The Manchester United Thread XIX

Slightly disappointed how some fans are celebrating a 0-0 v Chelsea with 45 minutes of good football and acting like we smashed them 4-0. Shows how far the expectation levels have fallen...

I'm still in the LVG out brigade in case you haven't noticed

Just a general question, if we had a similar performance v Swansea but it finished 0-0 would you guys be happy?

Some fans are 'celebrating' because last night we witnessed a huge improvement compared to the rest of the season, albeit Chelsea are a very poor side.

Look, any other season we would be miles off 4th and LVG would've been sacked. However all the top teams are dropping points and weaker sides like Watford, Leicester, Crystal Palace and Stoke are taking points off the top teams regularly. As a result we're not that far off 4th. We have to accept that our squad isn't the best in the league anymore, so 1st shouldn't be our expectation at the moment. If we get top 4 then it's a good season, the rebuilding process continues.

Slightly disappointed how some fans are celebrating a 0-0 v Chelsea with 45 minutes of good football and acting like we smashed them 4-0. Shows how far the expectation levels have fallen...

I'm still in the LVG out brigade in case you haven't noticed

Just a general question, if we had a similar performance v Swansea but it finished 0-0 would you guys be happy?

I'm not one screaming LVG out (although it wouldn't bother me much if he did go)

But this season was meant to be a title challenge season, last season was a transition period where he can sort his formation and squad out. Therefore building a stable squad of players to challenge for a title.

Top 4 is not good enough this year, where is the progress? We can't keep talking about being in transition. He made some lousy choices in the transfer market (with regards to player sales) and we're paying for that now.

Personally, it's probably best he goes at the end of the season, however can we afford another season out of the Champions League? Not sure.

Was it? We would've had to sign another 5 world-class players for our squad to be comparable to Manchester City. Even Arsenal have a far better squad. We're another 1-2 years away from competing with City.

The problem is we've all become accustomed to success. We believe that because we are the great Manchester United our expectation should be to win the title every season. In an ideal world that would be so. However we need to understand that successful squads have to be rebuilt once the spine disappears and almost always that results in a decrease in success; unless the manager can make the players outperform their ability on a consistent basis. We're building a squad with youngsters that will be great in 4-5 years, we can't expect Martial to score 25+ goals this season. Thus our aim was never to win the league this season, that was just to keep the delusional fans happy.

I don't recall anybody in particular 'celebrating' as you put it.

Positive comments on a performance =/= celebrating.

It was supposed to be a title challenging season.

He had a year to buy the players and implement his philosophy. 2 years to challenge for 3rd place with that amount of time and money spent was clearly not the aim.
Our rivals gave him a kickstart by being so ****e this season so we should be at least 2nd right now but the constant poor tactics/team selections have left us in this poor position.

Really don't get where you see we are 2yrs away from City...
GK is better.
Defence is better.
Midfield may not be that good but certainly challenging (when he picks the right one).
Of course there striker is going to be better but thats down to the fact they have one of the best in the world. You can't just buy a better striker, is there anyone available who can challenge Aguero?

Point is, we should have been challenging this season, especially due to the irregular nature of the league this season.
Maybe some other fans have their priorities mixed up. We demand the best out of our team, not top 4.

Based on purely (Sum of individual talent = Strength of squad, rather than cohesion and outperforming ability):

De Gea will be leaving so we will need to replace him. Caballero is better than Romero. But yes, De Gea > Hart.

Our first-choice defence is probably better, but their backup is far better. They have Sagna, Clichy, Mangala and Demichelis as back up. We have Varela, Jones, Rojo and Borthwick Jackson. It's not even close.

CM is about equal in terms of first-choice quality and depth.

We have Young, Depay and Valencia as wingers. They have Sterling, Navas and Nasri. Their wingers are far better than ours.

For CAM, they have De Bruyne and Silva, far better than Mata and Rooney.

For ST, Bony and Aguero are far better than Martial.

To have a comparable squad we need a top quality CB, backup RB and one or two top wingers. We then need somebody of Aguero's quality. Who will score 25+ goals for us? That will take 1-2 years depending on who's available and who leaves. Of course we'll need to replace De Gea. Will our replacement be as good as Hart?

In a few years City will be struggling. They have a very ageing squad, whereas we have a young and upcoming one, so I don't think having many youngsters will be such a problem. Especially considering a few of them are back ups and we've always invested in youth unlike other teams, so having a few isn't necessarily a bad thing.
We had the opportunity to sign a top CB last year but we missed out. Stones is probably the best bet. Backup RB is hardly a problem considering we have Varela who has looked bright since he's started and Valencia is hardly ****e in that position.
Should we replace De Gea then Lloris is very likely to come and he's better than Hart so thats all good.
The relatively poor transfer window was part of the problem and we should have target the positions that were apparent but Van Gaal/Woodward didn't so who's to blame?

In a few years City will be struggling. They have a very ageing squad, whereas we have a young and upcoming one, so I don't think having many youngsters will be such a problem. Especially considering a few of them are back ups and we've always invested in youth unlike other teams, so having a few isn't necessarily a bad thing.
We had the opportunity to sign a top CB last year but we missed out. Stones is probably the best bet. Backup RB is hardly a problem considering we have Varela who has looked bright since he's started and Valencia is hardly ****e in that position.
Should we replace De Gea then Lloris is very likely to come and he's better than Hart so thats all good.
The relatively poor transfer window was part of the problem and we should have target the positions that were apparent but Van Gaal/Woodward didn't so who's to blame?

City won't be struggling, they have a great youth academy and loads of money to spend. All they need is the right manager. Basically if Pep goes to City they will become an elite club.

In a few years City will be struggling. They have a very ageing squad, whereas we have a young and upcoming one

Not up for discussion

Don't compare the frog to the King please.

Someone post the seagulls interview in here please. Much appreciated.

Brendan Rodgers got sacked for 13 points in 8 games.

LVG has 3 points in last 8 games

Brendan Rodgers got sacked for wasting 100m and coming 6th

Better than wasting £150m and coming 6th.