Where will United finish this season?

Where will United finish this season?

  • Total voters
    734
  • Poll closed .
Football is all about confidence, a few more poor results and this team will struggle to get any sort of consistency, the gameplan will go out the window and games will get scrappier again. We need to put a run of at least 4 wins in 5 games, otherwise top 4 is going to be very tough, and ETH will get the sack.

We never really seem to put the opposition under continuous pressure, where they are pinned in their own box, unless we are chasing a game at the death. But the major issue throughout ETH tenure so far has been our movement and chance creation in the final 3rd (slowest passers in the league so far - metres/sec), whilst it has improved, I'm not sure it's going to be enough.
 
Cloud7 said:
Not trying to take the thread off topic, but what made you think all of those teams were going to struggle?

Villa have a good squad and arguably the third best manager in the league. Spurs under Ange always attempt to play positive football, so that will work at times and not work at other times, so fair enough.

As for Chelsea and Liverpool, was the expectation that because they didn't hire 'big name' managers that they were going to struggle?

And above all that, did you expect significant improvement from us or did you think this season was going to be similar to the last?

The reason I ask this is because I was the complete opposite of you. I voted sixth and saw very little that made me think we were going to do much above that if things continued as is. Firstly, I did not think we were going to see much improvement from ETH this season. I also thought that Liverpool and Chelsea would have seen something in Slot and Maresca that made them think they would be viable candidates, because I think the whole "Well can you name someone who can replace ETH" thing our fanbase have adopted is really, really stupid, because there's a lot more that goes into being a manager than we know, and we don't have the full breadth of information to be able to say who would be a good fit for the job.
Click to expand...

I thought Klopp’s exit could puncture the mentality that had been built up during his time there, and they would have to navigate a transition to a more tactically focussed manager who might not necessarily gel with the squad.

You also have an aging Salah and Van Dijk, plus those two and TAA out of contract soon. Added to that no noteworthy signings over the summer.

Chelsea are a basket case of a club and took a gamble on Maresca, I still believe this despite their current results.

Spurs I thought would have second season syndrome under Ange, don’t think there’s anything to disprove that so far.

Villa had an amazing finish last year but repeating that feat when you’ve no record of it is tricky, plus there’s the expanded CL to navigate.

Whereas we’d made good signings in the right positions, stabilised our hierarchy with people who are top football men, and would be (hopefully) avoiding another insane injury hit season.

While my prediction looks optimistic, I wouldn’t say any of it is outlandish.
 
Leftback99 said:
My 8th looking good. More likely lower than higher I think.
Click to expand...
If Erik stays the course then it’ll be around there

Reckon if we sacked him now then we’d get 4th

Thats not even in itself me saying Ten Hag is shit by the way. We need fresh ideas. I doubt Ten Hag is letting his coaches overrule him
 
LawCharltonBest said:
If Erik stays the course then it’ll be around there

Reckon if we sacked him now then we’d get 4th

Thats not even in itself me saying Ten Hag is shit by the way. We need fresh ideas. I doubt Ten Hag is letting his coaches overrule him
Click to expand...
I don't see 4th, maybe 5th. He's left the squad devoid of goals with his signings compared to our rivals and we're already on catch up.
 
Definitely top four. After Arsenal and City the rest of us are all in the same boat. If we can just get some form and consistency going then we're as good as anyone else. This team has got potential, it just needs unlocking.
 
Pretty simple for me, if we can start putting away the chances we’re creating we’ll get top four. Unfortunately nothing is showing us we will so I think top 6 is more realistic. We’re desperate for a couple of players who guarantee you goals.
 
DWelbz19 said:
Voted 6th. Think that’s fair. Squad quality should get top 4, think tactics and management will let us down.
Click to expand...
Lose today and I think this becomes an ambitious shout. There’s currently six better coached sides than us, and then Tottenham are around the same level.

Again, player quality wise, I only see Pool, City, and Arsenal being clearly superior — Chelsea, Villa, Newcastle are all on similar levels where we are superior in some areas and weaker in others.

It’s mostly in the coaching and the management.
 
Voted 7th and sticking by it. Scoring goals is the most important thing in football and we have the worst attack in the top 8 - I haven’t got a scooby what people saying we have the 4th best squad in the country are looking at - very few if any of our players start in a combined Chelsea, Spurs, Brighton, Villa and Newcastle 11 - let alone a City, Liverpool and Arsenal one - the squad is full of good solid players and looks “double stacked” but I could count one one hand the number of players who are in the top 5 in their position in the league. We’re absolutely fecking miles off.
 
I voted 6th but I have been surprised by how good De ligt is. I am thinking 5th should be the target. Man City, Arsenal, Liverpool have started well. Chelsea looks like they have the fire power to get fourth. The rest are in the same boat.
 
DWelbz19 said:
Lose today and I think this becomes an ambitious shout. There’s currently six better coached sides than us, and then Tottenham are around the same level.

