Ole Gunnar Solskjær | 2021/22 Discussion

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We'd be top of a pretty exciting title race if City hadn't pretty much destroyed the prospect of competition in England. Ruining the PL most years as a sideshow to the vanity project of winning CL.

We’re currently on track for 73 points. The only title race we’d be in with that points total over the past 9 years would be the freak Leicester season. And even then it wouldn’t be close.

It’s not unusual for there to be a team capable of comfortably generating more than 73 points in the Premier League.

Edit: Thanks Siorac
 
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We are probably 3 good players away
Physicists like to joke that a working, economically viable fusion reactor has been '20 years away' for over half a century now.

That's what it feels like with United. We're always 2-3 key players away. Then we sign those 2-3 players and continue being rubbish anyway.
 
I definitely feel this current side is the closest to a title winning team since Sir Alex and Ole deserves a lot of credit for that. Is he the man to win titles? I am unsure but he deserves until end of his current contract, he is fixing six seasons of Frankenstein squad building and incompetence.
 
You know what is the problem here? Only 2 players were complete hit and game changers. Zlatan and Bruno. And 4,5 were complete flops. About all others we can talk. You say Matic flop under Jose? Based on what? Mikhi was key player in winning us EL (with which we entered in CL again). Pogba flop? Jury out on Lukaku? But Maguire is success? Did he fixed our defence? For 80 mil he should.
I like Cavani and he is not a flop by all means. But success?

Jury out on Dalot, (Lukaku and Zlatan) were success - hope this makes it clearer. And Matic had a good 6 months under Mou, he was terrible in 2018.

Do you really consider Mkhi a success? If you do, then I don't think there is anything left to debate here.

Maguire has been a good signing, not 80m good, but good nonetheless. And Cavani was signed for free. He's scored 6 league goals and has become a regular starter and surely, so far he has to be called a success
 
Physicists like to joke that a working, economically viable fusion reactor has been '20 years away' for over half a century now.

That's what it feels like with United. We're always 2-3 key players away. Then we sign those 2-3 players and continue being rubbish anyway.
As long as these "2-3 players" are better than what we currently have or at least as good as Fernandes, we will be in a much better place.

Grealish, Sancho + quality CB or GK should do it.
 
You can't blame City for us losing against Palace, Spurs, Arsenal and Sheffield United. To say nothing of all the shitty draws along the way.
We’re currently on track for 73 points. The only title race we’d be in with that points total over the past 9 years would be the freak Leicester season. And even then it wouldn’t be close.

It’s not unusual for there to be a team capable of comfortably generating more than 73 points in the Premier League.

Edit: Thanks Siorac


Did I blame city for that? Of course not. But you can point at our expected points and make comparisons to other years and so on, but it simply doesn't change that this isn't other year's.

Most teams are being affected by the oddness of the season, the congestion of Cup competitions with leagues and 19 teams out of 20 are feeling the effects, and without city were doing well. The one team with the 200m pound sub defence isnt feeling the effects. Fatigue, injuries and so on play a part. So does the fact that city are the best and most settled team of course but as I said before, pretend United are their terrible initial years after Ferguson don't exist. Who's going to even sort of compete with city? Arsenal? Leicester? Sure Liverpool had a couple of good years but of course couldn't sustain it because they don't spend like city every summer to keep the squad deep and fresh.
 
This is the unanswerable question, they all cry about Ole but no one has that garunteed solution, maybe they just like moaning about United, it’s obviously going to happen with the next manager too after 6 matches when we’re not first or just lost a game to a bottom half team.

No-one can offer you a guaranteed solution or tell you everything will be ok whether Ole gets sack or not.

The club is badly run and the manager isn’t good enough, maybe he gets way better but in all likelihood he doesn’t. It’s either stable mediocrity or a lottery we stumble on a more competent manager.
 
Needs another rebuild and another £400m before we can assess his quality as a manager.

New striker. Replacement for Cavani in a year or two.
Two centre halves
Attacking right back
Defensive midfielder
Right winger
Competition for Rashford on the left
Replacement for Martial who's fast becoming deadwood, just like Donny and James
Pogba replacement
New goalkeeper if he doesn't want to blood Henderson in.

