And if we lose it'll be thanks to the players being crap, Woodward being shite, the board failing to back Ole, Shieffield having better squad than us .. etc. Why are you trying to look at it from one perspective ?
I have not once ever suggested that:
"The board haven't backed Ole." I have been VERY vocal about the board having backed Ole, to historical proportions. Woodward in this context has done a great job thus far. We had a great transfer window, despite shortcomings. Sheffield do not have a better squad than us. It's never even down to the players being crap. Games are lost on individual mistakes, GREAT performance from the opposing team, or freak goals.
I'm looking at what goes on on the pitch, and more importantly who does what. It's easy to blame Ole for everything, but conveniently not mention how Marcus Rashford has missed open goal shots in 3 games this season that cost us a win or a draw, or Pogba and Rashford suddenly missing penalties that had huge impacts on our point hunt. And I can't be bothered to write down every other high-danger shot we've missed, but there's been plenty. It's been so bad that the advanced stat tables predicts an average that evens out over the season, more about that in the sentences below.
Fact remains that we've been injury riddled more than any other team this season and funnily enough, injuries DOES matter. A lot.
About Marcus Rashford. Marcus Rashford has started scoring again. He's netted 9 so far, less than 1/3 into the season. Rashford's current best career best: 13 goals. This is going to be a record season for Marcus.
In fact. Macus Rashford misses so many chances that is quantified as "high danger chances" that, when he starts shooting within an expected shooting%, Marcus Rashford is the Top Scorer int he EPL 19/20. He's missing that many chances. And I'm not blowing that out of my ass, we got statistical data for that. Of course statistics isn't gospel, there are too many variables, but you look at that and can conclude that "Huh, Rashford SHOULd have scored more by now"
Manchester United defense. This team is working well. It's working so well that it had to take a career highlight goal to score on us more than once this season. By the advanced statistics, the MUFC defense is the best performing defense this season. Ahead of Liverpool, Everton and Leicester respectively.
The dataset also predicts an uptick in scoring, placing us 4th overall on the season in GA. As for points: 4th. The datasets predict that Leicester will fall off, most noteably Jamie Vardy's one man reign will fall short.
But you know, this is all statistics. It doesn't mean anything if it doesn't happen. But you extrapolate the important things from the numbers it provides. We miss a lot of chances, and we should have scored more with the chances we created. And if we keep going the way we are, things will work out. That is what the data is telling us. Who knows it it will happen, but there it is.
Like, what is the harm in being optimistic and upbeat about where we are headed?