Which Top 4 club do Man U have the best chance of replacing next season?

I doubt City and Chelsea won't finish top 4 so that only leaves Liverpool and Arsenal though obviously there's still the option that we just get the same top 4 we had this season. Yeah I know LvG is a god and United even bought a midfielder but I just say it's an option. Anyway it's hard to decide between Arsenal and Liverpool. I don't care if Arsenal finished top 4 since Idontknowwhen they still can drop out of the top 4 and have to earn that spot. The situation changed anyway. We never had a strong City, Chelsea, United and Liverpool at the same time and we could (though that remains to be seen) have it this season.

To be honest it's a bit pointless at the moment as we don't know yet which players the teams will buy and sell. At the moment I think the chances are something like 45% Liverpool - 35% Arsenal - 10/10. If United make the top 4.

It's not just his 30 goals but.

He was never a number 9 for us. We'll get goals from Sturridge etc. We won't replace all of them, but we'll still get goals.

He was our final third, though. He made everything click. He brought fear/nerves to the opposition. He was the only consistent play maker in the final third. He was the pretty much the only one that had the balls and to take the game on in the final third.

He didn't "show up" against big teams last year (mostly away) because he was closed down from 2-5 defenders and we still expected him to something out of the blue and help us get a win. He still did well, but his influence was diminished. At home, he was the one that dragged 2 defenders with him and let Sterling and Sturridge run behind the lines freely.

People are too busy playing FM thinking a 19 year old Markovic (who's inconsistent) and 19-20 year old Sterling (who's still inconsistent in front of goal) will replace him with Sturridge having an injury free campaign.

We haven't strengthened anywhere at all. We've only really made one good signing in Emre Can, but even then, he's still pretty much just depth. We need quality, and instead of quality, we're bringing in kids / depth. Ridiculous. By all reports we have 100m+ to spend this summer and around 50m has been spent on Markovic and Lallana. We're also keen to sign Lovren for 20m. And people go on about Chelsea / City "buying" the league.

that's what I meant with 'not to speak of the other things he offers'.

Now you need both depth AND quality, so I don't think buying for depth is bad.
But to defend top 4 while having CL you'll need to step it up a little still, more so if you lose a lot of quality with Suarez.
Terrible timing to sell your star player, really.

And then the other areas..
Emre Can is a good prospect but unless he surprisingly explodes, I don't see how he can be an immediate strengthening on top level, tbh.
Especially since players new to the league rarely explode in their first season, and you should be prepared to cut him some slack, not expect him to make you compete in all competitions.

Were aiming for the number 1 spot this year...
Left back was a disaster for us, we signed the best in the league
Midfield was abysmal.. Herrera and possibly Vidal signed. Maybe carvalho / di Maria to complete the 3
Hummels at cb? LVG seems to have a hard on for him so we'll wait and see but I doubt it.
And most importantly LVG in charge..
People don't realise what a disaster moyes was on the pitch and off it. Destroyed that team.

calma, nobody thought liverpool would be in ucl at this time last year.

mayb just me lol.

Liverpool.

Not because of Suarez, but they brought something new both tactically and in terms of the players have emergences last season and you would imagine teams could understand more what Pool do and how to play against it.

Plus the extra games they will play being in Europe.

Losing Suarez is also a psychological blow in some way.

I'm not being funny but I think city will struggle next year.
They're struggling to bring a cb in, the yaya situation isn't resolved and they seem to be losing negredo, while Aguero doesn't seem to be getting any less injury prone.
If last season had played out like it should have, they would have finished 3rd.
They went from drawing with a poor Sunderland side in front of a half full eithad, to becoming title favourites without kicking a ball.
They were given 1st. Handed on a plate

I also think that City is most likely to fall out of the top 4 this season. Their best players are injury prone or getting old or leaving, and they can't spend too much plus FFP sanctions.

We'll see, but I could see them dropping out of the top 4 for one of Tottenham or Manchester United.

Don't call me James wrote:
We're still going to score plenty of goals even without Suarez. that's not an issue.

You seem pretty confident but you don't replace one player's 30 something goals without any issues.

Haha Dr Spaceman, so let me get this straight.

You already payed close to 70m £ for Herrera and Shaw, and now youll pay another 60 for Vidal, 50 for di Maria, 30 for Carcalho and then let's say 40 for Hummels, never mind he's not available

250m £.

