Utd might not be bothered about missing out on the CL next season…
Probably because they have resigned themselves to thinking they will only be missing out on the group stages after all :0)
May as well enter the Europa from the outset.!
Nah, they can still finish top four. Really just lack one piece and a formation change. Need that in-his-prime midfield destroyer. A Tomas Soucek or Wilfred Ndidi. A Fabinho. Or just make McT play that role if they can’t find one. Sit in front of the CB’s and mop up. There’s plenty of goals up front, and they’ll rise up the table, as soon as they fix that IMO.
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I suppose they have an opportunity to address some key weaknesses this January, namely in midfield. You would have thought that they would like to have a new manager in place by then.
But then again their thinking hasn’t been that joined up for years now.
I truly hope that’s what they’re thinking as well. We’ve been down that route over the decades many a time. There is very, very rarely a one piece player solution to a team’s problems.
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Not to mention, for all we think we know about management (myself included), there’s far more to it than just making a single change that the armchair pundits see. Ole was out of his depth managing United, and I would be too…the difference is that I (in addition to despising United) know that I would be out of my depth; he didn’t.
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They certainly need a midfield buff but there isn’t a whole lot of good going on behind them either to be fair. The ability of that back line to hold any resemblance of a defensive shape is shockingly awful. Their awareness of what’s going on around them is a bit like a cat with a cumcumber
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I really dislike Mark Ogden, but he hit the nail on the head saying that even in the sacking of Ole Utd have shown how much of a shambles they are. They have no idea where they are going next and have nothing lined up. How?
Even ignoring that question of what they do next, even this interim period looks a potential disaster. How much reason is there to expect any turn around in form under Carrick? How much time will the fans give him/them before they make even his interim tenure really uncomfortable and start demanding a permanent appointment of someone with the stature and capabilities the role demands? As long as Ole was there they always had the option of relieving him of his duties as a way to reset. Now? If they dont see an immediate turn around, and why would we expect it, things could get really really ugly.
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Ha! That’s coaching, though. AWB is an excellent defender. My point is merely limited to this year, not to any going forward plan. They could surely salvage UCL football this season. They are only six points adrift of West Ham with 24 to play. I don’t think we should expect them to keep sinking, as enjoyable as that has been. Someone knowledgeable and pragmatic can right that ship and salvage something from it. It’s hard to believe they would leave Carrick in charge for long.
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He really isn’t.
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Also have to say I found it interesting that they thought Varane was going to be the cure to all their defensive issues a la van Dijk. I know he’s a “serial winner” but realistically he played next to Ramos at Madrid and in a France WC setup that was quite conservative. Then you take into account his injury record and his last 18 months of form and his cut-price tag (less than half of VVD) makes a bit more sense.
Ultimately, to do what van Dijk did and single-handedly shore up a defense is uncommon — and it was augmented by bringing in Alisson. To think De Gea (who is playing better but conceded 2 near-post goals on Saturday) signed a new contract because of Solskjaer…oh David, how you must curse that fax machine.
I heard Carrick as interim for 2 games (CL midweek + Chelsea on Sunday) before appointing an “interim manager until the end of the season,” meaning Carrick is the interim-before-the-interim manager. And to think Conte was available 3 weeks ago…
But this weekend, they play Chelsea, so expect them to lose whilst Arsenal who are 3 points ahead play Newcastle, so they will go 6 points ahead, then a week later is Manc vs Arsenal, if Arsenal win that Utd will find themselves 9 points off Arsenal who may still only be 5th if West Ham win their 2 games (not looked to see who they are playing)
City at Emptyhad, BHA at home.
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From the caf:
8 years, 4 managers, 2 caretakers, 0 league titles.
1 common denominator.
I love math.
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The problem is figuring out how they want to play, because they are player or two short no matter which way they want to go, the problem is it is different players depending that decision. The issue that they are incoherrent, and that’s been discussed at length on here, but the reality is you could have partnered Kante with Mascherano in their midfield 2 against us and they’d have still been swamped such was the space they were required to patrol.
So far this season almost all of their success has come when they’ve found themselves with nothing to lose and thrown the tactics out of the window and leaned on talent on the pitch alone to force a result. The second they go back to any game plan you see how badly connected they all are. That doesnt get fixed by 1 player (especially when the presence of Ronaldo is a contributing factor to it all…the good and the bad).
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De Gea in goal? 
Absolutely agree that top 4 is still within their reach but Maguire and Shaw in particular just give me the eebeejeebies from a defensive perspective.
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Of course, they need to qualify for the EL… 
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