Again, player quality wise, I only see Pool, City, and Arsenal being clearly superior — Chelsea, Villa, Newcastle are all on similar levels where we are superior in some areas and weaker in others.

It’s mostly in the coaching and the management.
Click to expand...
Agreed 100%
 
Leftback99 said:
I don't see 4th, maybe 5th. He's left the squad devoid of goals with his signings compared to our rivals and we're already on catch up.
Click to expand...
He doesn't pick the signings, and it's the best transfer we have had in a really long time.
 
Mickeza said:
Voted 7th and sticking by it. Scoring goals is the most important thing in football and we have the worst attack in the top 8 - I haven’t got a scooby what people saying we have the 4th best squad in the country are looking at - very few if any of our players start in a combined Chelsea, Spurs, Brighton, Villa and Newcastle 11 - let alone a City, Liverpool and Arsenal one - the squad is full of good solid players and looks “double stacked” but I could count one one hand the number of players who are in the top 5 in their position in the league. We’re absolutely fecking miles off.
Click to expand...
We probably have the second best back 4.
 
Hammondo said:
He doesn't pick the signings, and it's the best transfer we have had in a really long time.
Click to expand...
We still pretending the two years before didn't happen? This summer didn't address our biggest problem, the lack of goals.
 
6th prediction, 5th to 8th range.

Chelsea and Villa look good bets to finish above us and it would seem City Arse will be in the top 3. Pool will probably top 3 top 5, doesn't seem they will drop off that much.

Always a chance some of these teams fade away and hit a bad spell, we're used to seeing that in the last 5-10 years, maybe United can finish strong but I don't have much hope. We do have a better squad to create a new core though, I don't see ETH staying on and other teams have better managers and score more freely.
 
sugar_kane said:
I thought Klopp’s exit could puncture the mentality that had been built up during his time there, and they would have to navigate a transition to a more tactically focussed manager who might not necessarily gel with the squad.

You also have an aging Salah and Van Dijk, plus those two and TAA out of contract soon. Added to that no noteworthy signings over the summer.

Chelsea are a basket case of a club and took a gamble on Maresca, I still believe this despite their current results.

Spurs I thought would have second season syndrome under Ange, don’t think there’s anything to disprove that so far.

Villa had an amazing finish last year but repeating that feat when you’ve no record of it is tricky, plus there’s the expanded CL to navigate.

Whereas we’d made good signings in the right positions, stabilised our hierarchy with people who are top football men, and would be (hopefully) avoiding another insane injury hit season.

While my prediction looks optimistic, I wouldn’t say any of it is outlandish.
Click to expand...

I think Salah, van Dijk, Trent and Alisson will produce another season where they carry Liverpool into a comfortable top 4 position, but I have a feeling not all 4 will be at the club next season, and that's when the going will get tough, as they start losing players from this quartet. And it's funny that FSG has no issues with wasting multiple seasons if this 4 players' primes when a few quality additions per summer could have them easily challenge for the PL and CL. But thankfully for us they're not that ambitious.

The rest of the top 4 contenders however don't really have a huge edge over us IMO, I'd say quite a few of them are inferior teams actually, so I'd agree with most of your post.
 
golden_blunder said:
I can’t get over the fact that 59 people voted 1st place
Click to expand...
I'd give them the benefit of the doubt that they are taking the mick. It's the ones that genuinely believed we'd finish 2nd or 3rd I'd worry about their judgement.
 
I reckon between 6th - 8th. If we get rid of ETH sooner rather than later then I think top 4 is still achievable, but would require the new manager to hit the ground running and get this team scoring goals consistently.
 
ShinjiNinja26 said:
I reckon between 6th - 8th. If we get rid of ETH sooner rather than later then I think top 4 is still achievable, but would require the new manager to hit the ground running and get this team scoring goals consistently.
Click to expand...
Not enough goals in this team to finish top 4. ETH will get us 7-9th.
 
With only Shaw and Yoro out injuried, one'd expect us to be playing Ten Hag ball by now! Maybe 3rd was a bit optimistic..
 
Mickeza said:
Not a single one of our back 4 starts for Arsenal, City or Liverpool and we haven’t had a fit left back for 18 months - so how have you worked that one out?
Click to expand...
I think you are not in the real world. We have not had this back 4 for 18 months, so I've no idea what you are talking about.
 
Hammondo said:
I think you are not in the real world. We have not had this back 4 for 18 months, so I've no idea what you are talking about.
Click to expand...
I’m not in the real world because I don’t think any of our back four starts for Liverpool, Arsenal or City - please enlighten me - which ones start? Large parts of this fanbase are in absolute cuckoo land about the quality of this squad compared to our rivals - we’re absolutely light years away.
 
Mickeza said:
I’m not in the real world because I don’t think any of our back four starts for Liverpool, Arsenal or City - please enlighten me - which ones start? Large parts of this fanbase are in absolute cuckoo land about the quality of this squad compared to our rivals - we’re absolutely light years away.
Click to expand...
De Ligt would start for either team, as an example.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.