What should be the realistic expectations for 2020-21?

Signs of steady improvement, a league finish within the top four, and a decent run in one of the Cups, at least up to the semis (I'm hoping it is the CL, but more realistically, it will be in the FA Cup).
 
Depends on so, so many factors obviously, but if we are really going into the season with the same squad as last season then the first XI are going to have to do A LOT of work, as Ole has clearly shown he doesn't rate the back-up options.

I think we need to follow Klopp's example and ditch the domestic cups ASAP - as much as I love them and want to win them, we don't have the squad to challenge for them and maintain a decent league position. We played a lot of games last year to reach three semi-finals and ultimately end-up with nothing; with Pep always playing such strong teams in the cups as well then there's not a lot of chance for us to win one anyway, so sacrificing them is logical, though depressing.

The exception to that would be if we end-up in the Europa League again after Xmas, in which case that might be our best chance of the Champions League next season.

Overall I'd say 5th or 6th - Liverpool and City obviously better; Chelsea have the tools however no guarantee they can make it work but you'd have to think they will get at least 4th; Arsenal are looking better than they have for ages and they're not done spending yet so they're a maybe; Spurs might be held-back by Jose but his style shouldn't get them any lower than 6th TBH.

And that doesn't include a side like Wolves or Everton making the step-up, or where Leeds are going to end-up given I expect them to have a tremendous season back in the Premier League. Leicester less likely I think, but obviously they did well last season.

But I'll be optimistic - 5th.
 
Foxbatt said:
Liverpool, City, Chelsea, Arsenal and Spurs with the Bale and the full back from Real is going to be better than us. I would say Carlo has proven to be a better manager than Ole so even Everton can be above us.
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I am not sure about Bale and spurs. But it seems aubameyang is in the form of his life. And whenever a striker is in form he takes his team to new height, even though not winning the title. So arsenal I think are definitely top 4 contenders this season. Everton will eat point off every other team. I think currently only city, pool and chelsea can fend them off. But they are the risk for any team fighting for the 4th spot.
 
YAMS49 said:
4th at very best, we've been screwed by those in power.
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Yeah it's 2018 all over again as we feared but the difference being that Ole won't go to war with the board like Jose because he knows that will be his dream job gone in a flash
 
croadyman said:
Yeah it's 2018 all over again as we feared but the difference being that Ole won't go to war with the board like Jose because he knows that will be his dream job gone in a flash
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The board have their yes man, to some extent. Ole will do the best can with the resources and play the media game for them as you say. It's their win win scenario.
 
YAMS49 said:
The board have their yes man, to some extent. Ole will do the best can with the resources and play the media game for them as you say. It's their win win scenario.
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I feel sorry for the guy having his dream job but yet working with two hands tied behind his back
 
YAMS49 said:
I wouldn't necessarily feel sorry for him, he's actually part of the problem if he isn't raising his voice enough.
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He wants to but like I said in earlier post we both know why he can't
 
With the players we have at this moment, I see 4th to be just about possible. I also feel there is too much football and it impacts on the squad with injuries and tiredness. If Bruno is out for any length of time, we will be in trouble. Scousers will win it again, City will sack Guardiola when they get knocked out of the CL and bring in Poch (who has probably already signed a deal for next season), Wolves will surprise everybody.

Should we actually get our fingers out, and cheque book, and buy a quality Centre Back, Left back and striker/winger, then anything is possible but it’s a bloody big if.
 
Ole shouldn't get fired if we don't get top 4, we have no sustainable holding midfielder, no LB cover and our options for the front 3 beyond our starters are James, Igalho and Lingard. With CB we are banking on Axel or Bailly staying fit for 5 minutes and being good enough to actually usurp Lindelof, it's a complete farcical disgrace, if Ole gets top 4 he's overachieved.
 
On Talk of the Devils, Whitwell and Mitten both said they expect United to finish 3rd or 4th, even with no more signings.

We need more signings, but regardless, we should still be odds on to finish at least 4th.

