Man Utd are at their lowest post-Fergie ebb yet – any optimism shows how far they’ve fallen

Any optimism at Manchester United right now is just a sign of how far they’ve fallen off since Fergie, while there is more VAR offside chat for us all to enjoy.

Send your own pre-season thoughts to theeditor@football365.com

How far they done fell
Is any Man Utd optimism right now a sign of just how far they’ve fallen?

They finished 8th last season and were as blessed as the Child of Prague to even be that high. If results were dished out based on performances then Utd were genuine relegation contenders, and that is mental to be able to truthfully say. They robbed results from Wolves, Brentford, Bournemouth, Liverpool and more. They got demolished in balance of play by several teams directly below them in the league and in the end actually deserved to win maybe 5 games all year. And for all of this underperformance the blame was apportioned to injuries, which brings me to…

The injuries. Utd had loads. Most teams did in what was undoubtedly one of the worst injury hit seasons the league has seen across the board.

However, Liverpool played actual children from January to April and were challenging for a quad until March. Newcastle and Chelsea both had far worse injury problems and finished above Utd. Brighton, who in fairness fell off a cliff as a result, could have fielded an injured 11 that would make top half for most of the season. Even Brentford had more players missing games to injury than Utd and they embarrassed Utd at the Gtec stadium yet somehow had to conjure a 95th minute goal just to draw. And my god just how United was that of Utd last year…

Ten Hag is the main problem. Personally I am unbelievably glad they gave him an extension.

Any Utd fans I work with replied with “who else is there” when asked what manager they should sign ahead of Ten Hag.

To this I would respond, literally anyone else – but again thank you for not listening. He plays mid-table, backs-against-the-wall football to sneak results against the big boys which works the odd time but has led to numerous maulings by Citeh and Pool and which mainly leads to simple awful football and losing games in general.

And all the while he genuinely thinks he’s doing a good job and by God there are so many Utd that somehow agree. Hence the purpose of this entire post….

So back to the optimism. Utd have a crocked squad (but whatever 11 they field against Fulham will most certainly cost multiple times what Fulham’s did), they have a below par manager and the teams better than them last season show no signs to assume they will be any worse this year, with the exception of Liverpool obviously with Klopp gone.

It is a dead certainty Utd finish below City, Arsenal and Villa and really just don’t have what it takes for 4th or 5th against the competitors so a third year in four of non-Champs League football is odds on. At some stage the lack of Champs League revenue coupled with Utd spending the way they spend has to come home to roost in the form a FFP punishment. I think I saw they lost 75mil in the 3rd quarter last year or something…

This is the lowest Utd have been, both league finish wise and future perspective wise, in the post Fergie era. So yeah, be cheerful guys.
Patricio Del Toro

Solving offside
Seeing as the offside discussion has started again, I thought I’d share a fair and elegant way that solves most of the issues. It’s actually very simple, just make the defenders line thicker. About 30cm / a foot should do it. When drawing the lines if any part of the attackers’ line, which looks about 2cm/ 1 inch wide on the replays now, is on the defenders’ line then the player is onside. If the attackers’ line is beyond the defenders’ line, even if it’s only a couple of mm in the system, the player is offside. You’ll still have a few of the very marginal decisions, but the key point being that because of the thicker defenders’ line you’ll probably be able to see it in the replay in real time that the attacker is offside, and it won’t be some ridiculous toenail decision which is causing all the frustration.

So, no need for daylight or anything complex like actual trackers in players. And we can keep the VAR geeks in a job, but instead of using the precision of a pen they can use a crayon, which seems about right after last season’s performance levels.
Dean M

Already solved, actually
Just in response to Seamus’ assertion that we can all agree that there is a greater sense of injustice for goals disallowed for marginal offsides.

No, I don’t agree. If my team has a goal disallowed because of a very marginal offside it is disappointing but in the same way that a great shot hitting the post is disappointing. The laws of the game being applied correctly is not unjust –  quite the opposite in fact.

And I’d guarantee that the people who bang on about the unfairness of it when their player was an eyelash offside are the same people who would blow a fuse if the other side scored a goal that they think should’ve been disallowed by a similar margin.

The offside rule is absolutely fine. The only issue is the PL’s ridiculous technical solution of “man takes six minutes to draw lines on a screen”. The good news is that the semi-automated system at the Euros works great and quickly and is being used in the PL next season.
Andy (MUFC)

Go with the flow
I keep reading the same reason for getting rid of VAR and it’s dumb.

People keep saying they want to get rid of var because they want to keep the game free flowing.

Hate to break it to you but the fact the offside rule (or any rule) exists at all is what breaks up the game, not var. Var doesn’t break the game, the offside rule does. Var just makes the break a little longer.

And if people care more about the game being free flowing than they do about it being fair why not remove other rules designed to make it more for which breaks up the game, fouls for example. Absolutely nothing breaks up the flow of a game like fouls do. In fact some teams purposely foul when the opposition is in ascendance to intentionally stop play and break it up. It’s a very very common tactic.

So goodbye fouls then?

Unless you’re actually mentally deranged I’m sure you’ll argue against the removal of the fouls rule – but why? If your reason for getting rid of VAR is “flow of the game” you should have the same reasoning when it comes to anything which breaks up the game.

The truth is none of the reasons against VAR are ones people genuinely believe, they just can’t use the real reason because it sounds stupid. The real reason is – “I like it better before”

Which is actually totally valid and irrefutable. Neither I or anyone else can argue against that reason. And that’s the real reason why people argue against VAR, blue cards, ffp or any other new regulation introduction. You just liked it better before. That’s cool, my grandad liked it better when he was a kid, should we go back to those rules?

The idea of rules is to try to make the game competitive and fair. It’s not to preserve the flow of the game. Any and every rule breaks up the flow of the game simply by existing. It’s similar to the argument about laws and freedom. Every law created reduces freedom, we are aware of that and generally accept it as long as it creates a safer and more just society.

Rules in football are the same – we sacrifice the flow of the game with every single rule, we gain a more competitive match/competition and a fairer outcome.

So make your choice, do you prefer flow of the game? Or competition and fair outcomes. By definition you cannot have both
Lee 

A good day
A 4-1 win, some glorious one touch football, the realest sign yet that Nwaneri could genuinely sub in for Odegaard this season and best of all, 2000+ friends show up outside my old house to keep the fash away.

Have a good one everybody!
Tom, Walthamstow