The answer is yes, you can bend and twist it however much you like. Apparently the team was better than that and that has been proven to be complete and utter bollocks. No debate to be had.
Are we taking finishing 2nd for granted?
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They weren't that much better than Liverpool last season.
Bit worrying how long it might be till we finish 2nd again. Took it for granted a bit at the time for sure, mainly because I genuinely didn't enjoy how we did it, ugly shite, but still, could be many years till we finish that high again.
What’s your point? The season we finished 2nd we were ahead of Liverpool the entire season. Their board trusted the manager and ours didn’t. There you go.
Maybe it was “ugly shit” because that’s how you get results with players who are not that good. Apparently our players were better than that though
.We were trending down that season with Jose from like January on.
Klopp's Liverpool were trending up.
And Jose was trusted.
With plenty of money his 1st two seasons.
He proceeded to waste A LOT of it.
The only player he brought in that'd been an undeniable success for him was Ibrahimovic. And he was a free buy.
81 points look a distant dream. We took it for granted because of the Sevilla debacle, we were a better team than them but still made them look like world beaters. It gave rise to the perception among our fanbase that this team is capable of much more than the 2nd place finish suggested. Obviously that has proven to be wrong. This team definitely was capable of beating Sevilla but I don't think we were ever getting above 85-90 points without serious injection of quality.
As for ugly shit, we're still playing same brand of football but without those results.
While Jose wasted enormous amount of money, that poster was going on about how he wasn't backed even though he delivered best finish since Sir Alex retired. Trending down in January or not, at the end of day the table counts and we did finish 2nd. They should've backed him in the summer to build upon it. If they didn't trust him, then he should've been sacked.
The wheels were coming off at the end of that season. People might have been more optimistic if we finished strongly but it was pretty obvious the next season was going to be a Mourinho meltdown, hopefully scrape 4th place kind of a deal.
That's what a lot of posters seem to miss. The way we finished the season and Liverpool did, we took different dynamics to the new season.
Teams have ups and downs. You don't give someone a contract then turn away in the summer after they finish 2nd. Don’t even get me started on Ed and the board.
He will be our most successful manager after SAF for a long time. It is sad.
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The people who still criticise Jose even in light of what they have seen over the last 12 months should just bugger off and watch Badminton. Footballs not your sport lads and ladies
Jose was only here for 3 years anyway. Yes he did fine to finish 2nd, but that was the best he could do. We would have to move on from him anyway. It is not like we ditched a long term manager here after great results. We knew it was coming to an end, the realists and not his naive and diehard fans who are still crying he didnt get backed in the last season as if that would have changed something of him getting sacked. He started his meltdown from Sevilla onwards, midseason, no discussions
Some people can't let go of their own emotional nonsense. We could spend the next 5 seasons outside the top 4 and they'll still be bitchy about our 2nd place finish.
Mourinho's greatest achievement. He wasn't kidding. It will be years and years before we equal or surpass it.
Love or hate Jose, he always told it how he saw it. And when he said he said getting that team to finish 2nd that season as the best job in his career, he was right.
Goes back to the same old question, do you want exciting football but lose, or boring football but win?
Goes back to the same old question, do you want exciting football but lose, or boring football but win?
Hehe. I like this post. It is so telling. Bend and twist = actually evaluate what happened.
When Mourinho came in, Man Utd was a better team than Liverpool. We finished above them twice in a row and did better in the cups. Mourinho then spent close to €400m in two summers. Liverpool and Spurs, our two main competitors for 2nd in ‘18, spent less than half these two summers.
So yeah, we probably were right to expect 2nd in ‘18. And I think that is why quite a few missed that our general play indicated that we did not deserve it. We had a great goalkeeper and got lucky.
Well, not really. SAF really got the best out of an aging and declining squad. Looking back at it, as many have stated before, we failed to invest in our squad properly since 2007/08. Our defence from that season comprised Rio, Vidic and Evra (none of whom were young), yet somehow in 2014, we had the same three starting as our best defenders. You could say the same about our midfield - Carrick and Giggs were still around, Scholes the season before. However, none of this affected the great man - he could win the league with you, me and 9 other posters. The mere mortals - Mourinho and van Gaal really pulled off some great miracles in 14/15 and 17/18. At on stage in 2015, we looked nailed on to finish second but fell short, we managed to secure this in 2018. We did so with OKish squads - how many great players have we purchased since 2013? Pogba, di Maria, Lukaku and Toby Maguire are our record purchases, thrown into the mix Fellaini, Rojo, Blind, Darmian, old man Basti, Fred, Dalot - are these players really going to win the league for us? No.
