United are preparing to host Bayern Munich at Old Trafford for the final group-stage game of the UCL campaign. Despite still having a mathematical chance to progress, the club’s morale is at an all-time low.
After a disheartening loss to one of England’s weakest teams, United now face the formidable Bayern Munich. A victory is imperative for qualification, and also relies on a draw between Galatasaray and Copenhagen.A win but no draw in the other game would mean Europa League. A United draw could be enough for the Europe League too.
A Challenging Run Begins
After the win against Chelsea, United had 1 supposedly “easy” game in the subsequent 5. Unfortunately, this so-called easy game culminated in a humiliating 0-3 defeat at home, narrowly averted from being worse by Maguire’s heroics. This season, marked by embarrassing results, has seen United lose seven Premier League games with a dismal aggregate score of 16-3. The upcoming matches against Bayern Munich, Liverpool, West Ham, and Aston Villa could either restore a lot of faith in the team or be the low point of the past decade. Regrettably, evidence this season suggests the latter scenario is more likely.
United shipped 3 goals at home to a team that had scored 18 in its 15 games prior. The bad news is that Bayern and Liverpool have been playing some brilliant attacking football this year. United might not even get to the Aston Villa game under the same manager if things go drastically bad in both the upcoming games. Despite the ominous signs, there is potential for an upside, especially in delivering a strong performance against the German champions. The same goes for the game at Anfield. As sad as it may sound; if United comes away with anything aside from a humiliating defeat, it will be considered a positive result.
Lingering Hope Amidst Challenges?
Injuries have played a role in United’s misfortune, but poor on-field play, questionable team selection, and perplexing in-game management have exacerbated the season’s downturn. The blame is widespread within the club, but this season is falling significantly short of expectations. Especially given the successful first year under Eric Ten Hag.
The season has given little to nothing for the fans to celebrate. Despite the disappointments, Maguire’s resurgence and Garnacho’s worldie are the only positives. A thread of hope exists, relying on the belief that things must improve, given the current dismal state. Unfortunately, this hope is precarious, lacking substantial evidence for a better outcome.
The Weight of the world On ten hag
United in recent years has always pulled out a couple of gutsy wins in the midst of a chaotic run. That however has always turned out to be an anomaly and always ended in the manager getting the sack. With Moyes, LVG, Jose, and Ole, the Reds always ground out a result or two before the end of that manager’s reign. None of those sackings actually solved the fundamental issues with this team so one could hope that the hierarchy tries something different before whipping out the axe and hoping for a miracle this time.
With that being said, Ten Hag has done more harm than good to help his case this season. Barely played Mount this season before he got sidelined from an injury on top of the Sancho and Varane sagas. There is also a lot left to be desired from the game management this season. With United blowing 3 comfortable leads in the Champions League alone. Another obvious issue is the complete incompetence of the team to defend once they score a goal. Sure, this can be blamed on the players but when there are recurring errors, the coaching has to be questioned.
There is a lot to be discussed regarding Eric Ten Hag this year but United cannot do the same thing and expect a different result by sacking another manager. But to do that, the Dutchman has to elevate the quality of actions that he can control. Sure, the injuries derailed the initial plan. But there can surely be another plan to turn to other than playing and waiting for out best full-back to return from injury only to shove him into central defence and hoping McTominay can score another goal. The next few weeks will determine what is in store for Eric and how his year will end.
team news
Positive news includes Casemiro and Amad’s return to training this week. The long-term injuries are however still leave all of the following out of contention – Lisandro Martinez (foot), Jonny Evans (thigh), Christian Eriksen (knee), Mason Mount (calf), and Tyrell Malacia (knee).
Sancho is still exiled from the team and Varane’s mystery remains unsolved with no hope of a comeback in sight. Varane in particular is a baffling situation given that a competent centre-back would help the team. Especially when they are shipping 3 goals to one of the league’s worst.
Predicted line-up and score
This is definitely not the best lineup that we can field even with our injuries, but Ten Hag has shown a clear element of stubbornness when it comes to changing the personnel and tactics so there is no reason he will start this week.
Predicted score: 2-2
The score prediction has a lot of unwarranted hope in there. It is possible that the home crowd can rally the team to a couple of goals. However, the more realistic prediction would be much different.
the first of a tough gauntlet
As United was getting beat badly at home, fans thought “Liverpool is going to put the final nail in the coffin”. Though this can be true, there is another German nail awaiting mid-week. Even if Ten Hag can scrape through those 2 challenges, David Moyes is waiting on the other end. The Scotsman will be more than happy to be the one to show Eric the door. That difficult away fixture is going to be followed by a visit from Unai Emery’s Aston Villa. A team that has surpassed all expectations so far and currently sits 3rd on the league table.
Those are 4 very difficult games that Ten Hag and his men need to face in the next 3 weeks. It would take some brilliant performances for United to come out with more positives than negatives in this run. But if the Dutchman can rally his men to some positive results, he will likely be safe till the end of the season.