Agree with the bit in bold. However, i disagree with the part about this team not being good enough for Europe. We were just complacent and underestimated the Teams we played in the group stage.
The team is good enough for Europe- in that it qualified- but complacency is a feature of a poor team. If it was a better team it wouldn't have underestimated the opposition. Teams are built on various foundations; ability, teamwork, team spirit, experience etc... It might just be a lack of experience that means this team is not as good as the ones that went before. If it sticks together I'm sure the team will improve and possibly reach the 99 & 07 heights.
Can I just remind people. If we cast back our minds to the year of 2005, and I know, 7 years ago is the vast majority of a lifetime for most people on here, but those that can't remember, we had a team that crashed out, finishing BOTTOM of our CL group- Van der Sar, Neville, Ferdinand, Silvestre, O'Shea (Richardson 87), Ronaldo (Park 67), Smith, Scholes, Giggs (Saha 60), Rooney, van Nistelrooy. Subs Not Used: Howard, Brown, Fletcher, Bardsley. Look at that team, look at the names there- VDS, Rio, Ronaldo, Rooney, Scholes, Giggs, RVN. These players have at somepoint in their careers (before or after this match) been called the as some of the best if not the best in the world. Coupled that with the experience and talent that the likes of Neville, O'Shea and Saha had. This was by no means a bad team, I believe Keane was still at the club at this point, although can't remember if he was injured (was it Luis Garcia that injured him during this season that pretty much ended his United career?) so not sure how much he played in Europe that season. Also take into consideration that by the end of that season we hadn't won the PL since 2003 (there was the "Invincibles" and Mourinho's back to back titles) and the only trophies we had won were the FA Cup in 2004 and the Carling Cup in 2006. Compare that to the current team. Do we have as many world class players? No we don't, there is no VDS, Ronaldo, RVN. Vidic has missed most of the season. We have one the youngest squads I can ever recall, remember the team that started vs Arsenal at OT had an average age of around 23 I think. The oldest player was Ashley Young at 26 I think and yet, we are still in good shape to win another league title. You can argue that it shows against the quality of the league, but how many people were saying this league is of a poor quality when United were in another CL final last May? Or at the start of this season looking at the squads that the likes of City, Spurs and Chelsea also had? Personally I think people shouldn't judge performances based on a single season, especially of the nature of the squad we have presently. Next year, the likes of De Gea, Jones, Cleverley, Pogba and Welbeck will be a year older, a year wiser, a year more experienced, hopefully better. So people need to just calm the **** down.
SAF has done an incredible job despite injuries; on course for 90 points and 100 goals. The European campaign was very poor but Europe has never been Fergie's strongest suit
I'd say more inexperienced than complacent. Too many of our players didn't have the European experience needed to recognise how badly you can be punished if you switch off in Europe, as we saw against Basel and Bilbao with the easy goals we gave away. I agreement with your sentiments, but I would disagree with that statement tbh. Back in 05, the only players we had who were really recognised as being world class were VDS, Scholes and RVN. Rooney and Ronaldo were still young, Ferdinand was still developing. Right now I'd say Rooney, Vidic and Nani could all could all be classed as world class depending on how you define it (let's not go there ). It's all a case of how well the young players develop in future - we could be sitting here in five years time with De Gea, Jones, Smalling, Rafael, Cleverley and Welbeck all being called world class players. At which point the same doom merchants would probably be around claiming that our team is nowhere near as strong as it was this season
Hence me saying, "before or after this match". With hindsight, at that point did we think that Ronaldo would go on to become such a player for us in the coming seasons whereby he is regarded by some as one of our best ever players of the Premier League era? Or that Rooney has now got the chance of becoming our top goal scorer ever? That wasn't a point that I was making on world class players then vs now per se, more a comment of the talent that the current side has compared with the talent that was soundly beaten not only in Europe but domestically as well for a number of seasons. And how some of that talent progressed into a team that is ranked as high as the Busby Babes or the class of 92 or even the treble winning side.
Absolutely spot on We are top of the league with a team in transition. Speaks volumes (a) just how good a manager Fergie is, building a FOURTH great team, and (b) how bad the rest are. Having said that, I have to agree that the PL is in decline compared to the Spanish league... and possibly even the top teams in Italy and Germany.
