29 Jan 2026 19:12:36
The thread below left me with the following thoughts.
Some say the league is poor this season.
I think its never been more competitive.
There is 9 epl teams into the next rounds of european comp 6 of them already in last 16.
I hadn't quite put my finger on why the league results were so inconsistent.
But perhaps the reason is because half the teams are playing in Europe now and their squads are struggling with the demands.
Look at palace league form as the season drags on.
Newcastle are suffering.
Spurs can produce one off results in cl but are not winning at the weekend.
Arsenal are coping best but just on a poor spell of form as games mount.
Rice covered every blade of grass in 1st 55 mins on Sunday and died a death in last 20. he had done same against inter on Wednesday.
So I am leaning towards the conclusion that this season has been so all over the place results wise purely down to players not being able to cope with the demands and play to the level required once every 3 or 4 days.
How often do the top race horses race?
How often do the top athletes race?
How often do the top rugby players play?
No wonder injuries in soccer are the way they are. Rugby players get battered every game but not many miss the amount of games soccer players do. They are not subject to the same travel either.
The rest of the teams are getting stronger and certainly strong enough to play any top team 5% off their best.
There has been an element of rest getting better and the best playing too much so can't turn it on every week.
City and Chelsea are on the back of a club wc too.
Given the wc this summer I'm sure we can expect the same again next season.
Again imo the rules have to change squad sizes increased and players can only be allowed to play x amount of mins per season for their own health and safety and well being and also to allow and force all clubs into playing home developed players to a minimum of x mins per season.
Manchester United Discussion
Use our rumours form to send us manchester united transfer rumours.
27 Jan 2026 11:33:33
Dorgu out for 10 weeks with a hamstring issue. This is gutting considering his form right now.
27 Jan 2026 12:21:11
We've got options at least. Bring Sesko in up front, Mbeumo out wide. Or like for like bring Cunha in to play a free role out wide
Lad is young so hopefully heals up fast and well and don't rush him back.
27 Jan 2026 14:34:02
It really is a shame. He has been a breath if fresh air on LW.
27 Jan 2026 14:46:46
I'd be wary about the Cunha straight swop. Not exactly renowned for his tracking back to help the defence. It'll probably be Sesko. And just as I'd brought Mbuemo into my dream team, thinking he'd be playing up front š¤¦.
27 Jan 2026 15:05:53
Leaves us a bit light on the left at left wing and left back tbh don't what dalot on the left and malacia probably isn't quite up to the level.
27 Jan 2026 11:29:49
Patrick Dorgu is set to be out for around ten weeks after scans reveal a hamstring injury.
Bummer!
19 Jan 2026 21:18:06
League is incredibly absurd this year. A loss at Arsenal and win for teams around us could see us end the weekend level on points with 10th placed Everton.
Last couple of seasons teams have needed an average of 68 points to get 4th place.
I honestly think this season 60 points can get us there seeing as everyone is just dropping points randomly. The league is genuinely so poor.
{Ed025's Note - very poor mate..
22 Jan 2026 12:00:29
Is it poor, or are all the clubs getting to a similar standard with the huge influx of money they all get?
Trying not to lol through nostalgic road tinted specs, but I do think ithe Premier League is not the product it once was for sure, but itās just more competitive as anybody can beat anyone on the day. Surely that better than a monoploly if 1-2 clubs winning all the time?
22 Jan 2026 13:54:04
Look through nostalgic rose tinted specs that meant to say!
22 Jan 2026 19:59:17
Itās more competitive then any other league, but the football suffers, technically the football is very poor in EPL and this year even worse, how many great games do we see in a season?
Most of our teams come up against Madrid, Barca, Munich and PSG even now and we lose, the quality comes through, EPL is now full of Robots, or just extremely fit athletes that really ability of football is really lacking, itās now fitness first and you can kick a ball then great, which is a shame.
23 Jan 2026 11:02:52
The terrible premier league has 6 teams in the top 11 positions in the champions league, 3 of which are above PSG, 5 of them above Barca.
That football really is lacking.
26 Jan 2026 03:19:10
or just a very difficult league and competitive if you take a look at the cl table and where english teams sit and dominating europe.
26 Jan 2026 13:12:42
Epl football is like a different sport compared to the rest of Europe. Had a great conversation with the late Ray Wilkins on this. He was adamant that is like playing 2 different games.
The power and strength aspect outweighs technical ability in the epl.
Of course the epl players are also good technically but there is not the same emphasis on it.
The elite epl teams have both but its hard for most European teams to live with the physicality.
The elite ones do of course but in the main they are not as strong physically.
27 Jan 2026 12:23:00
Teams aren't taking advantage of dropped points this season that's for sure. The players, like in every sport, are becoming athletic phenoms compared to yesteryears. You can still win games on pure footballing brilliance but it's much harder to break down these athletically talented players now compared to before.