Ole will need to further develop his tactics (or the coaches, he says he's less of a coach and more of a manager or leader) and prioritise competitions. But he should get this team 4th.
 
we were the best team in the league with Bruno..now you get a Pogba injury-free hopefully + Rashford injury-hopefully + DvB + an improved Greenwood + an improved AWB + an even more mature Martial + DeGea having to stay focused with Henderson watching.
Knowing we had no issue against TOP6 teams last year. I am going in expecting a title challenge!!!!
 
We should do better than last season (in terms of points) based on having (fingers crosses) Martial, Pogba and Rashford fit. Bruno here the whole season. Added cover to midfield in VDB.

Also, we won't have the Europa league schedule which is taxing.
 
As it is, 2nd would be optimistic, dependant on various parameters (injuries, general football environment in COVID, new signings and their impact, etc.)

I would say anything between 6th and 2nd is realistic. I dont think there will be more than 12 pts btwn 6th and 2nd.
 
Offsideagain said:
With the players we have at this moment, I see 4th to be just about possible. I also feel there is too much football and it impacts on the squad with injuries and tiredness. If Bruno is out for any length of time, we will be in trouble. Scousers will win it again, City will sack Guardiola when they get knocked out of the CL and bring in Poch (who has probably already signed a deal for next season), Wolves will surprise everybody.

Should we actually get our fingers out, and cheque book, and buy a quality Centre Back, Left back and striker/winger, then anything is possible but it’s a bloody big if.
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We might get the last one on that list but looking at Romano's latest tweet gives us serious cause for pessimism on that front, cannot see any sign of a LB right now and wouldn't expect a CB until next summer when maybe we will get Upamecano (champions league permitting of course)
 
The problem is double fold. If we don't achieve CL spot this season the next season might face a daunting task of signing good players on reasonable wages. Otherwise we will have to pay over the average wages again to sign and keep good players.
 
Tony247 said:
The problem is double fold. If we don't achieve CL spot this season the next season might face a daunting task of signing good players on reasonable wages. Otherwise we will have to pay over the average wages again to sign and keep good players.
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Yeah we spend when we don't make the champions league but like you say it means we have to overpay players yet again
 
With the squad we have top 4 is a minimum.
If we don't get any major injuries then we should be within 10 points of the winners.
If we get Sancho and a leftback then a proper title challenge.
 
Comfortably in the top 4. Our players are class and we will hand out a few hidings along the way.
 
Depend a bit on the moves we make in these last few weeks. If there are no new players coming in, my expectation is that we somehow manage to qualify for top 4 by the skin of our teeth, thanks to key dropped points by teams who are competing for the same thing: Arsenal, Spurs, Wolves, Everton, etc. There are a lot of question marks over our consistency I think.

I think if we sign Sancho, who seems to be the only vaguely possible deal to do at the moment, I think we can get 4th and also hopefully 3rd if Chelsea don't settle well or if City slip up too often.
 
Just wait until the window closes. We‘ll know then. We keep our business quiet nowadays, be patient.
 
5th or 6th

Same process as always, qualify for the CL, dont invest, finish 6th, sack Ole, buy 3,4 players ETC ETC
 
I would be upset if we didn't get at least 3rd place.

As long as this team stays healthy, we should be able to beat anyone on our day. Our attacking trio was fantastic and they have so much room to improve being young players.

Add that to a full season of Bruno, Pogba and Van Der Beek? I think we should be just fine.

If we get Sancho that will be the cherry on the cake, but there is absolutely no guarantee any new signings (for our rivals as well) will adapt to the premier league.

We finally have the luxury of continuity and OGS is clearly building a team that can score goals for fun.
 
DevilRed said:
I would be upset if we didn't get at least 3rd place.

As long as this team stays healthy, we should be able to beat anyone on our day. Our attacking trio was fantastic and they have so much room to improve being young players.

Add that to a full season of Bruno, Pogba and Van Der Beek? I think we should be just fine.

If we get Sancho that will be the cherry on the cake, but there is absolutely no guarantee any new signings (for our rivals as well) will adapt to the premier league.

We finally have the luxury of continuity and OGS is clearly building a team that can score goals for fun.
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I agree with this.

