The elephant in the room….. could this club face a relegation battle in the 22/23 season?

This is an exaggeration. Although I do think we are in danger of finishing outside the top 10 if we don't make the right signings.
 
Relegation scrap would be great. At least we'd have something to play for.

Seriously though I think bottom half of the table is more likely than not. And relegation is more likely than finishing above 6th.
 
Laurencio said:
The way we're playing we could very well do what Chelsea did in their last season under Mourinho, we're quite shite.
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The difference is this team was downing the tools due to problems with Mourinho but they still had quality. The current United team is simply awful.
 
No chance we get relegated but we are in for a shitfest of a season.
If things get much worse, ten Hag will be sacked and a counter attack style coach will be brought in to save the season.
 
We’re not going down but we are going to have our worst ever premier league season, position wise. I’ve given up hope on us signing anybody who’s actually good at football at this summer. At best, we’ll add some bodies to the squad who are no better than what we currently have.

From this point, I’ll consider this season a win if we somehow are playing some decent football by the end of it and the manager has a clearer idea of what’s needed next summer and gets some players lined up, so we’re not scrabbling around in the arse end of august again next summer.
 
As much as I think this will help the course for getting the Glazers out I can’t see it happening.
But anything’s possible….
 
avgp_1 said:
When things go really bad, I think we'll go back 5 and play on the counter and get enough points to get top 10-12. So relegation wont happen no, but cant see better than 8th if we make no new signings
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You sir are an optimist

Referring to "top" with 10/12 in the same sentence.



Fair play to you for the positive slant all the same.
 
el3mel said:
The difference is this team was downing the tools due to problems with Mourinho but they still had quality. The current United team is simply awful.
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Yeah a change of manager would at least stabilize them. For us? We're in free fall. Our only hope for stabilization is with ten hag, but it'll need pretty much dramatic exclusion of a bunch of first teamers if nothing happens in the transfer window. He needs to find a combo of players that provide some balance but also aren't suffering from collective ptsd like the rest of our team.
 
It's an outside possibility, honestly. On current form and end of last season form we genuinely are one of the worst teams in the league. In terms of both results and how we've played.

You'd think there's enough quality in the squad that it wouldn't happen, but nothing really surprises me anymore
 
I still see 7th-9th. Maybe at a push as low as 12th bit people need to remember how inconsistent those teams that finish middle third of the league, typically are.
 
Of course it’s a possibility, we’ve just been comprehensively beaten by 2 mid to lower level teams, and it’s only going to get worse.
 
BluesJr said:
That was a nonsense the stadiums were empty. Means nothing imo.
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At least the the team won games left right and Center. Since then we added players who on paper are better than their other teammates yet here we are, peak shambles.
 
No. There are around 10 teams who are also dogshit and don’t have anywhere near the quality of manager or players that you do.
 
avgp_1 said:
When things go really bad, I think we'll go back 5 and play on the counter and get enough points to get top 10-12. So relegation wont happen no, but cant see better than 8th if we make no new signings
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TH wont play that. He said its the players not the tactics.
 
I remember when a thread “Can we miss out on top4?” was being ridiculed after Fergie… Never say never.
 
I find it hard to believe this squad is capable of only managing 10 wins. EtH is behind the curve but will make up some ground in a couple months.
 
Utd to win the PL… 150/1

Utd relegation… 25/1

So yeah it’s possible although unlikely
 
About as likely as Leicester winning the league was i'd say. Not impossible.
 
No I don't think so at all.

Even if the unthinkable happened and we lost the next 8 games or picked up 5 points or something I think the club would panic, pull the plug on EtH and get someone in to get immediate results (maybe Ole again :lol: :D...or probably Poch). It'd be like that Chelsea season where they finished 11th or whatever it was.

Damn, i feel depressed after writing that. Good thing it won't happen....probably won't happen.
 
Possible, feel it’s a bit arrogant to say it absolutely won’t happen, player form over a decent timeline doesn’t suggest or support a short to medium term improvement, toxic atmosphere, new management, manager in a new league struggling with belligerent or mentally beaten players. Inability to target and efficiently recruit players for whatever reason. Other than possibly/probably the manager, things have arguably got a little bit worse and there’s as many things that need improvement as there was the end of last season. Personally think mid table would be most likely, but it’s unlikely to be fun.
 
