Who, with me, believes we can win the premier league?

InfiniteBoredom said:
we can conceivably be 12+ pts behind them by the time we play a league game again, away, to Liverpool. Lose or draw that game and we are out of the equation.

the margin of error has always been incredibly small for us after the start to the season that we had. And we are merely keeping pace with them, not outperforming them to make up that deficit (Leeds & Palace draws). For us to have a chance, they need to have another disastrous run of 4-5 winless games while we actually capitalize on that, instead of matching them with our own disappointing run. Possible? Yes. Probable? Very unlikely.

And that's to say nothing of City. They are still capable of blowing away any team in the league and there wont be many days where Haaland misses open goal like against Forest.
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Yep coming 2nd in his first season and a trophy would be absolutely incredible.
 
From where we at this point last year, it's incredible that this thread is actually relevant. What I would give for a squeaky bum at the end of April.
 
I'm convinced we can win the league, but not until next season. Those two losses at the start of the season already gave us an uphill climb with the start Arsenal had.

If not for that late Palace FK and a terrible start against Leeds at home, we'd be right in the mix. But for once, you are looking at a summer window where you feel the manager knows exactly what we need to make a real push next season.

I like how we are taking it game by game, fighting on all fronts and looking to win a trophy as a priority this season to get the proverbial monkey off our backs. But I do think eventually that may catch up with us.

Finishing comfortably third with a trophy and a couple of good cup runs would be an excellent season. Could easily go deep in the FA Cup too with Arsenal, Liverpool and Chelsea already out.
 
Whilst technically you are in the title race I just can't see you winning it. You basically need to be perfect to get close. Actually hoping you really drop off so I might get good odds on you winning it next season.
 
InfiniteBoredom said:
we can conceivably be 12+ pts behind them by the time we play a league game again, away, to Liverpool. Lose or draw that game and we are out of the equation.

the margin of error has always been incredibly small for us after the start to the season that we had. And we are merely keeping pace with them, not outperforming them to make up that deficit (Leeds & Palace draws). For us to have a chance, they need to have another disastrous run of 4-5 winless games while we actually capitalize on that, instead of matching them with our own disappointing run. Possible? Yes. Probable? Very unlikely.

And that's to say nothing of City. They are still capable of blowing away any team in the league and there wont be many days where Haaland misses open goal like against Forest.
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Yeah we badly need a couple of favours from Leicester/Everton/Bournemouth while we are away trying to win League Cup. I have already accepted there is no chance it will be any less than 12 pts though. I guess scheduling of postponed Brentford game hinges on what happens against Barca.
 
Said in the other thread but nothing other than Anfield really bothers me too much looking ahead and there's not really any cluster of games where you think "that's a bad run". It'll be the silly games like Palace and Leeds where the team drops points but if we're within 3 or 4 points at the beginning of April then i don't see why we can't make a really good challenge of it.

Absolutely remarkable we're even talking about this considering where we were last season under Ole/Ralf
 
Arsenal play 3 league games and City play 2 league games before United next play in the league..

Spurs play 2 games so United will be 3rd in the table no matter what Spurs do.

But it might be very interesting if either City/Arsenal have a defeat in the meantime.
 
It’s a yes from me.

At the start of every season I believe we will win the league. Guess that won’t change now being so close to the pretenders.

The only difference now, we have a fan base that believes and accept players can have off moments, not hold it against them. We have a championship winning team+ a loveable manager. His best work has been getting the fans behind the team. Now the lads don’t shit themselves the moment they get on the pitch, knowing mistakes are part of the game. You just have to keep going instead looking to self preserve.

This team will get better as we head into the last 5 games. Apart from Saka, Gundogan, Walker and Haaland, I won’t put any of their players in our 11. Hear some saying what about KDB? I don’t like Fernandes in that role, why will I bring in another chaos merchant into our team.
 
Todd said:
This is troubling...article on ESPN today claiming that the club are not planning on spending big this summer
https://www.espn.com/soccer/soccer-...r-spend-even-if-qatari-bid-successful-sources

Hopefully the powers at be recognize that if the club want to seriously compete for the Premier League and possibly Champions League next season, the squad still needs a big upgrade in a few key areas.
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I don’t see this as an issue and it’s good noise to be honest. Letting the players understand we believe in them as long as they are here. Unless an unbelievable player shows up, our current squad is showing itself to be as good as any out there.
Dias, Partey and VVD missing for the pretenders, we’ve seen how exposed they look. We have been without Varane, Sancho, Anthony, Casemiro and Martial a lot this season but we still worked things out. A defensive/workhorse striker will be a great addition but those don’t tend to command big prices anyway.
 
