EPL Man U

What a shame. I’ve always liked Manchester United especially when they lose big games like Burnley
 
Looking at tonight’s table Liverpool are nearly double Man United’s points and they have a game in hand.
 
Hate the bastards.
That maybe so, but there is no denying that this Liverpool side are something special.

In relatively recent years we've had the treble winning Man Utd team and the invincibles of Arsenal who have achieved something incredible. This Liverpool side could go further by going unbeaten whilst also winning the Champions League, Super Cup, World Clubs and possibly the FA Cup too. You don't have to like the club, their fans or their history to respect that they are playing at a level rarely seen in this country.
 
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That maybe so, but there is no denying that this Liverpool side are something special.

In relatively recent years we've had the treble winning Man Utd team and the invincibles of Arsenal who have achieved something incredible. This Liverpool side could go further by going unbeaten whilst also winning the Champions League, Super Cup, World Clubs and possibly the FA Cup too. You don't have to like the club, their fans or their history to respect that they are playing at a level rarely seen in this country.

Long way to go yet. They will almost certainly win the league but they haven’t won the CL or FA Cup yet, and there’s still a long way before they go all season unbeaten...
 
Why have they not played Man City yet this season? They have played quite a few teams twice.
 
I mean, I'm no Liverpool fan.....but it's fair to wonder now if (in England at least), they might be?
Over their last 31 Premier League games (not exactly a small sample size!) they've won 30 and drawn one. And they won a European Cup in that time frame to boot.
Their points total in the 2018-19 PL was the third highest ever - and they're on pace to shatter the record this year.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think any other team in England has ever been on the sort of run they've been on these past two seasons........

Course it might all go to hell, still - hopefully starting with Wolves tonight.


In terms of winning the league - 2015-16 was the only time in my (41 year) lifetime where I took any pleasure in the English top flight champion.
Every other winner has been either a tedious, arrogant, traditional money bags club (Man U, Liverpool, Arsenal) or a tedious, arrogant, new-money-bought-us-the tile club (Man City, Chelsea, Blackburn back in the day.......)

In my mind there’s little doubt Liverpool are an exceptional side. The trophies they’d picked up, including the big one in the European Cup, prove it. They have a rock-solid core and backups that can change games. When Divock Origi is your back up man, you know you have a formidable side.

My issue with proclaiming them as the best is not down to their quality, but the decline in the fortunes of their main challengers. Man United and Arsenal are undergoing lengthy succession problems, Chelsea have been hit with the transfer embargo and are undergoing a rebuilding job, Tottenham have undoubtedly entered the race to be a top side at the cost of running a small squad into the ground and even the Man City juggernaut has stalled this season in trying to replace Kompany and revise a defence that looks leaky. The atmosphere was ripe for a steady, tight-knit squad like Liverpool to take over. Done it they have but how would they fare against Chelsea of 2005-06 or Man United of 1998-99? Always hard to say but I’d figure they’d have a much harder challenge against those sides than the mediocre versions of Arsenal and Man United they have to play this season.

I think the best PL sides have emerged when the league has been at its most competitive. Man United’s 1999 side for example only won the title by a solitary point, the era 2005-2012 when English sides regularly made the semis and final of the European Cup was very strong (Chelsea’s roubles adding some spice to the Arsenal-Man United rivalry of the late 90s/early 00s) and until this season Guardiola’s Man City held Liverpool at back with similar levels of intensity.

Not knocking their achievements (apart from that Qatari money grab trophy – that can be binned). They’re the best side this season by miles and good to watch too. Best ever? Debatable.
 
In my mind there’s little doubt Liverpool are an exceptional side. The trophies they’d picked up, including the big one in the European Cup, prove it. They have a rock-solid core and backups that can change games. When Divock Origi is your back up man, you know you have a formidable side.

My issue with proclaiming them as the best is not down to their quality, but the decline in the fortunes of their main challengers. Man United and Arsenal are undergoing lengthy succession problems, Chelsea have been hit with the transfer embargo and are undergoing a rebuilding job, Tottenham have undoubtedly entered the race to be a top side at the cost of running a small squad into the ground and even the Man City juggernaut has stalled this season in trying to replace Kompany and revise a defence that looks leaky. The atmosphere was ripe for a steady, tight-knit squad like Liverpool to take over. Done it they have but how would they fare against Chelsea of 2005-06 or Man United of 1998-99? Always hard to say but I’d figure they’d have a much harder challenge against those sides than the mediocre versions of Arsenal and Man United they have to play this season.