But once he gets that, which will definitely happen within a year (two at the most) with our generous owners, we'll be able to discuss whether he's a good coach or not! We just need to hope that Bruno hasn't retired or left us by then.
 
No-one can offer you a guaranteed solution or tell you everything will be ok whether Ole gets sack or not.

The club is badly run and the manager isn’t good enough, maybe he gets way better but in all likelihood he doesn’t. It’s either stable mediocrity or a lottery we stumble on a more competent manager.
I agree that nothing garunteed but when asking these people who want Ole out who they’d like to replace him and seeing names like Pirlo, Rogers, Howe, Tuchel must be some kind of joke
 
He might have done better than those managers but he’s not better than them. That is where the buck should stop. He couldn’t go to West Ham and do as good as a job as Moyes. He’ll never have a team playing like LVG’s Ajax or Barca. He’s just not a high level manager. It works for now due to his relationship with the club. But he wouldn’t survive anywhere else.
His tactics seem ideally suited to a midtable club which will have more space and come up against fewer low blocks. I believe he has grown as a manager and won't have trouble finding a new job in the PL if we do part ways next year.
 
Overall he’s probably done an ok job. Come the end of the season he’ll be our longest serving manager post Fergie. If we don’t win something, is doing ok good enough? He needs to stop this slump quickly.
 
You have to have some sympathy regardless of your feelings. He's done a good job when you are honest about where we were when he took over. The entire squad and mood of the club was in terrible shape. The fact were disappointed to not win a league this season is signs of progress and you do feel that adding sancho and a centre back for example would be a near complete squad and one with a genuine threat of winning.

But what's going to happen is the already strongest squad and most settled one, will also spend well over 200m this summer. They'll probably sign Haaland, I wouldn't even be surprised if they signed sancho too. Its simply very difficult to catch up, and 3 titles in 4 years for city will be proof of that. Having three different title winning managers in a short time is proof of that.
 
Needs another rebuild and another £400m before we can assess his quality as a manager.

New striker. Replacement for Cavani in a year or two.
Two centre halves
Attacking right back
Defensive midfielder
Right winger
Competition for Rashford on the left
Replacement for Martial who's fast becoming deadwood, just like Donny and James
Pogba replacement
New goalkeeper if he doesn't want to blood Henderson in.

But once he gets that, which will definitely happen within a year (two at the most) with our generous owners, we'll be able to discuss whether he's a good coach or not! We just need to hope that Bruno hasn't retired or left us by then.
Sad but true.
 
That's what it feels like with United. We're always 2-3 key players away. Then we sign those 2-3 players and continue being rubbish anyway.

Except that's not true.

In the summer of 2019 we needed 5 or 6 starters according to most fans. We got 2 that summer(AWB and Maguire), then the third during the winter(Bruno). In the summer of 2020 we still needed 2 or 3 starters. We arguably got none. Cavani has started a lot lately, but he's clearly not the answer and we got him for free anyways.

The truth of the matter is that the board keeps going for half-measures and pray that the manager in charge is able to over-achieve. Apart from crazy outliers, whoever the bookies have as their favourite or second favourite to win the league will win at least 90% of the time. Even Fergie had the best or second best team on paper in pretty much the entire PL era. He's still the greatest manager of all time.

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Keep in mind that I would never expect us to sign 5 or 6 new starters in a single window. But imagine how much better off we'd be if we signed Bruno during the summer of 2019 instead of early 2020, followed by 2 or 3 new starters last summer. I'm sure we'd be breathing City down their neck. Possibly ahead of them.
 
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A large portion on here will find excuses regardless, it’ll be the players, Ed & Matt, other clubs improving, the Glazers, time, look at Klopp etc etc etc.

No way are the excuses done if he doesn’t challenge next season.

Perhaps. We could buy Sancho, Haaland and Konaté, and still be far from a serious challenge. Now, of course we're not signing all those players, but if we're strengthening significantly in terms of playing personnel and balance of the team, we'll be better primed anyway for the next manager (should we not do a 180 appointment yet again).