KikiDaKats said:
I don’t see this as an issue and it’s good noise to be honest. Letting the players understand we believe in them as long as they are here. Unless an unbelievable player shows up, our current squad is showing itself to be as good as any out there.
Dias, Partey and VVD missing for the pretenders, we’ve seen how exposed they look. We have been without Varane, Sancho, Anthony, Casemiro and Martial a lot this season but we still worked things out. A defensive/workhorse striker will be a great addition but those don’t tend to command big prices anyway.
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I think we're still a striker and a midfielder away from being the team to beat in the Premier League. We've gotten away with it this season because Rashford is in the best form of his life, but it'd be foolish to assume that we can rely on that next season. If he were to go down injured we'd be absolutely sunk.

The reality is that as it stands we'd be going into next season with basically no expectation of scoring from our striker position if we don't bring in a new player. Martial cannot be counted on to be our striker, he is a lost cause, and Weghorst is just never going to be a guy that we can count on to score goals, as he has clearly demonstrated. This is a problem and the only way it's going to be solved it by spending 80 million or more on a legitimate goal scorer.
 
It’s believable that Leicester beat Arsenal on Saturday as until we beat them Leicester are very much in form and if we’re all honest they should have been ahead or at the very least drawing with us at half time, with how flakey City are at the minute I wouldn’t back against Bournemouth nicking a point either so that’d mean us being 5 points behind Arsenal on equal games and 4 behind City with them playing a game more.

I don’t know who either Arsenal or City have got the weekend after this one coming but if we’re within 5 or 6 points of the top by the end of March then we’re genuinely in a title fight. That said if someone asked me at the start of the season what I’d be happy with is have said a top four finish so if we get that an a cup or two I’d be ecstatic and be full of confidence of us winning the league next season.
 
Todd said:
I think we're still a striker and a midfielder away from being the team to beat in the Premier League. We've gotten away with it this season because Rashford is in the best form of his life, but it'd be foolish to assume that we can rely on that next season. If he were to go down injured we'd be absolutely sunk.

The reality is that as it stands we'd be going into next season with basically no expectation of scoring from our striker position if we don't bring in a new player. Martial cannot be counted on to be our striker, he is a lost cause, and Weghorst is just never going to be a guy that we can count on to score goals, as he has clearly demonstrated. This is a problem and the only way it's going to be solved it by spending 80 million or more on a legitimate goal scorer.
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I understand the sentiment but I tend to rate our players higher than most. If any top team lose their top performer they are toast, we are not the only ones susceptible here. We will need to make additions just like any other team but we should keep away from muppet signings.
We don’t need players to raise our profile, just guy that will do the job. It’s like when people say ETH wanted Gusto, Gakpo, Enzo and Felix during the January window, that’s madness. If the club did not agree they were right. That’s not backing him, it’s indulgence. Don’t get me wrong because any one of those players will add something extra but the disruption it will cause to the team at any given time is unbelievable.
Id like to advice, disregard me because I don’t like big transfers. The only big transfer at United I’ve ever backed was Rio because I think a professional is only as good as how the manager uses them. A coach can make an average player look a superstar.
 
Irwin99 said:
Said in the other thread but nothing other than Anfield really bothers me too much looking ahead and there's not really any cluster of games where you think "that's a bad run". It'll be the silly games like Palace and Leeds where the team drops points but if we're within 3 or 4 points at the beginning of April then i don't see why we can't make a really good challenge of it.

Absolutely remarkable we're even talking about this considering where we were last season under Ole/Ralf
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Anything under 6 pts at the start of April gives us an outside shot,just hope Arsenal don't put it on us points wise before Anfield
 
davidmichael said:
It’s believable that Leicester beat Arsenal on Saturday as until we beat them Leicester are very much in form and if we’re all honest they should have been ahead or at the very least drawing with us at half time, with how flakey City are at the minute I wouldn’t back against Bournemouth nicking a point either so that’d mean us being 5 points behind Arsenal on equal games and 4 behind City with them playing a game more.

I don’t know who either Arsenal or City have got the weekend after this one coming but if we’re within 5 or 6 points of the top by the end of March then we’re genuinely in a title fight. That said if someone asked me at the start of the season what I’d be happy with is have said a top four finish so if we get that an a cup or two I’d be ecstatic and be full of confidence of us winning the league next season.
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Arsenal have got home games against Everton and Bournemouth. City have got Newcastle at home to answer your question
 
I think this season might just be a little too far but if we keep on going as we are then who knows, but we'll see a bit of luck along the way with the 2 ahead.

With maybe 3 new signings in the summer I think we can give it a right go, need another CM, the suspensions and injuries in January left a clear gap which required dipping into the loan market.

1 if not 2 strikers are also required along with a CB, assuming Maguire will be heading out the door.
 
Still no. We haven't the squad.. look at what happens when we miss a key player, the recent absence of Casimero, we miss Eriksen.. ETH and his coaching staff are working wonders, but we would need every single thing to go in our favour between now and May (long time....) for us to have a chance. Citeh's to lose as they have both the squad and experience.

