What should be the realistic expectations for 2020-21?

If we bring in Sancho, I’d be disappointed if we didn’t finish third. We know about Liverpool, but I’m not sure City is a lock for top two. Chelsea are in the conversation too, no doubt at all about that.

After that, vertigo sets in as you look down the table.
 
Top 4 and at least 75 points. Not sure where this takes us table wise cause I think the competition will be much closer than last season. I think 70 points will be a 5th place finish this season.
 
This is going to be a very tricky season now. Fighting for one last position for CL makes me nervous. It can never be guaranteed when there are 3 other teams fighting for the same. Realistically top 6 is doable but top 4 I doubt.

Lets see 3 more weeks to go for window to close.
 
Well Chelsea's ridiculous strengthening and our incompetence makes this harder now.

After last season ended I was thinking I'd be happy with 3rd + 80 points and/or 12 points or less from the title winners + QF of UCL + an FA Cup run. Think one more season is needed before we can really compete with the top 2 for the title (and Liverpool especially could be reaching the end of their cycle soon).

I'd reduce that to 4th now. Still think we should be well in it for third though, but Ed hasn't made this easy for Ole. If we sign Sancho I'd expect third again though, Chelsea's entire new XI will take a while to gel
 
I think another top 4 finish and a semi-decent cup run/win is fair. I think this is the longest period we've had without a trophy (3 years) since the early days of Sir Alex, but I think top 4 and sustaining that position is more important and a trophy would be a nice bonus.

Succeed in this, then the next season after must be a serious title challenge. We've spent way too long being out of the running (we were never really likely in 17/18 at any point despite the 2nd place finish).
 
If luck is on our side with injuries and form then 3rd or 4th however, to be honest, I wouldn't be surprised if we end up 5th or 6th.
 
The league is going to be tough this year, Chelsea have strengthened, Arteta seems to be a good fit for Arsenal and they've kept their players. City and Liverpool are still unreachable. I don't believe Spurs will be fighting for top 4 this year but who knows. Even considering all this anything but top 4 is a failure for us.
 
I expect City,Chelsea and Liverpool to be the main top 3 sides.

Arsenal,United and Spurs to battle for the remaining 4th position.
 
Our owners want to hopefully qualify for the CL each season, that's the height of their ambitions sadly. It's at odds with the expectation of the fans.
 
Spurs and Arsenal being in the Europa could help us a lot in the latter stages of the season as I don't expect we will get that far in the CL.

1st n 2nd: Berties / Dippers
3rd: Renties
4th: United

If we sign Sancho then I think we can definitely finish 3rd again and get much closer to the top 2 as well.

75pts is the minimum pts that is acceptable. 60 odd points won't be enough this time.
 
There should be no excuse for us to fall out of the top 4.

Lampard managed it last season after losing Hazard & a transfer ban. Arsenal, Spurs and Leicester have also done close to feck all in the transfer market, so I see no reason for the gap to close between us and them (in fact VDB costs more than anything they've spent).

Time for Solskjaer to show he can actually do something on the training ground.

If we do sign Sancho, then we need to be much closer to the top, because under Solskjaer's watch we'll have assembled a team containing the most expensive defender in the world (Maguire), most expensive attacker in the league (Sancho) and he also inherited the most expensive midfielder in the world (Pogba). He'g got nowhere to hide.
 
If we don’t sign anyone else we’ll drop out the top 4.

Our league positions since Fergie left
7th
4th
5th
6th
2nd
6th
3rd

That’s 3 top 4 finishes in 7 years. Arsenal look stronger, Spurs will be stronger, Chelsea will be much stronger, Wolves will be stronger, Everton will be much stronger. Leicester are the only one of our rivals who look at the same level as last season. All of those clubs bar maybe Chelsea have better managers than us too Expecting us to remain in the top 4 without strengthening would be very naive.
 
Well we haven't actually done any transfer business that allows us to close the gap to the two on top so far. And Chelsea bought a new team.

BEFORE we do any further business: My current prediction is 4th with a higher point total than last season. IF Sancho I'm confident we can close the gap to 2nd, with a few things that needs to happen:

Mason Greenwood hits consistency and further development
Marcus Rashford hits consistency and further development
Anthony Martial hits consistency and further development
AWB hits consistency and further development
Donny van de Beek hits consistency and further development
Jadon Sancho hits consistency and further development
David De Gea hits consistency

Did I mention we're a developing team full of talents who's not yet hit full maturity?
 
We actually got more PL points from end of Jan to July than Liverpool n City did. Basically since Bruno joined we were the best team in the division.
 
Nou_Camp99 said:
We actually got more PL points from end of Jan to July than Liverpool n City did. Basically since Bruno joined we were the best team in the division.
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Thats what Im clinging too, not to win the thing obviously but to have a better season, trouble is if he or Pogba go down long term we are back to square one again and then we will be finishing something like 6th again.

