Manchester United 2016-17 Season Review

What was the realistic wish of a Manchester United supported at the beginning on 2016-17 season? For me, it would have been a few trophies (in not the Premier League) and a Champions League place. At the end of the season, Manchester United has won 2 trophies (EFL Cup and the Europa League) and they are back into the Champions League. So can we say that the club has met the expectations? I would say that results are satisfactory but still below par as per typical Unite Standard and team will have to play far better next year to challenge for major trophies.United secured 3 more points than last year in the league but finished 6^th (One position below last year’s finish). United won just 18 matches in the league and this is the lowest number of wins for the team in Premier League era. The main concern was a whopping 15 draws which is again the highest number of draws for United in Premier League era. Few examples of draws with bottom half teams are as - a 0-0 draws with Burnley, Hull City, and West Brom; 1-1 draws with Stoke, West Ham, Bournemouth, and Swansea. This was the main reason United was way off title challenge and finished 24 points below the Champions Chelsea and 7 points below the automatic Champions League place. Untied just scored 54 goals in 38 league matches and 17 of them was scored by Ibrahimovic alone in 27 matches. Other notable scorers in League were Mata (6), Rooney (6), Progba (5), Rashford (5) and Martial (4). But United defense has improved considerably and they had 17 clean sheets in the league. This sums up the United performance in League.Manchester United won the EFL cup beating Southampton. Defending Champion United reached to quarter final of FA cup where it lost to Chelsea although there was lot of controversy about referee decision in the game. But it was a blessing in disguise for United. United was playing in all the competitions – domestic League, two domestic cups, Europa cup and the fixtures were taking a toll on the players. When it became clear that United may find it tough to finish in top 4 in Premier League, they turned their attention on Europa League for getting Champions League place. They even gave up hopes in Premier League in last 3-4 matches as their main focus was Europa League. But this payed off and United won Europa League for the very 1^st time. It salvaged some pride for the team, manager Jose Mourinho and the owners. Champions League place is very vital for club finances and attracting players.A 6th place finish will not be acceptable next time and united will have to score more goals next season to have some impact. They still need at least 2 good forwards like Griezmann and Lakaku. Mourinho philosophy of tightening the defense has worked well but as always scoring goals remain the key. United may need a good central defender and one player in mid-field to complement Pogba and Ander Herrera. Wayne Rooney may say good bye to the club where he earned so much name, fame and money. There are optimism in air that United under will win many trophies under Mourinho in coming years.