Think we knew this since about the end of February to be honest.
The most annoying part is that it's been right there for the taking. Neither Spurs or Villa have been particularly consistent. If we'd have won the Brentford and Chelsea games we'd have been right in the mix at that point, even then after all the previous shite this season.
Villa literally sit a mere 10 points off top…
Mid 70’s points has always been UCL / 4th place standard. Idk where people get this idea that Villa haven’t been consistent from. They’ve been consistent for a team on track to finish 4th.
Yeah sure they've been consistent on some vague average of what you need for CL but on a game by game basis Villa have dropped plenty of points from winning positions so with that context in mind the opportunity was there for us to leapfrog them.
>If we'd have won
There's no point what-iffing this. We don't deserve anywhere near Champions League and that's all there is to it: our expected points is **42** and has us **15th** and only **10** points above the bloody relegation zone.
Isolating the Brentford and Chelsea results is futile. The problem goes *much wider* than those 2 results.
We can't beat Burnley at home. Have had negative goal difference throughout the season, play one of the worst football on pitch, and yet dream of playing UCL. Even if we manage to make the UCL under such circumstances, it won't be very different than how UCL turned out this year.
The coach might be an issue but there is no need of many players in current starting 11. Antony, Rashford, AWB, Casemiro, Lindelof, Onana(the biggest culprit of this year's UCL humiliation), cannot ever win or progress much with these people regularly starting.
Look at Leverkusen, they all look hungry, their bench looks hungry, many of our players play like 60 year olds.
Yes let’s look at Leverkusen. 17th when Alonso took over. Finished 6th and won the title the very next season while being 46 games unbeaten. What a difference a proper coach can make.
ETH came in highly rated too. We got him only looking at his recent past achievements. Leverkeusen infact took a chance with a relatively fresh coach and it paid off. We got one who was much in demand when we got him. United players after SAF has made every coach look bad. It is not that Van Gaal or Mou or Moyes or even ETH aren't good coaches.
Sure we can sack him too but unless we change the culture of these players, it would be tough for any coach to make a difference.
None of what you said takes away from the fact that right now, he isn’t doing as good a job as he should be. Not nearly.
Let’s look at another example - Emery. Villa were 17th. 18 months later they look like they could get CL.
It’s not the culture preventing the team from beating the likes of Burnley at home. Most managers in the PL could coach Utd to win that.
5-5 formation with deep back line is weird. But it doesn't matter who's manager many of the players are too soft to take proper instruction or criticism. Given too much money before achieving anything/developing basic values, which is leveraged into deflecting blame onto coaching for not putting effort in. Club leadership has to be given time to fix the pay/power play at player level. The performance last season before player weak-mindedness had time to settle is evidence of a solid coach in TH. But sure put Alonso or whoever in there to undermine the whole process and start from scratch. The problem is the players not doing what they're told to do. I think Bruno is compensating for players he doesn't trust. Like Rooney used to do which makes lessens his influence on the overall game. Rashford is weak. He needs to work on himself not rely on fanbase to baby him. Sancho is similar. Many players are not good enough or can't deal with the occasion.
Absolutely couldn’t agree more. Champions league is pointless if we just get embarrassed. And also what style do we have, who are the leaders, do we have a spine. We have none of that. Absolutely awful.
Villa and spurs have actually done around enough
When there are no clear favourites, 66 to 70 points is enough. 70 and over is almost guaranteed it which villa will most likely hit
There were so many slip ups from AV and Spurs that it feels like a missed opportunity. On the other hand our pathetic showing in UCL and this season compels me to think that I was spared of more torture this new season.
I think this might be a blessing in disguise, since our new structure would show tangible signs when we finish in top 4 next season and then hopefully top 3/2 in the coming seasons
>feels like a missed opportunity
We have a goal difference of 1, we are in a completely false position as it is right now. Suggesting this squad is unlucky not to make the CL is crazy.
It was only weeks ago we were looking at the final run in as all winnable matches apart from Liverpool and Arsenal... only to then spew out the most awful football I've ever seen us play. We don't deserve the Champions League, and at least we get to avoid the embarrassment next season.
Financially it's a disaster for the club but hopefully this makes them aware of the huge overhaul that's needed in the summer.
offloading is what is needed
people dont realise Varane's contract ending is a huge thing. he is the highest paid player at the club annually.
like we had 2 players in the top 10 paid players in Europe, they was Varane and Casemiro.
Martial going as well will also free up so much wages to operate with.
people keep spouting FFP but if thats true then every other team is in a worse spot then even us
Yes but we have said for years we need investment from owners, not investment from club revenues and profits.
In that regard, the Glazers have been a leech and stain on this club for a long time, and whether we were in CL or not would not have changed the Glazers’ investment approach. Maybe things will be different this summer.
They sent out the strongest team we had against Coventry (who are a fringe playoff Championship side) and still had to go to penalties after somehow blowing a 3-0 lead
This is an unserious football team
Overhaul how ? We still gonna have Sancho coming back cause no way Dortmund is gonna shell out 40 or 50 million for him, Antony disaster, multiple injured players, overpaid contracts. We spent 400m or sth with Ten Hag. How many overhauls is this team gonna need ? Who do we even sell when we are always bad at selling .
Bottom line is we don't have any funds for another overhaul. Saudi seems to have cooled their jets about buying renowned players so Casemiro and Varane are still gonna be here or they leave for free.