I personally think if he gets more support and still doesn't develop a consistent and progressive playing style his defenders will quickly decrease in number.
 
I definitely feel this current side is the closest to a title winning team since Sir Alex and Ole deserves a lot of credit for that. Is he the man to win titles? I am unsure but he deserves until end of his current contract, he is fixing six seasons of Frankenstein squad building and incompetence.
That’s how I feel too, I think there’s been clearing out, good work done with rebuilding the youth channels and also steady progress on the results. Therefore I think he deserves more time.
imagine there had been social media and forums during fergies early years. Crikey
 
You have to have some sympathy regardless of your feelings. He's done a good job when you are honest about where we were when he took over. The entire squad and mood of the club was in terrible shape. The fact were disappointed to not win a league this season is signs of progress and you do feel that adding sancho and a centre back for example would be a near complete squad and one with a genuine threat of winning.

But what's going to happen is the already strongest squad and most settled one, will also spend well over 200m this summer. They'll probably sign Haaland, I wouldn't even be surprised if they signed sancho too. Its simply very difficult to catch up, and 3 titles in 4 years for city will be proof of that. Having three different title winning managers in a short time is proof of that.
Good point
 
I've personally yo yoed between being in and out, but after tonight I'm firmly in the out camp.

No, the result hasn't got anything to do with my decision. It's Ole's inability to be ruthless.

After the Everton debacle, I expected Ole to drop De Gea and stick with Henderson. That's what SAF would've done. Dito for Martial.
Instead both got picked again, and both had crappy performances.

One of the traits of a Manchester United manager is ruthlessness. I still remember how SAF sold RVN despite him carrying us for the past 5 seasons. Same with Becks.

Ole simply doesn't have it. He reminds me of Moyes in this aspect. When the going gets tough he crawls back into his shell and sticks to his safe bets. When it works out it seems that he knows what he's doing. But when it doesn't you have debacles like tonight.
 
His tactics seem ideally suited to a midtable club which will have more space and come up against fewer low blocks. I believe he has grown as a manager and won't have trouble finding a new job in the PL if we do part ways next year.

You know what if that was the case i'd be very happy for him. When he got the interim job and was doing well I was happy that we raised his profile and he probably could get a decent Prem club earning some good money off it. But we are here. As an individual he is a lovely guy so I hope that is the outcome.
 
Starting to become a trend, isn't it? So far, under Ole, we've been absolute trash except for a couple of months each season where we manage to play well for 10-12 games or so, salvaging just enough points that the season isn't a complete and utter write-off. But only just, and no more than that. But before and after that one string of good results, we're horrendously awful. Nevertheless, that one string of results convinces people that Ole is actually doing great and bla, bla, bla. I have no reason to believe this will change. We've seen no signs that it would. Are we going to give him a third season where we once more start off hopeless, get a dozen or so decent results around the middle, and then collapse again? Again?

If, in my personal line of work, I'm completely inept 75% of the time but occasionally manage to do well for a couple of months, I'm not keeping my job. I'll be sacked after two years at the very most. If I spend the considerable majority of my time at any given place of work doing far, far worse than even the most reasonable expectations, I'm out the door as soon as that trend becomes clear. I don't get third and fourth and fifth chances. At the end of the day, you can't get by on doing well a small portion of the time. If your mean level isn't at least decent, you're out. So far, under Ole, we've spent far, far more time being absolute rubbish than we have being good. That's not acceptable. It just isn't.

Under Ole, we've been disastrously awful 75% of the time and pretty good (but not really great) 25% of the time. That's not even slightly close to good enough. A manager whose team is completely hopeless more often than they're okay is not a good manager, and that's just the fecking reality of it. It's just the self-evident truth. Sorry, but it is. Given this club's finances and the performances that we've seen with our very own eyes that these players are capable of, this is simply unacceptable in the long term. It's just not working. A two-month run of good form each season does not change that fact. We're never going anywhere with Ole. He simply doesn't have the experience, and that's abundantly clear by now.