17 Jan 2026 16:32:55
Fair play to Ken, he called this a couple of day's ago, stating he thought we would win when all the usual neg heads were predicting doom and gloom.
I recall a true expert telling us Haaland would destroy Licha with ease. How many times has he been disrespected so! In all his time with us I do not remember a single game where he has been taken apart by an opposition player. You have to be a true idiot to ignore what has actually happened since he joined us by saying such things.
Haaland is without doubt a superb player, but today I gave Licha 8 out of 10 and Haaland, a generous, 3 out of 10.
Only real complaint of today was we did not score 4 or 5. Can't wait for Arsenal game, hopefully another performance of today's quality.
17 Jan 2026 19:24:49
Haaland has scored in 1 of 7 games against Martinez, he's won 4, drew 1 and lost 2. Not a bad record at all. Scholes and Butt are genuinely thick, not surprised.
17 Jan 2026 19:31:59
Even a broken clock is right twice a day iwotbš¤£
But I go into every game believing we can win it doesn't matter who the manager is or who he picks i go into every united game predicting a win.
Thankfully I'm not a betting man.
17 Jan 2026 22:26:22
Totally agree Ken, I also expect to win every game we play, surely to god that is the very essence of being a supporter! If you do not feel that way, then fine, but stop pretending.
Every game we play, shortly before kick off, you see the same names posting on here about how we are going to be destroyed and conceding defeat before starting. I love it when they end up with egg on their faces!
I know we will lose games, but wait for it to happen and then, at that time, accept it with good grace and move on.
18 Jan 2026 03:53:59
For me it used to be believing we could win every game. Over the last however long it has become hoping we could win any game.
Recently, even with Amorims strange tactics I was drifting back to believing we could win.
Letās temper that storm. We always seem to get up for these games and have beaten City 10 times in Peps tenure, so I hope consistency starts to happen and we can really get up and about!
Cāmon you Reds!
18 Jan 2026 09:03:34
Weāve see this movie before but we can at least celebrate a brilaint performance and win. So refreshing.
Itās role reversal a bit with City right now on derby day though. We often lost away to them when we were the dominant force.
The key is to get them fired up like that every week. Having said that, players buy into instructions that are easy to understand and that give immediate results. Amorimās methods did neither letās be honest. Great start Michael and team.
19 Jan 2026 17:39:04
I agree with you IWOTB, however I will say that over the last few years/decades that expectation that we will win every game has been diluted by the neverending dose of reality that are/were in decline, that's fine to have a readjustment.
I want us to win every game, but reality is that we probably won't at this stage, but I will always want them to. Hence why when they fall off a never-ending supply of cliffs, j get let down by constant underachievers.
11 Jan 2026 22:26:11
Fletcher comments after the game āchampions league is the objective, definitely got the talent to do it the players have to go on the pitch and for me the players have to take responsibility for that as well itās not on the manager itās not on the clubā
So now there is no manager to blame itās the players to blame.
This is what happens when you get someone in whoās cosied up to the board.
You canāt just put more effort in or have more confidence to win games if you have a squad with a weak midfield and prob other areas that need improvement. They are set up to fail. No accountability from above.
12 Jan 2026 06:47:45
āDefinitely got the talent to do itā is an owner mouthpiece comment.
How many times must I say the ownership must change completely.
12 Jan 2026 07:31:09
Could also just be his view on the players Red Man.
12 Jan 2026 09:19:01
Fletcher is right cl is best they can hope for. Amorim had them in that spot or near as they have been for a long time. So hopefully the interim and new manager will do as well as amorim in that regard. He was getting the very most out of the squad he had.
Perhaps over achieved. I think the foolish fans who didn't realise that will very soon.
So we know they can be competing really closely for a cl spot. We know they're can they were doing. I wonder if they can still do it under a different coach.
12 Jan 2026 10:59:56
32% win rate in the league, overachieved š.
12 Jan 2026 17:24:52
3rd best scoring, 5th when Amorim left.
Last season our biggest downfall is we didnāt score enough that has changed this season. I think itās called progression.
Defensivly you can see the team is crying out for a DM.
The board didnāt want to listen and would rather start again and get involved in first team tactics.
442 will only make our defensive fragility even worse. Will be lucky to finish top 10 imo.
19 Jan 2026 16:16:39
No point in progression in scoring if your letting in double at the back that was always going to be the problem under RA to build a team like he was trying is arse about face, plus the build up was far too slow and ponderous he was just out his depth couple that with crazy interviews he gave just showed the naivety of the man
Job was always too big for him.
10 Jan 2026 11:25:09
Amorim sympathy is peak on here right now.
Time to move on lads.