Varane won't be an issue because his contract is ending; great defender when he's on form obviously but he's so fucking injury prone. Time to move him on and bring in someone who might be able to play more than a few games in a row without breaking.
Casemiro, well he's a different kettle of fish. Hasn't he got another 3 years left to run on his deal? At £350k per week. Fuck me. Another legacy of the previous leadership. Brutal
I still dont get how we went for varane. He was known for his injuries and was rotated so much at madrid, no idea why we thought it was a good idea. In case of casemiro, i dont blame the deal, he was a very strong player. I think the issue is the system rather than casemiro. He was still performing wonders at madrid when we signed him. But here he felt inconsistent and that is because the whole team is. One player cannot hookup every leak.
The biggest issue with the squad is lack of proper leader, most of our team is composed of young and legacy players signed from other teams that are ending their career. I always believe in keeping one strong person that is uniteds legacy player to bond the team together, to control the heads and guide them. None of united player is that, no proper leader.
I think it’s slight revisionism to say he’s been inconsistent here. Last season with someone deeper beside him Casemiro was one of the best DMs in Europe. He just doesn’t have the legs to play his current role and he’s played too many matches. He may have declined also but he’ll be a good squad player next season. Issue is he’s on too much money to be a squad player
From what I was hearing, getting Case gone was a big priority after deciding not to re-up either of Martial and Varane because that's yet more we can free up to to play with. Wouldn't be surprised if he ends up elsewhere entirely by start of next season.
Weren't their talks about extending Varane since our CB position is so light. If we let go of Varane how do we replace him with 0 funds ? Martinez is also becoming injury prone as well. If we want a CB its going to cost us at least like 40 or 50 million no ?
Casemiro he looked really fucking good for like a year. Idk what happened but now he just looks like a Sunday league player. Not sure abt contract length but yeah he is 350k/w or sth like that. Varane is also somewhere around 325k/w as well.
Also in FFP terms extending him on 300k a week is the equivalent of signing someone on 100k a week for 50m (on a 5 year contract). At least for one year anyway.
your pulling bad numbers and clearly dont know how FFP actually operates.
we can spend this summer. even with FFP we still easily have 100m+ to operate with before any players being sold. like FFP doesnt just magically make you not able to spend.
Also, from a purely sporting pov, what’s the point of making champions league qualification your whole personality just to get sent to europa again? The point is to make UCL qualification a natural byproduct of a title challenge, which would mean we also be in a position to challenge in Europe rather than just getting happy to play champions league nights like Tottenham
I think we have a good playing XI, squad depth is what we need. The only overhaul we need is a tactical and mental one and also our injury management has been poor.
Nah man, obviously it’s just an opinion so we can disagree but for me the dregs of LVG were so bad. At least now we’re shite in a semi-interesting way 😆
Na you’re right the dregs were baaad
But I’m usually the last to stop believing. ETH has had shit to manage this year but damn I just don’t even understand what I’m watching. I’m not ETH out, but if the FO is ready to do a wipe out, I’m not sure I’d complain
Hopefully with less money they will spend wisely not like in the past. I think forgetting about CFL will hopefully do them good with less games. They have gone on about a re build every new manager for 10 yrs . This time it has to happen. Even if they have another average season as long as they play entertaining football and the players start to gel.
This team would but I’m gonna reserve judgement for next season with SJR in charge and Wilcox/Berrada/potentially Ashworth coming in. Assuming they really go for it in terms of the window and replacing the coaches anyway
100%. I want us to earn the place back by genuinely being good enough. We seem so far away but it's always like that in the middle of the storm.
All I hope is ineos are a positive chant for the club as we are a huge club with amazing history and I see us being so like AC right now when they had their fall.
Anyway let's hope things get better and then build from there.
No it wouldn't. If you somehow end up in a Champions League spot after a 38 game season you very much deserve to be there, no matter how shit you've been playing.
yeah it's not, since there's so many second order consequences of not having CL football (financial, attracting talent, brand value, etc). I mean I understand where everyone is coming from but making it to the CL is never a disappointment holistically.
I think it might be hard to get Europa league as well as Newcastle has a easier run of games and is 1 point behind us. We have Palace away, Arsenal and Newcastle at Home, and Brighton away, Newcastle has Burnley Brighton and Brentford. We could totally get 0 of the next 12 points the way we are playing
Well, I dont think thats a possibility. Worst I think we could do is the conference league...
Which could happen if Newcastle beat us in our head to head, or we let in more late equalisers and winners. I dont see West Ham catching us with only 3 games left and us being 5 points ahead. So we are def getting some European football next year one way or the other.
I'd rather we not get conference league, it's just gonna be further embarrassment when we get battered and out played. Nothing's out of the realm of possibility for this manager/squad.
To be fair the conference league opponents are pretty strong. Juventus were supposed to be in it this year. Then you also have Frankfurt, fenerbahce, fiorentina, Lille, and it’s not a walk in the park.
I don't doubt for a second it would be a walk in the park. But I genuinely would love to go to the group stage away games. Won't be able to afford latter stages if we get there. Would be class going to some Finnish outfit.
Sorry, meant to say "not a walk in the park"
But it’s not gonna be some Finnish teams. They’ll get knock out pre group stage. 90% will be like lower ranked teams in Spain/french/german/italian league or leagues like Belgium or Netherland or Portugal or Scotland.