You're not afraid of looking like a fool later with predictions like that?

El Cujo wrote:I also think that City is most likely to fall out of the top 4 this season. Their best players are injury prone or getting old or leaving, and they can't spend too much plus FFP sanctions.

We'll see, but I could see them dropping out of the top 4 for one of Tottenham or Manchester United.

One top 4 finish in how many years, selling your top player, but yes, CITY will drop out of the top 4, sure

I have to think Liverpool. Suarez is probably gone and Sturridge will probably get hurt, I predict a fifth place finish for Liverpool. When you lose a 30 goal scorer you can expect your GD to take a hit too.

I think the answer to this question depends on how Everton and Spurs do. Both of these teams have great coaches and I think they'll have a say on who is in the top four.

Something that also needs to be said is the the bottom half of the EPL is pretty bad atm. Consistency is what gets you in the top position so the teams with the best scrub killers will do a lot better than the teams that make a meal of the easier games.

^Yep. Utd didn't finish 5th, they finished 7th.

They'll have to get past Everton and Spurs first.

No guarantees we'll just comfortably waltz into the top 4, but having a decent manager in LVG, and having addressed our midfield issues, plus LB problem (we still have other positions to fix), and with possibly one or 2 more 'key' signings to make, I think we have a good shot.

In saying that, the team I think we'll overtake, if it were to happen, is Liverpool. Nothing personal, just my feeling. Losing Suarez will be a huge blow for them, regardless of how well the other players did. He had this aura around him last season that excelled the players' performances around him. An aura that only special players like him carry. It would be very difficult to replace him, almost impossible.

Arsenal- they have a pact with the devil to always finish in the top 4. Not happening.

Zealous wrote:

Don't call me James wrote:
We're still going to score plenty of goals even without Suarez. that's not an issue.

You seem pretty confident but you don't replace one player's 30 something goals without any issues.

Why would they need to replace 30 goals though? Even if you strictly removed 31 goals from Suarez Liverpool would still have the 3rd most goals in the league -- that's not accounting for any amount of goals his replacement might score.

Hapless_Hans wrote:One top 4 finish in how many years, selling your top player, but yes, CITY will drop out of the top 4, sure

You make it sound like Suarez was what made the team tick. He was probably out best player, but was he our most important player? I wouldn't say so -- and I said it all season. People love to watch incredible offensive talents, but our team functioned as a whole very well and was one of the youngest in the league if not the youngest. Then factor in Rodgers as a manager and this team will be just fine.

El Cujo wrote:

Zealous wrote:

Don't call me James wrote:
We're still going to score plenty of goals even without Suarez. that's not an issue.

You seem pretty confident but you don't replace one player's 30 something goals without any issues.

Why would they need to replace 30 goals though? Even if you strictly removed 31 goals from Suarez Liverpool would still have the 3rd most goals in the league -- that's not accounting for any amount of goals his replacement might score.

I know Murica man Henry who loves Moneyball is your owner but that stuff doesn't work in football.

You could eventually replace those goals but again it won't be "without any issues". Your attack will be rightfully less respected and teams will feel better about attacking that soft back line. Having a player who can score 30+ is not easy to replace especially when the replacements can't score 30+.

We need to wait further into the transfer window to have educated guesses, imo.

United have so far signed only that Herrera guy. Van Gaal will certainly whip the team into better shape, but they probably need and will do more transfer business still. If the window closed yesterday, my answer to the thread would be "nobody", but we all know they're going to be shopping around before September.


Manchester City, you know what, I've a feeling they might do worse than last season. Chelsea and Arsenal will be in top-4. We are losing our best player and doing a bit of a 'Tottenham 2013 summer window' i.e. replacing the departing star with quantity rather than quality and in this moment in time I reckon United have the best chance to replace either us or City in the top-4 - but this estimation may still change during the summer.

terrance511 wrote:calma, nobody thought liverpool would be in ucl at this time last year.

mayb just me lol.

Last year this time, McAgger made a poll that who will get into top 4: Arsenal/Spurs/Liverpool. Liverpool got the least votes by GL members, by 6% of all posters saying Liverpool have a chance to finish top 4 in 2013-14 season.

Further more, after Ferguson's retirement in May 2013, McAgger made a thread that Liverpool will win the league in the next 5 years, it was trolled so far, with claims that it will take at least 10 years, typical deluded, no way....Chelsea and City are unreachable, and all that crap. And we all know we were only a slip away.

