This is not to say that JosĂ© Mourinho would be sacked if he finished third although he might be on a bit of a tightrope if fourth was the best he could do, even though it would be an improvement on this year’s finish.
Obviously winning the Premier League would excuse any slip-ups in any other competition but, the lower the finish, then the better he has to do in the Champion’s League and the FA Cup. (more…)
The main reason Manchester United have never won the Europa League before is because it is a competition in which they have rarely been involved and, when they have been, they haven’t taken it particularly seriously.
Even under it’s previous incarnation as the UEFA Cup, it was a trophy only flirted with on four occasions since Sir Alex Ferguson took over in 1986. On those four occasions they lost to what can only be described as mediocre opponents. (more…)
Many people expect Manchester United to strengthen their squad during the Summer transfer window. It is not, however, just a question of getting numbers in.
Louis van Gaal tried the scatter-gun approach when spending almost ÂŁ250 million and for that amount United have actually ended up with Anthony Martial, Ander Herrera, Marcos Rojo, Matteo Darmian and Luke Shaw, with the latter two about to be sold as soon as possible. So the outlay has netted just three players who are probably worth a total of ÂŁ80 million in today’s inflated market. (more…)
Take it from us folks. We here at WSA are in the know. We didn’t get where we are today, (which is absolutely nowhere), by not knowing a thing or two about football.
We have it on very good authority that Liverpool and Arsenal will miss out on a top four place. Which authority would that be then? You may well ask.
Well, in the case of Arsenal, the authority is ArsĂ©ne Wenger himself. In an obvious attempt to undermine his teams already rock-bottom confidence, he is about to announce that he is staying on for another year. He feels that, without Alexis Sanchez, Mesut Ă–zil, the backing of the fans and Champion’s League football, he will be able to attract sufficient quality players to the Emirates to enable a quick return to the top four, after which he can vacate his position with his head held high. (more…)
So Manchester United managed to overcome a terrible pitch and a good team and are now in very real danger of reaching the final of the Europa League.
The pitch, at the end of the day, was the same for both teams although Rostov are, obviously, more used to playing on it. It didn’t really make a difference. Providing United, who had the better players, played to their potential then they were always going to be in a position to win the tie over the two legs. (more…)
Alright, it may be asking a bit much to expect this team to win the Premier League. They will also need to play considerably better against Chelsea in the FA Cup than they did against Southampton in the EFL Cup, where they proved that it is possible for the better team to lose.
Take Zlatan Ibrahimovic out of that EFL final team, give Southampton back the goal that was wrongly disallowed and the trophy would be heading to St. Marys, not Old Trafford. (more…)
It is a question which has been raised once or twice in the past. Of the current top six only Tottenham Hotspur have been buying anybody English from the lower divisions, that being Dele Alli, who arrived from MK Dons for ÂŁ5 million a while ago.
Chelsea went down the tried and tested route by buying N’Golo KantĂ© from Leicester, shortly after he had become a Premier League winner, so no risk there.
Liverpool went for the unknown foreigners who have yet to prove themselves in the top flight, and Sadio ManĂ©, who hasn’t. (more…)
Bastian Schweinsteiger has managed to work his way back as far as the bench. Morgan Schneiderlin and Memphis Depay also reached that lofty height and Matteo Darmian has had a reasonable run in the first team, just not in his favoured position. That his best role has been filled by a winger who can’t defend says a lot about Darmian’s future in Mourinho’s team.
Marcos Rojo is almost a regular and Daley Blind flits in and out depending upon the opposition. Luke Shaw is yet to fully recover mentally from his injury and only time will tell if he is going to fulfill his potential and whether or not that will be at United. (more…)
For the first time in a long time, if not for the first time at all, I feel the need to add a little background to this article.
I have just watched Manchester United’s Europa League game against Fenerbahće in an Irish bar in Granada, Spain.
I mention this purely as an excuse for any inaccuracies you may spot while reading said article. It was, in fact, a very noisy music night where a quartet of Spanish musicians played Irish tunes, virtually non-stop, for the entire evening. There were only two of us in the entire bar interested in what was happening at Old Trafford! (more…)
In the last three transfer windows Manchester United have spent in the region of £410 million. Louis van Gaal was responsible for around £260 million whilst José Mourinho has spent about £150 million. This is not accounting for the paltry £65 million spent by David Moyes in being no worse than van Gaal although, admittedly, not winning anything.
WHY SAY ANYTHING? 