"I cannot focus just on saving the season with the momentum of the FA Cup. That's not the way I see football, it's not the way I see Manchester United.
It's everything, it's the performance, it's the result. I'm not thinking about the end of the season now."
Those are the words of manager Ruben Amorim.
This obviously states that he wants more than just potentially the FA Cup as it is about performance and results.
What I believe Amorim has to try and do is improve performances while also winning either the FA Cup or Europa League.
In fact, I think considering how our season is going, the manager HAS to win either trophy. We need the funds that we would get from them and it would also mean European football, which is desperately needed as well.
Winning the FA Cup last season gave us this opportunity in the EL and it could be our savior this year too.
And it's also nice to win another trophy.
Btw, we're playing Fulham in the next round on March 1st.
So let's break it down into categories of importance going from least to most importance.
🔴 Premier League - Least important
I know, saying that the trophy we've won way more times than any other club is the least important at the moment is pretty weird.
But it is true.
This isn't me saying that we need to completely forget about the league and not try but more that as we are quite shite and have no chance of qualifying through the league for Europe, we should take it as an opportunity to try things, rotate the squad and look to improve as much as we can.
It can be seen as a sort of competitive pre-season.
Again, I still want us to win but I'd rather most of the important victories come in the cups because that is where the key lies for the rest of this season and for some of the ramifications for next season.
Good football is necessary as we don't know what that's like at United anymore and the league will provide Amorim with the opportunity to get his team playing the way he wants.
13th in the table is embarrassing and we do need to climb up but if we remained inconsistent, we still have other matches to make up for poor results.
In the cups though, one defeat and you're gone. This is why it's more important to win in whatever way possible in them rather than the league.
⚪ Performance - important
As I said, we need to be playing a better brand of football because what we've seen for the last decade has been nothing short of embarrassing for a club like ours.
To not know whether your team is going to show up is the problem that needs resolving before any other in my opinion.
I don't believe we have terrible players but maybe ones that aren't good enough for United. However, they are definitely not as bad as 13th in the league.
This all comes down to how much they want it.
Should they show the right attitude and determination, I believe we will start to move up the table.
I could see us getting to at least 12th 🤣.
With the right attitude we should have enough quality to at least make it into the top half which isn't much of an improvement to 12th but is still better than where we are.
The manager never looks happy with his team when seeing him on the touchline with a lot of that being down to the way we play. Amorim has mentioned several times that we need to be better as this is not the level of United.
The draw at Anfield was perhaps the only truly top game we've played under the Portuguese and even then he wasn't happy as why did we play well there and not in all the other matches?
A valid comment but this further proves my point that when these players are on it, they aren't half bad.
The Premier League provides the chance for Amorim to improve the performances, rotate the squad, rest players when needed and perhaps try some new things.
If things don't work, we're already doing so bad domestically, what difference does it make?
Should they work though, then maybe this is something to build upon.
He talks about how he doesn't want to use the momentum of the FA Cup to save the season but can use momentum of good performances in the league and take that into the cup competitions.
🟢 FA Cup - very important
Yes, the FA Cup (our FA Cup) matters quite a lot to this season as it did last as it was a salvation point to a truly awful 23/24.
Somehow we've managed to find ourselves in the same position where we need this trophy to not make this campaign as shit as possible.
With several top teams (Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea, Spurs) all out of the competition, it gives United more of a chance to lift the trophy two seasons running.
We will have to overcome Fulham though, as we will face them in the 5th Round at the start of March. A tough test but it could've been worse. Two of Newcastle, Brighton, Wolves and Bournemouth will also be heading home as they have been drawn against each other further improving our chances of winning the tournmanet should we beat Fulham.
🟢 Europa League - super important!
All eggs should be thrown into the EL basket. If you said to me we will lose the FA Cup but win the Europa League, I would bite your hand off because winning this trophy is better.
Lifting the Europea League gets us into the Champions League which is where we want to be. We do need to play some European football next season and winning either trophy will do that but the FA Cup only gets us back in the EL.
I'm so done with Thursday nights y'all 🙄.
As we are in the round of 16 after finishing in the top 8, that will give Amorim a bit more time to try and improve things on the field whilst the players get more rest due to not having to play so many games so quickly.
We've yet to see who we will face but United could play Midtjylland, AZ Alkmaar, Real Sociedad or Galatasaray. Those won't be easy but I believe that we have the ability to get over the line against them. Gala is the only one of these four that worry me.
Winning this trophy would mean more because it's harder, longer and has a bigger prize at the end. United have also only one this competition once under Mourinho in 16/17 and he too made the call of binning the league off and focusing on winning this trophy in order to make it into the CL.
It was a pretty great night in Stockholm. I'd like to experience that again.
The confidence that the players could get from lifting this trophy would also be an added incentive to go all out in Europe. They aren't winners and while they've had a taste of success in the last two years, the Carabao and FA Cups aren't the most prestigious.
But beggars can't be choosers, right?
A European trophy could lift their spirits to another level.
For Amorim to come in mid-season and pick up this piece of silverware will be such a huge boost for him as well. He hasn't won something like this before and to start of your Man Utd reign with a Europa League given all the hardships of this season, would be unbelievable.
Should he win both trophies,
Sir Ruben Amorim with a statue outside Old Trafford is what he should receive.
Importance of winning a trophy
But why it's so significant to win one or both of the tournaments is not only because it's great to win something but that it means money comes into the club.
With United struggling financially, we need all the funds we can get. Lifting the FA Cup and/or Europa League will bring in a decent portion that could help us in some way.
We know that there is the potential to sell one or both of Mainoo and Garnacho. Nobody wants that. While winning the two trophies may not be enough to bring in what is needed, this could help reduce the possibility of having to let go off either one of the star boys.
I still believe INEOS may put them on the market as they are knobs, but at least it means it's less likely.
Playing in Europe especially the CL, will give us a better chance to attract the best players from around the world. Everyone wants to play Champions League football and a lot would like to do that at United.
Another potentially significant incentive to winning the Europa League is that we won't have to go from Thursday to Sunday for a good portion of the season which as we know, really does play a part in how we perform throughout the campaign.
CL nights are also a lot more attractive than EL nights. We also won't be traveling to all these weird places with all due respect.
Final Thoughts
In conclusion, performance matters but when it comes to the cups, we just need to win them (by hook or crook 😉) as the consequence of not winning one or both is seriously frightening.
It may give Amorim the chance to try to implement his style a lot better if we don't have European football next season but that is not what we want.
I don't even know if Amorim will be here next season if he doesn't win anything, our performances don't improve and we remain in the bottom half of the table with our lowest-ever points and position.
Hey, you never know 🤷♂️.
But what do you think the targets for the rest of the campaign should be?
Background Image: Man Utd beat FCSB 2-0 in the Europa League | Image via Manchester United official X (@ManUtd)