ManU get away with it again? Can't help thinking that if there's a team with a higher league position than they deserve at the moment it's them.
I've watched them play quite a lot this season and I don't think I've seen them play well once. They've had good periods in games, but not a single 90 minute performance to be proud of. And now Onana repeats his Wolves gaff: Casemiro to blame there, for me.
Liverpool and Man Utd letting me down in the predictions. Had them both down for 2-1 wins. please log in to view this image
Using a robust locality measure of mine, they are 6 pts better than their GD suggests (ie they would currently be in 8th place) .
Utd are a poor team with some good/very good players. There is a reliance on individual moments of inspiration or brilliance - which occasionally Fernandes or Garnacho provide. As I’ve said many times before, the team is dysfunctional and significantly less than the sum of its parts.
I should add that of those players who might be considered talented, even competent, none play in defence.
No pts and -7 on GD from the Fulham/Toon games is where the damage has been done. It will now require a repeat of 2009-10, but I see nobody in the squad with the mindset to come close to doing it.
I can see Villa winning their last three. Brighton are on the beach (mentally as well as geographically), Liverpool are unravelling and Palace will have nothing to play for. Which means we need to win all of our remaining games to finish 4th. I can't see it happening tbh. As nice as it would be to have CL football, for the extra money and pull it gives us in the market, I just don't think we're ready for it yet. Not even close. Europa League is our level and would pose a very interesting challenge for the manager and squad. In theory we could go quite far in the competition with a few good additions this summer. I cannot see us getting past the last 16 in the CL even with those additions.
I don't think we'll do it either. But v Chelsea, Villa looked knackered. They'll probably drop points too. We need to beat either Arsenal (my preference) or Liverpool to have a chance.
