Rebuild is complete? Do you have blinkers on?
Other teams in the league who didn't exactly stay still --- like spending £250M just in one summer or had a strong foundation/squad depth built up over a number of years.
What are expectations for next season?
- Thread starter Crashoutcassius
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Rebuild is complete? Do you have blinkers on?
Other teams in the league who didn't exactly stay still --- like spending £250M just in one summer or had a strong foundation/squad depth built up over a number of years.
Agreed if we bring in a top CDM we should be challenging for trophies this season. We need a good start to the season and maintain that form, hopefully Ole can manage his squad better than last season and use it to it's full potential.
Title challenge + trophy has to be a minimum expectation with the potential transfer window we could have
Further in the champions league, more consistent and comfortable league performances and a set of players who are starting to gel not just on the pitch but outside of it. I know it's old fashioned now but it would be nice to see some of the WAGs bonding and have that family feeling that I came to expect with United teams of old.
Right... so Chelsea spending 250m in one summer means what exactly? they had a transfer ban the year before and lost their best player....
Go and have a look at the net spend over the past 3 years before saying I have blinkers on?
How long does it take to rebuild, if you are aware not every club can spend 250m in one summer, we done it over years.
And if you look at it.
DDG, Hendo
AWB, Dalot, Williams
Maguire, Lindelof, potentially Varane, Tuanzebe, Bailly
Shaw, Telles
Mctominay, Fred, pogba, Donny, Matic, Bruno
Sancho, Diallo, James
Rashford, Martial
Cavani, Greenwood
I mean we have 2 very good players in each position. I dont know where blinkers come on that. I guess you want to keep making excuses up.
A challenge on all fronts - top 4, Champions league quarters as a minimum, any FA Cup run a bonus, experience for some of the kids in whatever the League Cup is calling itself this year. Football that is worth watching. A midfield that can function properly, better set piece routines front and back, and progress in breaking down opponents who sit deep.
We came second in the league, 4 point haul against City, big wins against RB Leipzig and PSG. It was our lack of consistency that let us down. Cavani and Greenwood both came into their own at the tail end of the season. Adding Varane and Sancho definitely improves us in weak areas and adds more competition for places.
Obviously Chelsea and Liverpool are going to come back stronger than they finished but we just need to focus on our games, get that run of form going, put the weak teams to the sword and realistically we should be challenging for the title. If not then I think serious questions will be asked about Ole. It looks like he is going to be well backed this summer.
Obviously Chelsea and Liverpool are going to come back stronger than they finished but we just need to focus on our games, get that run of form going, put the weak teams to the sword and realistically we should be challenging for the title. If not then I think serious questions will be asked about Ole. It looks like he is going to be well backed this summer.
We need a big improvement on home games and we should be up there at the finish.
I don't think you can have a squad with Sancho, Fernandes, Pogba, Varane, Cavani, Maguire etc and not expect to at least be putting up a proper title challenge.
If Ole doesn't at least give you that then he has to go but i suspect he will deliver. City and Liverpool will be up there, Chelsea depends on whether we get a top striker.
If Ole doesn't at least give you that then he has to go but i suspect he will deliver. City and Liverpool will be up there, Chelsea depends on whether we get a top striker.
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Give them time to gel.
4-3-3 with
Fernandes - McTominay - Pogba
(Donny) - (Matic) - (Fred)
I think that looks pretty alright.
A very realistic title challenge right to the end of season, quarter finals in CL, and a domestic trophy. The bare minimum for me.
I would take another 2nd place. But seriously challenging for it until last 2 weeks at least. And definitely a trophy, any trophy will do including Mickey Mouse cup. And get to at least the quarters in CL. That will be progress to me.
We've always been in the hunt for a domestic cup... even on our bad seasons. Should have won the Europa League last season.
With these cup competitions though, it's about getting the right performance on the right day. You can have the best squad ever but all it takes is one bad day and you're out.
With these cup competitions though, it's about getting the right performance on the right day. You can have the best squad ever but all it takes is one bad day and you're out.
