Sure, on the face of it, it may look this way. But they very much have a Jekyll and Hyde thing that has gone on all season, where they'll turn up and have good games vs top 6 opponents, but wet the bed badly in the oddest of games. If that trend continues, that easy schedule of theirs won't mean squat...
The most likely conclusion is that us and Arsenal finish 5th and 6th. Spurs are certainly going to finish in the top 3. We would have liked City to still be in the CL which would have meant there was still a chance to bring them back into the dogfight but pretty unlikely now. We need Liverpool to drop points in their next 4 with Everton home and Stoke and West Brom away, otherwise the remainder of the fixtures are way too easy.
Yeah. We need to make sure we are always in the position to play the best players available for the Europa from here on out. That just seems the most likely way for us going forward.
Either way is a safeguard in case the other somehow falls thru and really the goal should be to accomplish both (top 4 finish and EL win). There is still so much that can happen in either scenario to neglect one competition over the other at this point. And Jose fully realizes this. We could go all the way to the final and lose then. A lot of good it would do, if we got there at the expense of the league (it is a cup competition and any of a number of crazy scenarios could happen after all). The best we can hope for is by catching a break in terms of draws in the EL (as we've just had this round for instance), so Jose can tailor his squad rotation (which will be an absolute requirement in one way or another) in order to effectively compete on both fronts. Like Jose, I want an EL win as well, since it's another trophy win (one United has never won). Apart from the "prestige" of that win, there are the other implications like access to the CL, as we know, but also delivers another glamour matchup early next season in the Supercup. As far as the league is concerned, of course it will not be easy but it's still feasible to secure top 4 as well. Arsenal appear to be in real trouble and as far as Pool and even City are concerned, I don't trust either one of their backlines and still believe it will end up costing one of them dearly before it's all said and done, thus opening up a spot for us...
The update is a bit buggy. I had to re-log in even though I only stepped away from the post for about 30 seconds. Then it lost everything (maybe 4 sentences) I had typed after I logged back in.
How so, because it's not like you really expect Leicester to somehow pull off a(nother) miracle, is it? 4th still means going thru the qualification round, but it still will give United a shot.
In the 0.1% scenario where Leicester wins the CL allied with us winning the Europa and finishing outside the top 4.
Yup. 4th place team gets bumped down to Europa, Leicester go directly into group stages, and we'd be in the qualifying spot. It'll be interesting to see how low the Europa League spots go as well - between a top 4 club getting the FA Cup, us potentially getting Europa, could possibly go all the way down to 8th?
Guessing April wasn't stacked enough, the Manchester Derby has been set for April 27th. Big, really big month coming up...
Not sure where to put this. http://www.manutd.com/en/tour2017?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=post&utm_campaign=ManUtd Tour info is out. LA, Santa Clara, Salt Lake, DC. Jose does love California and UCLA to train so no surprise. Excited to see all the celebs who came out there in Chelsea shirts in ours now. Guess I'll try to go to DC.
Back to the dogfight for fourth place, the remaining fixture list heavily favors Liverpool over us. United: West Brom, Everton, Sunderland, Chelsea, Burnley, Man City, Swansea, Arsenal, Spurs and Palace. (Plus European duty.) Liverpool Everton, Bournemouth, Stoke, West Brom, Palace, Watford, Southampton, West Ham, Middlesgrough (No European duty.) The good news is that is that if we can assume we had won the two games we now have in hand we'd be on 58 points to Liverpoool's 56 points, but the bad news goes back to the remaining strength of schedule and that Liverpool will have much more rest between games than we will.
It's only March and we've already equalled 2015/16's spread of #MUFC scorers... pic.twitter.com/gNRcsTW5hg— Manchester United (@ManUtd) March 28, 2017
He is making us sound like barcelona How did José Mourinho turn Manchester United into the new Invincibles? https://www.theguardian.com/football/2017/mar/30/jose-mourinho-manchester-united-18-match-run
Fixture change: Our trip to @Arsenal has been moved from Saturday 6 May to Sunday 7 May (kick-off 16:00 BST). #MUFC pic.twitter.com/vMLL5V7Q6V— Manchester United (@ManUtd) March 30, 2017
Not much changes in the table except city and pool interchanged 3rd and 4th position. We are on 5th with 5 points behind city and 2 points above arsenal.
alright folks, given the current outlook and available players what changes could and should José make for the remaining games? discuss
The short answer is the same as it's been for a while. Given our current position both in the league and still in the running for the EL, smart squad management and deep squad usage and rotation are a must. United are looking at 2 games/wk until the end of the season or thereabouts and just about everyone is going to be needed at one point or another. Over relying on a small core of 13 to 15 players may be a recipe for disaster. Above all else, that is what I personally, would like to see Jose improve on/change on what he's done so far...
This is no time time to make "full use" of Rashford, Fosu-Mensah and Tuanzebe. Use them when we can, but we have to ride our top players hard. They have all summer to recover.