If we look at things objectively, our team is better than last season, we have added Bruno, VDB, Greenwood in attack, we strengthened our defence last summer. I know some of us think its football manager mode and we need a CDM, CB, LB, RW, ST but in reality Sancho and possible a cheap LB will be a huge upgrade.

We have to realise, we are in a pandemic, we can't go and sign everyone.

The breakdown on here because we havent signed Thiago, Regulion, Gabriel is crazy.

If we signed them 3, it would cost us 90m Euros which is the transfer budget and completely written of the Sancho hope.

The improvement in our team with those 3 signings is not the same as what Sancho could have because he is in a position we are desperate.
 
Sad times where 4th is most people's best case scenario after we finished 3rd last season. No chance of a title run
 
Another good talent to come through the academy will shine, Greenwood will get more gametime, the board will basically tell Ole that we have spent enough now, recruit from within and then wonder why we are dropping down to 5-6th.
 
Without any more signings I would say 5th. With Sancho and 1 other, ( CB or DM) I would say we can challenge.
 
We should still be getting 3rd of 4th. If we had a decent window it could've been much better than that, but reasons.
 
Same as last season.

Ole had said that anyone sold will be replaced; they weren't. This season Ole said that we'll sign 2-3 first team players; we haven't. I expect us to struggle similar to last season but whether our rivals perform at the same pathetic level is something I can hope for but can't bank on. We needed to realize that as well as we played in the last 3-4 months, we achieved 3rd because our rivals were quite poor as well. All those rivals have strengthened now and we're in a big danger of being left behind.
 
croadyman said:
Yeah it's 2018 all over again as we feared but the difference being that Ole won't go to war with the board like Jose because he knows that will be his dream job gone in a flash
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True he is a yes man but his man management is better than Jose's at this point. Which means he is more likely to get the boys to rally rather than have them turn against him. If this was a normal season I think we could get away with Vdb only. The crazy schedule will burn us out unless we take the cowards way out and drop out of the domestic cups.
 
Nickelodeon said:
Same as last season.

Ole had said that anyone sold will be replaced; they weren't. This season Ole said that we'll sign 2-3 first team players; we haven't. I expect us to struggle similar to last season but whether our rivals perform at the same pathetic level is something I can hope for but can't bank on. We needed to realize that as well as we played in the last 3-4 months, we achieved 3rd because our rivals were quite poor as well. All those rivals have strengthened now and we're in a big danger of being left behind.
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Also we picked up the most points in the second half of the season. I think our starting 11 is fine for top 4, issues arise when we have to rely on Andreas, Mata or Lingard. People keep mentioning last season and not pointing out the going ons of the 1st half of the season. At times we had Andreas playing cm. Against Sheffield away we subbed out Andreas from cm to replace him with Lingard that's how thin we were in midfield.
 
We should be very happy with a top 4 spot, given the lack of investments.

OGS did very well to get us there last season, but without significant reinforcements, it will be an even bigger ask this season.
 
We are completely forgetting about the competition. They all have massively improved compared to us by getting new players. So going by last season is off the mark. If the competition didn't improve, yes with the addition of DVB we can improve. But that's not so is the case.
 
With a good run, few injuries, other teams not living up to expectation - 4th and maybe a cup.

Pragmatically - 6/7th. We simply don't have the depth and too many of our 'first-teamers' aren't consistent enough (yet).
 
I wonder why some people think we can qualify for CL? Yes if other teams didn't buy any players we may have a chance. But other teams have improved a lot. We didn't. So no way we can qualify for CL now without getting new players. I would say Liverpool, City top two with Chelsea, Everton, Arsenal and Spurs for the top 3 and 4 with us fighting for 5th or 6th place.
 
Foxbatt said:
I wonder why some people think we can qualify for CL? Yes if other teams didn't buy any players we may have a chance. But other teams have improved a lot. We didn't. So no way we can qualify for CL now without getting new players. I would say Liverpool, City top two with Chelsea, Everton, Arsenal and Spurs for the top 3 and 4 with us fighting for 5th or 6th place.
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Agree 100%. 5th or 6th is where we will finish!
 
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