If we hadn't had the blind luck to sign Bruno at the high point of his career, we'd have been fumbling around at 9th place or so. Now that he has hit a spot of bad form, the entire squad has imploded and we're dropping points to teams that a lineup of this financial caliber should never even come close to struggling against. There is no excuse. We briefly looked okay because one player was having the best half-season of his life. Without that, Ole would be the laughing stock of the football world from the start of this season, as he is now fast becoming.

Can we stop with the crazy managerial appointments? Do we have to try cooky, unusual choices every fecking time? Moyes, LVG, Mourinho, Ole, all have been appointments with asterisks. Managers who had either never proven anything whatsoever or were known to be unpredictable and without recent success. When Ole inevitably gets the sack, can we please just appoint someone who has actually shown that they have what it takes within the last couple of goddamn years, instead of yet another experimental gamble? Jesus tittyfecking Christ. How many times in a row do we have to suffer through a manager whose credentials come with an undeniable "yes, but..."

The bolded bits are untrue.

How is the Bruno signing blind luck when we've a system in place for transfers now? Why can't Ole and the board be credited for the signing?

Bruno is not in poor form, he's been decisive in the last couple of matches. We dropped less points during his short drop in form than we are doing now.

LVG won the double with Bayern and lost the CL final a year before his sacking (09-10), then took the shittiest Dutch team in history to 3rd place at the 2014 world cup.

Mourinho won the league and cup (14-15) with Chelsea the year before his sacking.

So both LVG and Mourino were well accomplished and with recent successes.

Moyes was hand-picked by SAF, so we went with it. Then we did what you are suggesting now: Sign top world-class managers in LVG and Mourinho. That's exactly what they were and trying to discredit them doesn't change that. Now we have a club man in charge and the results are roughly the same.

Needs another rebuild and another £400m before we can assess his quality as a manager.

New striker. Replacement for Cavani in a year or two.
Two centre halves
Attacking right back
Defensive midfielder
Right winger
Competition for Rashford on the left
Replacement for Martial who's fast becoming deadwood, just like Donny and James
Pogba replacement
New goalkeeper if he doesn't want to blood Henderson in.

But once he gets that, which will definitely happen within a year (two at the most) with our generous owners, we'll be able to discuss whether he's a good coach or not! We just need to hope that Bruno hasn't retired or left us by then.

Nice straw man. If you're genuinely interested in hearing opinions on "what we need", there's a thread in the transfer forum.

Consensus there seems to be 3 players: CB, DM and a striker of some sorts. You listed 9 players.

The current transfer policy is the best it's been in the post-SAF era. I personally wouldn't mind the current structure, Ole included, overseeing another transfer window on the condition we qualify for the CL.

I've personally yo yoed between being in and out, but after tonight I'm firmly in the out camp.

No, the result hasn't got anything to do with my decision. It's Ole's inability to be ruthless.

After the Everton debacle, I expected Ole to drop De Gea and stick with Henderson. That's what SAF would've done. Dito for Martial.
Instead both got picked again, and both had crappy performances.

One of the traits of a Manchester United manager is ruthlessness. I still remember how SAF sold RVN despite him carrying us for the past 5 seasons. Same with Becks.

Ole simply doesn't have it. He reminds me of Moyes in this aspect. When the going gets tough he crawls back into his shell and sticks to his safe bets. When it works out it seems that he knows what he's doing. But when it doesn't you have debacles like tonight.

I said the exact same thing about his lack of ruthlessness earlier. That ship hasn't sailed imo. We never were title contenders and we're still in 2 tournaments and top 4 race. He can still make the necessary changes for the Newcastle game. I'm doubtful he will, but we can certainly hope.
 
As long as we finish top four, I'm ok with him staying. But by God, there needs to be monumental improvements next season and the list of endless excuses need to stop. I still feel this season will be yet another top four battle and possibly a run to a cup final. Anything more would be a pleasant surprise.
 
The issue with Ole is, he's not the calibre of manager that will ascend our squad as it is now. He doesn't have the coaching nous, nor the ability to tactically turn around games when we're up against it. He does deserve praise for the culture shift that's happened at the club, but we can't keep riding on that if it doesn't materialise into actual trophies. So either you back him with signings that generally ascend us based on sheer quality on the pitch (our attack force of Martial and Rashford just isn't going to cut it), or you replace him with a manager who's better suited to get the best out of our current crop of players and is a more proficient coach, both in games and in preparing for them.