The board lack ambition, has done since Ronaldo left.
 
AJ Bullet said:
Thats what Im clinging too, not to win the thing obviously but to have a better season, trouble is if he or Pogba go down long term we are back to square one again and then we will be finishing something like 6th again.

The board lack ambition, has done since Ronaldo left.
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Bollocks. We have spent the 2nd most in that time. That's not a lack of ambition. It's a lack of competency.
 
Top 4 and a reduction in the gap between us and liverpool/city. A cup run obviously to win it or get to the final will be great too. For me the most obvious determinant to get us top 4 and close the gap will be injuries especially if we dont buy sancho etc. We've seen the first team decimated with injuries for the past 6/7 seasons at various stages of the season. When we get injuries we tend to get them in the same position with 2 players.

Liverpool tend to play the same players and were lucky with injuries in the past two seasons. Dont think their bench is that great too. Consistency with the starting 11 with one or two coming in is the best way to build relationships on the field. I believe our first 11/12 players are good as anyones. If we scratch that surface we're sinking right now, especially in attack and left back.
 
A minimum 76 points should be achievable with this squad, which would see us comfortably top 4
 
We hould aim for more points and see where we finish, were not in control of any other team. For example, if we ended up with 81-85 points and finish 5th (unlikely but in theory could happen), then thats still an improvement on last season and would bode well for the season after.
 
Try to keep up with the team in 1st, win each game as it comes. 2nd should be the aim, with 3rd being a consolation.

If a challenge is on, then the cups can be scrapped. If not, at least one cup. So either a close challenge, or 3rd and a trophy.
 
We should be looking to win the PL every season. Anything less than that feels like a hollow prediction.

Unfortunately, we are not there. Hard to hang your hat on 'top 4' finish!
 
Would take top 4, a cup final and avoiding falling through the floor in the Champions League. I think it'll be a difficult season mainly because we now have to take Europe seriously. To do that while also improving in the league will be difficult. In addition, the likes of Chelsea and Arsenal show signs and intention of improving, while teams such as Leicester, Wolves and Everton look more and more like serious contenders for the positions just below top 4.
 
Given the lack of signings (so far), we're entirely dependent on injuries; if any one of the first XI are out long term (save for where VDB can fill in), we're screwed.

Also given that we're probably going to be playing 60+ games this season, we have to expect injuries.

The top three will be Liverpool, City and Chelsea. We're in a scrap for 4th with Arsenal, possibly Everton, Wolves.

We should get 4th, subject to injuries.

Of course, a couple more signings and this will change. Add Sancho and we should be looking to be 3rd, and within 10 points of 2nd.
 
Too many people just look at things and think signings=better and no signings=worse. There are numerous other factors involved, and all of our rivals have things we could look at and take heart from.

Liverpool - haven't strengthened yet. By most peoples logic that should = worse, but for me the big question is whether they continue to be as fortunate with injuries

City - haven't strengthened really and still haven't replaced Kompany. They have the weight of another CL failure hanging over them

Chelsea - practically a new team to settle in. They need to figure out their best team and also hope that all of these signings succeed. Chilwell is ordinary in my view and Thiago could be completely exposed the way Lampard sets his team up. I dont see a stronger defence than last season there

Spurs - in disarray in my view. Not top 4 contenders

Arsenal - i don't see them sustaining good form over a season, especially with the anchor of Europe League Thursday nights. Id be hugely surprised if they were contenders for 4th

Obviously all of the above is a pessimistic view of our rivals, but then our own fans seem unable to view United in anything other than similar terms. Lets try a positive slant:

United - amassed more points than anyone else since Bruno signed and with the addition of VDB we should be able to field a strong midfield in every game. Unlikely to be as unfortunate with injuries as we were last year and we have a young team that is gaining experience all the time

For me, all I would like from us this season is for the team to show (a) that they continue the consistent form we showed since January and (b) that they put in a strong enough showing in the CL that we can believe that this team belong at that level. If we do that it will be a fun season and, importantly, progression
 
Nou_Camp99 said:
We actually got more PL points from end of Jan to July than Liverpool n City did. Basically since Bruno joined we were the best team in the division.
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I don't want to play down that, it was truly some achievement by Ole and the lads. However that also coincided with Liverpool already won the league and City surrendered. Chelsea, Arsenal, Spurs were very inconsistent. Leicester lost some of their best players and also their momentum.

Now it's entirely a new season and it will be quite different imo. Chelsea has massively strengthened. Arsenal looks much more stable now. I had a look at the lineup of Everton last match and they had a pretty good one. It'll be much more difficult and imo if we don't strengthen more, I'd have no surprise if we end up 5th, 6th or even worse by Jan.
 
