Second place seems unlikely now and its starting to worry me. The Gunners are 4 points ahead and we dont have enough games to close the gap, plus we still have to play Chelsea.
I'm hoping we finish second because of the fact that you're considered the second best team but I dont see why Sir Alex always goes on about how having to avoid the CL qualifiers is a big thing. Man Utd realistically arent ever gonna lose a qualifier and if we do, we dont really deserve the european cup anyway. Fergies way of thinking and style of management has changed quite a bit over the years.
After thinking about this for a moment and watching a few classic matches, I think I've realised how this all happened.
We all remember Sir Alex as being a great motivator and being able to get the best out of players. It all started from the moment we saw our youth team win the FA Youth Cup which lead to the players like Giggs, Scholes, Butt, Beckham, etc breaking through. In those days, Sir Alex wouldnt hesitate to give players a piece of his mind if they werent pulling their weight. These days it seems like Sir Alex doesnt discipline his players like he used to. In the past it was easier cuz the players grew up with the squad. But if you have a young 19 year old portugese player who hardly understands english, how do you discipline him when he does something wrong? Can any of you imagine Rooney getting a mouthful from Sir Alex? I'm sure Sir Alex knows that if he pisses off some of his younger players, they probably get upset (maybe cry a little) and would want to leave the club. I'm sure some of you remember this season when Ronaldo missed an open goal and then got a mouthful from Gary? When Ronaldo scored at the end of that game, he didnt celebrate cuz you could tell he was still in a bad mood from what happened earlier. So its harder to discipline and motivate players now the younger ones might take it the wrong way and get upset which is a major problem IMO.
Most of our games have lacked the fight and the willingness to win which is the main reason why we're 3rd right now. The last time we were so pumped up for a game was at Highbury because of what happened in the tunnel before the game. And that ended 4-2 to us.
This is a serious problem for us and its gonna get worse once Keano retires.
Thats just IMO though.