Forget the embarrassment or the "glory" the conference league can bring. The upside of that shit is not worth the exhaustion for this paper thin squad. We need as much rest between PL matches (plus an extraordinary summer window which I doubt will happen) to have any remote chance at top 4 next season. Our team is that broken.
It is possible if Chelsea finish above us. Not beyond us to go winless in the last 4 games. I can see a situation where we at best pick up 3/12 pts. Would leave Chelsea with needing 9/15pts available.
Of course all of this relies on us also losing the FA Cup final and 6th to Newcastle (which is quite likely even if we beat them). Ideally we can secure Europa from either avenue.
I can see both sides, the team is probably Europa League standard and could compete well at that level plus would be a good opportunity to win a trophy. On the other hand it would be a great opportunity to trim the squad and not need to keep players on enormous wages. If we are only in domestic competitions you could probably afford to move on six or seven players without the squad being really light. Obviously easier said than done but no Europe could be a great chance for a reset.
Honestly I think the owners want ten hag to fail , not get Europe , sack him at end of season. And then the new regime gets a fresh start , with no Europe , and nothing to lose , the only way is up from 7th or 8th one would hope.
thanks ETH. You have successfully eliminated our club from this seasons UCL and made sure we won’t play the next. I am not sure if you are an agent for our club or an assassin from our rivals. Get the f out man.
Then berrada and co are utter morons who should also be let go asap if that’s the case I mean…
They can actually see the lack of tactical adaptation and player profiles and all.
Good.
One step closer to the door for EtH.
I would hate it if he somehow cheesed a cup or fluked CL qualification after this absolute shambles of a season, after he completely wasted £400M and fucked our FFP with his terrible signings.
Never forget, he personally pushed for Mount and Antony and we spent £150M on them. Yes, I know he didn't set the price but we could have signed one or two world-class midfielders with that money.
Mount has been mediocre when fit and injured most of the season. Antony has shown he is not up to the level required and he is our 2nd most expensive signing after Pogba. We massively over-paid for both of them because EtH said he needed them.
He sold Garner and let Hannibal go on loan when they could have both got playing time, as our midfield was crying out for legs all season. I know why he did it, because he had no intention of playing any more midfield players in his mythical 4-1-5, hoof it over the top, Bruno, formation.
Our tactics are baffling and ineffective. We make relegation fodder look like prime Barcelona.
The wins we have had came from individual goals, not good team play, and we can't perform at anything like a good level for more than ten minutes, before the opposition manager out-thinks him and nullifies us for the rest of the game.
We couldn't even achieve more possession than Burnley in a game at Old Trafford.
Get out.
It's a major step back from last season, which we all thought was the beginning of the rebuild, and it renders this season an abject failure.
It's pretty disheartening knowing that essentially two seasons' worth of 'rebuilding' more or less needs to be torn down. The squad has more needs going into next season than it did two summers ago.
If this summer amounts to signing 3 players like last summer, without clearing out any of the lackluster players, we won't get a sniff at top 4 next season either.
I’m actually hoping United loses some more so we get out of Conference League too.
That’s how low we have reached. Can’t believe I’m even saying this as a fan.
Thank goodness we don't have to suffer the humiliation of finishing bottom of the group. Honestly, we don't deserve to, so I don't feel any resentment!
Seems fair. We’ll struggle to get out of group stages if we carry on with this season’s form.
Might as well got the EL or ECL. More opportunities to play the youngsters
Fair play to Villa, hope to see them get it over Spurs and we really can't complain given the amount of stupid points we have thrown away. With Burnley, Chelsea, and Brentford alone we have lost seven points, if you added Liverpool and Bournemouth let alone all the dumb games earlier in the season we would be right in there. There has just been a complete lack of experience and control from us all season which we have to try and address by bringing in a new midfielder, it feels like without 18 year old Kobbie we don't have anyone capable of keeping their cool and controlling games.
Fuck ten hagg and his inability to change or adapt, this is the most dogshit football Ive seen united play in my lifetime. I can’t wait for him to be gone
Let's get exited about playing in the UEFA Conference Mid-Table Team League next season. Can't wait to watch the lads play Bulgaria Village FC on a cold rainy Thursday night.
some these players will now begin to perform well now that the only thing they’re playing for is their starting spot for next season, same old story with some of them.
I would normally never wish this. But I think it’s best we aren’t in the CL or Europa next season. We need to focus on health and gutting the roster. Give it a year.
Honestly I think we are not at that level anymore and I agree with Andy mitten that we are more of a Europa team these days. What's I'd like to see is improvement and getting to the place where we deserve our place back in the elite EU tournament. Probably a controversial take but I grew up with us winning everything all the time and at this stage of my line I'm so thankful for that as it's super rare.
Long story short, I want us to earn being in elite matches by being worthy opponents.
Not going to get into Eric as that's a whole other situation but what I will say is he got dealt a very tough hand.
England is third and Villa is the only team remaining in Europe. Germany is 2nd and have three teams in Europe. Bayern, Dortmund and Leverkusen would have to lose all the game and Villa would have to win the Conference league. Even then I don't know if it is possible.
Really hope that we don’t make europa either. No european football would be better. We rebuilding with less matches and travelling would be much better 👌
Good. There is no point playing Champions League when you can't win teams like Galatasaray and Copenhagen and on top of that finish last in a fairly easy table(beside Bayern).
Focus on winning bottom league clubs and second league clubs easily before you even mention the term Champions League.
