09 Aug 2026 18:06:47
I'm still catching up, some lovely quotes from Enrique post game.
"The biggest compliment I can give Michael Carrick right now is that you can clearly see what Manchester United are trying to do. There is a clear idea, a clear identity, and the technical level of the team looks higher than it has been for a long time.
“They played tidy, free-flowing football with a lot of intensity and pressing. They made the game difficult for us and, honestly, we struggled. We may still have some players returning from holiday and not everyone is at their best physically yet, but Manchester United made things very uncomfortable for us.
In the second half, we couldn’t even register a shot on target.
“To be honest, I didn’t expect that level from Manchester United before the game. My opinion has completely changed after today. They have the players, the talent and now the structure to compete for the biggest trophies. Michael Carrick is doing a great job, and you can see the belief growing within the team.
“If you ask me today who I would like to see win the Premier League, I would say Manchester United. They impressed me, and I wish Michael, his players and everyone at the club the very best for the season. ".
09 Aug 2026 18:55:57
No doubt a few on here are not going to like that!
The very idea, people who know what they are doing, running the team.
We may well have been playing friendlies of late, but you have been able to see what Enrique is referencing in the performances.
Certainly don't expect to be winning the league, but if we can go into every game able to compete with and beat anyone, then that will be a significant improvement. I fully expect C.L. qualification again.
Can't wait for the season to start.
09 Aug 2026 18:56:10
Pretty sure he didn't say this.
09 Aug 2026 19:13:41
Indeed, twenty.
However, I do believe they will win the league. ?
09 Aug 2026 19:20:16
It certainly reads like AI.
I doubt any coach would read so much into a preseason friendly. I have my own doubts about Carrick. Results last year under him didn't correspond to performances; it was, in many ways, the inverse of RA. I still find it hard to gauge whether Carrick just benefited from RA's work and the growing understanding amongst the several new forwards that was already underway, or if he was just lucky, or if he showed an astuteness in understanding the league better and knew when to get the team to push at the right moments, or if the formation adjustment had any impact whatsoever (it suited some but not others).
I'm clear that moving Bruno further forward helped a lot. I'm not clear that could have happened all year, as I don't think Mainoo was positionally as aware then as he seems to have become.
That all said, I like how calm Carrick is, and I don't see any reversion to a player rather than team-centric approach. So, regardless of the AI slop, I'm enthusiastic about the coming season and seeing Carrick try to build on the progress throughout last season.
09 Aug 2026 19:45:40
Nothing's all inverse to RA's. It'd. We played awfully and the results matched this.
09 Aug 2026 19:56:02
To be fair, DonRed, Amorim pretty much froze out Mainoo, and it was he who decided to set up with Bruno playing further back. And it was Amorim who decided to stick with 3 at the back. A new manager inevitably has to work with the players he inherits until the first summer window. So, with the structural changes, the benefit of the doubt must go to Carrick doing more than simply building on Amorim's work.
As far as the unconvincing nature of some of our wins, there were times under SAF when it felt like that. United always gave up chances. The comebacks, the late goals turning losses into draws and draws into wins, are what make champions. As they say, good teams make their own luck.
09 Aug 2026 19:59:38
I saw those quotes and I was trying to figure out if they were a fake!
They are very strange. I've never heard an opposing manager from a different league say anything like that before.
I suppose he knows about our structure and players from when they tried to attract him to OT.
If the quotes attributed are correct, then it's a big compliment.
Nice to see a real subject matter expert share their views, and, at the moment, he is the daddy of all managers.
The more positive things people hear and say about the club bring a change in attitude towards the club and within the club.
09 Aug 2026 20:13:10
Newnameoldideas, yep, that's all fair. I'm quite a data-driven person, and I'd put a lot of stock in predictive stats which showed that we were performing at 3rd best in the league for most of the season, but actually dipped on several of those trend lines. This isn't to ignore actual results - despite multiple foolish comments here to suggest otherwise, there isn't any good data-driven person who would ever do that - but it is to temper things. RA was and is a significantly better coach than most give credit for, and Carrick hasn't shown yet that he has improved the baseline of the team.
Where I'm optimistic is that we have continued to recruit in getting technically excellent players. Tielemans and Santos continue on that trend. I think we should see more control in games this year as we have many players that can break the lines with their passing and their dribbling skills. This is to Carrick's credit and to the stability in our structure around him. I really hope Carrick has the ability to improve things further, and the fact that most of the improvement is required around our control in the middle of the park should suit his expertise.
09 Aug 2026 22:32:18
Spot on, DonRed. My thoughts exactly.
