This Utd chat is getting a bit mad. Nobody can deny that Utd have had a much improved last third of the season but before we even bother to add any context to it, how many times has this happened in the past. It wasn't that long ago we had Spurs fans saying if the League was January to December they'd have won the League because they ended x season and started y season in such great form. It counts for nothing. This isn't the first good 3 months Utd have had in the past 6 years. In fact in Ole's first 12 games they picked up points at an even greater rate than they ended this season and despite spending £200m+ they're still no closer to the top than when he took over.
Utd have got to prove that they can perform consistently well over 38 games, not for a few months here and there. At the moment this is a Utd side that when everything is going well and everything is going their way (and my god has everything gone their way) that they'll perform.
You've missed the point, no pun intended. Of course points matter. The only thing you can control is how many points you pick up, where you finish in the final table then rests on what others do. Yes, it turns out that Liverpool could have won the title with 85 points but we didn't know that 5 months ago, in the same way Utd didn't know that 66 points would have got them 3rd. I'm sure if all I could guarantee you was picking up 66 points this season, you're neither taking it or believing it was enough to finish top 4.
Liverpool have ended up picking up a points total that would have meant that it was nigh on impossible for anybody to catch us, guaranteeing we won the title. Utd haven't finished 3rd purely as a consequence of how good a season they've had though, they've had to rely on numerous teams doing slightly worse - the difference between Utd finishing 3rd and 5th was just 1 extra win for Leicester and Chelsea. Utd could have performed identically to how they have and very easily finished 5th.
That's a terrifying thing to say, was Smalling that bad or has Maguire somehow become Beckenbauer?
Maguire is a decent enough CB that would have his place in most squads in the League, if you were playing a certain way. He's not the main CB at any side winning the League though and he's not playing for a side that defends on the half way line either.