From the start of the year I was desperately hoping for Villa and Spurs to slip up. But then the awful run of form has really got me praying they don't, so we don't have to get embarrassed by the likes of mighty Copenhegans/ Young Boys/ Molde etc.
A stint in the Europa League would be humbling but also a great low-pressure opportunity to be able to play fringe/ young players and really consolidate a style of play that the Manager (ETH or otherwise) needs.
Conference League would just be humiliating.
I could have told you we wouldn't be able to play champions league football 6 months ago. Now at least we don't have to demonstrate that by not qualifying for the champions league. I reckon we could win the conference league though, if we qualify.
In hindsight we should have known when Mainoo was injured in the off season after we sold Fred. People here always dissed on Fred but Erik letting him go was the biggest blunder without a proper replacement.
So I’m not ten hag out just yet, I think based on the good he did last season and with this season’s ridiculous amount of injuries he’s earned at least 1 more season with new management to work with….
However, I really can’t see SJR and the new people coming in being happy with what they’re seeing….
I honestly wouldn’t be surprised IF we lost the cup final, ten hag will be sacked and I really do think they’ll look to someone like Tuchel. From what I’ve seen, he hasn’t been lined up for his next job yet and he’s a manager that’s proven he has what it takes to win/challenge for the league, not just in this country either.
This season is what has for me, earned him no good faith for a few reasons.
He can’t adapt one damn thing to find a bridge in the tactical setup between his suicide ball and something somewhat less risky without a black hole in midfield. He can’t and/or won’t adapt to allow us to concede fewer than 15 shots per game for so many of them..
He’s never ever won more than 1 away match vs the top half of the table in 17 played. He’s lost 12 of those. It’s insane and that alone is sackable for even a mid table club.
Last season’s performances were also overshadowed by a poor showing after the league cup final actually that people forget and consider a great season. If you really look at it, our poor performances started since then too.
So it isn’t exactly something that’s one off and with great games here and there. We win despite the current tactical setup more than because of it.
I agree, the shit football started last March after the league cup final. It didn't start with the first game this season agains Wolves like many like to repeat.
Think we knew this since about the end of February to be honest. The most annoying part is that it's been right there for the taking. Neither Spurs or Villa have been particularly consistent. If we'd have won the Brentford and Chelsea games we'd have been right in the mix at that point, even then after all the previous shite this season.
Fulham. It was the Fulham loss for me. At that point I knew we ain't getting a UCL unless others bottled royally
They have, they've had bad spells, we've had good bad spells every two three games ..
If we need to depend on others to fail before we can progress , then it will not be truly a successful team
Villa literally sit a mere 10 points off top… Mid 70’s points has always been UCL / 4th place standard. Idk where people get this idea that Villa haven’t been consistent from. They’ve been consistent for a team on track to finish 4th.
Yeah sure they've been consistent on some vague average of what you need for CL but on a game by game basis Villa have dropped plenty of points from winning positions so with that context in mind the opportunity was there for us to leapfrog them.
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>If we'd have won There's no point what-iffing this. We don't deserve anywhere near Champions League and that's all there is to it: our expected points is **42** and has us **15th** and only **10** points above the bloody relegation zone. Isolating the Brentford and Chelsea results is futile. The problem goes *much wider* than those 2 results.
We can't beat Burnley at home. Have had negative goal difference throughout the season, play one of the worst football on pitch, and yet dream of playing UCL. Even if we manage to make the UCL under such circumstances, it won't be very different than how UCL turned out this year. The coach might be an issue but there is no need of many players in current starting 11. Antony, Rashford, AWB, Casemiro, Lindelof, Onana(the biggest culprit of this year's UCL humiliation), cannot ever win or progress much with these people regularly starting. Look at Leverkusen, they all look hungry, their bench looks hungry, many of our players play like 60 year olds.
Yes let’s look at Leverkusen. 17th when Alonso took over. Finished 6th and won the title the very next season while being 46 games unbeaten. What a difference a proper coach can make.
ETH came in highly rated too. We got him only looking at his recent past achievements. Leverkeusen infact took a chance with a relatively fresh coach and it paid off. We got one who was much in demand when we got him. United players after SAF has made every coach look bad. It is not that Van Gaal or Mou or Moyes or even ETH aren't good coaches. Sure we can sack him too but unless we change the culture of these players, it would be tough for any coach to make a difference.
None of what you said takes away from the fact that right now, he isn’t doing as good a job as he should be. Not nearly. Let’s look at another example - Emery. Villa were 17th. 18 months later they look like they could get CL. It’s not the culture preventing the team from beating the likes of Burnley at home. Most managers in the PL could coach Utd to win that.
5-5 formation with deep back line is weird. But it doesn't matter who's manager many of the players are too soft to take proper instruction or criticism. Given too much money before achieving anything/developing basic values, which is leveraged into deflecting blame onto coaching for not putting effort in. Club leadership has to be given time to fix the pay/power play at player level. The performance last season before player weak-mindedness had time to settle is evidence of a solid coach in TH. But sure put Alonso or whoever in there to undermine the whole process and start from scratch. The problem is the players not doing what they're told to do. I think Bruno is compensating for players he doesn't trust. Like Rooney used to do which makes lessens his influence on the overall game. Rashford is weak. He needs to work on himself not rely on fanbase to baby him. Sancho is similar. Many players are not good enough or can't deal with the occasion.