Strelok said:
I don't want to play down that, it was truly some achievement by Ole and the lads. However that also coincided with Liverpool already won the league and City surrendered. Chelsea, Arsenal, Spurs were very inconsistent. Leicester lost some of their best players and also their momentum.

Now it's entirely a new season and it will be quite different imo. Chelsea has massively strengthened. Arsenal looks much more stable now. I had a look at the lineup of Everton last match and they had a pretty good one. It'll be much more difficult and imo if we don't strengthen more, I'd have no surprise if we ended up 5th, 6th or even worse by Jan.
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Absolutely I agree there were some reasons why we did. But we haven't become a crap team overnight because we didn't get Sancho either. DVB and a good back up / rotating left back improves us again from last season. Not to forget we will have Bruno n Pogba all season this time fingers crossed.
 
Bilbo said:
Too many people just look at things and think signings=better and no signings=worse. There are numerous other factors involved, and all of our rivals have things we could look at and take heart from.

Liverpool - haven't strengthened yet. By most peoples logic that should = worse, but for me the big question is whether they continue to be as fortunate with injuries

City - haven't strengthened really and still haven't replaced Kompany. They have the weight of another CL failure hanging over them

Chelsea - practically a new team to settle in. They need to figure out their best team and also hope that all of these signings succeed. Chilwell is ordinary in my view and Thiago could be completely exposed the way Lampard sets his team up. I dont see a stronger defence than last season there

Spurs - in disarray in my view. Not top 4 contenders

Arsenal - i don't see them sustaining good form over a season, especially with the anchor of Europe League Thursday nights. Id be hugely surprised if they were contenders for 4th

Obviously all of the above is a pessimistic view of our rivals, but then our own fans seem unable to view United in anything other than similar terms. Lets try a positive slant:

United - amassed more points than anyone else since Bruno signed and with the addition of VDB we should be able to field a strong midfield in every game. Unlikely to be as unfortunate with injuries as we were last year and we have a young team that is gaining experience all the time

For me, all I would like from us this season is for the team to show (a) that they continue the consistent form we showed since January and (b) that they put in a strong enough showing in the CL that we can believe that this team belong at that level. If we do that it will be a fun season and, importantly, progression
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Very well said.
 
Nou_Camp99 said:
Absolutely I agree there were some reasons why we did. But we haven't become a crap team overnight because we didn't get Sancho either. DVB and a good back up / rotating left back improves us again from last season. Not to forget we will have Bruno n Pogba all season this time fingers crossed.
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No I don't think we'd become a crap team overnight just because we don't get Sancho. It's PL and crap team don't get 5th/6th. If you read my previous post in this thread you'd see I expected us to deliver a good challenge for the title if we sign him. I was talking about strengthening our squad in general not specifically signing Sancho.

It's just too unrealistic to expect our trio attackers to be injury free and banging for months, let alone the whole season. Especially considering Greenwood is just 18. Imo we'd need at least a good RW that could play LW to ensure our depth and quality. And a good LB if possible.

Let's see how this goes.
 
We should improve in terms of Points - but not in terms of position.

3rd of 4th Place is a success if we improve our total Points significantly (at least 5-6 Points more than last season as a minimum) - not reaching 4th or better is a failure as I don't see any teams apart from Chelsea who on paper look as strong as us. Spurs I have almost written off already, so that leaves Arsenal, Leicester and Wolves realistically. (I can't see Everton improving enough either). And we are stronger on paper than all these teams.

I dont Think any team will reach much more than 90 Points this season - so if we get 3rd or 4th with more than 70 Points, I would be satisfied as long as we play decent football
 
Going to be an extremely rough season and a hard battle to try for fourth. Getting there will probably require United's closest competitors to feck up in addition to everything working out at United.
 
Even though we have improved, I think we will struggle to make top 4 if we don't bulk up the squad some more. Schedule will be more intense and demanding than last season.
 
Top four and maybe a cup, knockout stages of the Champions League. Grounds for optimism is we have young players who should improve and a working midfield. Downside, we are very light on viable defensive options. If we are able to bring in Sancho and A.N.Other then who knows?
 
lysglimt said:
see any teams apart from Chelsea who on paper look as strong as us.
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Chelsea, who were level on points with United last season, and have strengthened SIGNIFICANTLY with top level young talent, "look as strong as United"? In what sense don't they seem quite a lot stronger than United, considering they were just as strong last season and should now be considerably stronger?
 
soralapio said:
Chelsea, who were level on points with United last season, and have strengthened SIGNIFICANTLY with top level young talent, "look as strong as United"? In what sense don't they seem quite a lot stronger than United, considering they were just as strong last season and should now be considerably stronger?
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He clearly said apart from Chelsea. Read it again.
 
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