I’m not going to get carried away and say that I expect a title challenge or multiple trophies but I do expect a big improvement this season.
Even if we don’t sign another player we start the season in far better shape than last season. We now have Bruno and Van de Beek instead of Lingard & Pereira and all of our younger players have another season under their belt after promising signs last season.
I’d expect upwards of 75 points this season and to be comfortably in the top 4 this time around. I think Arsenal & Spurs will improve but I think they need to do much more in the market to be real threats. I can’t see the likes of Leicester, Wolves and Sheff Utd being in the mix this season.
It’s hard to predict cup competitions as they are often lotteries but a trophy win would be great and we need to win something soon. In terms of the Champions League getting out of the group is minimum requirement. After that who knows. Other than Bayern, Liverpool and Man City (on their day) there’s not many top sides in Europe. Real, Barca & Juve are all ageing and need a rebuild so get to the knockouts and who knows.
So this season what I expect is top 4 and improvement. Anything less and it’s a failure. We still need another 3-4 quality additions to be a really top side imo.
Thoughts?
This season’s expectations
posted on 5/9/20
comment by The Mane Man - PL CHAMPIONS (U19731)
posted 21 minutes ago
The problem Man United have with their buildup play is a coaching and a goalkeeper one. To play from the back you need a goalkeeper who is good with his feet to create a numerical advantages with the centre backs splitting and a midfielder dropping between the cb's.
Matic is not bad when he drops between the cb's because he doesn't panic in those situations. The problem is when you put pressure on the goalkeeper his diagonal ball to the fullbacks is very poor.
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Most of the time we’re playing out from the back, we don’t drop a DM into the back line. We play across the pitch and use triangles in the wide areas to get out.
We only really drop a DM in when teams sit on our CMs and we need to find a ball between the lines.
posted on 5/9/20
I’d argue that day we created three or four good chances from their use of a high press and high line (there was Martial’s run from the halfway line in the second half too off the top of my head), versus their one good chance.
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It's still an issue, whether we created chances as a result of it or not because better teams will use a high press against us and will cause us problems. If it's an area we can improve upon, we should, no reason not to.
posted on 5/9/20
Look back at the Liverpool game an Anfield. Our players were petrified in possession that day and Lindelof and Maguire were two of the biggest culprits. Lindelof especially was a nervous wreck on the ball.
posted on 5/9/20
comment by The Red Side™ (U11275)
posted 1 minute ago
I’d argue that day we created three or four good chances from their use of a high press and high line (there was Martial’s run from the halfway line in the second half too off the top of my head), versus their one good chance.
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It's still an issue, whether we created chances as a result of it or not because better teams will use a high press against us and will cause us problems. If it's an area we can improve upon, we should, no reason not to.
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We can improve, of course.
I’d argue that we’re already pretty significantly improved though, and to the extent that the chances we’re creating when playing through the high press (that aforementioned Martial goal being a perfect example) will worry many teams more than they’ll be excited about the chances they’ll create by pressing us.
posted on 5/9/20
I’d argue that we’re already pretty significantly improved though
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I can't agree with that. We've improved yes but to say significantly is a stretch. Like a lot of things I think it gets exaggerated because of how poor we were before.
posted on 5/9/20
Think we’ll be challenging for 4th with Spurs and Arsenal. Our squad is too thin.
posted on 5/9/20
comment by Busby (U19985)
posted 15 seconds ago
Our squad is too thin.
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luke shaw sighs mournfully
posted on 5/9/20
comment by The Red Side™ (U11275)
posted 13 minutes ago
Look back at the Liverpool game an Anfield. Our players were petrified in possession that day and Lindelof and Maguire were two of the biggest culprits. Lindelof especially was a nervous wreck on the ball.
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Lindelof is our biggest issue under pressure, alongside Fred, DDG, AWB and Pogba.
posted on 5/9/20
comment by Busby (U19985)
posted 1 minute ago
comment by The Red Side™ (U11275)
posted 13 minutes ago
Look back at the Liverpool game an Anfield. Our players were petrified in possession that day and Lindelof and Maguire were two of the biggest culprits. Lindelof especially was a nervous wreck on the ball.
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Lindelof is our biggest issue under pressure, alongside Fred, DDG, AWB and Pogba.
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Well that's only half the team, so does that even count as a weakness?!
posted on 5/9/20
Really depends on what business we get done. But even without anything significant we should expect to see more consistency in our performances and results. Also better squad management across the season, I do worry about the core or the team burning out. Obviously we need better depth, but running the first team into the ground isn’t something I want to see - it’d probably yield better results all across the season by playing some of the weaker players here and there, potentially causing dropped points, but keeping the core of the team fresher for the whole season so there isn’t a massive drop off from them towards the end.