Board 8 > Soccer/Football Association Topic 2025-2026: Road To World Cup

(+) Yeah! (+)

United are pressing in the second half. It's 2-1 now but was 2-0. You can't even say Grimsby were lucky (Onana did make a mistake) because they absolutely battered United in the first half. Right now, Grimsby deserve to win

As I type that, United equalize

Neestrup takes Copenhagen to Champions League for the third time in his four years, very nice!

Okay I saw the penalty shootout. That was intense. Grimsby keeper was awful and jumped earlier than I've ever seen anyone do but what does that matter when the other keeper doesn't save anything either.

paulg235 posted...

12 - Man United (EFL/Carabao Cup Winners, Qualifies for Europa Conference League)

Turns out they won't even get that.

Hell, they might not even get back to 12th (let alone finish in the top 12) at the rate things are going. If Amorin's still not sacked even after the Chelsea game next month, United will be the relegation race.

Amorim is done, if not tonight then soon. Doesn't feel quite the same but I remember watching them lose 4-0 to MK Dons about a decade ago and realising Man United might actually not be the best team in the country any more. I still think the financial gap is huge and they'll get back to at least the level they were under Ten Hag, but god I want to see them in the proper muck for as long as possible.

Yeah I don't see much change in them so far. Thought they were pretty poor in the second half against Fulham.

I don't know where Amorim goes from here. He's basically had a year at this point and it's gotten worse. And any excuse goes out of the window when you're putting in that performance against that level of opposition.

You can blame the players all you want but that level of squad, even with the obvious flaws, should be a top half team at a minimum (which is still a joke for Uniteds outlay over the years).

But it's also a terrible look to axe another manager and I haven't even looked at who is available. You would have to be stupid to take the United job too.

The idea with Amorim was clearly longer term project, but the fan pressure still gets to the fans and thus the players so it msy not have been wise.

Should've bought that top tier defensive midfielder instead of this Sesko fraud that apparently kicks as the last field player in a penalty shootout.

I was fine with us sacrificing last season with the expectation of this season being a rebound year to get us back to top 5-8 and then push next season.

I don't think you can justify another year of sacrifice with no sign of improvement regardless of the players available. For all the flaws, you cannot make the argument that 10+ premier teams have a better squad than United. They are just coached better because the system isn't so rigid (and we knew this about Amorim going in)

This job was just too early for him I think

Man United are the new England team. However good they are on paper, the pressure and the misery around the team looks pretty much unshakeable to me. Don't think many of the players nor the managers that have been there are bad per se.

Amorim was absolutely the wrong choice though. He has a very specific, very rigid way of playing that absolutely does not line up with what Man United had. And the same cycle will probably happen again with whoever comes in next. Another identity-based manager won't get immediate results, and won't get the time because results will continue to be shit. A more pragmatic manager will probably get results improved but still not much better than mediocre by United standards, and they'll eventually get sacked because they play miserable football that still doesn't win. The sackings of Ashworth and Rangnick were idiotic decisions at the time, but even moreso in hindsight.

I think the mistake was probably axing Ole although I do remember it being a dire run at the time. He finished 3rd, 2nd and then was sacked with us 7th (we finished 3rd that year). But that probably just shows how far we have fallen since

The issue obviously is deeper than just the manager though

Amorim shouldn't have been hired mid season with a system like that at least. He still has relatively few players that fit it.

But the system being that restrictive is an issue in itself. In particular in a large club like United.

It's also baffling to me that we have 2 keepers with a history of fucking up (and recently) yet we still won't play Heaton who is probably a better at actually preventing goals than both of them

Maybe this prompts them into throwing more money at the issue. Although I have no idea how we are making it work with financial fair play

Onana is better than he showed today. Looks like a broken man. Maybe it's something about the pressure on Heaton that would follow.

I think Heaton would have the pressure get to him too. Man's last league appearance was the first day of this decade and the level of the Premier League has gone up immensely since he was playing regularly. There's no chance he's up to any sort of standard these days.

Ironically, I think the weakest tactician of the post-Fergie era did probably the second best job - Ole. When there's no identity and you can buy expensive players, sometimes just being kind of defensively solid and letting attackers do what they want is alright. Again though, the league is so much stronger now than it was a few years ago. I don't think that approach would fly, but the club just isn't set up for a manager with a set way of playing. And being set up to play a certain way is one of the basics of running a decent football club - most teams in League One and especially the Championship plan their squads and playing style more than six months in advance, let alone the Premier League!

Shattered posted...

I think the mistake was probably axing Ole although I do remember it being a dire run at the time. He finished 3rd, 2nd and then was sacked with us 7th (we finished 3rd that year).

