Sky1981
Fending off the urge
I somewhat agree with posters making the point that there's no need for hyperbole on either side of the ole in/out debate. I'm firmly Ole out but you can't whitewash the man completely. He does have certain qualities, like he has kept morale relatively high despite appalling results, young players feel confident playing under him.
At the same time, the stats don't lie. The run of form since after PSG has been appalling. The Ole in crowd will point to injuries and being unlucky etc etc. Ole has been doing this too, saying the goals just needed to be moved an inch or two to the left or whatever. But it's not bad luck.It's what points to, imo, his ultimate failing as a manager and why he will most likely never be good enough for a club this size.
Another poster can't remember who it was hit the nail on the head by saying 'he only plans for the best ever possible scenario' or words to that effect. And that in a nutshell is what makes him such a terrible manager. This might have been that same quality that made him one of the best ever supersubs. That level of belief in a positive outcome, despite the odds, might be what drove him to score so many goals in the last 20 mins of matches.
As a manager though it is an appalling quality and why so many of us saw a big fecking red flag appearing on the horizon when he decided to go into this season with such a light attacking force. There was also no guarantee at that time that Rashford would elevate himself to a level where he was basically carrying the team, so the mind kind of boggles as to where we would be now, if we had had the Rashford of last season.
Ole's chief failure is contingency planning. A good manager/leader would plan for the worst possible situations they can face, so that when those situations arise they can be dealt with. All the 'Ole in' posters saying 'he was so unlucky with injuries etc'. No, he wasn't unlucky. We became overstretched over the season as he was overplaying players in every competition trying desperately to get results to save his bacon, and thats what led to an injury crisis. From the beginning of the season he should have been looking at all the things that could have gone wrong and how things would start playing out when the chips were down.
I think he's a victim of being too fecking positive. Part of what must be so seductive about his management to the 'Ole in' crowd as it's like the complete polar opposite of Jose, who would control for all factors in a football match, even if that meant crushing the life out of it as a joyous enterprise. Ole is all about belief, positivity, Man Utd DNA, young players etc etc. In his head he probably thought Lingard and Pereira were gonna tear it up as attacking midfielders because they were Man Utd academy lads with the right DNA and just needed that belief to elevate them to the next level.
But the reality about Ole as a manager and in general the 'Ole In' crowd is that It's simply dreadfully fecking naive. The red flags were right there when we sold lukaku, loaned and sanchez and didn't try to replace them. How rose tinted can you get that you are going to send out that team into the money laden premier league against managers who do understand how to plan for the worst possible situations, because they don't have the players that are going to nick them a result. The only reason it hasn't been awful is we have some seriously good players who can dig us out a result every now and then, even against the best teams in the league. All in all though he's extremely lightweight as a manager and doesn't have the ruthless qualities of a SAF or a Klopp or a Guardiola.
The other massive red flag is how matey he is with the other managers, particularly Klopp and Guardiola. He's all smiles after games with them and I agree with RvP, after that kind of sh*t 'now is not the time to be smiling'. I doubt Klopp or Guardiola would be that matey with him if the roles were reversed and their team was languishing in 7th, unable to open up defences and turning their home stadium into the dampest of damp squibs. Their blood would be fecking boiling in such a situation, because not winning is like a personal affront. The fact Ole's started saying all kinds of Moyesy kind of things post match now really should be the final nail in the coffin of any hope. He's unable to deal with it, same way Moyes wasn't, so he's just saying stuff now to help him avoid facing the harsh fecking reality of the situation.
And now in these threads we're getting the same kind of tactic from the vociferous 'ole in' crowd. Saying anything they can to avoid confronting reality. Resorting to ad hominems because deep down they know the arguments for him as manager are weak as sh*t. The excuses that are being created seem to constantly evolve and become more and more delusional. 'Klopp needed time'. 'We almost sacked SAF after one year' 'Noone could have foreseen Pogba and Rashford getting injured' (btw yes they could and thousands did) 'its the board and the glazers (he spent £150m on players in one season, most midtable clubs would be lucky to spend that in 5) etc etc.
Positivity is a good thing and it's the main weapon 'Ole IN' crowd have used against everyone who has highlighted lack of planning or poor decisions; 'so much negativity and moaning blah blah'. But, sometimes positivity just turns into downright delusion, a fear of facing the cold hard reality of the situation. And when it gets to this point, it's hard to even say that it's actually even positivity anymore. Delusion isn't a positive thing, it's negativity shielded by a layer of fantasy.
The stats don'e lie, they are as real as it gets. At the moment we need some reality.
Bit of a rant and I'm obviously largely preaching to the choir, but my 2 cents anyway.
This. Superb post
