Manchester United must make final days of season count ahead of Erik ten Hag era

Erik ten Hag must take Manchester United into the final day of next season with pride, excitement, and self-belief. This is something the club lack entirely approaching their final match against Crystal Palace on Sunday.

A campaign which began with title aspirations has ended with a Europa League spot to play for. European football is guaranteed in the form of the Europa Conference League.

It is easy to feel that this season was a write off since the disastrous form that led to November’s sacking of Ole Gunnar Solskjær with United definitely out of the title race and League Cup.

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However, they remained in contention for the top 4, in a decent position to qualify for the Champions League knock-out stages and had the FA Cup. This season could still have been salvaged by United.

Despite all the obvious problems, they still have a collection of proven players at Premier League level. But by January it felt like this team had mentally penned an obituary for this season.

United’s season has been damaged because of 19 dropped points against teams outside the top six. Beatings by teams well ahead of them in the table can be rationalised. This, along with a cup defeat to Middlesborough, cannot.

A MEN poll last month found that 69% of United fans wanted no European football this season.

There have been examples in recent years of Premier League teams benefiting from a lack of midweek games. Antonio Conte’s title-winning season at Chelsea benefitted somewhat from their 10th-place finish the season before. However, a lack of midweek fixtures can make it difficult to attract a squad with strength in depth.

Arsenal this season have had no UEFA