Manchester United's focus turns to the FA Cup but it cannot stay there. Without wanting to disrespect the oldest competition in world football, even Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was admitting on Tuesday morning that it is not exactly where United “want to be”. Or at least, not the only place they want to be.

United might still be fighting on four fronts but they are only realistically competing for honours on two - in this competition and the Europa League. It will take a remarkable turnaround at the Etihad later this month to reach Wembley, and one that is probably beyond Solskjaer’s side.

But Solskjaer also knows that he will be judged on results in the Premier League, specifically whether United finish in the top four and qualify for next season’s Champions League. That is the priority. And while the Europa League offers a backdoor route into that competition, the FA Cup does not. Winning it was not enough to save Louis van Gaal, remember.

It is still an important competition at Old Trafford - one which separates and distinguishes Sir Alex Ferguson’s 1999 treble winners from the 2008 league and European champions in the pantheon of its greatest teams, for example - but not one which the club measures its own success by anymore, not one which its modern-day managers can reliably fall back on.

And while it would be too strong to call the FA Cup an outright distraction for United, there is a sense that defeat to Wolves at Molineux ten days ago may have preferable to tonight’s awkward replay. Neither side wanted this fixture and the banana skin it poses. Neither will be particularly enamoured by the reward of a trip to Watford or Tranmere Rovers either.

The complications which the FA Cup can throw up were made clear on Tuesday afternoon when Tranmere and Watford’s replay was postponed due to a waterlogged pitch. For a few uncertain hours, it seemed as if the knock-on effects of that postponement could all but cancel United’s forthcoming 16-day winter break.

Solskjaer has already promised players time off and is planning a training camp abroad, so a potential trip to Prenton Park - while United were supposed to be resting up - was the last thing he wanted. Senior United sources said they would resist any attempt to interrupt their winter break but the schedule appeared to leave little room for manoeuvre. 

A solution was found - Watford will play Tranmere next Thursday, as potentially one of four fixtures in nine days - but even that is not ideal for United. If they beat Wolves, they will only know the identity of their fourth round opponents three days before the game. If they face Tranmere, they will play on a pitch which has caused enough problems to warrant a club statement. And a fourth round replay would still interrupt their winter break.

Is it any wonder that top-flight managers rest players or divert resources elsewhere when even a mere run to the Cup quarter-finals can take up as many match days as a Champions League group stage? Is it worth Solskjaer to fully pursue success in this competition when the risk outweighs the reward for both himself and his players? Would a genuine title challenge - though impossible now - not have meant more? It used to be heresy to say a top-four place was more important than Cup success but that does not feel so controversial anymore.

In the time since Ferguson’s retirement, United have won three cups and reached another final but have never properly challenged for the honours this club desires most and have only finished in the top four twice. Winning trophies is all well and good but at Old Trafford, they have to be the right ones. United want to at least compete for league titles and European Cups again. 

While they do not, there is a danger of them being thought of as ‘a cup team’. “Supporters and the club alike are not happy with not challenging for the top position in the league,” Solskjaer admitted, when that specific phrase - ‘a cup team’ - was put to him on Tuesday morning. “That is where we feel we should be and many of today’s supporters have lived that period where we won the league consistently. 

“At the moment we don’t have that type of team because in that time we’ve been a bit behind the top ones,” he added. “It might be that we start with winning a cup and then these players will get that taste. That is not what we want to be. We want to be challenging for the league and the Champions League.”

Even Solskjaer could not claim that mounting a genuine challenge to be league and European champions next season is realistic, for the moment. “We are behind and a fair rate behind the top one [Liverpool] now, who we play on Sunday and we’ll see where we are against them. But with a few signings, with the improvement these are making, in the next couple of years we want to do that.”

As the United manager suggested, maybe success in a domestic cup competition will be a start. But cup success was a false dawn for Jose Mourinho, having been a deathblow for Van Gaal. It is all well and good, doing well in these competitions, but it is not where United want or need to be.

Read More