This is a far too positive and unrealistic view of our squad tbh.
Problem is it's miles apart mate.
The season was a bit of an anamoly. We would have convincingly finished outside top 4(even top 6) with that point tally.
Just firstly does Ole not get any credit for this ? Our forwards are out scoring the champions but this has nothing to do with the manager ? Greenwood has been perfectly managed by Ole and a ton of other managers would have never gave the kid a chance or would have ran him into the ground, also Martial best season has been under Ole.
Annoyingly their entire defence is better than ours at both attacking and defending(They have the best defense in the league). Which some of the blame should be leveled at Ole but again Klopp has took years to make his defense. With United back line there are two Ole players(Maguire and Wan Bissaka), the rest are products from former managers and their all made of glass(Something which can't be said of Liverpool team). The difference in class between the two isn't just the individual players but also time. just like the midfield Klopp over the last 5 years has hand picked and molded Liverpools defence.
I guess the biggest complement one can give Ole is comparing his team to the
We would have but we didnt, strange point really.
Team made shots, ergo manager good. He set up a team that got over 20 shots on target over two games, yes. And no, he can't literally throw the ball in the net for them, but there are other aspects that people just flat out ignore.
So the team created all those chances and Ole is to be credited because it's his team selection, "his team". Okay, then why the hell hasn't he sorted out a defence that has been utter rubbish from day one of the season and has even reduced a class keeper into a complete liability. It is so obvious we still require two if not three central defenders who can actually play football, head a ball without fouling the attacker, pass the ball forward quickly to a team mate instead of getting closed down and giving the ball away, and who have just a little bit of pace when needed. As I understand it Maguire was brought in as this great header of the ball, what has gone wrong? Are we playing with a different type of ball now? He has hardly put his forehead on a ball this season, top, side, back of the head, the ball can go any where and that's when he manages to get off the deck. And Lindelof well I won't even go there. Can't really judge the fullbacks when the two in the centre are so lacking.
My point is that it was a close game, as it is always going to be in a semi final, and the team and tactics that Ole set upp gave us plenty of opportunities to win the game. That's why I am generally happy with his performance. Could he have done things differently? Sure. But did he get the majority right? Absolutely.
It gave us opportunities but when those started going away he didn’t change a thing. For me, he got two thirds right. When the last third came and everything went wrong he just hoped that what he had done up until that point would start working differently than it had done before.
Absolutely, he must be backed and this is where I hope he doesn't backtrack come October saying he trusts the squad he had especially after showing little trust in latter part of the season.
Well, it depends on whether that upward curve is obvious. Technically, Van Gaal was on an upward curve in 2016: we did better in the second half of the Premier League than in the first and we won the FA Cup - but he still got fired.
Utter rubbish and yet it was statistically the third best in the league, and only conceded 3 more than the vaunted Liverpool defence? Compared to the positively mid-table defence he had before? Would a shit defence have kept out Pep's City twice? Or keep two clean sheets against Chelsea?
I mean, considering he himself has said that the optimum time to bring on a substitute is at least 20 mins before the end should tell you that he knows that he should be doing as such. Let alone his own history of being in such situations.
Is your surname Castles by any chance?
)Well, obviously I can only go by what I see during the games, but for me it was quite obvious that Rashford was having an incredibly poor game. Not only were things not coming off for him, he was ruining attacking opportunities by trying to be Ronaldo and force his way out of his slump instead of reverting to the basics. I'd have hooked him after 60 minutes and brought on Ighalo and pushed Martial to the wing, or brought Mata on to keep possession if I wanted to keep Martial up front.