It's always worth remembering he was never intended to be anything beyond a caretaker manager if not for Woody's signature fickleness, and he's done nothing in his managerial career or even now with us to warrant him being dignified as the right man for the job.
 
Nice straw man. If you're genuinely interested in hearing opinions on "what we need", there's a thread in the transfer forum.

Consensus there seems to be 3 players: CB, DM and a striker of some sorts. You listed 9 players.

The current transfer policy is the best it's been in the post-SAF era. I personally wouldn't mind the current structure, Ole included, overseeing another transfer window on the condition we qualify for the CL.
The "what we need" thread is mostly people addressing the most pressing needs in our squad. Anyone with a brain cell would understand that our stingy owners won't spend upwards of £200m net on players in consecutive summer transfer windows, but I really think that we're staring down the barrel of another rebuild with the current management failing to make the most out of the squad at their disposal.

So let's start with what you think is the most pressing need; CB, CDM and striker. Are our problems fixed a year down the line?

- Martial's not improving, quite the opposite, so he'll be an issue that needs sorting, and Cavani will be turning 35, how long can he be trusted to keep up this level?
- Rashford's stagnated somewhat and is very inconsistent, is he good and/or consistent enough to be the main left winger for us? Is his back going to hinder him going forward? Can he play 60 games per season?
- Pogba's not going to sign a new deal due to our inability to challenge for trophies, so he'll have to be replaced (at a cost)
- We still haven't signed a fecking right winger (Unless Diallo exceeds expectations, obviously, but as we've seen with Greenwood it's hard to chuck an 18 year old in and expect consistency at this level)
- We'll still have Maguire playing offside traps with AWB playing them onside (and blowing hot and cold in attack)
- De Gea will probably still be in goal and Henderson will move on, and we'll have the same problems defending crosses and set pieces

But most importantly: We'll still have a manager who only improves the team by buying better players in every positions. I'm yet to be convinced that Ole's management is improving a majority of players individually.
- Shaw's improved, credit to him for that. McTominay and Fred too, although the latter two can be discussed whether they've improved enough since we agree that we need a CDM.
- Greenwood's improved his general play but has regressed in terms of goalscoring. Being 19, he's always been on this trajectory, so I'd hardly say that he couldn't have hit these heights under any other manager
- AWB and Maguire are still showing the same deficiencies as they did when they signed for us, deficiencies which are costing us goals on a regular basis.
- Martial looked like he was improving last season but has been shocking this season, hardly a good trajectory for him
- Rashford hasn't continued his upwards trajectory which you'd expect from a 23 year old

Getting a new manager seems like the quickest way to a) get the most out of those already at the club and make the team's performances larger than the sum of its parts, and b) actually sign players that aren't necessarily the biggest names, but players that best fit into the style of play that the manager wants to implement. Having seen us play a high line with de Gea in goal and spending £130m on Maguire and AWB, an oil tanker and a right back that can't hold an offside line, makes me distrust Ole's judgment on how to best achieve that goals he wants to achieve with his team.
 
No one is gonna win the PL or CL if the squad quality remains the way it is now.

Ole has created a good culture, his man management is great by all accounts, he's arguably among the best in the game when it comes to dealing with media pressure, and he's proven that he can beat anyone. Why not give him a squad that is actually good enough to win the PL? How long are people gonna use his resume against him?

If he's given a very good squad and things don't improve: fine, get rid.
 
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I agree that nothing garunteed but when asking these people who want Ole out who they’d like to replace him and seeing names like Pirlo, Rogers, Howe, Tuchel must be some kind of joke
Anyone. Literally anyone. Moyes? Yes. Some random guy from championship? Yes.
Is that answer good enough?

And while we are at this subject; Allegri is free and want to come. He is top class manager. You want to say that there is a chance that Allegri would not be better than guy from Molde?
 
No one is gonna win the PL or CL if the squad quality remains the way it is now.

