home games or it's Europa again.
 
I still think we'll win 3 of the remaining games, but we've sure made it difficult for ourselves.

But, if we don't, and we're in the Europa League again, I sure hope we actually rotate next season. Play the U23s, and the 2nd/3rd stringers in the EL, and if they crash out, who cares. Playing our strongest team and playing Sunday-Thursday-Sunday-Thursday for weeks has killed us.
The fans on here assured us we could just simultaneously reach the league cup final, FA cup final, Europa final, and finish top 4 without a problem. "Only losers prioritise competitions", and yet all that work we put in for Europa was for nothing as we were too fatigured to even beat the 11th best La Liga side.

Should have sacked off the Europa and focused on top 4 and domestic cup double.
 
To be fair, I don't think what happened 7 years ago is any reflection on this team.

The reason I feared we'd bottle it, is not because of the past, not because of this team's mentality. It's because we're mostly fecking dreadful. This team can't retain possession of a football, can't create chances, can't score goals, and their discipline is fecking horrendous too. How on earth can anyone ever be confident going into a game with these lot baffles me.

Even in the games we win, we scrape a close 1 goal win and have to bring on Maguire for the last 5 minutes to head the ball away as the ball bounces round our box like a pinball because we can't keep possession for more than 2 seconds.
Yeah but that was the case 7-8 years ago, too. That's sort of what I'm saying: we have had plenty of awful teams over the last decade and I agree that the current one is pretty shite, too, so we should all know the signs of having a shit team. The signs are those that you've just listed. The single digit goal difference is a very obvious symptom, too.
 
We look completely mentally spent. Liverpool are racking up the 1-0 wins while we do the opposite.

Only thing in our favour is we end with 3/4 home games, although are right back in the zone of not being confident in any match we play.

Will be a massive unforgivable failure if we cock this up now.
 
It clearly is an option, other than the last 15 min, the players were already on the beach. They genuinely couldn't be bothered to put the effort in.
You're actually doing these players a favour to say they weren't trying.

They're just really, really shite at basic aspects of football, like ball retention. Our goal difference is +8 for feck sake. Our goal difference over the course of the season isn't +8 because the players don't try, it's because we're not very good at football.
 
I think the next game is next staturday. I don’t think the team has ever had this long of a break this season. Hopefully they can do actual training, not just rest and do light sessions.
October 28th was the last time we had a week inbetween games. 41 games ago
 
I think we’ll still get top 4 but I also thought we’d beat West Ham so what the f*ck do I know.
 
I was expecting it to go to the last game but that we’d just cling on to 4th, I can’t see us winning 3 games now, if Liverpool win all their games they’ll overtake us.
 
We can chalk up Bournemouth as a loss. Win the 3 home games or it's Europa again.
One of those games is Chelsea. I don't think we can win that one as they are usually good against us. We have to rely on Newcastle dropping points. Liverpool are like an unstoppable train at the moment. I don't expect them to drop any points.
 
We can chalk up Bournemouth as a loss. Win the 3 home games or it's Europa again.
Chelsea is one of them. Have won their first game and can carry on from there. No way is it a guaranteed win for United. We are out of top 4.
 
I thought it was in the bag. I thought even this bunch of serial bottlers couldn't muck it up. I underestimated just what a pathetic bunch of players we have amassed at United over the years. Rangnick was right in his assessment no matter how crap he was
 
If Liverpool don’t get top 4 now, they will be devastated!

Loving the jinx attempt here. No go. The Sage Our Lord in Heaven Juergen Klopp has spoken. As He says (and He is always right) top 4 is gone. United will cruise it. I’m expecting a straight 9 points point your next 3 games and bish bash bosh it’s done.
 
CL might be embarrassing you know. Nothing quite says "we're back" than getting hammered 6 times in front of Europe's elite.
For me it's not that much about wanting to be in Champions League as much as not wanting us to play in Europa again. Can we gift someone else EL place if we finish 5th? Tired of it. Won it in 2017, lost couple of semis and a final, it's become pointless. I know iwinning it gets you place in CL but still tired of it.
 
Remember a couple of months back when we won that shitty tin pot cup and we had "such a likeable team". Haha.
 
