The question: Will Manchester United finish in the top four?
By Staff
Manchester United recorded their best win yet under Jose Mourinho on Sunday, beating Chelsea 2-0 at Old Trafford, but will they finish in the top four?
Jose Mourinho’s first season at Manchester United has been uneven so far. The Red Devils have shown flashes of elite quality, but 12 draws have them on the outside looking in on the top four. That could change soon after a stirring 2-0 win against league leaders Chelsea at Old Trafford on Sunday. With seven matches left to play, will United finish in the Champions League spots? In our weekly roundtable, FanSided’s soccer staff debate.
Manchester United will finish top four
James Dudko, @JamesDudko
Manchester United’s comprehensive 2-0 win over Premier League leaders Chelsea at Old Trafford on Easter Sunday sent a message. The message wasn’t so much heard in the title race, although Tottenham will now fancy their chances of chasing down Chelsea after the Blues’ surprisingly limp display in Manchester.
The real message was United announcing they haven’t given up on qualifying for next season’s Champions League through the route of a top-four finish domestically. Initially, it looked as though manager Jose Mourinho had abandoned hope of finishing fourth, at least judging by his starting XI against his former club.
When United’s squad sheet showed Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Henrikh Mkhitaryan on the bench, it seemed certain Mourinho was relying on winning the \Europa League to seal a return to Europe’s premier club competition.
As it happened, United and Mourinho instead offered a timely reminder of the depth, quality and flexibility of their squad, both tactically and in terms of personnel.
The latter attribute was proved by strong games from goalscorer Marcus Rashford and strike partner Jesse Lingard, the junior stand-ins for Ibrahimovic and Mkhitaryan. Rashford tormented Chelsea all day with his pace and tireless running, while Lingard’s movement off the ball was perceptive and threatening.
Yet the youthful England attackers weren’t the only replacements who did United proud. Italian defender Matteo Darmian has been overlooked for most of this season, but it was hard to work out why based on how the ex-Torino man kept Blues wide forward Pedro under wraps.
Not only did Mourinho leave his two best attacking players on the bench, he also sat down holding midfielder Michael Carrick. Those gambles were vindicated by the players who out-thought, outfought and outplayed the league leaders.
No other squad in the top four race could leave out so many significant regulars and still win a big game. Sixth-place Everton would surely struggle without Idrissa Gueye breaking up play in midfield and Romelu Lukaku running defences ragged up top.
Meanwhile, seventh-place Arsenal saw their season go off the rails once mini midfield general Santi Cazorla suffered injury. More recently, the Gunners defensive woes, highlighted by conceding three at Crystal Palace last Monday, can readily be explained by being without top center-back Laurent Koscielny and veteran goalkeeper Petr Cech.
Of course, many would argue United’s backups thrived not because of their quality but thanks to Mourinho’s tactics. Man-marking Chelsea danger man Eden Hazard with goalscorer Ander Herrera, packing numbers behind the ball and relying on Rashford’s pace on the break hardly reinvented the wheel, but Mourinho did settle on a formula for frustrating the Blues.
United played a different game going forward without Ibrahimovic’s target-man qualities and Mkhitaryan’s fondness for drifting centrally. Lingard and Rashford offered greater fluidity and more rotations at speed in the final third.
Being able to flip-flop between styles is a luxury few clubs, even top teams, can afford. Who else in the top-four race could modify their approach as seamlessly as United did at Old Trafford?
Certainly not the teams immediately above Mourinho’s.
Fourth-place Manchester City will always play short and quick combination passing between the lines, a game preached by manager Pep Guardiola, one based on bossing possession win or lose. Similarly, third-place Liverpool will press, press and press again, regardless of opposition or venue, on Jurgen Klopp’s watch.
United have games in hand on both City and bitter rivals Liverpool. Mourinho boasts a squad big and talented enough to handle a congested schedule and take maximum points from those vital extra fixtures.
Mourinho will see some daunting challenges forthcoming among the fixtures, specifically matches away to Arsenal, City and Spurs. But the manager’s flair for negating the opposition and playing spoiler when he’s the underdog means United are likely to be less intimidated by these games than most others might be.
Put the squad depth together with the tactical flexibility and you have two excellent reasons for believing United won’t need to win the Europa League to get back their place at Europe’s top table for next season.
Mourinho must focus on the Europa League
Peter Johnstone, @9PniJ2
At the third time of asking, Jose Mourinho finally got a victory over his old club, Chelsea, and in doing so blew the title race wide open. More importantly for United fans, it brought their team closer to a fourth-place finish.
The Red Devils are now only four points back of fourth-place Manchester City, having played a game less, and six points back of third-place Liverpool, having played two games less. The race for the fourth Champions League spot looks like it could come down to the last day of the season. Going by consistency, though, it looks like United fans are going to be disappointed in May.
Mourinho’s United have been excellent at times this season, and have become a formidable side. Yet their lack of killer instinct is likely to come back to haunt them in the long run. The Red Devils have drawn a huge 12 games this season — at least three more than all of the current top four sides.
What’s more disappointing is that many of these dropped points have come against lesser opposition like Hull and Bournemouth. If United had managed to turn even four of their draws into wins, they wouldn’t be far behind title-challenging Spurs.
Sunday’s 2-0 victory against Chelsea was pretty clear evidence Mourinho’s problem isn’t a lack of quality. The problem is consistency. This level of uncertainty makes it hard to believe United can finish fourth.
A fifth-place finish shouldn’t discourage the Red Devils, though, as they have one of the best managers in the game. A few seasons ago, the Portuguese coach finished third with Chelsea and lifted the trophy the following season. This is what Mourinho will be gunning for and, although he undoubtedly wants Champions League soccer, a fifth-place finish wouldn’t be the end of the world for him. It isn’t even United’s only route to the Champions League this season.
United drew the first leg of their Europa League quarterfinal with Anderlecht 1-1 last Thursday, and are favorites to advance to the semis this week at home. Winning a major European competition seems like a more realistic prospect for the Red Devils right now than a fourth-place finish in the league.
They’re undoubtedly one of the strongest teams in the tournament, Mourinho’s an excellent cup manager and if they do win the trophy, they won’t have to bother with Champions League qualifying next season, as they will if they finish fourth.
Mourinho will surely want to win the Europa League and finish fourth — partially to prove the strength of his managerial skills and partially to spite either Manchester City or Liverpool — but United’s run-in is daunting, and their manager’s reputation as the sport’s ultimate pragmatist didn’t come from nowhere.
United face City, Arsenal and Tottenham, all away from home, in their final seven league matches, not to mention a difficult trip to Turf Moor to play Burnley next week. The victory against Chelsea on Sunday showed what United can do against the league’s best, but doing it three more times in the next month, away from home and with the distraction of the Europa League, is too big of an ask.