If anything, this thread gives me assurances judging by the most recent GL trends

cyberman wrote:I'm not being funny but I think city will struggle next year.
They're struggling to bring a cb in, the yaya situation isn't resolved and they seem to be losing negredo, while Aguero doesn't seem to be getting any less injury prone.
If last season had played out like it should have, they would have finished 3rd.
They went from drawing with a poor Sunderland side in front of a half full eithad, to becoming title favourites without kicking a ball.
They were given 1st. Handed on a plate

This poor Sunderland?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/27168533

Alrighty then  

Have Arsenal REALLY improved though? Their biggest weaknesses last season were at DM & CF, they've failed to strengthen either of those positions. Debuchy is also a massive downgrade from Sagna too.

As good a player Sanchez is I don't think he'll improve them that much either.

Same goes for United as well. At this point in his career, Shaw for Evra is a sideways swap while Herrera isn't a proven commodity. They still need multiple CB's & wingers as well as another CM.

Natalie Portman wrote:
When you concede 50 goals in a season, it's a strong indication that something definitely hasn't "Clicked" .

11 of Suarez' goals were against relegated sides where they didn't impact the win/draw/loss , and just pad the GD....Daniel Sturridge' goals won more points than Suarez. Not to mention, the team is the youngest of all challengers, and hence has the highest upside/ceiling.

Time will tell of course, and there is still 1.5 months of transfer window to go. Good thread to bump later.

Your defensive woes were a result of your extremely offensive attacking setup which gave you 3 or 4 goal cushions at halftime against Arsenal, Everton and Co. You can improve your defense if you play more conservatively but this will also result in lesser goals scored and ultimately a higher chance to lose points by drawing games, especially in a league format. So I don't see this as a systematic flaw. Rather a deliberate choice of balancing. Of course you can keep the offensive game and improve your defense. Either buy buying elite defensive reinforcements, which I don't see happening - or intensifying the collective pressing. Which I don't see happening either. You could often observe a drop of intensity in the 2nd half of Liverpool games last season after a flying start, sometimes allowing opponents back in. Playing more intense and this time with midweek CL games? I somehow doubt it.

What Dani said is also true. Opponents can adapt to Liverpool's gameplan now. Somehow I don't envision Arsenal and the likes getting murdered in 1 half of football once again. You will most likely get the Mourinho treatment from now on by almost everyone.

You know best I'm not anti Liverpool. If United stayed out of top 4 for the 2nd season in a row or Mourinho dropped out I'd celebrate this with your sister at a candle light dinner. But my head says "Liverpool".

Gil, I agree about DM, however the transfer window has barely even started.

Sanchez will improve Arsenal instantly as he is better than any winger or striker they have, Walcott included.

Hapless_Hans wrote:Gil, I agree about DM, however the transfer window has barely even started.

Sanchez will improve Arsenal instantly as he is better than any winger or striker they have, Walcott included.

This is true. Forgot about Sanchez's dynamism & durability. I think Walcott can match him easily in terms of end product and is a big game player but yes, Sanchez is more gifted.

They still need a striker and DM though. Giroud and Arteta are quality squad players but not starting material.

chemicalboy99 wrote:

cyberman wrote:I'm not being funny but I think city will struggle next year.
They're struggling to bring a cb in, the yaya situation isn't resolved and they seem to be losing negredo, while Aguero doesn't seem to be getting any less injury prone.
If last season had played out like it should have, they would have finished 3rd.
They went from drawing with a poor Sunderland side in front of a half full eithad, to becoming title favourites without kicking a ball.
They were given 1st. Handed on a plate

This poor Sunderland?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/27168533

Alrighty then  

Yes, that Sunderland

cyberman wrote:

chemicalboy99 wrote:

cyberman wrote:I'm not being funny but I think city will struggle next year.
They're struggling to bring a cb in, the yaya situation isn't resolved and they seem to be losing negredo, while Aguero doesn't seem to be getting any less injury prone.
If last season had played out like it should have, they would have finished 3rd.
They went from drawing with a poor Sunderland side in front of a half full eithad, to becoming title favourites without kicking a ball.
They were given 1st. Handed on a plate

This poor Sunderland?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/27168533

Alrighty then  

Yes, that Sunderland

Weird,

So it wasn't all Moyes' fault after all....

You just really are that bad.