29 Jun 2024 10:02:02
{Ed025's Note - top 4 is a massive shout ahmad, City, Arsenal and Liverpool will almost certainly finish above you, so you are in the pool for 4th with the likes of Spurs, Villa, Chelsea and Newcastle mate, i would like to know what makes you think you will be better than them?
@Ed025
We had a pretty much dysfunctional line up every game last year. Some players came back late, some of our signings where injured and never really got going till later when others were out and we never really had a first 11 out that you thought that's our ideal line up. The injuries during the season kept coming and we could never get over it.
The teams you mentioned whilst had some injuries but never to the extend of what we had in terms of affecting the teams functionality. We played an aging DM and a 36 year old as our CB's pairing after all for a few games. It was more like who can we patch up and put out there for whatever minutes we can get out of them.
With some quality additions and no long term injuries to key players, we are not that far off. Its just my view and will probably get killed for it lol. We have a soft Centre when key players are not available and what's available is not good enough and need to fix that in this window. I rate Eth very highly as a coach and believe with the right players he will be a handful for anyone and has proved that.
I expect top 4 to be tussle with City, United, Liverpool, Arsenal. Not sure what to make of Chelsea as they have a new manager again and Liverpool needs to show they can transition from Klopp. Everyone knows how we did after Fergie but granted the guy coming in for Liverpool is inheriting a very good squad, set up and environment.
The rest of the teams you have mentioned will be tough especially away but not sure they can sustain enough form for top 4 finish in a long season especially with european football on their plate.
It will be a much more interesting discussion towards the end of august when we get a clear picture of what everyone has done in this window, until then its just a view.
29 Jun 2024 11:23:16
Excellent reply Ahmad.
Last season's injuries were ridiculous. We never fielded our best backline.
This year we finally have a proper structure in place with footballing people being appointed in key areas.
{Ed025's Note - i love the optimism guys but lets not get ahead of ourselves, unless you buy very big and are fortunate enough to get some of the Dutch Elm off the wage bill i dont see anything changing quickly im afraid, i would love to be wrong because the Premier league needs a strong United team but at the moment i just dont see it, but best of luck..
29 Jun 2024 13:57:59
To be honest, just trimming down the squad and having a normal amount of injuries next season should see us improve. If we can add 3-4 key signings as well then that will obviously help us improve all the more.
However, we have to remember that other teams are also going to improve. Newcastle had a similar issue with injuries last season to ourselves, if they have less injuries next season that would see them improve. They will also sign a few players no doubt.
Chelsea and Liverpool who knows whether they will improve or regress under their new managers. However, I'd argue both currently have a stronger squad than us, so if their managers hit the ground running and with a few new additions then they would both be likely to finish above us.
Villa have a very good manager who has worked wonders, they have also built a really good squad and continue to make some really astute signings (Ian Maatsen) who will further improve them. I wouldn't expect to see them drop off next season, meaning they will be right in the mix.
Spurs I feel are 50/ 50, I like Ange as a manager, but I do think he was overhyped last season. Probably because the press loved him. If Spurs get their recruitment right this summer they could be right in the mix next season, get it wrong though and it could all implode next season.
City and Arsenal will be the top two again by some distance next season. Great managers, great teams, well settled and likely to improve over the summer.
Which means there will be two UCL places up for grabs and 6 teams fighting it out for them (Liverpool, Chelsea, Newcastle, Villa, Spurs and United) .
I actually think our best route back into the UCL next season is by winning the Europa league. There is no drop down from the UCL next season. Which means that we are the biggest side in the competition, and have to probably start as the favourite for it.
If we finish 5th/ 6th with improved performances and win the Europa league next season that would be a very successful season.
29 Jun 2024 15:22:36
Are Liverpool almost certain to finish top 4? I like the manager, but this is a huge grey area especially with Salah's future bound to come under scrutiny again in the coming weeks. It could even depend on that.
29 Jun 2024 15:45:29
As things stand, I think we’re more likely to finish outside the top ten than inside the top four.
29 Jun 2024 15:59:50
Chelsea also had a similar amount of injuries to United and actually had more total days missed with several key players injured for most of their campaign. Would imagine if they can keep James, Chilwell, Nkunku, Lavia and Fernandez (was playing with a hernia injury for something like 6-8 months) fit then they’ll improve especially if they manage to sign a ST and GK.
