Ole Gunnar Solskjær | 2021/22 Discussion

[Withnail]

De Gea, Shaw, Lindelöf, Bailly, Rashford, Martial, Matic, Mctominay, Fred, Pogba from that era.

From current key players only Bruno is bought by Ole and then maybe Maguire, but we could probably do without him.

Fred barely got a sniff under Mourinho.

As for the rest take a look at their appearances in 2017/2018 PL campaign.

McT/Shaw had less than 10 starts, Bailly/Lindelof less than 15 starts. Rashford and Martial were in and out of the team and he was trying to get rid of Pogba and Martial.

Ole's built the team around many Mourinho would have ditched and improved the overall squad with those he's brought in.

 

[Paul_Scholes18]

Fred barely got a sniff under Mourinho.

As for the rest take a look at their appearances in 2017/2018 PL campaign.

McT/Shaw had less than 10 starts, Bailly/Lindelof less than 15 starts. Rashford and Martial were in and out of the team and he was trying to get rid of Pogba and Martial.

Ole's built the team around many Mourinho would have ditched and improved the overall squad with those he's brought in.

My point was just that most of our squad has been around for a long time.

It is mainly Bruno that has added to our team from new signings. In terms of improving our starting 11.

The rest of the improvements have come from players already at the club. You can say Ole has helped them improve and that is probably part of the truth.

I think Rashford, Fred and Mctominay have really improved under Ole and it is great to see.

 

[Withnail]

My point was just that most of our squad has been around for a long time.

It is mainly Bruno that has added to our team from new signings. In terms of improving our starting 11.

The rest of the improvements have come from players already at the club. You can say Ole has helped them improve and that is probably part of the truth.

I think Rashford, Fred and Mctominay have really improved under Ole and it is great to see.

Ok I'd agree with that alright.

 

[Bojan11]

Shit match but an important 3 points over the busy festive season. A win against Villa and 7 from 9 is a good return even though we messed up a-bit agsinst Leicester.

Yeah.

In this period it’s all about winning because performances aren’t going to be great considering the amount of games coming fast. We had some real terrible games under Fergie during this period yet managed to win. That game on New Years day against Birmingham put me to sleep.

 

[Dante]

We're going to finish the calendar year of 2020 comfortably in 3rd place across both seasons.

What's encouraging is that United are the only team in the top 5 that's still consistently improving.

Obviously, this table includes the bad start to the year from before the Bruno signing. I can only see us making up ground on the the top 2 from here.

It's clear that the defence is what needs to be worked on next year. The attack will naturally get better as the (relatively) young frontline matures.

Position	Team	Played	For	Against	Points
1​	Liverpool	34​	75​	39​	76​
2​	Manchester City	32​	69​	24​	66​
3​	Manchester United	33​	65​	36​	65​
4​	Chelsea	34​	65​	44​	57​
5​	Southampton	34​	52​	41​	56​
6​	Tottenham	33​	51​	33​	55​
7​	Everton	33​	47​	45​	53​
8​	Arsenal	34​	46​	37​	52​
9​	Wolverhampton Wanderers	34​	37​	36​	50​
10​	Leicester	34​	53​	42​	49​
11​	Burnley	33​	29​	38​	46​
12​	Aston Villa	32​	44​	45​	43​
13​	West Ham	35​	51​	51​	43​
14​	Newcastle United	32​	35​	52​	37​
15​	Crystal Palace	34​	33​	57​	35​
16​	Brighton	34​	33​	51​	31​
17​	Sheffield United	34​	24​	47​	27​

*Games played from 01-01-2020 to 29-12-2020

 

[Fluctuation0161]

Ole deserves high marks for his management in the PL so far this season, although I still believe we deserve a better explanation as to why the squad was so unfit — mentally and physically — at the beginning of the season.

Covid fixture list = only a 2 week break between seasons?

 

[UNITED ACADEMY]

Ole deserves high marks for his management in the PL so far this season, although I still believe we deserve a better explanation as to why the squad was so unfit — mentally and physically — at the beginning of the season.