We are wide open to play against and can't even counter the defensive frailties by scoring bucket loads at the other end which is a bad combination.

If we don't get some players in by the end of the window we are in big trouble, probably not enough to go down but easily our worst PL season.
 
You're all crazy. No way united finishes lower than 8th. No way. I'd still bet 6th is the most likely.
 
If we don’t sign some players to strengthen the depth of certain areas in the squad then we’re in the shit and could get relegated, and it’ll be no fault of the manager. We haven’t replaced the players who left the team. Confidence is at an all time low, we’re shifting goals left, right and center and can’t score for soft mick. Our best midfield duo is still McFred, and there’s no way they can play all the matches even if they are shit. We don’t even have a recognized DM. We’re short of forwards and we’re relying on Ronaldo and Martial as CF’s, if those two get injured at the same time what then? And we’ve got less than 2 weeks left in the transfer window. Against Brighton first half and against Brentford we looked like a relegation side. ETH is in an impossible position as things stand, even if he tries to be pragmatic and adapt his tactics to the players he has available. Without further additions he’ll have to play more players out of position and youth players as soon as injuries & suspensions kick in (he’s already had to have played players out of position and we’re just 2 matches in the season). This whilst the EPL is as strong as it had ever been, there really aren’t any easy games in the EPL. Things are pretty dire at the moment, especially considering the imbalance in the squad and no manager can work miracles.
I’m not even being overly pessimistic, just realistic.
 
Elephant in the room? We’ve spoke about nothing else all week!
 
BluesJr said:
That was a nonsense the stadiums were empty. Means nothing imo.
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It also doesn’t mean anything in general - a team could go ‘unbeaten’ all season and get relegated on 38 points. Add in it’s only 50% of games as well and it was just a random stat people thought was good.
 
The problem with becoming a mid-table team is that it doesn't take much to get drawn into the relegation equation. It's still very unlikely but our form in the final third of last season, plus our start this season, makes us vulnerable to at least being 10th-12th...

Mid-table teams traditionally have been fairly well organised but lacking in overall quality. Would you back our squad to have the character to battle our way out of trouble?

Relegation? It's not going to happen, but it's not out of the question based on our last 20 or so games.
 
Not likely but hey ho, we`ve been absolutely woeful for some time now and there was absolutely none indication that we are about to click against Brentford. Absolutely nothing positive to take into the Liverpool game.

De Gea does not suit what EtH wants to do, he is quick and agile but his distribution, decisionmaking, abilty to command his box etc is unfortunately below par. And we`re not gonna find a better keeper before the window closes.

Our options in central defense are decent but not much more. Maguire is still out of form and is a liabilty. Lindelöf is slightly more reliable imo but is easily bullied and looks bang average far to often. Varane has a high ceiling but hasn`t been able to show much for us. Martinez has just arrived so the jury is still out of course but if early indications are anything to go by he will struggle at times as well.

Fullbacks are decent even if we need Dalot to figure out how to defend sooner rather than later

Our options for midfield is just a joke, Fred and Scott are two bang average workhorses that doesn`t complement each other at all. Eriksen is a smarter player with better feet but is surely much better further forward than as a 6. Arguably in the role that Bruno is usually occupying. Donny doesn`t really fit in anywhere.

Our options in attack are no better. Rashford is still a shadow of the player we had before he got his stress fractures. Ronaldo still has some magic in his boots but is not good enough overall anymore. Martial is injured again after a promising pre season and we just can`t rely on him. Sancho is our most talented player imo but looks as lost as the rest of the team atm. Bruno is also really talented but has been poor for way too long now.

Upper half should still be possible for this squad if EtH figures out how to get a tune out of them soon, but feck me, the club needs to bring in some reinforcements this window…
 
Brighton, Leeds, Brentford, Palace, Newcastle etc are all better footballing side

I would straight swap out squad with Palace after all their good work in the last year. That’s how bad we are.
 
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