Ole's finishes were 6th place in 2019 (he started off well as Interim but after the PSG ties and when he signed permanently United's form notably dropped), 3rd in 2020 (United had a very poor start to the season until things got better, especially once Bruno was signed), 2nd in 2021 (they also had a rough start to the season here), and 7th when he got sacked (United finished 6th that year and could have finished 7th had West Ham won their last game). The 3rd place finish you were thinking of was ETH's first season (22/23).

And Ole absolutely needed to go by November. Three straight seasons he failed to efficiently prepare his team over the summer and they subsequently struggled in the fall, and he managed his team to some notable losses (4-2 away to Leicester, 5-0 at home to Liverpool, 2-0 at home to Man City, and 4-1 away to Watford) within a span of roughly a month. Extend it to two months, and you have losses against Aston Villa and West Ham as well as a draw against Everton. Their only good result was a win against Spurs (and that was when Nuno Santo was still their manager).

You say that but he still had better results overall than basically any manager since Ferguson in the Premiership

Since Ferguson we have:

2x 2nd place finishes - Mourinho and Ole
2x 3rd place finishes - ETH and Ole
1x 4th place finish - LVG
1x 5th place finish - LVG
3x 6th place finishes - Mourinho, Ole, Ole/Rangnick
1x 7th place finish - Moyes
1x 8th place finish - ETH
1x 15th place finish - ETH/Amorim

I can tell you as a United fan I care about winning the Premiership and Champions League. Stuff like the FA Cup and Europa is nice but I'd far rather take league success over them. And I couldn't give 2 fucks about the League Cup / Community Shield / Super Cup

It's crazy looking at the final years of Ferguson points wise (89, 87, 90, 85, 80, 89, 89) and then the years after where United have broken 80 points once (81).

Ferguson's lowest points in a season in the PL era was 75 (twice and one of those won the league). That would be the 2nd highest points tally since he retired.

Hmmm, Utd vs Chelsea is at Old Trafford on 20th.
Chelsea have just gone through their own period of getting severly mocked and tbh, they still are since the way they operate is still widely seen by pundits and your common fan as something that doesn't work.

I'm concerned, as when OGS and Ten Hag went through their darkest moments, they were replaced and Carrick and Van Nistelrooy were able to rally the troops to obtain a pair of draws. I'm still shocked that Chelsea hasn't won at Old Trafford in the league since like 2013, Mata was still a Chelsea player!

BBC created this. Rolling tally from last 38 games for Man United since Ferguson retired

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/8/8c799ab1.jpg

united can't even let west ham have the spotlight in collapsing

rude

Speaking of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer...

Guess who just parted ways with Besiktas after failing to qualify for the Europa Conference League group stage?

Turkish football is hilarious. I will watch Fenerbahce games on occasion as more of a casual interest than a supporter, but every single team lost their qualifiers this week, several to clubs that look much weaker on paper. Ole's Besiktas lost to Lausanne, who I think finished 5th or 6th in the Swiss league? Hopefully Galatasaray get smashed in the CL groups after spending 75 million Euro on Osimhen too, I doubt they would've gotten through qualification either if they'd not gone straight into the league stage.

And speaking of the CL league stage, fixtures are out! Some fun fixtures, Liverpool v Real Madrid as usual. Spurs in particular look to have a relatively easy schedule, could see them nicking top 8.

Paris got the worst draw probably. We know they're good enough to win all those fixtures but they're rough. Copenhagen had a pretty bad draw in pot 3, fine otherwise I would say. Spurs will draw in Copenhagen, you heard it here first! We usually steal points from the English teams coming here.

Also it's cool that Turkey are fumbling, but Denmark needs the Swiss to have fewer teams advance, so if Shakhtar Donetsk could please step up this extra time.

PSG always get a much rougher draw due to their "Big fish in a small pond" status of being the only European heavyweight in their league. So unlike the other big 5 league teams who are guaranteed to avoid their domestic rivals, PSG are more likely to run into any of the PL/LL/SA/Bund. teams especially in this new league format.

With that said, this might actually be worse than last year's. Bayern, Barca, Atlanta, Leverkusen, Spurs, Sporting, Newcastle, and Athletic Bilbao. Oof.

I mean, Atalanta, Leverkusen and Sporting have all lost most of their best players and the managers who've been so excellent with them. The first and fourth seeds though, they're very rough.

Yeah, getting Newcastle and Bilbao is an extremely rough pot 4 draw. Spurs is also a very rough pot 3 draw and in pot 1, well, many tough teams. I guess the favorable draw there is Dortmund.

Donetsk did their job, nice.