I think the best PL sides have emerged when the league has been at its most competitive. Man United’s 1999 side for example only won the title by a solitary point, the era 2005-2012 when English sides regularly made the semis and final of the European Cup was very strong (Chelsea’s roubles adding some spice to the Arsenal-Man United rivalry of the late 90s/early 00s) and until this season Guardiola’s Man City held Liverpool at back with similar levels of intensity.

Not knocking their achievements (apart from that Qatari money grab trophy – that can be binned). They’re the best side this season by miles and good to watch too. Best ever? Debatable.
Best Liverpool side I can remember is the 1984 one, which did the treble of League, European, and League Cup after dominating for a few years. This side is up there with them, it hasn't been just a 1 season wonder, they were bloody good last season as well, took a record points total to stop them winning it last year.
 
You have to smile when people say United will go 30 years before they next win a title. Not a chance of that happening. They will come good again in the next five seasons, whether that’s under OGS is debatable but it will happen. There’s a rotten core currently running through the team, Pogba the obvious one but Martial, Matic, Rojo, Shaw, Jones and even a £350,000 a week under performing goalkeeper are also culpable for the current state the club is in. Bar De Gea they are squad players earning an absolute fortune and happy to just play 10 games a season and sit on their sizeable contracts.

There’s decent talent and desire there in my opinion. Rashford, Wan Bissaka, McTominay, Maguire, Greenwood, Fred and Williams wouldn’t be out of place in a squad challenging for the very top honours but they need help and they are just 7 or 8 so there’s a mountain of dealing to be done to reach title contenders again but I don’t think they’re a million miles off where Chelsea, Spurs, Leicester, Arsenal currently are.

It’s a mess but I’d very very surprised if it remains a Liverpool style 30 year old mess.
 
You have to smile when people say United will go 30 years before they next win a title. Not a chance of that happening. They will come good again in the next five seasons, whether that’s under OGS is debatable but it will happen. There’s a rotten core currently running through the team, Pogba the obvious one but Martial, Matic, Rojo, Shaw, Jones and even a £350,000 a week under performing goalkeeper are also culpable for the current state the club is in. Bar De Gea they are squad players earning an absolute fortune and happy to just play 10 games a season and sit on their sizeable contracts.

There’s decent talent and desire there in my opinion. Rashford, Wan Bissaka, McTominay, Maguire, Greenwood, Fred and Williams wouldn’t be out of place in a squad challenging for the very top honours but they need help and they are just 7 or 8 so there’s a mountain of dealing to be done to reach title contenders again but I don’t think they’re a million miles off where Chelsea, Spurs, Leicester, Arsenal currently are.

It’s a mess but I’d very very surprised if it remains a Liverpool style 30 year old mess.

'Not a chance of that happening' was said about Liverpool though.
 
'Not a chance of that happening' was said about Liverpool though.

And they had some very good players during those 30 years as well, they even won one of the best European cup finals of all time (which makes a bit of a mockery of the 30 years of misery line, a bit like if England win the Euros this summer but we carried on counting back to 66) and one of the worst European cup finals in between winning league titles.

Still it’s harder to see Man U going 30 years without a title with how football is now, the Glazers are the biggest impediment to a recovery, can’t see them putting in another 20 years, they will cash out sooner than that.
 
City are in a FFP spending issue at the moment - so are being "wiser" with what they spend to not get punished again, but that team is also getting old and stale. They really need the academy to come through and fill in some gaps...
 
Right now though you could say the same about Chelsea. They look a mile off a title too. They’ve had worse results than United at home but defeats to Palace, Bournemouth, Southampton seemed to have been brushed under the carpet. There’s five or six points between the two of them and not forgetting Man United beat them 4-0 at OT and beat them at Stamford Bridge in a cup.

Lampard is doing marginally better in terms of points but he’s having a similar impact to OGS - in other words nothing to write home about ! He failed to get Derby up too. He’s certainly got off light this week, thanks to Burnley, after throwing away the points against 10 man Arsenal. I do think the media pick their targets though, Solskjaer deserves the stick he’s getting but Lampard gets a very easy ride in comparison.
 
To me , it is just funny all them glory lads who supported... cough , cough , them have seemed to have gone bit quiet.... And it made my day with texts asking some mates , how did the Burnley game go.. After all the years of stick l have had with how poor Oxford are ?
 
