Given how well he's played, and that we lost 2-0 last time he didn't with Lindelof doing classic Lindelof things I'm incredibly dissapointed not to see him starting today.
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I'm really disappointed with the manager's decision to not play Bailly, unless it's about fitness or injury issues.
I really don't understand Ole in these decisions. He seeks to always just default back to his favourites even after we've been on a good run with our current pairing. Surely you stick with what's working.
This is a mistake, Bailly has been brilliant and helped our midfield.
Yeah. Have to agree with criticisms. Central defence is about partnerships. When you change it you should stick with whatever partnership is working as long as possible.
From his pre match comments it's clear Lindelof is his firm first choice. Very disappointing - lets hope he doesn't let us down.
Unless it’s a fitness issue, there’s no reason not to play Bailly. He compliments Maguire better & his form has been very good.
This is a massive mistake.
Same, might be fitness related. But he's been cutting out the crazy from his game recently and starting to look dependable and would have been good against a pacy attack and covering for Maguire.
I'm worried about Lindelof and Maguire against Mane and Salah. Bailly bailed out Maguire a few times in the last few games with his pace. It really is baffling to bring Lindelof into our centre back pairing when it looked so much more assured with Bailly in instead.
Just look at the stats, 10 games with Bailly, 6 clean sheets, 21 games with Lindelof, 5 clean sheets. I sincerely hope this isn't playing favouritism, the team is obviously more balanced with Eric in the side.
Ole has no clue. He finally found a good CB partnership by luck and ruins it at the first chance again. Maguire and Lindelöf don't work well together, we know that for quite some time. Today could cost us big time.
He’s on the bench so probably not acutely injured. Definitely possible they’re managing him carefully because of his injury record. When a player who is made of glass has been out for ages it’s asking for trouble to immediately start playing them twice a week, every week.
Well that’s a bit of an exaggeration.
This is it. We are going to need recovery pace in this game on at least one occasion and neither of them have it.
Can't believe he doesn't start the game.
I think he should be given the benefit of the doubt as he's got us to the top of the league with his decision-making but if this is where we ultimately lose the game, then you have to think Ole doesn't half help himself with his criticism by always reverting to his favourites all the time.
Maybe we're planning to sit back, his thinking is that the need for recovery isn't that much, and as Liverpool are not giants, Ole is favouring concentration over energy and agility.
Not saying I agree with it, just trying to rationalise
Not saying I agree with it, just trying to rationalise
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It’s true but Lindelof has been covering for Maguire 1.5 season now. Lindelof and Maguire have conceded 4-5 goals in open play in 12 PL matches, so it hasn’t been a “lack of bailing Maguire out” when Lindelof played.
Unless its because of an injury I dont understand why we dropped him.
Surely the lack of pace at CB suggests that we'll play a deep line and try to contain them? Looking at the state of their defence, I'm not sure that's the smartest policy.
I remember Bailly played well last 2 times at Anfield - those two 0-0 draws under Mourinho, where we sat deep, so a strange decision not to start him imo.
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Lindelof was outstanding today which goes to show we don’t always need a more aggressive CB. I like Bailly a lot but it was a world class performance from Lindelof today. Hopefully the competition for places raises both players performance levels.
Solskjaer has adopted a more pragmatic approach against the bigger clubs so it doesn't really matter if he plays Lindelof or Bailly. I can understand him going with Lindelof though, because the Swede works well in a collective defensive effort. But I believe next season Solskjaer will adopt a more high risk approach like we've seen for several years in his previous job where he looks to push the back line 30 yards further up the field in many games. But he'll have to sign the correct CB and DM to transition to his favoured way of playing which I believe will happen.
Some people are truly fecking mad. You cannot attribute clean sheets to players like they are goals scored or assists. We have a good set of CBs but as usual some are more interested in their favorite ones and completely disregard/disrespect the others
When we have someone like Raphinha, I guess we can play his preferred style more consistently.
We have Diallo for that..
I’m not sure 30’yards higher could work with Bruno.