Isn’t it obvious. We ended our season late due to Europa league means players were given extra time for holiday. Inter Milan was mid table few months ago and now they are 2nd. There are other teams suffered not just us and inter Milan.

 

[WR10]

Ruthless in making sure the player on the field performs.

Sir Alex

 

[UNITED ACADEMY]

De Gea, Shaw, Lindelöf, Bailly, Rashford, Martial, Matic, Mctominay, Fred, Pogba from that era.

From current key players only Bruno is bought by Ole and then maybe Maguire, but we could probably do without him.

Come on mate, those are Mourinho bench players and some of them weren’t even highly rated by the manager & people during Mourinho’s years. These are Mourinho boys:

DDG
Valencia Smalling Jones/Bailly Young
Matic Pogba/Herrera
Mata Lingard/Fellaini Sanchez
Lukaku

 

[lex talionis]

Isn’t it obvious. We ended our season late due to Europa league means players were given extra time for holiday. Inter Milan was mid table few months ago and now they are 2nd. There are other teams suffered not just us and inter Milan.

That can’t be the whole of the explanation.

 

[UNITED ACADEMY]

That can’t be the whole of the explanation.

We finished our season 3 weeks late than others means our players started their holiday late and started training for new season 2 or 3 weeks late than the others. Not rocket science isn’t it.

 

[prateik]

Covid fixture list = only a 2 week break between seasons?

Captain getting arrested. Pogba getting Covid. missing what little preseason we had.. Not signing 2 players till deadline day..
There were a few things going wrong.

 

[zenith]

Best manager we have had since SAF and that list includes 2 very best of recent times.

Ole has done shortcomings but that is more than made up for by the way he has motivated the players, who fight for him week in week out. He's built a squad that I believe is just one good transfer window from being a consistent title and European contender.

Rome was not built in a day but we are certainly on our way to something special and it's the first time in a long time that proper foundations are being built and players with the right winning and down to earth mentality are coming into the club. A lot of this is down to ole.

 

[lex talionis]

We finished our season 3 weeks late than others means our players started their holiday late and started training for new season 2 or 3 weeks late than the others. Not rocket science isn’t it.

If every club who went deep into European competitions also performed as poorly as we did we’d have a pretty air tight theory — no rocket science degree required — but both Bayern and PSG got off to reasonably strong starts to their respective seasons.

We’re all aware that our summer break was cut short, but it’s also clear, one might even say obvious, that we were much more poorly prepared going into the new season than other clubs who also had extended summer duty.

 

[UNITED ACADEMY]

If every club who went deep into European competitions also performed as poorly as we did we’d have a pretty air tight theory — no rocket science degree required — but both Bayern and PSG got off to reasonably strong starts to their respective seasons.

We’re all aware that our summer break was cut short, but it’s also clear, one might even say obvious, that we were much more poorly prepared going into the new season than other clubs who also had extended summer duty.

Strong start? Bayern lost 4-1 to Hoffenheim in their 2nd GW. PSG lost their first two league games in a row. Just like ours, we only started kicking post spurs game which was after our 3rd league game.

 

[Odin]

If every club who went deep into European competitions also performed as poorly as we did we’d have a pretty air tight theory — no rocket science degree required — but both Bayern and PSG got off to reasonably strong starts to their respective seasons.

We’re all aware that our summer break was cut short, but it’s also clear, one might even say obvious, that we were much more poorly prepared going into the new season than other clubs who also had extended summer duty.

Without me discrediting La Ligue or Bundesliga, now try to factor in the relative strengths of the leagues...

Strong start? Bayern lost 4-1 to Hoffenheim in their 2nd GW. PSG lost their first two league games in a row. Just like ours, we only started kicking post spurs game which was after our 3rd league game.

And this...

 

[Gazza]

Well done to Ole for keeping the squad focused and not letting spirits drop after the CL exit. I thought we weren’t very good today but the last minute winner shows strong mettle. Good signs. Hope we can keep improving!

 

[RedRonaldo]

Last season we finished 3rd but were 30 pts behind Liverpool.
This season we are sitting at 2nd place, and only 2 pts behind.

