Manchester United are 11 points shy of both fourth and fifth place with just seven games left to play in the Premier League. A miracle is needed at this point for Erik ten Hag’s side to secure Champions League qualification, so is it time for the Reds to forget about playing in Europe’s most prestigious competition next season?
Our hopes of qualifying for the Champions League are hanging by a thread. There is no guarantee that fifth spot would be enough to book us a place in the competition, but at this point it looks like Tottenham and Aston Villa are too far clear to be caught, especially with the form we are showing on the pitch this season. There is no consistency and we couldn’t hold a lead in stoppage time against either Brentford or Chelsea in recent weeks.
It’s an increasingly tall order to achieve and the players only have themselves to blame for being in this predicament. United would certainly need to win all of their remaining matches and hope either Villa or Spurs completely collapse.
The league table doesn’t lie and we are paying a heavy price for our consistency throughout the campaign. It will hurt the club knowing there will be more money in the Champions League next season… money we could do with to get the Financial Fair Play constraints off our back.
Loading ...United’s longest winning run in the Premier League this season amounts to just four matches, while our longest unbeaten run is slightly longer at five matches.
The best United can hope for this season is success in the FA Cup. We’ll be travelling to Wembley in two weeks to take on Coventry City in the FA Cup semi-final.
It is also worth considering the amount of injuries we’ve had this season and whether we want to continue to risk players ahead of a potential FA Cup final. All of our eggs will go into that basket in a matter of time.
Let us know in the comment section if you think United still have a chance of qualifying for the Champions League.
Subscribe to the Stretty News podcast Strettycast for weekly episodes on Manchester United. You can also sign up to the ad-free Stretty Newsletter. Get the Stretty News verdict on all matters Manchester United.
Not a chance in hell, thankfully.
I’ve said it before and no doubt it’s not a popular view, but we’re nowhere near the standard required not to make fools of ourselves. Again. Does anyone seriously think, if we qualified, that by next season we’d be ready to compete with Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, to say nothing of the 3 teams currently fighting for the Premiership? The idea is laughable. As I posted before: we can sign anyone who’ll join in the summer, but without a Manager who can set a team up not to concede umpteen chances every flippin’ match we would get steamrollered.
A la Copenhagen, a la Galatasaray.
Look: I want Champions League football again as much as anyone. But when we’re ready to put on decent showing and not be a prize laughing-stock again.
Fair response, David. It’s important we quality for the Europa League at the very least. I can’t be arsed with the Europa Conference League… though it promises some interesting trips!
Agreed: some European football is highly desirable, and I think we could give a decent account of ourselves in the Europa. Agree again re ECL, let’s see if we can aim higher than that.
Incidentally: kudos for your consistent loyalty towards ETH, if you’re right and I’m wrong, I shall be delighted. And I’ll come on here to admit I was wrong.🙂