After what was an indifferent pre-season, it is back to the real thing as THIS SUNDAY NIGHT, UTD TAKE ON THE GUNNERS!
Don't know if you read that like the John Cena meme but you get the point.
Quite a way to begin his first full season in charge for the Portuguese but shouldn't be too difficult, it is only ARSEnal 😅.
Sorry I don't know if you can tell but I am feeling good ahead of this new season. I simply cannot wait even if this side can disappoint us.
Looking at last season, it's not as if there is a high bar that was set. Tbh, there was NO bar set. Hell, I don't even think there is a bar to set. I mean, if we cannot improve upon 15th place, scoring just 44 goals, winning just 11 matches and gathering a total of 42 points, then they should sack the lot of them, even the new signings.
Trying to be better than last season should'nt be too tough but as we are Man Utd and have no European football it won't be just about finishing a little higher. Even with stark improvements, it may not be enough for some.
Here is my preview for what's going to be a cracker of a campaign.
Premier League
The bread and butter of the campaign.
We began last season with a lot of optimism. Erik ten Hag won two trophies in his first two seasons which included that Derby win in 23/24 to lift the FA Cup. That managed to salvage something from what was then seen as one of the worst seasons ever.
24/25 came in and then said 'Hold my beer' 🍺.
While finishing in 8th and winning an FA Cup was not ideal and not necessarily what we wanted, all of us would've bitten your hand off for that considering the shitshow we witnessed last season.
Please give my season preview ahead of last season a read. It is ridiculously funny considering what I said compared to how the camapign panned out 🤣.
I believe that top 4 is already taken. And yes, I am looking that high in the table even though we finished 15th last. Most would think that that is too high but here's why I think United can be the best of the rest.
One game a week means more time on the training ground and more rest. Amorim spoke about this quite often throughout 24/25 as he thought it could be beneficial for a new manager with new ideas taking over a team mid-season.
He never got that then but does have it now so there can be no excuses as to why we don't see a HUGE improvement in the play style.
With the players we have, I see no reason as to why we don't win more games than not as I believe the quality this squad possesses it better than majority of the league.
The likes of West Ham, Bournemouth, Everton, Fulham and and and, all finished above United. We should be better than them, right?
Brentford have lost their long-serving manager Thomas Frank, their best player in Bryan Mbeumo, the influential Christian Norgaard and possibly Yoane Wissa who wishes to join Newcastle, which means any other club who's in for him will get him, IYKWIM 😉.
With such losses, surely we should be finishing above them as well?
That would immediately put us in the top half.
Then it's about getting into the European positions. Conference and Europa League isn't where we want to play but I think we'd all take that over no European football at all. We saw what winning the competitions did for both Chelsea (Conference League) and Spurs (Europa League). They brought in good money and picked up silverware which is always seen as a success regardless of how the season went.
Then again, Spurs did sack Mate despite him winning them their first trophy since the stone ages due to finishing 17th in the league. The fact that they were technically worse than us yet still beat United in all matches last season tells you more about how shocking we were.
The likes of Forest and Palace have European football as both are in the Conference League. They too finished above us so there is a chance for United to leapfrog them as those two clubs may find it difficult to compete in both the league and Europe. Neither have the squad to cope in my opinion.
Brighton and Villa will be difficult to overcome. In those two clubs, I see perhaps our stiffest competition. We've had the better off Villa when coming face-to-face with them but they have finished above us in the last two campaigns.
Brighton on the other hand, seem to be our arch nemesis in recent years as we also appear to find it really difficult when coming up against the Seagulls. They've done the double over us in two of the last three seasons with us getting just the solitary win in the last six meetings. They too don't have European football.
As for Newcastle, I see them having a similar season to that of 23/24. They qualified for the Champions League that year only to finish bottom of their group as they found it hard to compete in the PL and CL. They also look to be losing main man Alexander Isak to LFC which will make them even weaker. To have missed out on so many players in the transfer window could also cause them to feel somewhat deflated.
We could take advantage of that.
This is why I believe 5th is realistic for United. It may sound outrageous given the fact that we finished 3x lower last season but when you think about it this way and that we have bought well in the window, it's not irrational.
Whether this will be good enough to qualify for the Champions League will depend on how the English sides do in Europe. I do think that there's a good chance 5th will be enough to qualify but we'll have to wait and see.
The Cups
Grabbing a cup or two along the way to CL qualification would be great too. Just like we did in ten Hag's first season, if Amorim can emulate a League Cup and 3rd place finish, then his first campaign will be a success as well.
As we finished so low in the league, we will have to play an extra round of the Carabao Cup (second round) in order to qualify for the third which is where we usually kick-off our campaign. The draw will take place tonight and to be honest, whoever we get should be a formality as we won't be getting any of the heavy hitters.
With that being said, the last time we had to play the second round saw the mighty MK Dons hammer Louis van Gaal's Man Utd 4-0 in what has to go down as one of the more embarrassing matches in recent years.
Let's hope something like that doesn't happen this time round as well.
United will have to win seven games should they want to lift the energy drink cup while six is required to win the FA Cup.
Avoid some of the better teams and we might have a chance.
I would very much like to see us win at least one of these tournaments. Lifting silverware always brings smiles to our faces and winning trophies is what it's all about. What a massive boost it will be for Amorim as well to do it in his first full year in charge.
Final Thoughts
While all of those things above are well and good and certainly doable, it won't be achievable if the most important thing is missing: attitude.
For a long time, this was the major problem with the squad in that their mentality was seen as weak. Heads drop at the first sign of difficulty, crumble whenever facing opposition we should be beating as the onus is on us, and the constant uncertainty of not knowing whether the team will actually show up or not.
Sort that mentality out is the thing that needs to be improved upon more than anything else.
Believe it or not, but I don't think we have a terrible group of players. They may not be the level required to be Man Utd quality but they certainly aren't so bad as to finish 15th, have no European football and go trophy-less. That is all down to attitude and how much they wanted it which clearly, they didn't want it at all.
Change this mindset, change the culture. Change the culture and we will be more of a happy camp than not. When you have that positive energy, everyone feeds off of it. There's been talk of how there is a different air about the club under Amorim this season. Everyone feels this positivity which is a positive.
We haven't seen consistently good football at United since pretty much Sir Alex Ferguson. There's been periods where we've shown this like Solskjaer's first three months and from post the World Cup to the Carabao Cup win under ten Hag. Other than that, there hasn't been anything sustainable.
I don't want that anymore.
With more time to train and rest between matches, with better players coming in and some of the crap ones being forced out, there is no excuses for United to not go out there and give their best every time and try to play good football. It won't work every match but the least we like to see as fans is for that effort, which is not something we've been able to say for quite some time.
It's a bit of a weird one to think what is considered a success for the season.
Having finished so low last year, anything above 15th especially if it's in the top half, will be an improvement. However, if we finish 8th and below, that won't be a success even though it is better than last season. Some might even say that the manager should be sacked.
And I don't necessarily disagree.
We have more time and he has better players so we should be seeing major improvements all round. This should mean aiming for Champions League qualification.
I do believe though, that is Amorim were to finish 5th - 8th, he will and should keep his job.
Anything below that is a failure and perhaps he should go.
But do a lot of what I mentioned above (better attitude, better football, more consistency), I have no doubts that this season will be a success.
"The good days are coming."
Ruben Amorim takes charge of his first full season as Man Utd manager | Image via Manchester United official X (@ManUtd)
Old Trafford | Photo by Carlos Wathome from Pexels