Ole has created a good culture, his man management is great by all accounts, he's arguably among the best in the game when it comes to dealing with media pressure, and he's proven that he can beat anyone. Why not give him a squad that is actually good enough to win the PL? How long are people gonna use his mediocre resume against him?

If he's given a very good squad and things don't improve: fine, get rid.
Fully agreed mate and this is where I am too. Yes, yesterday was poor but we can't lose sight of the fact that we have progressed from where we were last season.

Give him the tools to actually succeed or fail, and then we can judge. He doesn't even need all three of the DM, CB, and RW but if we had two of them we'd be in a much better position to actually make some decent conclusions. He's gotten us this far, which is a credit to him but he needs more and he wasn't really given it in the summer window just gone.
 
Anyone. Literally anyone. Moyes? Yes. Some random guy from championship? Yes.
Is that answer good enough?

And while we are at this subject; Allegri is free and want to come. He is top class manager. You want to say that there is a chance that Allegri would not be better than guy from Molde?
You’d sack Ole and take Moyes back? Ok I’m out you win
 
I can't wait until he's sacked and the new manager brings in two players and wins the league. I wonder what the excuses will be there.

It's a joke these excuses. Lee Grant is going to be our new goal keeping coach now apparently. Who's decision was that? Woodward?

Old boys club, it needs to stop.
 
I can't wait until he's sacked and the new manager brings in two players and wins the league. I wonder what the excuses will be there.

It's a joke these excuses. Lee Grant is going to be our new goal keeping coach now apparently. Who's decision was that? Woodward?

Old boys club, it needs to stop.
It's quite interesting, the path that Ole's chosen. I mean, he could mask his deficiencies by bringing in a world-class coaching team (if he's aware of them), but he's actually sticking with McKenna, Phelan, Carrick and then adding Darren Fletcher to that team. We've literally seen Moyes do the exact same thing (but in the opposite direction, ie getting rid of a title-winning coaching team to install his own people), and failing miserably.

What a weird hill to die on...
 
It's quite interesting, the path that Ole's chosen. I mean, he could mask his deficiencies by bringing in a world-class coaching team (if he's aware of them), but he's actually sticking with McKenna, Phelan, Carrick and then adding Darren Fletcher to that team. We've literally seen Moyes do the exact same thing (but in the opposite direction, ie getting rid of a title-winning coaching team to install his own people), and failing miserably.

What a weird hill to die on...

His stubbornness will cost him. He's too nice to the wrong people. The coaching staff, the CB's, the keeper. You could argue Martial, who I like but his form is his form.
 
I can't wait until he's sacked and the new manager brings in two players and wins the league. I wonder what the excuses will be there.

I mean, you kind of answered your own question(?) there? We all want 2-3 new starters (not bench warmers), as that's what we need. 1.5 years ago we needed 5-6 players. Then we got Maguire, AWB and Bruno. So we're halfway there.

If Ole is sacked and a new guy comes in and plays the exact same team but with 2-3 new top players in our weakest links instead, then it's not that strange if it leads to a trophy. That should at the very minimum lead to a title challenge!
 
I mean, you kind of answered your own question(?) there? We all want 2-3 new starters (not bench warmers), as that's what we need. 1.5 years ago we needed 5-6 players. Then we got Maguire, AWB and Bruno. So we're halfway there.

If Ole is sacked and a new guy comes in and plays the exact same team but with 2-3 new top players in our weakest links instead, then it's not that strange if it leads to a trophy. That should at the very minimum lead to a title challenge!

I'll be honest with you two of those 3 could be replaced. Maguire and AWB offer nothing to produce a good attacking team. There's nothing we have currently built which couldn't easily torn apart and still mean we are Champions.
 
Last 5 games we have just mustered 6 points. It is frustrating how we couldn't handle being top even for a week. Absolute shocking form. I have defended Ole but this form at this stage of the season is not acceptable. We cannot continue to go around in circles. 2 months of great form and then another slump. This is top 4 stuff.
 