- A serious title challenge - we don't necessarily need to win, just to be seriously up there in the top 3, being an actual contender. Not like the nosebleed we got this season.
- Taking those games like Leeds, Saints, Leipzig and making them a bit more consistent. In other words, let's not win 9-0 and then have 4 draws in our next 5 games. Prolonged passages of victories. Injuries etc. permitting of course.
- A domestic cup would be very nice. Not only because our cabinets have been barren for 5 years or so, but also get rid of this underlying idea that we can't do it in the crunch Semi/Finals.
If after a certain point in the season the title looks possible I'd like Ole to talk like a manager wanting to win the title
Oh no I agree, just worth saying that where my expectations are for the team are just as much off the pitch as on. The lads seem to get that, so in time I hope the wives do as well. The building blocks of a team come from the home, we lost a lot of that foundation when the likes of Ferdinand and Rooney didn't seem to transition the new families into their family time. It's part of the bond that unites and when its strong the team benefits from it.
80+ points in the league, QF of the Champions League.
Hard to say what an acceptable League finish is without knowing how the other teams will perform. Hopefully City don’t improve on their 86 points from last season and Liverpool struggle to reach their previous level. Chelsea will be a threat too.
In the Champions League we have to get through the group this time and barring a disastrous draw we should get through the first knockout to the QFs at least.
In the domestic cups we will be competitive again. Given the desperation for a trophy now I would be pretty disappointed if we were knocked out by a team outside of City, Liverpool, Chelsea.
Hard to say what an acceptable League finish is without knowing how the other teams will perform. Hopefully City don’t improve on their 86 points from last season and Liverpool struggle to reach their previous level. Chelsea will be a threat too.
In the Champions League we have to get through the group this time and barring a disastrous draw we should get through the first knockout to the QFs at least.
In the domestic cups we will be competitive again. Given the desperation for a trophy now I would be pretty disappointed if we were knocked out by a team outside of City, Liverpool, Chelsea.
My feelings are somewhat conflicted when it comes to deciding expectations for this season. I've been a supporter of Ole and this 'project' since pretty much day one of his tenure.
One the one hand I would find it hard to disagree with people who claim that a strong title challenge is essential. If we look at the makeup of our squad now, and who we are likely to add, I fully expect us to be better than last year and we absolutely should all have high expectations of this team. It needs to be taken into account though that the Premier League is very strong. There are four excellent sides in this league and three of them won't win the league.
The conflict in my mind comes from what happens if we do have another trophy less season. I would usually say that no manager should ever survive three full seasons without a trophy at this club, but there is something pretty great going on here at the moment. We are building an excellent first team squad, planning well for the future, and the feel good factor is at a level that it hasn't been at since Ferguson. I won't claim that Ole is solely responsible for that because he isn't, but he is clearly a major factor. I am wary of how easily the wrong appointment could see us hurtling back down the wrong path and I think it would need to be a quite miserable season in order for me to want to risk that change. Fortunately, I don't believe that will be the case.
One the one hand I would find it hard to disagree with people who claim that a strong title challenge is essential. If we look at the makeup of our squad now, and who we are likely to add, I fully expect us to be better than last year and we absolutely should all have high expectations of this team. It needs to be taken into account though that the Premier League is very strong. There are four excellent sides in this league and three of them won't win the league.
The conflict in my mind comes from what happens if we do have another trophy less season. I would usually say that no manager should ever survive three full seasons without a trophy at this club, but there is something pretty great going on here at the moment. We are building an excellent first team squad, planning well for the future, and the feel good factor is at a level that it hasn't been at since Ferguson. I won't claim that Ole is solely responsible for that because he isn't, but he is clearly a major factor. I am wary of how easily the wrong appointment could see us hurtling back down the wrong path and I think it would need to be a quite miserable season in order for me to want to risk that change. Fortunately, I don't believe that will be the case.
I think its weaker than City and Chelsea quite easily.
Donny and Matic offer very very little, McTom and Poga has no balance.
