Manchester United will start the season under “a lot of pressure” if they lose badly to reigning Premier League champions Manchester City in the Community Shield 2024, former Red Devils winger Lee Sharpe says.
After finishing in their lowest position for 34 years last season, United manager Erik ten Hag was backed by new club co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe this summer and has guided his side to three defeats in five pre-season friendlies, including losses to top-flight rivals Liverpool and Arsenal.
“I don’t really read too much into pre-season because it’s a mixed bag of a team and everybody’s trying to get fit,” says Sharpe, who won the Premier League three times among seven major trophies under Sir Alex Ferguson between 1991 and 1996.
“You go into every season full of expectation and high hopes. If they do get overpowered and beaten heavily by City then it does put a lot of pressure on the start of the season, especially after they’ve just backed the manager to go again.
“When you’re at a club like United, you’re never more than two games away from a catastrophe. When we were there, the thought was always that we never lose more than two in a row. ‘We never lose three in a row’ – that was as much as we could keep it down to. In sticky times, that’s not easy.”
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Ratcliffe ‘sensible’ over Man United
Businessman Ratcliffe completed a £1.25 billion deal earlier this year to own 27.7 per cent of the club through his Ineos Group, taking over the footballing operations at Old Trafford and vowing to transform the fortunes of the 20-time champions, who have not mounted a credible title challenge since Ferguson’s triumph in 2012-13, his final season.
Ten Hag was widely thought to have been on the brink of the sack before the FA Cup final in May, when United surprisingly beat City 2-1 at Wembley, where the arch-rivals will meet again on Saturday (3pm BST).
“It’s probably trying to take a little bit of pressure off the lads,” Sharpe says of Ratcliffe’s suggestion that Ten Hag is not obliged to deliver a top-four position.
“He’s probably trying to drop the level of expectation of the fans. That’s probably what the conversation has been with Ineos and the manager.
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“They all understand that it’s a long-term project to try to catch City, Liverpool and Arsenal. They realise it’s not going to be done over one season.
“It’s sensible to say that. I don’t think there’s any doubt that, in the back of everybody’s minds, the aim is to get top four, which gives the potential to bring in better players and more money for the club.
“I certainly think they will be chasing that but if they can have another good cup run, there’s not too much pressure to get top four this season.”
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Man United ‘can make top four’
United finished eighth in 2023-24, with no team in the top 10 scoring fewer goals. Ten Hag has added 23-year-old Netherlands forward Joshua Zirkzee for £36.5m from Bologna and Leny Yoro for a fee which could rise to £59m from Lille, although the defender suffered an injury on the club’s US tour which is expected to keep him out for three months.
“I’m a bit of an optimist,” says Sharpe, speaking to Safest Casino Sites. “With the couple of extra signings they’re looking at, they way they’re looking to play and their strongest squad available, they can definitely get into the top four.
“In parts of games [last season], they looked unbeatable. In the same game, they looked like a bottom-four team. It was frustration more than anything because you could see the standards they could get to and then you’d be surprised by the standards they dropped to.
“I just hope they find a bit more consistency in games – not just from game to game, but the 90 minutes of a game.
“I’m sure all the players and the manager are well aware of that and the new signings will give everyone a bit of a lift. You just hope they start the season on the front foot.”