Really can’t complain at all. We are really challenging for title.

 

[Number32]

We’re all aware that our summer break was cut short, but it’s also clear, one might even say obvious, that we were much more poorly prepared going into the new season than other clubs who also had extended summer duty.

Bayern: Losing 1-4 against Hoffenheim and needed 6 weeks to climb at the top again, draw against relegation candidate Bremen.
PSG: Probably their worst start since winning back to back champions
Inter: Start from mid-table and just found their momentum in November
Barca and Real: their worst start in a while (despite finishing the season earlier)
City: Pep's worst start since managing them

Every big clubs who had extended summer duty were much poorly prepare, it depends on their opponents in the league. Premiere League is very competitive, our worst performances in the league were against Palace and Spurs. The other bad results were coming with a bad luck or poor concentration by the players, not a good performance but we deserved more 6 points form Chelsea, Arsenal, or Leicester.

 

[The United]

If every club who went deep into European competitions also performed as poorly as we did we’d have a pretty air tight theory — no rocket science degree required — but both Bayern and PSG got off to reasonably strong starts to their respective seasons.

We’re all aware that our summer break was cut short, but it’s also clear, one might even say obvious, that we were much more poorly prepared going into the new season than other clubs who also had extended summer duty.

There were examples of other teams starting the season very slow as well.

Even without them, preparing a major PL season for 2 weeks to be ready is physically impossible. Screw rocket science. It just needs a bit of common sense/knoweldge.

 

[Wumminator]

It’s like some people don’t live in this reality.

“PSG strong start” they lost the first two league games FFS.

Rashford and Martial as “Mourinho’s team” is mental as well.

 

[Bobcat]

That is so erelevant.

Look what I'm saying is this.
We didn't play well today. A full squad no injuries against a very young Wolves team that had played a game less than three days ago and couldn't name a striker.
We could barely create chances.
If it wasn't for an own goal on the 94th minute we would now be 5th. 6th if City won their game in hand. The same position we were in this time last year, 6 points more than last year.
So that own goal on the 94th minute was the difference between being 2nd or 6th.
I think we should be playing a lot better than we are with the squad we have.
If that makes me a miserable fecker to you that ok with me.

Thats a glass half full if i ever saw one. We deserved to win vs Leichester but ended up drawing instead, we deserved more than 1 point from Arsenal and Chelsea and we did not deserve 3 points vs BHA at the start of the season. Thats just football.

And if you think we should play better with the squad we have, should not Ole get some credit for get the squad is such a shape?

 

[KM]

That is so erelevant.

Look what I'm saying is this.
We didn't play well today. A full squad no injuries against a very young Wolves team that had played a game less than three days ago and couldn't name a striker.
We could barely create chances.
If it wasn't for an own goal on the 94th minute we would now be 5th. 6th if City won their game in hand. The same position we were in this time last year, 6 points more than last year.
So that own goal on the 94th minute was the difference between being 2nd or 6th.
I think we should be playing a lot better than we are with the squad we have.
If that makes me a miserable fecker to you that ok with me.

What a stupid post. Not a surprise it's coming from you.

 

[ThinkTank@Cafe]

We need a chant for Ole as a manager. “PE teacher” line is mandatory

 

[KM]

If every club who went deep into European competitions also performed as poorly as we did we’d have a pretty air tight theory — no rocket science degree required — but both Bayern and PSG got off to reasonably strong starts to their respective seasons.

We’re all aware that our summer break was cut short, but it’s also clear, one might even say obvious, that we were much more poorly prepared going into the new season than other clubs who also had extended summer duty.

The mental gymnastics employed by our "fans" is amazing. Some of it stupid hypotheticals like @UnofficialDevil has posted and some of it are blatant lies that the above poster has posted.

 

[anant]

That is so erelevant.

