2015-16 Run In Thread

Herrera believes that United can still beat City to a fourth place finish.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/football...manchester-city-over-race-for-champions-leag/

 

Herrera is onto something. Against all expectations, we can do this.

 

Darmian: "It's top 4 or bust."

http://www.skysports.com/football/n...aching-minimum-requirement-of-top-four-finish

 

Predicted top ten at the end of the season:

1) Leicester City
2) Arsenal
3) Tottenham Hotspurs
4) Manchester United
5) West Ham United
6) Manchester City
7) Southampton
8) Liverpool
9) Stoke City
10) Chelsea

I looked at the top ten versus each other table, ranked it off points, looked at games against top ten left, and rearranged based on the current table. Even losing to Spurs tomorrow doesn't worry me too much that we won't get by City.

City have nine points against the top ten teams this year. They have four of their last six games against current top ten opponents.

 

We need 5 wins in a row to get to 71 points. Then have to rely on others to loose or draw.

 

Have we ever done 5 in a row in the league under LvG?

 

We've done 7 in a row. That is games without a win.

 

We've had 2 separate 6 game winning streaks in the league last season (November-December & February-April)

 

At this point it is looking unlikely given we have gone backwards this season under LVG. In my mind 4th is gone and it is all about finishing above 'pool.

 

Which will be especially harsh when Liverpool win the Europa League and keep us out of Europe.

 

When looking at how we did last season, it's hard not to be even more disappointed and also realize we have in fact gone backwards. Last season was not the greatest obviously but there were moments and games where the team really picked it up, and even looked half decent at times. The first run we went on after our diabolical start and the mini run we went on at the start of the run in, are proof of that.
This season, the best winning streak we've together in the league was 3 games. It was always stop-start, our form was very choppy and we probably have just a handful of games total where we looked decent.
It's hard if one is being real honest with themselves to defend what Van Gaal has done: some will say injuries played a part, but that doesn't hold for me as we had that issue last season and it's really something everyone has to deal with as well.
Reaching 4th looks increasingly difficult now and we really left hoping for a collapse from either the Goons or City (with their current unpredictability, it's possible, even just remotely). Winning the FA Cup will not save the season, but it would be nice, as previously mentioned for the club, players and the fans.
But yes, looking back at the season: it's been nowhere good enough and that would be enough to warrant a change...

 

We looked half decent in maybe 2 or 3 games at the most last season in the league. I don't think we've gone backwards this year. We just haven't gone forwards either.

 

Right on top of my head, I can think of the games vs Pool, the 4-2 home win vs City, the 3-0 win Tottenham, our Boxing Day win vs Newcastle, where we looked pretty good and there were other ones as well. This year is a completely different story unfortunately.
So if you want to believe that we've stalled and haven't been way worse this season, that's cool but the results and our performances overall tell a pretty different narrative. And for me, as I said, even if last season was far from ideal, I really expected us to build on the positives and it simply hasn't happened and have in fact been worse this season in many aspects.

 

The one positive we can take from this season, whether it was accidental or not on Van Gaal's part, is the fact that the young players from the Academy he gave chances to, have made the most of their opportunities and have made claims to make the jump full time into the senior team next season and play some kind of role in the squad, with Varela, BoJack, Rashford and Timmy leading the charge.

 

Liverpool has an easy remaining schedule. They have 6 games left (more than any other club), with 4 of them at home and their only trips are to 14th place West Bromwich Albion and 15th place Swansea City. Liverpool's best remaining opponent is 10th place Chelsea. Maybe they will get tired from Premier League and Europa League games in the same week. If they reach the Europa League Final, they will play 9 games in 29 days starting with today.

Leicester City hasn't had much in the way of injuries. NBC Sports Network gave 6 players (I think it was Schmeichel, Morgan, Huth, Kante, Vardy, and Mahrez) who have each missed 0 or 1 Premier League game.

 

We only looked decent for a small run last season because Fellaini linked play and bailed us out.

 

There always has to be the exception, the one anomaly and Leicester were it. How they managed to go thru the whole season having so little injuries and using such a limited squad to boot, is just mind boggling.
The point being though, injuries is something that just about every club has to deal with and some may be tempted to use that as an excuse or explanation for how poor we've been: it certainly didn't help that much is clear but our problems go much, much deeper than that fact.

 

A win against Palace and we are only 2 off of City. Insane with the season we've had that we could be in with a shout for CL football.

 

Insane indeed. We've looked wretched both in defeat and in victory yet all that matters is the three points in victory, not the style points in glory. This is the great lesson Ferguson learned in his latter years.

 

United are worried only about themselves - Van Gaal

http://www.squawka.com/news/man-utd-arent-focussed-on-catching-arsenal-reveals-louis-van-gaal/648810

We're certainly not favorites at this point to make it into the top 4 but with Arsenal and City's erratic form, if United manage to somehow run the table the rest of the way, they'll certainly give themselves an outside shot. The remaining games are all pretty manageable (on paper at least): Palace (H), Leicester (H), West Ham (A), Norwich (A), Bournemouth (H)
Doesn't matter if we have to keep winning ugly: just have to get it done somehow.

 

I never said we would win, I said we COULD be in with a shout of CL football.

 

3 of our 4 remaining games are against teams still with a lot to play for.

City have just 2 games against such a team in the league.

Arsenal have 3 out of 5 of such games.

But, it's looking like that City and Arsenal game as the second to last one of the year could be absolutely massive for 4th, especially if Arsenal drop any points in the next 2 games.

@nimma

Can you update the opening post?

 

Do we hope for a draw to double our chances of one of them slipping up further?

 

The City - Arsenal game is scheduled for May 8: lots of things can change between now and then and the preferred result will obviously depend on what happens prior to this game. We just need only one of them to fall out of the top 4, but it will probably be all for naught if we can't handle our own business.
We've got some tricky games ourselves, but we may be catching some timely breaks that could give us a hand (like Vardy perhaps being suspended for the game against us).
It's a pity we put ourselves in the position we're in, but it's not over yet.