Spurs whiffed on MGW, Savinho, Eze but landed Xavi Simons.
How do people keep calling him Simmons I don't know.
But that's a very highly rated player.

Although Newcastle and Spurs have faced very public rejections, the actual end result to their windows could look tidy.

Newcastle appear to end with about 5-6 upgrades.
Spurs also bringing in added quality to the starting lineup with some of the guys thrown in the deep last year now acting as depth.

Teams like Villa look more worrying.

Simons tore us apart with PSV a few years ago, don't like seeing him sign for Spuds.

And with Mourinho sacked, I think this is the point where he finally goes for the Portugal National Team.

Him leading the Post Ronaldo era would probably work, there's a lot of young talent coming through for Portugal and he's generally done well in knockout competitions.
I don't think he's actually done, just made some bad picks in his destinations.

The sack is harsh too, but some of those clubs don't live in reality. Their points tally is just fine for the club. The missed out on CL after losing 1-0 to Benfica which is a match Benfica should win at least 4/5 times.

Portugal probably isn't looking for a new manager on top of their Nations League victory so I doubt it would be until after the World Cup, which is probably a decent time for Ronaldo to retire from national duty now that you mention post Ronaldo era. Although I still think it might work having him around as a substitute if he himself can live with that role afterward.

The Danish team in Europa League, Midtjylland, got a really good draw. Other than Forest away being a rough pot 3 draw and Roma away being tough as well (but all of that pot is), it's quite favorable. Having the worst two matches as away is fine because they were unlikely to get points in those anyway. They could most definitely get 3 points in all other 6 matches. Looking good for Denmark getting two teams in CL qualification.

Also they can just stop the count for an ekstra CL spot already

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/6/63dcfe25.png

Wow, Jackson on loan for 15m Euros/13m GBP.
Think he only cost 35m ish Euros.

When I look at the price other strikers and forwards are going for, there is no way Nico leaves for under 20m Euros bar an unmitigated disaster of Mudryk proportions.
I think he'll probably up his value with Bayern anyway, he'll probably be giving Sane/Coman/Gnabry levels of output while being younger and on way less money, that's going to attract bids.
Those 3 thanks to age and wages weren't as easy for Bayern to shift and they still kept Gnabry. Muller gone, Musiala injured, there is def room for minutes in that team.

I am impressed by how much success Chelsea has making sales.

And it is a little bit frustrating because I really dislike some of their strategies.

United score to take the lead. It's another own goal. So still no United player scoring in the league

Crazy window continues.
Delap pulled up in the match vs Fulham, out for a couple of months.

So Jackson is bringing his ass back to Chelsea and the loan is cancelled.

But now it seems the Jackson camp is refusing to go back?
Can't lie as disastrous as this all is, I am entertained by all of this.

It's the hope that kills you

...but this was a good game.

Liverpool beat Arsenal on a gorgeous free kick at 83. Super early in the year but that's a big 3 points.

Today is like transfer window Xmas day.

Though we begin the morning with ETH sacked from Leverkusen. I don't think any manager deserves it this early into a season unless something behind the scenes went spectacularly wrong and Leverkusen just sold the entire core that provided them with success.

I'm willing to bet there is more to that story than we know. The results sucked yes, but even so.

Don't know if the keeper United signed is good or not as I've never seen him play or really heard about him until recently. He may end up being solid but can't help but feel United probably needed someone more experienced rather than throwing a young guy into that cauldron right now

Should've gone for Martinez loan just because we know he can handle pressure and being a United player comes with loads of that.

Chilwell to Strasbourg?

Oh come on that is shameless.
I wouldn't even do that on FM.

I see West Ham domino effect screwed Liverpool lmao

Shattered posted...

Don't know if the keeper United signed is good or not as I've never seen him play or really heard about him until recently. He may end up being solid but can't help but feel United probably needed someone more experienced rather than throwing a young guy into that cauldron right now

Lammens is real good but yes, they absolutely should've gone for someone more experienced AND Martinez could've added some proper personality and attitude to the team.

Utd clearly have talented guys but their squad building has meant that you don't trust just about every profile of player.

They went hard on young talents and started replacing them quickly, they tried going for guys in their prime and had some very high profile flops, went for experienced vets to bring leadership and their legs were gone.

Some good signings here and there, but does feel like their hit rate is lower than their rivals.
Keen to find out if Garnacho is everything negative Utd fans have said, or if he can be a good contributor.

So Germany started off their World Cup qualifier campaign by losing to Slovakia away.

Maybe they'll follow Italy's path of "Two group stage exits followed by failing to qualify"? Unlikely, but... >_>

Also, Daniel Levy is gone from Tottenham.