Match Day Thread Anderlecht vs Manchester United (EL Glory)

3 other decent teams easily. I dont think United should be arrogant at all about this. This isnt the Fergie days. We can't take any game for granted. I also think we'll need to score 3 at home against Anderlecht to go through. You heard it here first

 

If this was the Liverpool board there'd be a whole thread dedicated to how UEFA and the FA and the BBC had stitched up Livpl to play 3 games in 7 days and Astro would be leading calls for T shirsts to be printed.

 

^^^ #fear

 

Yep, we know what causes it but it's still fun to watch you

 

Boom! They call him Slam Dunk Diego.

Go lick your wounds @Skylarker

 

Its squeaky bum time for the RS each time United play in the Europa. The way they try to rim and suck up to the United opposition is quite funny, with their idol astro leading the way.

They have concentrated on 4th place since the start of the season and yet that place is still uncertain for them

The stench of #fear on their board is unmistakable.

 

Well Leicester are out of the CL so is up to you now to represent England in Europe - do us proud lads.

 

We will try mate, you have gone further than most of our "top teams" in recent times. Well done to your lads, they never let the league down.

 

In fairness you've already done us proud. Outstanding run when you consider how Arsenal, City and Spurs wilted under the pressure of Europe (again!).

Should we start a petition for you to get Spurs' CL spot next year? I'm sure HIAG would love it

 

At the risk of massively jinxing it, Anderlecht should not present a massive problem. If JM cannot take United to the final AFTER he said it was a priority then it would be seen as a significant failure for him.

Like Gary Neville said, even winning the Europa after the league Cup and getting into Europe cannot be seen as success for JM or United. It will be a stepping stone or progress towards success. Success is winning the title AND challenging for the CL on a regular basis as one of the favourites. We are currently very far from that.

 

I think in the context of where van Gaal left us winning both the league and UEFA cups would be a success.

I'm not really arsed by the billy big balls attitude of what we should be winning. We're not winning those things so, for now, we should target the cups available and see it as an achievement when/if we do win them.

We can assess what is deemed a success for next season at that point, next season.

 

You've definitely jinxed it now...

Tbh after the last three seasons I would count winning the EL and LC as a success for this season. Although that means little - LVG getting us into the CL was a successful first season for him, the problem was his utter failure to build on it.

As you say, next season we will need a sustained title challenge and / or a strong run in the CL (assuming we qualify) for it to be a successful season.

 

Of course, I know where we currently are. I have lived through the deep lows and the big highs. The relegation and THE Treble. And trust me while we should be celebrating winning the Cups like the Fa, Europa (IF we do win it) and the league Cups, these are not signs of success as far as a club like United is concerned.

Never mind where it is at the moment, a club of United's stature should be challenging for the title and the CL as well as playing attractive football. I am not saying that this will be achieved soon but should remain the key priorities.

 

Of course it does.

We aspire to win and be competing for the league every season, which is pretty obvious really. However, that was a pretty unrealistic aspiration this season given the mess van Gaal left so the targets were surely slightly lower while Mourinho gets into the job?

You personally for instance can't have thought, "Jose is here, this year we'll be back winning the league". I'd assume not.

Which means that should we add the EL to the league cup and maybe even also double up by getting top four as well then it will be a successful season. Season 1 target ticked off, onto next season and aim higher.

Never mind what Gary Neville says, he only knew success for the entire duration of his career and is clearly speaking from the owners viewpoint, I'm fairly certain most actual supporters would think along the same lines.

 

I think it is really semantics. While I didn't have any expectation of a title WIN, I certainly had an expectation of a title challenge and certainly of a top 4 and of an improvement in the sleep inducing pedestrian football that LVG had instilled in the team. Anyone who denies they didn't have this expectation too would be lying.

So if you wish to call this a successful season should we get the Europa, that's fine. Not quite for me as it would be a significant stepping stone towards real success. My reference point is Ferguson's United and the trophies we won. Yours as you've admitted is LVG's.

 

No, it isn't. My short term reference is to improve but my long term reference will always be to be as good as we were under Ferguson but I accept that isn't an instantaneous target in Mourinho's first season.

I'd have preferred us to not be scraping for fourth as the highest achievable finish but knew this would be a season of consolidation.

Bottom line is this; we win a trophy or two and get in the CL for next season = success. Plain and simple.

Different story next season of course.

 

I appreciate as a club United need to ultimately aim for league titles and CL trophies. But I think we also have to accept just because we're MUFC we don't have a god given right to be doing it. I can accept a period where we're not achieving either. It's happened to us before. United under Fergie was a dream come true which may not happen again for a while... or be remotely close to it.

We've done 4 years without a league title challenge or CL challenge. Ridiculous to think it's been 4 years. Who in 2013 would have thought we'd be looking at realistically challenging again in 5 years time! That's how quickly it goes and it may well be the case we could have another 3/4 years without challenging for either. I think back to the 80's when we fed off a couple of FA Cups. It happens. I'm not too fussed if we go through it again as long we see progress in our football and Mourinho builds something long term.

Personally, I think an FA Cup and Europa League would be a success. Especially for Mourinho's first season (shows his pedigree is still there) and bcos we'll win a competition we've never won before. Not to mention the CL football that will follow.

Finally, I remember that period of transition around 2005 and how the Carling Cup in 2006 kick started that period of sustained success. Maybe the FA Cup, League Cup and EL will do the same but more importantly give this new squad the experience of going through trophy winning campaigns. That experience is so important imo for league campaigns in the future.

 

With the benefit of 20/20 hindsight, looking back at those early season results I think that those of us outside the club had very little idea of just how bad the morale of the playing squad and backroom team had become. JM had a bit of a shock too I suspect. He probably thought he could swan in the door, have a few choice words and things would look after themselves on the pitch. Perhaps that was naïve, perhaps he had a million and one things to fix that go with managing an operation the size of this club. What is clear is that those early results have cost us a realistic chance of challenging for the PL title this season.

To put some of JM's problems into context, he had to dismantle and completely rebuild LvG's training and sports science regime, he had to involve himself in the re-working of many of the facilities at Carrington and at the same time deal with one of the most critical elements of the season - how to withdraw Rooney from a superstar role - captain for club and country - and have him accept a lesser role on the bench. All that without causing a rebellion in the dressing room which would have undermined his first year in charge. That he achieved that, and everything else - and factor in that we already have silverware and are making a fist of both the top 4 and the Europa League - then you have to acknowledge that this season has been quite an achievement.

Had we been firing on all cylinders when he arrived and we needed just the odd tweak here and there - you would be perfectly entitled to say that this season was a disaster by any standards. The truth is we were not - the place was a shambles after years of meddling from Moyes and LvG and JM has got us back on the right track. Add in a couple of signings for the summer, a tournament-free summer and a good pre-season and I expect us to be challenging at the top again next year. I'm happy to take what comes this season and to judge JM properly this time next season.

 

Have that you chocolate beer-brewing Belgies