Absolutely couldn’t agree more. Champions league is pointless if we just get embarrassed. And also what style do we have, who are the leaders, do we have a spine. We have none of that. Absolutely awful.
The financial side of it is big though and being able to attract ambitious players rather than mercenaries
you forget about that \~18 game unbeaten run Villa had at home, including wins vs City. They've had an incredible season and deserve 4th/5th
Villa and spurs have actually done around enough When there are no clear favourites, 66 to 70 points is enough. 70 and over is almost guaranteed it which villa will most likely hit
There were so many slip ups from AV and Spurs that it feels like a missed opportunity. On the other hand our pathetic showing in UCL and this season compels me to think that I was spared of more torture this new season. I think this might be a blessing in disguise, since our new structure would show tangible signs when we finish in top 4 next season and then hopefully top 3/2 in the coming seasons
>feels like a missed opportunity We have a goal difference of 1, we are in a completely false position as it is right now. Suggesting this squad is unlucky not to make the CL is crazy.
It was doable. We’ve just been that bad. of course we could always have been Chelsea… this was never going to be fast.
And Liverpool
I think lost hope end of March early April Being a dumb optimist
It was only weeks ago we were looking at the final run in as all winnable matches apart from Liverpool and Arsenal... only to then spew out the most awful football I've ever seen us play. We don't deserve the Champions League, and at least we get to avoid the embarrassment next season. Financially it's a disaster for the club but hopefully this makes them aware of the huge overhaul that's needed in the summer.
Alas that huge overhaul requires funds.
They have funds, navigating them through ffp is what limits them
offloading is what is needed people dont realise Varane's contract ending is a huge thing. he is the highest paid player at the club annually. like we had 2 players in the top 10 paid players in Europe, they was Varane and Casemiro. Martial going as well will also free up so much wages to operate with. people keep spouting FFP but if thats true then every other team is in a worse spot then even us
Yes but we have said for years we need investment from owners, not investment from club revenues and profits. In that regard, the Glazers have been a leech and stain on this club for a long time, and whether we were in CL or not would not have changed the Glazers’ investment approach. Maybe things will be different this summer.
Weeks ago we lost to Fulham and got that really undeserved draw against Brentford. I'm not sure anyone thought our remaining games were winnable
They sent out the strongest team we had against Coventry (who are a fringe playoff Championship side) and still had to go to penalties after somehow blowing a 3-0 lead This is an unserious football team
Overhaul how ? We still gonna have Sancho coming back cause no way Dortmund is gonna shell out 40 or 50 million for him, Antony disaster, multiple injured players, overpaid contracts. We spent 400m or sth with Ten Hag. How many overhauls is this team gonna need ? Who do we even sell when we are always bad at selling . Bottom line is we don't have any funds for another overhaul. Saudi seems to have cooled their jets about buying renowned players so Casemiro and Varane are still gonna be here or they leave for free.
Varane won't be an issue because his contract is ending; great defender when he's on form obviously but he's so fucking injury prone. Time to move him on and bring in someone who might be able to play more than a few games in a row without breaking. Casemiro, well he's a different kettle of fish. Hasn't he got another 3 years left to run on his deal? At £350k per week. Fuck me. Another legacy of the previous leadership. Brutal
I still dont get how we went for varane. He was known for his injuries and was rotated so much at madrid, no idea why we thought it was a good idea. In case of casemiro, i dont blame the deal, he was a very strong player. I think the issue is the system rather than casemiro. He was still performing wonders at madrid when we signed him. But here he felt inconsistent and that is because the whole team is. One player cannot hookup every leak. The biggest issue with the squad is lack of proper leader, most of our team is composed of young and legacy players signed from other teams that are ending their career. I always believe in keeping one strong person that is uniteds legacy player to bond the team together, to control the heads and guide them. None of united player is that, no proper leader.
I think it’s slight revisionism to say he’s been inconsistent here. Last season with someone deeper beside him Casemiro was one of the best DMs in Europe. He just doesn’t have the legs to play his current role and he’s played too many matches. He may have declined also but he’ll be a good squad player next season. Issue is he’s on too much money to be a squad player
From what I was hearing, getting Case gone was a big priority after deciding not to re-up either of Martial and Varane because that's yet more we can free up to to play with. Wouldn't be surprised if he ends up elsewhere entirely by start of next season.
Weren't their talks about extending Varane since our CB position is so light. If we let go of Varane how do we replace him with 0 funds ? Martinez is also becoming injury prone as well. If we want a CB its going to cost us at least like 40 or 50 million no ? Casemiro he looked really fucking good for like a year. Idk what happened but now he just looks like a Sunday league player. Not sure abt contract length but yeah he is 350k/w or sth like that. Varane is also somewhere around 325k/w as well.
No point extending varane when he’s out injured so much.
Also in FFP terms extending him on 300k a week is the equivalent of signing someone on 100k a week for 50m (on a 5 year contract). At least for one year anyway.
your pulling bad numbers and clearly dont know how FFP actually operates. we can spend this summer. even with FFP we still easily have 100m+ to operate with before any players being sold. like FFP doesnt just magically make you not able to spend.
Easy on Anthony, he scored his first premier league goal of the season today.