11 Jan 2026 13:38:03
Utd Road you're one of those on here that have been banging on the drum to play a back 4 constantly. I've sympathy for Amorim to have to deal with this questioning of his formation when that's what he came here as. He deserves sympathy because he didn't get the backing to succeed that he should have.
When he had close to a full squad he demonstrated repeatedly the improvement he had promised.
If you get to harp on about formations for 14 months I'll move on when I'm good and ready.
11 Jan 2026 17:16:48
Yea time to move on and forget and forgive the board the glazers Wilcox berrada and Jim. Thatās the problem with supporters like you, itās just letās move on start again. Iāve lost count now of how many times we have moved on.
It shouldnāt be treated as normal.
We are going to go back to last season form with a 442 with this squad we will be wide open. It may be exciting but we will lose more than we win.
11 Jan 2026 19:37:33
My one consolation is I stopped helping lay these goons wages a while back.
But Ineos have made a right title mess of things so far.
12 Jan 2026 00:31:22
Twenty someone said the other day we would win a lot of games playing 4 at the back
So we should be smashing it now.
The club deserve all they get from now till may
Hopefully they finished as low as possible and the rat Jim and his fools would have oversaw the two worst finishes in prem history
Like don red said with a full fit team we saw progression and improvement but the club as always like Amorim said himself they canāt handle the Gary Nevilleās and experts on social media.
12 Jan 2026 16:43:17
Exactly bolger.
That's twice now they have caved to public moronic media and fans emotions to keep eth after the cup win was just caving in to people who couldn't see past the nose on their own face. Little picture people who don't have the common sense to widen their lens just a fraction. Sometimes its because their ego won't let them.
There was a clear media bias and agenda against amorim led by sky and some of the print media. They caved to the hyperbole again.
They have confirmed the business is working to a strategic plan.
That strategic plan will have had no dependency on what shape the 1st team play at all i'm 100% sure of that. So its not a case at all of starting all over again but there will be obvious tweaks that will need to be addressed.
We can all stamp our feet and say we want a sheik but we don't have one so its about hoping for the best with what we do have.
A few major errors have been uncovered 1 or 2 of that management team can't afford any more cock ups before they show some significant progress.
Next managerial apt is the key one to get right.
19 Jan 2026 16:17:29
Twenty we were already losing more than we win.
09 Jan 2026 20:53:49
Thatās mbeumo heading back then. Praying for an Ivory Coast loss tomorrow so that amad can follow him š¤£.
10 Jan 2026 09:57:58
Aye tim, get them back ASAP.
06 Jan 2026 18:08:00
I'd take de zerbi at the end of the season on the condition that Mason Greenwood comes with him. The club doesn't have the balls to do that though.
06 Jan 2026 22:59:53
Jimbob,
Have you heard the voice recording? If you have and you keep posting about that scumbag I do worry.
07 Jan 2026 08:19:05
I've seen the video and heard the footage, I just don't care enough about this anymore.
Much like the people running the club don't care about the club.
There needs to be empty stadiums until the end of the season, but that won't happen.
Crash the stock price, force them all out.
It will never happen, but that is the only way.
07 Jan 2026 23:40:24
No idea what that has to do with backing a rapist to play for the club but never mind.
08 Jan 2026 10:01:18
Puts the rest of your posts into perspective Jimbo, I'll give you that.
08 Jan 2026 17:11:38
Keep eating the prawn sandwiches guys.
08 Jan 2026 17:56:27
Weird stuff Jimbo. But I've read your other posts š.
08 Jan 2026 20:52:04
Jim Greenwood won't be coming back to united.
Im Just pleased to see him playing well and seemingly living a happy life with his partner and children. Hope it stays that way for him. I hope he doesn't come back to the epl and stays away for a long as possible.
Being out of the lenses of the British media is good for him i'd imagine.
There was really awful stuff surrounding the whole episode only 2 people know the truth and they seem to be living a happy life together surely that's the only thing that matters.
08 Jan 2026 22:06:32
Angel, I've also seen your champ. pot kettle.
09 Jan 2026 13:10:14
You've seen his Champ? Reckon you should be discussing this on a different website!
09 Jan 2026 14:43:25
Ports, Irish champ is similar to colcannon.
09 Jan 2026 22:25:37
Katie Taylor is an Irish champ.
10 Jan 2026 19:08:43
Nice port, nice. You made me laugh on here for the first time in a while, well played! š.
05 Jan 2026 14:50:32
Lots of opinions flying around today, lots of people expecting someone better to come in, exactly the same conversations that we had after EtH, Ole, Jose, LVG and Moyes.
In 12 months will we be hammering the seventh lamb to the slaughter for formations, selection, style and who knows what else.
Life at Manchester United eh.
Manchester United Discussion 2
Manchester United Discussion 3