Right now though you could say the same about Chelsea. They look a mile off a title too. They’ve had worse results than United at home but defeats to Palace, Bournemouth, Southampton seemed to have been brushed under the carpet. There’s five or six points between the two of them and not forgetting Man United beat them 4-0 at OT and beat them at Stamford Bridge in a cup.

Lampard is doing marginally better in terms of points but he’s having a similar impact to OGS - in other words nothing to write home about ! He failed to get Derby up too. He’s certainly got off light this week, thanks to Burnley, after throwing away the points against 10 man Arsenal. I do think the media pick their targets though, Solskjaer deserves the stick he’s getting but Lampard gets a very easy ride in comparison.

Chelsea have six more points and have been operating under a transfer ban. They’ve also brought through a load of young players, and qualified out of a potentially tough champions league group. I don’t think there can be any argument that Lampard is doing a better job
 
Right now though you could say the same about Chelsea. They look a mile off a title too. They’ve had worse results than United at home but defeats to Palace, Bournemouth, Southampton seemed to have been brushed under the carpet. There’s five or six points between the two of them and not forgetting Man United beat them 4-0 at OT and beat them at Stamford Bridge in a cup.

Lampard is doing marginally better in terms of points but he’s having a similar impact to OGS - in other words nothing to write home about ! He failed to get Derby up too. He’s certainly got off light this week, thanks to Burnley, after throwing away the points against 10 man Arsenal. I do think the media pick their targets though, Solskjaer deserves the stick he’s getting but Lampard gets a very easy ride in comparison.
Are you a Man U fan?
Lampard has done far better that OGS.
Man U spent a fortune on Maguire, James and Wan Bissaka.
Chelsea sold one if the best players in the PL ( Hazard)
Chelsea will exceed expectations if they get into the Top 4.
 
Right now though you could say the same about Chelsea. They look a mile off a title too. They’ve had worse results than United at home but defeats to Palace, Bournemouth, Southampton seemed to have been brushed under the carpet. There’s five or six points between the two of them and not forgetting Man United beat them 4-0 at OT and beat them at Stamford Bridge in a cup.

Lampard is doing marginally better in terms of points but he’s having a similar impact to OGS - in other words nothing to write home about ! He failed to get Derby up too. He’s certainly got off light this week, thanks to Burnley, after throwing away the points against 10 man Arsenal. I do think the media pick their targets though, Solskjaer deserves the stick he’s getting but Lampard gets a very easy ride in comparison.

I'd say the difference is summarised by supporter reaction.

Man U: Throwing toys from prams
Chelsea: Had written off season and are exceeding expectations
 
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The Glazer family have syphoned out £1Bn from the club since purchasing it for £800m. Yet still the club is in debt to the tune of £500m.

It's literally a license to print money. Yeah, we can laugh at the entitled supporters. But the shareholders are rogering a global sporting institution senseless!
 
Right now though you could say the same about Chelsea. They look a mile off a title too. They’ve had worse results than United at home but defeats to Palace, Bournemouth, Southampton seemed to have been brushed under the carpet. There’s five or six points between the two of them and not forgetting Man United beat them 4-0 at OT and beat them at Stamford Bridge in a cup.

Lampard is doing marginally better in terms of points but he’s having a similar impact to OGS - in other words nothing to write home about ! He failed to get Derby up too. He’s certainly got off light this week, thanks to Burnley, after throwing away the points against 10 man Arsenal. I do think the media pick their targets though, Solskjaer deserves the stick he’s getting but Lampard gets a very easy ride in comparison.

Tbf, both Chelsea and Man Utd if they have any sense will stick with their managers for the foreseeable future and let them rebuild the squads from the ground up. I think Chelsea are a bit better off with the off the pitch set up than the mess that Man Utd are with Woodward et al.

Also, Chelsea look like they are ahead in being to exploit their Academy set up at the moment which is why Lampard is getting leeway with the likes Tammy Abraham, Mason Mount and Reece James in their 1st PL season and having a greater impact than their Man Utd equivalents. Although Brandon Williams and Mason Greenwood clearly have real potential but not yet been as effective. I suspect Chelsea have more coming through behind these players than Man Utd currently do as well considering the criticism of Man Utd's Academy set up only a few years ago.

The Academy is what Man Utd and Chelsea need to rebuild from, imo, with some intelligent additions as well as the supposed very best I don't think will sign for them at present.
 
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