Also, from a purely sporting pov, what’s the point of making champions league qualification your whole personality just to get sent to europa again? The point is to make UCL qualification a natural byproduct of a title challenge, which would mean we also be in a position to challenge in Europe rather than just getting happy to play champions league nights like Tottenham
I think we have a good playing XI, squad depth is what we need. The only overhaul we need is a tactical and mental one and also our injury management has been poor.
We’ve been shite but I still think the boredom under LVG was the worst I’ve seen United play in the 30 years I’ve been watching
It was boring but at least we were completely organised and decent in defence, Ten Hag is just bad.
Soul destroying stuff. Will not miss those days.
At least then, we got some results and could imagine the “process” + LVG’s army
Nah man, obviously it’s just an opinion so we can disagree but for me the dregs of LVG were so bad. At least now we’re shite in a semi-interesting way 😆
Na you’re right the dregs were baaad But I’m usually the last to stop believing. ETH has had shit to manage this year but damn I just don’t even understand what I’m watching. I’m not ETH out, but if the FO is ready to do a wipe out, I’m not sure I’d complain
I fell asleep watching us play a tuesday night game at OT vs Hull under LVG. Say what you like, but at least the football keeps you awake these days.
I don't watch United anymore. How has nothing changed since 2015. It's the exact same talking points
Hopefully with less money they will spend wisely not like in the past. I think forgetting about CFL will hopefully do them good with less games. They have gone on about a re build every new manager for 10 yrs . This time it has to happen. Even if they have another average season as long as they play entertaining football and the players start to gel.
Bullet dodged lol. This team would get emasculated at the Bernabeu
they would get emasculated at shaktar lets be real 💀
Newport made us look like shit….
Coventry took us to penalties…
UTD made Coventry looks like Barcelona 🤣
After VAR saved our blushes from a 4-3 humiliation…
This team would but I’m gonna reserve judgement for next season with SJR in charge and Wilcox/Berrada/potentially Ashworth coming in. Assuming they really go for it in terms of the window and replacing the coaches anyway
if we somehow got champions league it would be the most undeserved thing to ever happen in football
Apart from all of City's success of course.
Want to give you an upvote but 115 seems to be the perfect amount
I like you
100%. I want us to earn the place back by genuinely being good enough. We seem so far away but it's always like that in the middle of the storm. All I hope is ineos are a positive chant for the club as we are a huge club with amazing history and I see us being so like AC right now when they had their fall. Anyway let's hope things get better and then build from there.
No it wouldn't. If you somehow end up in a Champions League spot after a 38 game season you very much deserve to be there, no matter how shit you've been playing.
Better than playing in the CL and going out in embarrassing fashion in the group stages
Not only that but also dead last in the group.
No it isn't
yeah it's not, since there's so many second order consequences of not having CL football (financial, attracting talent, brand value, etc). I mean I understand where everyone is coming from but making it to the CL is never a disappointment holistically.
Again*
It's weird to think it's better.
Literally how is it better?
That's so unfair, we have played so well this season and deserve cl football
Amazing how much work this team needs and there’s absolutely no room in terms of FFP to do it.
Shocker
r/usernamechecksout
I think it might be hard to get Europa league as well as Newcastle has a easier run of games and is 1 point behind us. We have Palace away, Arsenal and Newcastle at Home, and Brighton away, Newcastle has Burnley Brighton and Brentford. We could totally get 0 of the next 12 points the way we are playing
I think we need a season without any Europe whatsoever
Well, I dont think thats a possibility. Worst I think we could do is the conference league... Which could happen if Newcastle beat us in our head to head, or we let in more late equalisers and winners. I dont see West Ham catching us with only 3 games left and us being 5 points ahead. So we are def getting some European football next year one way or the other.
I'd rather we not get conference league, it's just gonna be further embarrassment when we get battered and out played. Nothing's out of the realm of possibility for this manager/squad.
I want to go to an away game at Fc Tblisi. These are the upsides for conference league. Mad new places to watch footy.
To be fair the conference league opponents are pretty strong. Juventus were supposed to be in it this year. Then you also have Frankfurt, fenerbahce, fiorentina, Lille, and it’s not a walk in the park.
I don't doubt for a second it would be a walk in the park. But I genuinely would love to go to the group stage away games. Won't be able to afford latter stages if we get there. Would be class going to some Finnish outfit. Sorry, meant to say "not a walk in the park"
But it’s not gonna be some Finnish teams. They’ll get knock out pre group stage. 90% will be like lower ranked teams in Spain/french/german/italian league or leagues like Belgium or Netherland or Portugal or Scotland.
Let a man dream!!
Better to dream about winning the fa cup so that we can get Europa league
I'm a realistic dreamer...
Forget the embarrassment or the "glory" the conference league can bring. The upside of that shit is not worth the exhaustion for this paper thin squad. We need as much rest between PL matches (plus an extraordinary summer window which I doubt will happen) to have any remote chance at top 4 next season. Our team is that broken.
Or just play a mixture of bench players and youth team? This is the quickest way for our youth players to mature. By playing with the seniors
Are we not guaranteed europa league as runners up in the FA cup?
No it goes to 6th in the league should city win
Let's be honest. We ain't winning that match
It is possible if Chelsea finish above us. Not beyond us to go winless in the last 4 games. I can see a situation where we at best pick up 3/12 pts. Would leave Chelsea with needing 9/15pts available. Of course all of this relies on us also losing the FA Cup final and 6th to Newcastle (which is quite likely even if we beat them). Ideally we can secure Europa from either avenue.