29 Jun 2024 11:56:53
Agree with you 25, United needs to be looking at a mid-term approach and it seems that is what’s happening. Hopefully, the days of throwing silly money at graveyard galacticos is over.
It’s sensible to think that this new structure will take a couple of years to fully bed in. There will certainly be bumps in the road. Recruitment is the hardest part of running a business imo, I’ll be shocked if Ineos gets everything right straight away.
And that’s before looking at the playing staff. We have between 4-6 players who are any good, so it’s going to take a few summers to sort out. Again, we won’t get every signing right. That’s why I think a 3 year plan would be sensible.
{Ed025's Note - I’m with you Wazza mate..
29 Jun 2024 13:48:11
ED025,
I'm not expecting much either. It will be difficult to sell Casemiro, Sancho, Maguire, Ericsson, Greenwood etc.
I expect AWB an dpossibly Lindelof to leave soon, but if Celasemeiro was to go to Saudi I would have thought a deal would have been wrapped up pretty quickly by now.
{Ed025's Note - it won’t be easy to get rid of players with huge contracts MH, some think it will be easy mate…but most of us live in the real world..
29 Jun 2024 19:36:44
I’ve got an Ericsson you can buy, happy with my Nokia.
29 Jun 2024 20:39:17
I have UTD to win the league in an annual pick the winners of the four English leagues.
30 Jun 2024 05:27:23
CBs who can play a high line, DCM who is defensively responsible, can pass and can run. Another striker so that we have something extra we can always look to from the bench and anything else is a bonus this year.
Doing a lot of business is not always the sign of a team that will do well. We struggled last year with new striker and keeper. Chelsea changed too much and suffered.
We have a long way to go to get back to the top table in the epl, but we are now moving in the right direction.
30 Jun 2024 11:55:04
Dodgy, you're spot on. Evolution over revolution has always worked best.
The biggest issue we have is our bloated squad. Getting your ideas across is difficult and become watered down the more people you have to explain them to. While keeping the dressing room a tight knit group all pulling together in the same direction is also practically impossible with so many players. Especially as many of them won't play much.
Let's be honest if we sold/ let go any of Williams, Alvaro Fernandez, Pellistri, Donny, Hannibal, Gore, Forson, Shoretire, Greenwood or Sancho would we even need to replace them as between them they maybe player 350 minutes of first team football.
That's 10 players who had practically no impact for us last season and we wouldn't miss if they weren't here next season.
You could probably add Bayindir, Heaton and Martial to that list of hardly playing any minutes. Although they would need replacing as you need a second and third choice keeper and we need more than one striker.
Others like Lindelof, Eriksen and Amrabat also played limited minutes. Although would need replacing also.
We have 38 players in our first team squad, yet you tend to rely on around 18 or so the play the majority of the available minutes, with another 5 or 6 picking up minutes as squad players covering for injuries and playing games of lesser importance to allow the key players time to rest.
We need to work out who our core 18 are, which 5 or 6 players we need to cover and fill in the gaps, then let the rest go without replacing them.
Then we can look at that squad of 24-25 players and see which ones need/ can be sold and upgraded on.
If we upgrade 3 or 4 players who play considerable minutes and remove those that don't have play and just bloat the squad then we will be in a much better place. Which should result in better performances with players actually having time to be coached and take on board the tactics and instructions. While an improvement in the mentality and desire from players with them being a more united dressing room should also see an improvement.
Then next summer it'll be a case of replace 4 or 5 with better players more suited to how we want to play. With the same thing the following summer.
By which point we should have a core squad of 24 or 25 players, 12 to 14 of which have been brought in under the new ownership to suit the new squad they are looking to build. Along with the 5 to 8 players who might be good enough that they already have. Throw in a few academy players who might step up over the next couple of seasons and suddenly we have a squad that should be able to challenge for major honours. Assuming that the majority of the signings we make work out.
It's a medium term plan to rebuild the team that should bring in long term success.
But we can't be expecting instant success, title challenges are 2 to 3 years away. That's if everything goes to plan, which it won't. So 3 to 4 years is a more realistic expectation for our next serious title challenge.
Next year is about improving in all areas, hopefully securing top four, but accepting that will be a tough battle and we might well fall just short of top four. Yet 5th or 6th and being within 3-5 points of top four would show that we have made steps in the right direction. Hopefully we can win a third cup in three years under EtH along the way. Ideally the Europa League which would mean finishing outside of the top four won't be the financial challenge it could be as we'd still get UCL football.