I will admit I'm starting to be a little concerned, however the first half yesterday looked a step in the right direction. I think Ole is perhaps more under the spotlight due to the failures of the previous 3 managers, had he followed someone who had put a good system in place eg Sir Alex, people would be less quick to be concerned.
My thoughts on why people are questioning him:
1) He has stated about wanting players who want to play for the club/ everyone is under assessment etc but continues to play the out of form Rashford and to some extent De Gea. This raises the doubts of whether he has the strength to ship out players (not saying these 2 should be shipped out) or drop those not performing. I'd be intrigued to know who shipped out Fellaini. If it was Ole that is a positive. Again you could argue he is stuck with these players so it making a job with the resources he has but then you could ask why doesn't he play the youth, something he spoke about, again leading you to the question is he all talk but no action. Signs of possible "favourites" emerging eg "Rashy" seems very high on his list
2) The above leads to the question of will Ole be backed and trusted in his transfer decisions for who to ship out who to bring in? Obviously this is more a question of the club than Ole but the club wouldn't back Jose however we have to also look at the fact they did then a lot of his signings were poor.
3) If the club back Ole can he make the correct signings? It's all well and good giving him a huge transfer kitty but how is his eye for players? I'm concerned about previous signings eg Fred, will he have the right help in selecting the players? Will certain players eg Bale be forced onto him? Will he have the power to be able to say no and how they aren't suitable (as stated previously i dont want Bale its potentially Sanchez all over again but the links have already started) again not all on Ole but a potential factor. Also now we dont have top 4 will his draw be as strong given we have a relatively inexperienced manager and no CL football?
4) We now have 4 different manager's signings (including the ones left from SAF) what if Ole does fail and the new manager wants to sign different types of players? Do we start the whole cycle all over again, ending up with yet more deadwood
5) I haven't seen Ole with Molde and obviously only get to see the shots the TV cameras choose to show us but he looks to have quite a passive management style. Again not saying it's a bad thing but often it pans to him when we are struggling and he's sat down or talking things through with one of his assistants, it just feeds the notion he's a bit lost for ideas. It's harsh to compare but almost like Moyes looked at times. He also seems very much a yes man/ nice guy. Obviously again we dont know behind closed doors but does he have it in him to be ruthless?
6) His late substitutes. Again it just tends to point to the fact he isn't entirely sure tactically, however it could just be he doesn't trust the players on his bench
7) the fact the gulf between us and City/ Liverpool is so great, you wonder what sort of manager it will take to change that. Obviously not Ole's fault we are so far behind but look how Arsenal and Chelsea are also struggling even with experienced managers. It makes you think it will take a pretty special manager to close that gap, is Ole that guy? Again it may be there was no "better" option, look how few managers were suggested on here when we sacked Jose. Again it's natural to think what might have been had we got Pochettino, especially as he's got Tottenham into the CL semi finals, however they have also been on a poor run in the league and Ole had such a good run of results when he started if Pochettino had come in and done badly the same questions would start. Also Pochettino is using his team, Ole os using the previous 4 managers team
8) Ole's CV. Obviously we have had Jose and a CV doesn't mean everything. However it is such a massive step up, even though he has been successful with Molde, with United the expectations are massively different, the pressure is different, the funds are different. While I didn't want Moyes he did a decent job at Everton but the expectation and huge step up at United, with completely different priorities caused him to fail. We have been struggling for too long and fans are used to us at the very least challenging for the league, not struggling for top 4. Again due to the previous managers but the rebuilding job looks so great we do worry how long will we be in this position. If we see signs of progress when Ole starts to sign some of his players, fans will be patient, if further regression questions will be asked due to concerns we will be back in this position in say 1 or 2 years time. City and Liverpool could have progressed even further and clubs like Wolves could move ahead of us.
9) Rival fans seem glad we signed him. Never a good sign and However slightly affects your faith in him to do a good job. We want them to be afraid. Obviously would make any success he brings even sweeter.