Point is we've spent, yeah... massively over spent on mainly average to good players. We've had the odd "galatico" purchase to keep the fans happy. None of this is the formula to winning the league. Obviously we've never had a plan, so that doesn't help.
Jose did well to get us to 2nd. That team was also going nowhere and he is not the manager for the long-term.
Both can be true.
Both can be true.
Don't think this second spot finishing will be repeated again any time soon. This year will always look like an anomaly among those crap years. Actually Mourinho's 2 full seasons will look like an anomaly among our crap years not just this second position year.
I don't know. Finishing 2nd is not a trophy and we were over 20 points behind City. What we are berating Jose is imploding, becoming toxic and self-sabotating. At the same time we can blame woody for not backing Jose in the transfer market to improve.
Playing ugly shit to get results that ultimately dont achieve anything any trophies is pointless. Far more worthwhile to build a team that is entertaining to watch and some hope that you can bridge that gap in the future. Yes, Mourinho got the absolute most possible in terms of points that season. It was still very shot the way the season panned out and the following season was just so predictable. Having a disastrous season right after finishing 2nd shouldn't be a predictable thing, yet it was, which says it all about our "2nd place achievement".Maybe it was “ugly shit” because that’s how you get results with players who are not that good. Apparently our players were better than that though
Finishing 2nd in the English PL is a big achievement by any standards.
However, Liverpool prove that you can play exciting football and winning.
I was one of Jose biggest admirers. But the fact is that it didnt work out at United and he is now part of the past.
This is the most depressing thread I’ve read in a while - largely because most of the comments are true. Here we are, ‘richest’, ‘biggest’, ‘most history’, ‘best supported’ etc etc and we don’t look like we’ll finish even second, let alone win it, for years to come. Meanwhile, City and Liverpool are mopping up. When that sinks in, it is depressing beyond belief. We should be beating off players with a shitty stick, but the ‘best’ no longer want to come to us. We kid ourselves that because we spend more than others, we buy the best. £80m for Maguire, whilst Liverpool pay £75m for VVD. £90m for Pogba while City pay £50m for KDB. £80m fo Lukaku while Arsenal pay £56m for Aubamayang. It’s not the Glazers fault for not backing us financially, but it is their fault for failing to refresh an outdated system that is a legacy of SAF’s tenure. The uncomfortable truth is that when SAF retired, we were starting to wane badly and things have gotten worse since then. We are proof if it were needed that it isn’t spending the money that counts, it’s how you spend it.
Yeah José spent big, finished 2nd and then completely self-sabotaged the team and imploded. Hurrah! let's all look back at the time that the mighty Man Utd finished 2nd 23 points of the leaders.
It's also when you spend it. We lost out on a million great players during Saf final years and replaced great players with average players. Then we had to spend big to catch up after market inflated. If we had just spent the cash when we needed to during Saf's years we would have had an excellent squad. Now 80 million get's you Harry Maguire. In 2009 that was C. Ronaldo.
I 100% agree with you, it's not about buying most expensive player, but how to make them play together. I don't even believe in the 4th place this year. We have a poor game with no motuvation. Except Pogba, i don't see who can be the best to improve our game.
Everything good what Mourinho did here is hugely underrated and was underrated even then because fans never accepted him. After Sevilla game it was over for him here. And then debacle in 3rd season came.
Neverheless he played with players who are rated as total dross here( Matic, Fellaini, Darmian, Mata, Smalling, Valencia, Mikhi) and did what he did. So my question is; how all of sudden after we replaced most of those players, 6th place is "realistic" but 2nd place and cups weren't good enough then?
Neverheless he played with players who are rated as total dross here( Matic, Fellaini, Darmian, Mata, Smalling, Valencia, Mikhi) and did what he did. So my question is; how all of sudden after we replaced most of those players, 6th place is "realistic" but 2nd place and cups weren't good enough then?
The fans accepted Mourinho as long as he did his job. We stopped accepting him after he started shitting all over the club. He spent something like 300-400 mil during his time here. Most of his transfers havnt worked out. I personally thought that coming 2nd and getting to Fa cup Final was decent, but the football was dire. Liverpool finished behind us but you could see where they were going. Mourinho football without a trophy is nothing.