I would say yes, whilst we really should be challenging for the title, we have still ended up with two trophies and champs league. Somehow we've come 6th and ended up having a better season than everyone bar Chelsea. Lots of improved still needed tho and I'm certainly not sold on Mourinho.
No, me either. Yet. I'd say it is very successful for a first season though. Two actual tournament wins and one of them is the european trophy we've never won with the additional benefit of CL qualification. He weighed up his options and it worked, he took the risk and it paid off, fortunately for him. We have to improve in the league though. And by improve I mean challenge to win it. Top two is the aim, simple as that, with 1st being the target.
In all fairness at first half of the season, even Jose didn't knew his best 11 and was experimenting, unfortunately by that time , UTD was only team playing in Europe, and that drained the team and we lost pace to challenge to the title. I think if we were out of Europa we would had been at least challenging for 2nd place.. we drew too many matches , but I think this is more due to tiredness overall, it was good season
For all it's worth, I was very happy to see Mourinho actually celebrate last night. His grumpy mood in parts of the season were uncalled for, in my opinion. As for league position, I still think it was very much an underwhelming season. We started well but faded way too quickly. The OT draws are particularly most disappointing. Style of play - that has consistently been somewhat too defensive. I'm divided on it because it made teams that were classed as good teams look just tad above average when they played us this season. In a way, I am tired of analysts looking at possession as some sort of measure of dominance. Hopefully with right additions in the summer, we can build on top of last season and control games in the third half as we do defensively. Overall, I think we have to class this season as successful one. Like I said before, even an average Manchester United still wins more trophies in two years than the "mighty" Liverpool, "mesmerizing" Arsenal, "all-conquering" City and "surging-gold-boots" Spurs combined. We have now won more major trophies in our history than any other team in the land. I'm happy with that! "There are lots of poets in football but poets don't win many titles." - JM
You will have to explain that one The style of play has been largely predicted by the fact that all our central defenders have had multiple long periods of injury meaning no two had any proper time to form a partnership though, in fairness they coped really well. This meant Jose felt the need to protect them so sat with two midfielders in front of them, with a more consistent pairing and a top class DM I think we will be much more forward thinking. For me the two main targets should be a left sided CH to play next to Bailly (VvD would be a great choice) and a dynamic, combative DM to sit in front of them. We are good enough (and with enough variety) up front to batter most teams if the attackers don't have to worry about losing the ball occasionally.
The style of play doesn't worry me to much aslong as we are winning, where I've got annoyed this season is when we've approached home games against sides in the bottom half of the table far to defensively and ended up getting 0-0 or 1-1 draws. I think Mourinho has been far to cautious in these types of games. Having said that if you had offered me what we ended up with at the start of the season id of definitely taken it, 2 trophy's and straight into the CL group stage, you can't really argue with that return for the season. I know it is only the Europa League, and it isn't the Champions League, but it still meant a lot to me, and most fans that we won it. It's been a tough few years since Fergie left, so il take any silverware as a massive positive for us.
No doubt it was a good season. I said I wouldn't call it a successful season but when the RS are celebrating qualifying for the CL qualifiers as a triumph then I am having to think again JM had to go for the path which gave him the best chance of CL football. And when we got into the semis he had to make a choice as with suspensions and injuries there was absolutely no way he could go for both and he was vindicated in choosing the Europa. Some people here were criticising him about the team he put out in the league but even before the Arsenal match I said I would not hesitate in the circumstances to sacrifice the matches in the league as 6th was guaranteed and 4th looked more precarious given our run in. I would say that the league ranking of 6th and the poor goal scoring could be negatives on whether the season was a success but then if you look at it objectively JM's achievement in terms of CL is the same as the 2nd and 3rd in the premiership and he added another trophy to the league cup. So he had achived the minimum objective of getting CL and added to the trophies and being his first season, I could argue that he had a successful season. An argument further reinforced by seeing one of the best managers in the world managing City the most expensive squad to third and no trophies so below JM. But next season will be different. If he doesn't rectify the goal scoring issue and does not least challenge for the title then he will have no chance.
Absolutely a successful season. Two trophies, CL qualification straight to the groups, only Chelsea have had a better season. If any of us were offered that at the start of the season we would have been happy. The league has been disappointing, but I do wonder whether that is Mourinho being his usual stubborn self. He's obviously not happy with the squad he has, so has probably neglected the league in an effort to make a stronger case for spending a bucket load more money next year. After all, if we'd won two trophies and finished third it would be a lot harder for him to persuade the board he needs a ton of new players. So not hard to assume he ditched the league early on to concentrate on the EL and ensure he gets more to spend next year. I guess we'll find out next season.
Was in 4 competitions and won 2 of them - can't complain about that. Performances have been dire at times and the stupid number of draws isn't good but those will be forgotten now you have the grand slam of club football trophies.
