Every year around this time there is a strange phenomena that takes hold of Manchester United fans without fail. I call it “Summer Window Syndrome” and it really does come around as often as the common cold in the Winter. Symptoms? Severe overhyping and unrealistic expectations. The cure? A hard dose of reality.
This summer is no different. A new and unproven striker, a goalkeeper that is set to change our entire set up, and Mason Mount who I’m neither here nor there on. Is this really the window where everything changes or are people just trying to convince themselves of it? Big Manchester United social media seems to think it is. Taking a look at squad depth and lacking areas of our best eleven, I am much more pessimistic than the masses. I think this season has the possibility of being a proper stinker. Let me explain.
Where we should be.
First off let me address this as a fan that still holds this Club to the standards we should strive for every season. The expectations should be a proper Premier League title challenge, a deep Champions League run, and at least a Domestic Cup. Before anyone lays a boot on the Old Trafford pitch that should be the baseline objective. This bar was set over decades of dominance. Decades of expecting nothing less than success and silverware. Unfortunately, this is no longer the case and reality is hard to accept. That being said, I’ll give it a shot at “realistic” expectations per competition this season.
The Premier League marathon.
I’ll start with the biggest and hardest competition to pick apart which is the Premier League of course. This is the weekly litmus test that everyone watches and is exposed on in front of the World. We are nowhere near City or even Arsenal, so if you’re expecting a positive take here you may as well look away. Are we title contenders? Not even close. The thing is, our rivals are getting their acts together this summer or at least holding things together well enough to be on par with our best eleven. Chelsea are getting their act together after their erratic season last term and have Pochettino to guide them into the new year. Newcastle are likely going to be stretched with Champions League commitments, but are recruiting well and have a good foundation to build on after surprising everyone last season. Is their best first team any worse than ours? Liverpool are at least holding together most of their big names who bring experience of winning the competition and that holds weight when the pressure is on during the end of season home stretch. Ask Arsenal all about that. So where does that leave Manchester United?
Out of our depth.
When it comes to United in the League this year, I see it ending below expectations. In my opinion it’s looking like a battle for those tricky 6th though 4th place spots and we miss out, finishing 5th. Hard to comprehend for some, but be realistic. Our best team is a top four team as long as it stays healthy and consistent. We all know that’s virtually impossible. We live on the edge of disaster with our horrific lack of depth. A new striker (who’s already injured) is being given the full weight of expectations for goals this year and if he falters? Another year of wet napkin Martial or Rashford to likely lead the line. Is that going to work again? Can we rely on Rashford to replicate his form of the previous season? I think we all know by now that we can’t rely on Martial for anything more than a training ground injury after scoring the odd goal. It’s completely unsustainable and it’s not the only position we play this game with. Goalkeeper, Centerback, Midfield, you name it and we really are struggling to hold everything together and unfortunately, in the hardest League in the world, it’s not a recipe for success. It’s more Europa League in our future at this rate.
Champions League.
Don’t get your hopes up here either. The same things that hamper our League outcome will likely be in play here as well. Granted we haven’t seen any Groups selected yet, but if history is any indication we are going to struggle to make it out of the Group Stage against world class opponents. Ten Hag may have a bit of experience dragging “lesser” sides through the Champions League, but can he harness that ability again? We likely will drag this to the final match day and it’s honestly a toss up at that point whether we squeak through or end up back in the Europa League for another year. Personally I see the latter. That being said, if we are to drop to Europa, I would expect us to be favorites to win that competition. Fingers crossed.
Cup Competition.
Now this is where there is room for optimism. We should be taking both the League and FA Cup seriously this season as it’s likely our best chance of finishing the year with silverware. We got a very favorable run to last year’s League Cup and if we can snag another decent few draws I can see us easily bagging one if not both of these Cups this season. In a season that’s likely to bring some serious difficulties, our Cup form could be the one shining light come May. Keep a positive outlook on these two competitions especially.
So basically it’s a season that is going to rely a lot on luck regarding form and fitness for us to have a fair chance at any actual success. Be realistic and we’ll weather the storm together Manchester United fans.
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