10) the sheer scale of the rebuild job. We've seen experienced managers fail and the rebuild is now a whole lot bigger
I've tried to be balanced and really hope he succeeds, I'd love an experienced DOF to be put in place as it will give him extra support and hopefully counteract where his lack of experience could hinder him at times
My thoughts on why people are questioning him:
1) He has stated about wanting players who want to play for the club/ everyone is under assessment etc but continues to play the out of form Rashford and to some extent De Gea. This raises the doubts of whether he has the strength to ship out players (not saying these 2 should be shipped out) or drop those not performing. I'd be intrigued to know who shipped out Fellaini. If it was Ole that is a positive. Again you could argue he is stuck with these players so it making a job with the resources he has but then you could ask why doesn't he play the youth, something he spoke about, again leading you to the question is he all talk but no action. Signs of possible "favourites" emerging eg "Rashy" seems very high on his list
2) The above leads to the question of will Ole be backed and trusted in his transfer decisions for who to ship out who to bring in? Obviously this is more a question of the club than Ole but the club wouldn't back Jose however we have to also look at the fact they did then a lot of his signings were poor.
3) If the club back Ole can he make the correct signings? It's all well and good giving him a huge transfer kitty but how is his eye for players? I'm concerned about previous signings eg Fred, will he have the right help in selecting the players? Will certain players eg Bale be forced onto him? Will he have the power to be able to say no and how they aren't suitable (as stated previously i dont want Bale its potentially Sanchez all over again but the links have already started) again not all on Ole but a potential factor. Also now we dont have top 4 will his draw be as strong given we have a relatively inexperienced manager and no CL football?
4) We now have 4 different manager's signings (including the ones left from SAF) what if Ole does fail and the new manager wants to sign different types of players? Do we start the whole cycle all over again, ending up with yet more deadwood
5) I haven't seen Ole with Molde and obviously only get to see the shots the TV cameras choose to show us but he looks to have quite a passive management style. Again not saying it's a bad thing but often it pans to him when we are struggling and he's sat down or talking things through with one of his assistants, it just feeds the notion he's a bit lost for ideas. It's harsh to compare but almost like Moyes looked at times. He also seems very much a yes man/ nice guy. Obviously again we dont know behind closed doors but does he have it in him to be ruthless?
6) His late substitutes. Again it just tends to point to the fact he isn't entirely sure tactically, however it could just be he doesn't trust the players on his bench
7) the fact the gulf between us and City/ Liverpool is so great, you wonder what sort of manager it will take to change that. Obviously not Ole's fault we are so far behind but look how Arsenal and Chelsea are also struggling even with experienced managers. It makes you think it will take a pretty special manager to close that gap, is Ole that guy? Again it may be there was no "better" option, look how few managers were suggested on here when we sacked Jose. Again it's natural to think what might have been had we got Pochettino, especially as he's got Tottenham into the CL semi finals, however they have also been on a poor run in the league and Ole had such a good run of results when he started if Pochettino had come in and done badly the same questions would start. Also Pochettino is using his team, Ole os using the previous 4 managers team
8) Ole's CV. Obviously we have had Jose and a CV doesn't mean everything. However it is such a massive step up, even though he has been successful with Molde, with United the expectations are massively different, the pressure is different, the funds are different. While I didn't want Moyes he did a decent job at Everton but the expectation and huge step up at United, with completely different priorities caused him to fail. We have been struggling for too long and fans are used to us at the very least challenging for the league, not struggling for top 4. Again due to the previous managers but the rebuilding job looks so great we do worry how long will we be in this position. If we see signs of progress when Ole starts to sign some of his players, fans will be patient, if further regression questions will be asked due to concerns we will be back in this position in say 1 or 2 years time. City and Liverpool could have progressed even further and clubs like Wolves could move ahead of us.
9) Rival fans seem glad we signed him. Never a good sign and However slightly affects your faith in him to do a good job. We want them to be afraid. Obviously would make any success he brings even sweeter.
10) the sheer scale of the rebuild job. We've seen experienced managers fail and the rebuild is now a whole lot bigger
I've tried to be balanced and really hope he succeeds, I'd love an experienced DOF to be put in place as it will give him extra support and hopefully counteract where his lack of experience could hinder him at times
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