The "what we need" thread is mostly people addressing the most pressing needs in our squad. Anyone with a brain cell would understand that our stingy owners won't spend upwards of £200m net on players in consecutive summer transfer windows, but I really think that we're staring down the barrel of another rebuild with the current management failing to make the most out of the squad at their disposal.

So let's start with what you think is the most pressing need; CB, CDM and striker. Are our problems fixed a year down the line?

- Martial's not improving, quite the opposite, so he'll be an issue that needs sorting, and Cavani will be turning 35, how long can he be trusted to keep up this level?
- Rashford's stagnated somewhat and is very inconsistent, is he good and/or consistent enough to be the main left winger for us? Is his back going to hinder him going forward? Can he play 60 games per season?
- Pogba's not going to sign a new deal due to our inability to challenge for trophies, so he'll have to be replaced (at a cost)
- We still haven't signed a fecking right winger (Unless Diallo exceeds expectations, obviously, but as we've seen with Greenwood it's hard to chuck an 18 year old in and expect consistency at this level)
- We'll still have Maguire playing offside traps with AWB playing them onside (and blowing hot and cold in attack)
- De Gea will probably still be in goal and Henderson will move on, and we'll have the same problems defending crosses and set pieces

But most importantly: We'll still have a manager who only improves the team by buying better players in every positions. I'm yet to be convinced that Ole's management is improving a majority of players individually.
- Shaw's improved, credit to him for that. McTominay and Fred too, although the latter two can be discussed whether they've improved enough since we agree that we need a CDM.
- Greenwood's improved his general play but has regressed in terms of goalscoring. Being 19, he's always been on this trajectory, so I'd hardly say that he couldn't have hit these heights under any other manager
- AWB and Maguire are still showing the same deficiencies as they did when they signed for us, deficiencies which are costing us goals on a regular basis.
- Martial looked like he was improving last season but has been shocking this season, hardly a good trajectory for him
- Rashford hasn't continued his upwards trajectory which you'd expect from a 23 year old

Getting a new manager seems like the quickest way to a) get the most out of those already at the club and make the team's performances larger than the sum of its parts, and b) actually sign players that aren't necessarily the biggest names, but players that best fit into the style of play that the manager wants to implement. Having seen us play a high line with de Gea in goal and spending £130m on Maguire and AWB, an oil tanker and a right back that can't hold an offside line, makes me distrust Ole's judgment on how to best achieve that goals he wants to achieve with his team.

Since you asked, I'm of the opinion:

-Cavani can certainly be trusted for another year, especially if we bring in another front 3 player and he doesn't have to start every match.
-We need to give Henderson a shot. De Gea isn't good enough, but replacing him isn't our most urgent need.
-We need a CB, DM, RW/CF.

We can use Pogba in a swap deal for any of those of 3. I don't think he needs direct replacing, he's barely played DM in our tough matches anyway. Call me naive, jury's still out on VDB for me.
That's 2 player left. Ideally we buy a world class DM and get a more experienced RW who's a bit cheaper and won't stand in the way of the excited young players we've got.

That leaves Cavani and Matic replacements and perhaps a GK for the year after. If we're lucky the academy will fill one of the vacancies.

I highly rate Shaw, Maguire, Bailly, AWB, Bruno, Rashford. Add in one of Fred/McTominay, one of Cavani/Greenwood plus the 3 signings I mentioned and that's a squad that can challenge for the title.
Clearly you don't rate half the players I mentioned, and that's probably the core of our disagreement.

With how shit LVG transfers were and how short-term thinking Mourinho was, why risk getting a new hot shot manager? Besides there's no one available. If there was one, it should've been Tuchel imo.
 
I'll be honest with you two of those 3 could be replaced. Maguire and AWB offer nothing to produce a good attacking team. There's nothing we have currently built which couldn't easily torn apart and still mean we are Champions.

They're not world beaters, but they are clear improvements on what he had prior. And they are not the weakest links. Lindelöf is clearly worse than Maguire. AWB is a fine fullback overall(though Shaw is obviously better).

We need a consistent goalscorer(Haaland is the dream), a better CB than Lindelöf, and either a winger or DM(if we get someone like Haaland, then I prefer a DM).
 
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