October 28th was the last time we had a week inbetween games. 41 games ago
Wow. I hear commentators say that if you want to win trophies, you must play all these games (most in top 4 divisions). I get that, but the world cup has meant not only did our players play for the national teams, but they also had to play the most games for their club in a shorter time frame. We also have a team that has poor quality subs, so rotation is a no-go.

If we miss top 4, I honestly think it is down to this. People don't understand the mental and physical fatigue. Hopefully, the week until Wolves can allow a refresh.
 
For me it's not that much about wanting to be in Champions League as much as not wanting us to play in Europa again. Can we gift someone else EL place if we finish 5th? Tired of it. Won it in 2017, lost couple of semis and a final, it's become pointless. I know iwinning it gets you place in CL but still tired of it.
I can't watch another season of EL, I barely watched it this season until we played Barcelona, and I thought we should have surrendered that comp way before then anyway. It's not even the CL I'm bothered about, it's the league. It's our bread a butter and we're floundering every year, it's hard to build on anything when your platform is bottling 4th place to a team that couldn't buy a win at the beginning of the season.
 
The fans on here assured us we could just simultaneously reach the league cup final, FA cup final, Europa final, and finish top 4 without a problem. "Only losers prioritise competitions", and yet all that work we put in for Europa was for nothing as we were too fatigured to even beat the 11th best La Liga side.

Should have sacked off the Europa and focused on top 4 and domestic cup double.

The Europa League loss had nothing to do with fatigue its was due to the fact that in the 2nd leg Erik sent out a team that was completely unmotivated and nowhere near ready for the game so that loss is on him.

The way we are playing we might as well kiss top 4 goodbye, 1 goal in 3 games or 270+ minutes of football is a disgrace considering the attackers we have had on the pitch.

Tonight our attacking play was a joke and I lost count of how many times our players opted to make a stupid and unneccessary pass to a player with a defender right on him rather than keeping the ball and looking for a better option.
 
Not including the World Cup and internationals, this is pretty much the first time we have a full week till the next game since September. There has to be some positives from that.

We have played the most games in the top 5 leagues in Europe, this fall off was inevitable but let’s be real if offered this position at the start of the season we’d all take it.
 
The fans on here assured us we could just simultaneously reach the league cup final, FA cup final, Europa final, and finish top 4 without a problem. "Only losers prioritise competitions", and yet all that work we put in for Europa was for nothing as we were too fatigured to even beat the 11th best La Liga side.

Should have sacked off the Europa and focused on top 4 and domestic cup double.
Said this weeks ago and people didn't like hearing it. It's the truth though, because here we are, fighting for 4th place when it never should have been this way.
 
I think we’ll still get top 4 but I also thought we’d beat West Ham so what the f*ck do I know.
Nothing if you thought we would beat West Ham. Everyone knew what performance we would put out. Been the same story since Last week of FEB.
 
We can still lose a game and it remains in our hands.
While you probably are being sarcastic, this is exactly what the united players must be thinking and must actually be the reason why we cannot win a match with such low mentality.
 
Fun fact (or not). I create this thread every year. Last year it had 7 pages. Top4 was done and dusted in january:lol:
 
We play four teams with literally nothing to play for. Bournemouth are pretty much safe. Liverpool play away to a battling Leicester, we could be in the clear after next weekend.
 
We play four teams with literally nothing to play for. Bournemouth are pretty much safe. Liverpool play away to a battling Leicester, we could be in the clear after next weekend.
Leicester with their defence? My faith is in Villa
 
"Liverpool can't win all games" is running 6 games now. :lol:
Odd how people wrote off a team that's been so good for years now (even with the way they've played this season) and always had really good schedule from April until the end of the season, with no CL or cup games left. And they've already got into top 4 only 2 years ago gaining momentum over last 8-10 games or so.

West Ham loss imo makes 3rd place finish highly unlikely and top 4 in serious doubt.
 
It shows how pony Liverpool have been this season that we can lose 2 in a row, and still lose another one and make top 4.

Let's not test that last line though, as otherwise Brighton might get interested too.

Wolves at home would be a game you handpick.
A week's rest too, means utterly no excuses.