10 Aug 2026 07:58:42
Amorim may just be the making of Mainoo's career. He burst onto the scene and had everything very easy. He had to grow up and fight under Amorim, and I thought his last few games last season, he played some of his best football - mainly because of his work off the ball, and working with an aging Casemiro in midfield.
Several times he supported the attack, and then was sprinting back into position to cover the back four. His defensive stats are good, and he takes good positions similar to Carrick. Hope he keeps developing in the same vein this season, and competition for places is essential.
10 Aug 2026 08:58:13
I watched the full game vs PSG and it was clear that the team was pressing high and made it difficult for PSG.
They broke the press once, which led to their goal.
It was also clear that, when PSG brought on Neves and Vitinha, United dropped off quite a bit and reverted more to a counter-attacking system.
But they still defended well and limited chances.
Be interesting to see if this translates into the league and how it goes.
10 Aug 2026 10:36:02
Those quotes aren't real, unfortunately. He didn't mention a single thing about United in his interview.
10 Aug 2026 11:32:49
Having not heard him say this, I can't say for sure whether these quotes are genuine or not. However, the positive thing is that based on how we have played during pre-season they are entirely believable.
Which in itself is a real positive, and shows that we are making steps in the right direction.
What constitutes a successful season for us will change as the season progresses, as it did last year, when before the season started we said moving up from a 15th placed finish to 5th or 6th would have been a successful season, then we sacked the manager partway through the season and ended up finishing 3rd. Yet in those final 6-8 weeks if we ended up finishing 5th most would have felt it wasn't a successful season as top 4 was well in our grasp.
I would suggest that at this point a successful season would look a little like this:
Make the knockout stages of the UCL, maybe even a quarter final.
Have good cup runs in the domestic cups (two semi-finals at least).
Finish in the top four, having played good and progressive football (starting to see a real style of play emerge).
That I think would be a successful season coming off the back of a world cup (which always makes a season longer and harder), along with an increase in games and travelling back and forth to Europe again. Anything more (cup win, or a genuine title challenge) would be a bonus.
That said how a season pans out isn't only decided by what your team does (signings, style of play, injuries, tactics, management, luck) but also by the season's had by the other 19 EPL teams.
For example, are the promoted clubs actually competitive or just whipping boys. That can drastically change how a league table ends up, either creating bigger or smaller gaps between positions in the league. If they are competitive, and that reduces the gaps between each position then it makes each game higher pressure, a bad run could see you drop 3 or 4 places, while good form might not help you climb that much.
This season will have potentially more unknowns than most.
City have a new manager for the first time in a decade, will they continue to be as good or will they drop off. Also will they get a points deduction due to the charges hanging over them.
Liverpool, Chelsea, Newcastle, and Spurs will all have new managers, how they settle in and how the teams adapt to the changes will play a massive role in who if any of them can seriously challenge for the title this season.
Other clubs that have punched above their weight (Bournemouth, Palace, Forest and Fulham) will also have new managers.
How the three promoted teams do is anyone's guess, while even Ipswich have a new manager, with McKenna getting them promoted but then choosing to leave at the end of last season.
That means 10 of the 20 teams go into the season with a different manager to last season.
Only Arsenal, Everton, Leeds, Sunderland, Brentford, Brighton and ourselves look to have a fairly settled management team and consistent set up behind the scenes.
Of which you'd only expect Arsenal and ourselves to be challenging in the top four places, Brentford, Brighton, and Everton could challenge for the Europa League places.
There is a weird potential scenario where we are actually the best placed team to actually challenge Arsenal for the title. That doesn't mean we should expect a title challenge, but it's not beyond the realms of possibility, and that would probably be down to where other clubs find themselves right now rather than where we are.
It'll be an interesting and potentially exciting season (although I see Arsenal probably winning the title again fairly convincingly this season unfortunately), but second place and below looks to be a really interesting battle of who has brought in the right manager, and recruited best.
10 Aug 2026 12:53:52
I can see Arsenal running away with the league this season. They haven't lost any significant players but have added some good ones, Bruno G at least. They won't concede many goals again.
I would imagine City to be their closest challengers, again. But that's a small unknown due to no Pep, but their new boss is City trained, so will likely try and play the same way.
I think Liverpool will start slow, but gather pace and be up there by the end of the season.
I actually think Chelsea could be right up there, lots of good players and no midweek games. Just depends on how well
Alonso settles.
I don't think United will be challenging for the title, the defence isn't quite good enough for that yet. Not enough clean sheets sadly. But I would hope they will at least be fighting for too 5.