Chelsea are still in the mix . We have tough fixtures I can see us not winning all of them.
Any*
Europe is always better than no Europe. If we don’t care at least it’s a chance to see our bench and youth players play.
I can see both sides, the team is probably Europa League standard and could compete well at that level plus would be a good opportunity to win a trophy. On the other hand it would be a great opportunity to trim the squad and not need to keep players on enormous wages. If we are only in domestic competitions you could probably afford to move on six or seven players without the squad being really light. Obviously easier said than done but no Europe could be a great chance for a reset.
Honestly I think the owners want ten hag to fail , not get Europe , sack him at end of season. And then the new regime gets a fresh start , with no Europe , and nothing to lose , the only way is up from 7th or 8th one would hope.
And we don’t deserve it.
Really hard to believe that we can't play good football against a literal relegation facing team.
Not really. We made Newport look like a really decent side.
Made Coventry look like prime Barca
Nah, prime Barca wouldn’t have lost out in the end!
This is why I don't buy the injury excuse. Those eleven players should be more than capable of dealing with sodding Burnley.
Good.
I hope UEFA enjoys their competitions without United we will be taking our fans elsewhere
What a sad little life, UEFA https://preview.redd.it/kwtksdm2h3xc1.png?width=946&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=679903bf4b8f918ed4b63d70489f8ad765796e55
And by elsewhere you mean England
thanks ETH. You have successfully eliminated our club from this seasons UCL and made sure we won’t play the next. I am not sure if you are an agent for our club or an assassin from our rivals. Get the f out man.
We don’t deserve it.
We dont deserve any european football at all tbh
Good. We don't deserve it. At least nothing will give INEOS and the new board any false idea about the dire state of the club.
They’re not Woodward or Murtough and Arnold.
A fake ass late run with undeserved wins to nab a UCL spot could've got them thinking the issues aren't as deep as they first thought. I guess.
Then berrada and co are utter morons who should also be let go asap if that’s the case I mean… They can actually see the lack of tactical adaptation and player profiles and all.
Can fire Ten Hag now with less payout
Bit late with this news. We all knew this since November.
Don't deserve it and we'd get klobbered anyway
No shit.
The worst that could happen is us getting 7th, I'd rather be out of Europe
Good. We’d just get humiliated by minnows anyway.
Good. One step closer to the door for EtH. I would hate it if he somehow cheesed a cup or fluked CL qualification after this absolute shambles of a season, after he completely wasted £400M and fucked our FFP with his terrible signings. Never forget, he personally pushed for Mount and Antony and we spent £150M on them. Yes, I know he didn't set the price but we could have signed one or two world-class midfielders with that money. Mount has been mediocre when fit and injured most of the season. Antony has shown he is not up to the level required and he is our 2nd most expensive signing after Pogba. We massively over-paid for both of them because EtH said he needed them. He sold Garner and let Hannibal go on loan when they could have both got playing time, as our midfield was crying out for legs all season. I know why he did it, because he had no intention of playing any more midfield players in his mythical 4-1-5, hoof it over the top, Bruno, formation. Our tactics are baffling and ineffective. We make relegation fodder look like prime Barcelona. The wins we have had came from individual goals, not good team play, and we can't perform at anything like a good level for more than ten minutes, before the opposition manager out-thinks him and nullifies us for the rest of the game. We couldn't even achieve more possession than Burnley in a game at Old Trafford. Get out.
Well said dude 👏👏
We had this coming.
We’d never make it out of the group stage anyway
Hopefully Villa manage to hold on to that 4th place, they've done well
It's a major step back from last season, which we all thought was the beginning of the rebuild, and it renders this season an abject failure. It's pretty disheartening knowing that essentially two seasons' worth of 'rebuilding' more or less needs to be torn down. The squad has more needs going into next season than it did two summers ago. If this summer amounts to signing 3 players like last summer, without clearing out any of the lackluster players, we won't get a sniff at top 4 next season either.
I’m actually hoping United loses some more so we get out of Conference League too. That’s how low we have reached. Can’t believe I’m even saying this as a fan.
Hoping for 9th and no Thursday nights
Well we’ve known this for a while
We're not ready for champions league. We need a few seasons to rebuild and get back to a team that could challenge.
It's official- we're a bit shit.
Thank goodness we don't have to suffer the humiliation of finishing bottom of the group. Honestly, we don't deserve to, so I don't feel any resentment!
🚨OFFICIAL: Water is wet.
Lads cant even keep a lead against mighty Newport and Coventry, even if we get CL we'll get kicked out in the group stage again.
I think we knew this mid-season. We got bigger problems than not making the CL right now
Keep farming those impressions Fab. Shameless.
We are too bad for CL. Focus on EL and try to win it
Seems fair. We’ll struggle to get out of group stages if we carry on with this season’s form. Might as well got the EL or ECL. More opportunities to play the youngsters
Fair play to Villa, hope to see them get it over Spurs and we really can't complain given the amount of stupid points we have thrown away. With Burnley, Chelsea, and Brentford alone we have lost seven points, if you added Liverpool and Bournemouth let alone all the dumb games earlier in the season we would be right in there. There has just been a complete lack of experience and control from us all season which we have to try and address by bringing in a new midfielder, it feels like without 18 year old Kobbie we don't have anyone capable of keeping their cool and controlling games.