Jose is the man for United imo. He's only had Pogba really from his signings that have been available for the whole season (aside from a few games) and he's had to put up with so many injuries to defenders, I doubt we played more than 5 games with the same back four consecutively this season. My only concern about him was his reluctance to blood youth players, and that's been put to bed now for me, perhaps he knows this is important to the club and fans, or perhaps Chelsea's were just all ****.
I don't think Mourinho is that calculated. It would be extremely sad if what you have stated is true. Mourinho had enough time to shape the team when he took over. We shouldn't be making excuses about how bad the squad that he inherited is. I mean, look at Chelsea?
Let's look at the (updated) evidence, why not Chelsea: premiership title + FA final (possible FA Cup winners by Sunday) + CL (pot 1) United: League Cup , Europa Cup, CL (pot 2) Spurs: runners up league, CL (pot 3) City: 3rd , CL (pot 2) RS: 4th, qualifier for CL Arsenal: 5th, Europa qualification, FA final (possible FA Cup winners by Sunday) Unequivocal 2nd place for United in terms of achievements this season. Next season, JM simply has to improve the performance in the league. The record of draws especially at home indicates something not quite right. A goal poacher could make the difference. It is interesting to note that if half the draws st home had been converted into wins, United would have only got third, meaning that it would not have made a blind bit of difference to their own season but the plus side would have been the elimination of the RS from the CL qualifiers
Well we've had Zlatan up front for most of the season, so not sure we could find anymore of a goal poacher than him. And to be fair to him his goal tally was very good til he got injured. This has not been the issue, the issue has been the lack of goals from the rest of the team. People say the midfielders need to chip in more, but I actually think it's the wingers who need to be getting more goals. When you play a 433 or 451 you need the wingers to chip in with a lot more goals, as they are essentially playing as right and left forwards. I know we are talking about the very best here, but look at the goal returns from the wingers at Real, Barca and Bayern for example. Even Chelsea and Spurs wingers got quite a few. I think some of it is down to how Mourinho sets up, expecting his wingers to also be full backs. But I also think we do lack some quality in those areas.
I don't think anyone could disagree. The evidence is quite clear. When we had the likes of scholes and Giggs, they were adding to the goals. And they were crucial ones which turned draws into wins. Our wingers are either not the scoring types which would be surprising as the likes of martial, lingard, Rashford, Mikhi, Mata do score goals. I suspect the problem is the way JM sets his team up. The ones missing chances have not only been the above. Zlatan has missed quite a few too. It was said here that when Zlatan plays, everything goes through him and good opportunities get missed and the pace also gets slowed. So next season, hopefully we will get more from our midfield in terms of creating chances: Pogba Mikhi should be more settled, Rashford gets more hardened to league competition and martial is allowed more attacking freedom. We definitely have made progress from LVG. The defensive wobbles with Moyes have been eliminated but JM has to convert his team from a Cup one to a league one i.e get the three points even when playing badly.
Well Zlatan was close to, if not the top scorer in the league when he got injured, so whilst he did miss some chances, i think he was clinical enough. We often played with 2 upfront when we had Giggs and Scholes, it was only really in the Van Nistlerooy days that we played with just the one, so they didn't always have the same level of freedom, but even then like you say they still both chipped in with goals. Mourinho has never been a manager to get the best out of attacking players from a stats point of view, the only player I ever recall Mourinho getting the best out of was Lampard, because he had Makalele sat behind him. So the system suited an attacking midfield player like Lampard as he had a freedom to get forward. Unfortunately though we don't have a Lampard type player, nor do I think one would fit in alongside Herrera and Pogba. As neither are out and out holding players. Most teams Mourinho has managed though, the attacking players often suffer in terms of goals per game. I think he is guilty of shackling down his wingers especially, with to much defensive duties. I know he gets results, but it is sometimes at the detriment of attacking talent. If we keep Zlatan and add Griezmann I've just got this horrible feeling Mourinho will have Griezmann chasing back down the left wing all game, and he'll be to tired to actually do anything once he gets the ball in the oppositions half. I can understand sacrificing the attack in the odd game away from home against one of the top sides but I think there has been far to much of this against teams at the bottom of the table, and in games at home. Against teams we know we are better than, the front 3 should be instructed to stay forward, so they are in position when we win the ball to counter. With Herrara, Pogba and another quality midfield player who I think we need to buy this summer, we should be able to cope defensively without the need for the wingers to be playing as full backs too.
Ok. Final season ranking of success based on trophy hauls and league placings 1.Chelsea: premiership title + CL (pot 1) - 1 trophy and 1 CL place 2.United: League Cup , Europa Cup, CL (pot 2) - 2 trophies and 1 CL place 3.Arsenal: FA Cup, Europa next season - 1 trophy and 1 Europa place 4.Spurs: 1 CL (pot 3) 5.City: 1 CL (pot 2) 6.RS: qualifier for CL only The RS are in 6th as their CL is not secured and they may be eliminated before they reach the champions league proper. The worse performing of the top 6 clubs and rather lucky to be even in the qualification phase as the referee bottled a clear pen plus sending off against Boro.