Look what I'm saying is this.
We didn't play well today. A full squad no injuries against a very young Wolves team that had played a game less than three days ago and couldn't name a striker.
We could barely create chances.
If it wasn't for an own goal on the 94th minute we would now be 5th. 6th if City won their game in hand. The same position we were in this time last year, 6 points more than last year.
So that own goal on the 94th minute was the difference between being 2nd or 6th.
I think we should be playing a lot better than we are with the squad we have.
If that makes me a miserable fecker to you that ok with me.

Injury argument? I don't remember you having used that to defend Solskjaer this time last year. Afterall, we had injuries to Pogba, McT, Martial and Rashford and Fred(?) in the 1st six months.

And as far as "luck" is concerned, I also, don't remember you using that argument to defend Solskjaer when we were comfortably better than Southampton, Wolves, CP defeat along with Bournemouth loss last season. Villa and Newcastle scored stunners against us, and we were the better side over 90 mins. Don't remember you defending Solskjaer after those games as well.

So, do yourself a favour and use consistent arguments rather than doing this

 

[cyberman]

If every club who went deep into European competitions also performed as poorly as we did we’d have a pretty air tight theory — no rocket science degree required — but both Bayern and PSG got off to reasonably strong starts to their respective seasons.

We’re all aware that our summer break was cut short, but it’s also clear, one might even say obvious, that we were much more poorly prepared going into the new season than other clubs who also had extended summer duty.

No PSG did not start well. They had the exact same start as we did for feck sake.
Bayerrn lost 4-1 in their second game to a side who are currently 12th!

 

[Gasolin]

You can all go an and call me miserable etc if that makes you happy. But, if we hadn't won this match on the 94th minute with an own goal, we would be 5th, same as we were last year this time when everybody was complaining, 6 more points than last year with some very lucky wins. If that's the progress you're all in ecstasy about that's fine by me.

If Liverpool didn't lose to Aston Villa 7-2, or if Liverpool did not concede that goal to Fulham or WBA, they would be cruising. It's a game of fine margins at the very top level, that's just the reality of it. But what does it change exactly? Nothing. They can only blame themselves as we should when we drop points. It's the occasion to learn and do better. That's all.

And it's progress because that's how SAF teams used to work. Don't you remember that same game with a x2 from Park?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/eng_prem/9154647.stm

Look at the line up: Van der Sar, Evra, Rio, Vidic, Brown, O'Shea (Scholes in), Hargreaves (Bebe and Macheda in), Park, Fletcher, Chicharito, Obertan.
Is that a 1st team line up? No, and we struggled but we won 2-1 at the 92nd mn as well.

Look at the media's narrative at that time:
https://www.goal.com/en-gb/news/289...ung-is-manchester-uniteds-hero-you-know-there

The title is literally: "When Park Ji-Sung is Manchester United's hero, you know there are problems at Old Trafford".
Sounds familiar?

That season, we won the league. And we started with a bad start (many many draws), that should also sound very familiar, and I think that game was one that could have been an "humiliating" draw as some other articles put it. Yet, we won the game. Yet, we ended up being champion.

The line up yesterday?
De Gea, Telles (Shaw in), Maguire, Bailly, AWB, Matic, Pogba, Bruno (Scott in), Rashford, Greenwood (Martial in), Cavani.

It's not our best line up, yet, they tried and didn't give up. Just like that team 10 years ago. And that's why it's a game of fine margins, and all can be decided with the mental strength to keep going. Rashford said in his interview he saw Ait-Nouri was struggling with cramps, and wanted to keep challenging on that right side. That leads to a goal.

 

[Leftback99]

That is so erelevant.

I thought it might be. Your hypothetical worst case scenarios don't apply unless it's to put down Solskjaer.

Just admit you've got it wrong on him and enjoy the ride.

 

[The No.10!]

If Liverpool didn't lose to Aston Villa 7-2, or if Liverpool did not concede that goal to Fulham or WBA, they would be cruising. It's a game of fine margins at the very top level, that's just the reality of it. But what does it change exactly? Nothing. They can only blame themselves as we should when we drop points. It's the occasion to learn and do better. That's all.