However... if... Sancho, or Martial, Wort, or Antony were to have an amazing out-of-body type experience between now and the end of the season, and bang in say four, five goals each, or one of them goes nuts and hits eight or nine, in the Premiership, then we could be talking. Rashford cannot carry our scoring potential on his own.
 
We’re the best team in England right now

Fresh legs coming into the team too with Dalot, Sabitzer, Sancho, Antony.. Casemiro is rested too

I think we’ll get the most points from now until the end and hope it’s enough. Just imagine if we win the league. Would be beautiful
 
The Palace and Arsenal results suggest that it's probably gone, but I'll start believing again if we beat Liverpool.
 
The glazers should have backed him in the jan window for a far better striker, look at what he is doing with weghorst as jan signing, imagine where we would be if he actually had a quality striker
 
If we get that penalty against Palace like we should have, we (likely) go 2-0 up and kill the game. Casemiro would have been subbed off and not got booked and missed the Arsenal game, where there's a good chance he would have made the difference between us losing that match and not. Then we might have been in a title race.
 
El Zoido said:
If we get that penalty against Palace like we should have, we (likely) go 2-0 up and kill the game. Casemiro would have been subbed off and not got booked and missed the Arsenal game, where there's a good chance he would have made the difference between us losing that match and not. Then we might have been in a title race.
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Look on the other side: If Casemiro featured in all those previous league matches, he might not have been that fit against Barcelona.
 
City look capable of dropping points almost every week at the moment so finishing second is easily doable. Arsenal have had a little wobble but that result at Aston Villa will give them so much confidence and self-belief to make this the start of another run of positive results.

I'm not sure we're quite ready to gone on the run that will be necessary to get over the finishing line, but it's clear we're in with a chance. The thought of coming from nowhere to grab the trophy from City/Arsenal right at the death fills with me excitement. :drool:
 
I was more optimistic about winning the league when Barca were ahead last night.

Those six midweek rests could have been the difference.
 
Too soon this year, with a journeyman striker starting most games and "main" striker in Martial.
Plus all the cup games.

However, a big striker and extra midfield option who make the impact of the other signings in the summer could really get us challenging.
 
Expecting both City and Arsenal to slip enough for us to overtake is optimistic. Of course we should be as ambitious as possible, but realistically I don't think the league win is in our hands.

However, this team is top class now. We sensibly bought older experienced players like Varane, Casemiro and Eriksen. Key players elsewhere like Shaw and Fernandes are in their prime. We don't have the 'building for next season' excuse any more.

From where we are now, the expectation should be to win at least two out of our three cup competitions, and come second in the league above City. Am I right that we haven't finished above them since 2013? That's shocking, and for me even if it doesn't come with the league win it's an important milestone demonstrating our return to 'the top'.
 
There is something to be said for being the chaser over the ones leading the pack. A different kind of 'nothing to lose' pressure as opposed to the others.

I know a lot of Arsenal fans and they are terrified of cocking this up after being in such a dominant position. I suspect that feeling is mirrored within the club itself.

A United failure would be a gallant but ultimately successful leap forwards, whereas Arsenal's will be seen as throwing away an opportunity that they might not see again
 
The Arsenal, Crystal Palace and Leeds results were just too many when we are playing catch up. But we keep pushing until it's not possible. We had an 8 point lead in march when we lost the title on goal difference so anything is possible.
 
Plenty of games to play but I see us finishing with 75 to 80 points, good enough for 3rd but probably just short of the title.
 
Lee565 said:
The glazers should have backed him in the jan window for a far better striker, look at what he is doing with weghorst as jan signing, imagine where we would be if he actually had a quality striker
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This. With a valuable player as a ST we could of mounted a serious title challenge, but I don't think the Glazers were forseeing this possibility, they are usually happy with a top 4 finish.
 
For those of a superstitious nature, we have won the league in the last 3 years ending in 3, and certainly in the last two (and possibly all 3) it's arguable we weren't the best team in the league.

2013 we were absolutely bang average other than RVP who shot us to the title, and 2003, we were 2nd best for large parts of the season to a v good Arsenal side who went on to the the invincibles the following year, but managed to sneak over the line thanks to RVN scoring in almost every game and Arsenal dropping silly points.

So the omens are good - year ending in 3, check. Heavy reliance on a forward having a great season for goals, check, Dutch connection, check.

That said, I can't see it happening. Reason being, our squad just doesn't seem complete enough and given the sheer number of games across 4 competitions, we'll probably hit a wall at some point and fade away.
 
Well done Man Utd. last night, obviously EtH having dinner with Sir Alex Ferguson did the trick....

Don't think you can win the league though, mainly because you are still in all the available tournaments and if you lose Rashford for a period or Casemiro, you will be fcked.
 
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