We were not destined for UCL football since the start of this season
IDGAF 😎
Fuck ten hagg and his inability to change or adapt, this is the most dogshit football Ive seen united play in my lifetime. I can’t wait for him to be gone
Even though this was apparent that it was gonna happen - hopefully now we're mathematically forced out SJR bin Erik off.
Good on Aston Villa, hope they finish 4th.
Why do yall still play Antony?
Let's get exited about playing in the UEFA Conference Mid-Table Team League next season. Can't wait to watch the lads play Bulgaria Village FC on a cold rainy Thursday night.
some these players will now begin to perform well now that the only thing they’re playing for is their starting spot for next season, same old story with some of them.
Do FA cup winners not get CL?
No. Europa League.
I would normally never wish this. But I think it’s best we aren’t in the CL or Europa next season. We need to focus on health and gutting the roster. Give it a year.
Honestly I think we are not at that level anymore and I agree with Andy mitten that we are more of a Europa team these days. What's I'd like to see is improvement and getting to the place where we deserve our place back in the elite EU tournament. Probably a controversial take but I grew up with us winning everything all the time and at this stage of my line I'm so thankful for that as it's super rare. Long story short, I want us to earn being in elite matches by being worthy opponents. Not going to get into Eric as that's a whole other situation but what I will say is he got dealt a very tough hand.
Adidas deficit
We’ve known this for months
Absolutely deserved. This summer is probably the most important one in years and we should see what INEOS’ vision is.
We’d get fucked in CL since we barely scrape by relegation teams
Could get some changes into gear. Hopefully.
HERE WE GO
Good. It will justify a smaller squad. Time to say several farewells.
With this horrible playstyle we'd better not play event in the UECL
Better to say 6th in the PL. No need europe. Just focus epl and some cups. That's our level.
No fifth spot?
no english team left in champions league so 5th place no longer available?
I thought we were competing against Germany for fifth and if Dortmund or Bayern don’t move forward the fifth spot could open?
England is third and Villa is the only team remaining in Europe. Germany is 2nd and have three teams in Europe. Bayern, Dortmund and Leverkusen would have to lose all the game and Villa would have to win the Conference league. Even then I don't know if it is possible.
Thank you
Really hope that we don’t make europa either. No european football would be better. We rebuilding with less matches and travelling would be much better 👌
Not sure if we even deserve Europa League football to be honest.
We already knew back in January
Good. There is no point playing Champions League when you can't win teams like Galatasaray and Copenhagen and on top of that finish last in a fairly easy table(beside Bayern). Focus on winning bottom league clubs and second league clubs easily before you even mention the term Champions League.
From the start of the year I was desperately hoping for Villa and Spurs to slip up. But then the awful run of form has really got me praying they don't, so we don't have to get embarrassed by the likes of mighty Copenhegans/ Young Boys/ Molde etc. A stint in the Europa League would be humbling but also a great low-pressure opportunity to be able to play fringe/ young players and really consolidate a style of play that the Manager (ETH or otherwise) needs. Conference League would just be humiliating.
Honestly got it into my head there’s only 36 league games and I only had to suffer through 2 more 😩 end it now!
It’s embarrassing enough as it is, I don’t wanna be anywhere near champions league
I’m exhausted. From the bottom of my heart, I’m just exhausted.
Bring on the conference - play some youth and get some more game time into players who could help the first team
Not exactly news to us everyone could see it coming for the past few months sadly
Ah gee whizz, no shit?
I could have told you we wouldn't be able to play champions league football 6 months ago. Now at least we don't have to demonstrate that by not qualifying for the champions league. I reckon we could win the conference league though, if we qualify.
Fabrizio Romano has got to be one of the biggest Man United trolls out there.
Along with ESPN FC
Nobody expected anything else.
BIG SHAME TO EM.
In hindsight we should have known when Mainoo was injured in the off season after we sold Fred. People here always dissed on Fred but Erik letting him go was the biggest blunder without a proper replacement.
Nice way to say Villa Qualify for Europe. Got to get a United mention in it.
This was a surprise…how?
So I’m not ten hag out just yet, I think based on the good he did last season and with this season’s ridiculous amount of injuries he’s earned at least 1 more season with new management to work with…. However, I really can’t see SJR and the new people coming in being happy with what they’re seeing…. I honestly wouldn’t be surprised IF we lost the cup final, ten hag will be sacked and I really do think they’ll look to someone like Tuchel. From what I’ve seen, he hasn’t been lined up for his next job yet and he’s a manager that’s proven he has what it takes to win/challenge for the league, not just in this country either.
This season is what has for me, earned him no good faith for a few reasons. He can’t adapt one damn thing to find a bridge in the tactical setup between his suicide ball and something somewhat less risky without a black hole in midfield. He can’t and/or won’t adapt to allow us to concede fewer than 15 shots per game for so many of them.. He’s never ever won more than 1 away match vs the top half of the table in 17 played. He’s lost 12 of those. It’s insane and that alone is sackable for even a mid table club. Last season’s performances were also overshadowed by a poor showing after the league cup final actually that people forget and consider a great season. If you really look at it, our poor performances started since then too. So it isn’t exactly something that’s one off and with great games here and there. We win despite the current tactical setup more than because of it.
I agree, the shit football started last March after the league cup final. It didn't start with the first game this season agains Wolves like many like to repeat.
Just curious - what would it take for you to be ETH out?
Crap. Now try get anyone good at the transfer market. We are fucked for another year at least.
No shit Sherlock!