Not winning the league is fine. As you said, only one team can win it. But falling out of contention by December would suck pretty bad. That's my measure, to keep pace with the leaders till near the end.
Second means nothing to me if we are always 10 points behind the winners. Second place by 1 point would be disappointing, but it would mean a whole lot more
Sorry but there are more than 4 excellent sides in this League.
Obviously this is to an extent transfer dependent but as well as Man Utd, City, Liverpool and Chelsea, Leicester, Leeds and even Villa are likely to be in contention for top 4 this season.....Arsenal obviously won't be and Spurs seem to have big financial issues even ignoring the Kane bust up but the others named have no such problems. Leicester were pretty injury ravaged last season whilst Man Utd had (for them) a very injury free season. This may not be the case this time which will make Ole's task much harder (even accounting for the arrival of Varane and Sancho).
Above all the Man Utd weakness in CDM has to be sorted before they can be considered a genuine title challenger.
4 excellent sides and quite a few very good ones IMO. We agree on the overall point though. Not winning the title doesn't need to be a catastrophe.
I'm just going to focus on one thing in particular here
I expect our set-piece defending to improve dramatically because it can’t possibly be any worse. Our record last season was awful, which is particularly annoying because our open play defending was actually very good. I think we were joint second with Chelsea and only bettered by City. But we were the second worst team in the league when it came to set-piece goals conceded.
It was a massive issue for us because a lot of the goals we conceded from these set pieces were really important ones where we dropped a lot of points. If it wasn’t for those silly goals we would have been much closer to City. And I know using “ifs” and “buts” when it comes to football is a dangerous game to play because you can basically run with it and use it for any scenario, but this is something that we can tangibly work on as opposed to something that’s hard to define.
This is very much a coaching issue that can (and should) be improved upon.
I expect our set-piece defending to improve dramatically because it can’t possibly be any worse. Our record last season was awful, which is particularly annoying because our open play defending was actually very good. I think we were joint second with Chelsea and only bettered by City. But we were the second worst team in the league when it came to set-piece goals conceded.
It was a massive issue for us because a lot of the goals we conceded from these set pieces were really important ones where we dropped a lot of points. If it wasn’t for those silly goals we would have been much closer to City. And I know using “ifs” and “buts” when it comes to football is a dangerous game to play because you can basically run with it and use it for any scenario, but this is something that we can tangibly work on as opposed to something that’s hard to define.
This is very much a coaching issue that can (and should) be improved upon.
Good one.I expect us to win the league.
Go deep in all cup comps
Qf of CL (or better).
Go deep in all cup comps
Qf of CL (or better).
Eh?
Man Utd only got a draw with Leeds at Elland Rd in the second half of last season when Leeds had tightened up their defence and Villa and Man Utd each won one of the two head to heads in the League last season....
Lets see how things go with the improved Man Utd side this season.........though Leeds and Villa have also both strengthened (assuming Villa hold on to Grealish).
There are clear levels between City, Chelsea, Pool, United and the rest though. Just because Brighton put 3 past City and beat them doesn't mean I think Brighton are going to be challenging the elite any time soon.
Leicester are a very strong team and I can see the argument that they could come into the top four, you could also say Spurs and Eveton are big outside bets but Villa and Leeds?? They were 11th and 9th respectively. I enjoy watching Leeds play and they have spent a good amount but it would be a genuine miracle if they ended in the top 4.
Win the premier league
Just saw the tweet that Barcelona have to sell and Busquets, Pique and Alba were listed. I feel like Busquets can do the job for us there especially considering the work Bissaka puts in defensively.
85 points minimum and a trophy. Just keep the visible progression and development going.
It’s not about being entitled I wouldn’t be happy with a second place finish after finishing second this season. With all the reinforcements this summer not winning the league is a failed season and thats it. You can’t down play the team that we have we’ve got the players, but this season we’ll see if we got the right coach.
Champions of the world.
I wouldn’t think any other way.
I wouldn’t think any other way.
Serious title challenge, latter stages of the Champions League and/or a cup win.
Serious title challenge going down to perhaps the last two or three match days or a cup win.