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but let's just say push the back line nearer to the half way line. I wouldn't try that away from home though against the bigger teams.
Maybe not 30 yards
but let's just say push the back line nearer to the half way line. I wouldn't try that away from home though against the bigger teams.30 yards would be pushing it.
Maybe not 30 yards
But I still mean what I wrote. I think it’ll be hard with a player like Bruno. He needs to have a lot of passes because he is our key to creativity, but he himself wastes too many passes. After the Liverpool game Ole said he was disappointed we made too many chance passes instead of keeping possession. I think he was right. It is impossible to move up the team if we lose possession all the time.
Ole has no clue... yet we are 2nd in the table.
Maguire and Lindelof dont work well, yet that is the partnership that got us top 4 last season and most of this season?
VdB is the better player in that regard due to his ability to link play and retain possession but I don't think the fan base is ready to have that conversation right now.30 yards would be pushing it
But I still mean what I wrote. I think it’ll be hard with a player like Bruno. He needs to have a lot of passes because he is our key to creativity, but he himself wastes too many passes. After the Liverpool game Ole said he was disappointed we made too many chance passes instead of keeping possession. I think he was right. It is impossible to move up the team if we lose possession all the time.
Retain possession? Yes. But it's not hard to retain possession when you can't even play passes with so much open space.
Also its not as if Van De beek is very good at it either. In the team that plays possession football he averaged around 78-82% pass completion, it's not good. We had Tom Cleverley who averaged 90%+ pass completion.
Its not hard to retain possession, all you have to do is just pass the ball back without taking any initiative to create or open up the defense.
Also VdB is near useless in midfield third, he is good in final third. He doesn't have passing range to play good role in midfield third. Playing against Liverpool, we didn't have quality (or level of coaching) to progress the play with patient possession football.
I agree that VdB has the perfect profile in that regard, however overall he is one or two levels below Bruno. Personally I have strong believe in VdB and think he will be a key player, but that is at least another 2 years.
Spot on. I was fuming at first when Bailly wasn’t picked. But after giving it some thought we were always going to play deep. In that situation, pace isn’t really a necessity. It was going to be all about being switched on, focused and concentration at all times which Lindelof is probably better at. Fair play to Ole. Made a huge call which was vindicated.
For a manager who has no clue, he’s not done too bad to have us as the best team in the league for the last 12 months.
I don't need stats to tell me that VdB has performed well as the most advanced midfielder in big games at elite level for Ajax where his link up play, movement and ability to bring others into play has been very beneficial to the collective rather than the individual. The question posed by A-man was that he felt Bruno was a hinderance to us playing the way I described in one of my earlier posts and my response was that we have a player in the squad who would provide a better balance as the alternative option and I've given a brief explanation as to why above.Retain possession? Yes. But it's not hard to retain possession when you can't even play passes with so much open space.
Also its not as if Van De beek is very good at it either. In the team that plays possession football he averaged around 78-82% pass completion, it's not good. We had Tom Cleverley who averaged 90%+ pass completion.
Its not hard to retain possession, all you have to do is just pass the ball back without taking any initiative to create or open up the defense.
Also VdB is near useless in midfield third, he is good in final third. He doesn't have passing range to play good role in midfield third. Playing against Liverpool, we didn't have quality (or level of coaching) to progress the play with patient possession football.
I agree his ability to link play and bring others into play is a very simple yet very effective way of playing the game which helps the collective as we've seen in big Champions league games. He's a team player with a good tactical brain.
VdB will be isolated as he is near useless in deeper midfield and we barely make final third entries against big teams (or won't be doing it regularly). How he played for Ajax is irrelevant too as their play style is completely different and everyone moves in sync, at ManUtd it's more about individuals.
What you said works well on paper though, in reality it won't. We need players like Pogba, Bruno to make progressive passes, play Van de beek, then we will rely on McTominay to play progressive passes as VdB will pass back all day long. .'
Edit: Nevermind, saw the conversation trail, it's just fanciful and won't be a reality. Ignore my post.
No worries bro..
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