Considering the fact where we were this time last season, for me it is, LVG took over a mess and has done a brilliant job, i know he's had a lot of money to spend last summer but which manager hasn't.
Not for me at all, he's just about managed the bare minimum. Not impressed at all to be honest and certainly not about to claim finishing fourth and winning **** all is any sort of success.
I think success is overegging it. LVG himself would not put it like that. He's done the minimum expected. That is he seems to have arrested the slide since Ferguson left. Make no mistake we were sliding. For youngsters who have not experienced a sliding club. Just look at Newcastle and make it several times worse. Uncertainty, loss of confidence, panic, expectations and pressure do all sorts of things to teams. Money has nothing to do with it but if you don't spend you are ****ed.
Anything I say will sound trollish, and most know my thoughts on it. But finishing 4th with the most expensive squad in PL history is not a success. He achieved the bare minimum objective, which was to get you back in the CL, and was more successful than Moyes....thats about as big a claim as he can boast.
Don't believe everything you are fed Bod. And besides which that's a fairly BS argument imo. In fact, the most expensive squad in PL history was Mourinho's Chelsea squad last year (£373m vs £371m for Utd this season). Daily Fail includes players like Anderson, Nani and Zaha, none of whom are actually in our squad this year. Besides which LVG shouldn't be burdened with expectations to succeed because he inherited some expensive wasters, any more than Mourinho should have been judged on inheriting Torres, Lukaku, Romeu, Piazon or the various other young players Chelsea poached for big fees before he joined.
Worse than that, he's been begging Liverpool to take 4th all season but we kept refusing The football as every ****ing bit as dour as Moyes, in fact worse than watching Moyes United for many games. The only difference is the willingness of many mancs to rim vG based on non United pasts successes. Only because Liverpool refused to take the easily achievable 4th spot is vG's first season not an abject failure. If vG had a CL campaign too this season he'd been looking at the sack already just like Moyes
Most likely, I forgot that Moyes was playing in Europe aswell, got to the Quarters or Semi's aswell didnt he? Wonder how LvG would have coped with that, this season.....
We'll never know will we? Paradoxically I think a campaign in Europe would have helped LVG get his prefered formation sooner. It is all about ifs. IF Stevie hadn't slipped, the Rs would have had that first title and would not have suffered the humiliation of cancelling all their prepared celebrations, their open top buses, their Mayoral dinners and parties...
Quarters. Tbh I've never been one of those to subscribe to the CL being a big distraction. If anything, it can often help clubs early in the season as a good run in the groups can help counter difficult league ties - Moyes definitely got a big boost from his CL wins which helped stave off the criticism in the early months. It only really seems to affect clubs when they reach the semis or further and start shifting focus away from the league. But then Utd have reached the final four times whilst winning the league in each season, and if it had such a bearing on a season why do the same clubs end up qualifying year after year? Imo part time season was a BS excuse for Liverpool's success last year, and it's a BS excuse for Utd beating Liverpool this season.
Not sure Liverpool can use that as an excuse this season, I mean, they were out of Europe by January right?
The Cl found brenda out. He was totally out of his depth. And I am not wumming in saying that as most Rs will recognise that too. When I was watching these early CL matches ****ed up by the RS, I was wondering that LVG with his experience of european football will probably have had more success in those than in those early (difficult) premiership matches.
Will United be seeded in the qualifiers next season? As you missed a whole season of Europe, your coefficient must have taken a big hit. If not, and you finish 4th, you could end up facing Napoli or Monaco in the qualifiers. I said on another thread....I wouldnt take getting in the CL group stage for granted if thats the case.
It's not an excuse anyway in my book. A top club having a good season will always find a way to handle both, only sides with serious financial constraints should struggle to balance Europe and the league. UEFA have changed the seeding for this year. Top seven league winners plus this years champions will be seeded first, so we will be one of the second seeds. As I said on another thread, it does mean that in theory we could be in a group where the top seed is Zenit or PSV, and Chelsea could end up in a group where the second see is Real! EDIT: The playoff round is still seeded, so I don't think we can be drawn against Monaco, Napoli or Valencia / Sevilla. The five seeded league qualifiers will be drawn against the five unseeded teams, same as Arsenal couldn't get Zenit, Porto, Leverkusen or Napoli this year.
Not for the group stage though, I mean for the Qualifier. If you finish 4th you have to play a qualifier. They have seeding for those too. If enough of the teams that finish 4th or 3rd in the other leagues have higher coefficients than United, it means United aren't seeded for the qualifier, which means you will play a two legged qualifier against a team that IS seeded, which conceivably could be Atletico, Valencia, Napoli, Monaco..... rather than Arsenal who in previous have been seeded in the qualifiers and get sides like ZSK Sofia or Ludogrets or someone of that ilk. Remember when Everton got 4th that year and weren't seeded so they got Villareal and were battered.