And it's progress because that's how SAF teams used to work. Don't you remember that same game with a x2 from Park?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/eng_prem/9154647.stm

Look at the line up: Van der Sar, Evra, Rio, Vidic, Brown, O'Shea (Scholes in), Hargreaves (Bebe and Macheda in), Park, Fletcher, Chicharito, Obertan.
Is that a 1st team line up? No, and we struggled but we won 2-1 at the 92nd mn as well.

Look at the media's narrative at that time:
https://www.goal.com/en-gb/news/289...ung-is-manchester-uniteds-hero-you-know-there

The title is literally: "When Park Ji-Sung is Manchester United's hero, you know there are problems at Old Trafford".
Sounds familiar?

That season, we won the league. And we started with a bad start (many many draws), that should also sound very familiar, and I think that game was one that could have been an "humiliating" draw as some other articles put it. Yet, we won the game. Yet, we ended up being champion.

The line up yesterday?
De Gea, Telles (Shaw in), Maguire, Bailly, AWB, Matic, Pogba, Bruno (Scott in), Rashford, Greenwood (Martial in), Cavani.

It's not our best line up, yet, they tried and didn't give up. Just like that team 10 years ago. And that's why it's a game of fine margins, and all can be decided with the mental strength to keep going. Rashford said in his interview he saw Ait-Nouri was struggling with cramps, and wanted to keep challenging on that right side. That leads to a goal.

Love the positivity in this post, of course it's a tad far-fetched in the analogy but hey, we are all dreaming these days.

 

[MacabbiUnited]

That is so erelevant.

Look what I'm saying is this.
We didn't play well today. A full squad no injuries against a very young Wolves team that had played a game less than three days ago and couldn't name a striker.
We could barely create chances.
If it wasn't for an own goal on the 94th minute we would now be 5th. 6th if City won their game in hand. The same position we were in this time last year, 6 points more than last year.
So that own goal on the 94th minute was the difference between being 2nd or 6th.
I think we should be playing a lot better than we are with the squad we have.
If that makes me a miserable fecker to you that ok with me.

So if were playing "what if", if Vardy doesnt score a deflection goal in the 85th minute, were tied for top spot right now. Football is about margins and you need things going your way. Playing the what if game is uterly usless.

And this is the same Wolves team that beat Chelsea, beat Arsenal, drew with Spurs and gave Leicster a hard time, and a tean we didnt beat in years. This was never going to be a pretty game. Get over it

 

[Strelok]

Come on mate, those are Mourinho bench players and some of them weren’t even highly rated by the manager & people during Mourinho’s years. These are Mourinho boys:

DDG
Valencia Smalling Jones/Bailly Young
Matic Pogba/Herrera
Mata Lingard/Fellaini Sanchez
Lukaku

I don't think Herrera was a Jose boy. Herrera after his POTY season was largely benched until Ole came in. I don't know why though.

 

[Escobar]

We still struggle to create chances and to have a clear, drilled attacking game. Ole seems to be unable to fix that it seems which is a huge weakness

 

[UNITED ACADEMY]

I don't think Herrera was a Jose boy. Herrera after his POTY season was largely benched until Ole came in. I don't know why though.

He was always used in big game by Jose though.

 

[theklr]

We still struggle to create chances and to have a clear, drilled attacking game. Ole seems to be unable to fix that it seems which is a huge weakness

I think this game was more about Telles being a bad fit for a flat 4 (could be because he was afraid of Traore) and AWB still not learning how to do stuff on the other half of the pitch.

And ofcourse ,rotation, I dont think that set up has been used much.

 

[Carl]

That is so erelevant.

Look what I'm saying is this.
We didn't play well today. A full squad no injuries against a very young Wolves team that had played a game less than three days ago and couldn't name a striker.
We could barely create chances.
If it wasn't for an own goal on the 94th minute we would now be 5th. 6th if City won their game in hand. The same position we were in this time last year, 6 points more than last year.
So that own goal on the 94th minute was the difference between being 2nd or 6th.
I think we should be playing a lot better than we are with the squad we have.
If that makes me a miserable fecker to you that ok with me.

So much of this post is absolutely turd, but let's start with the basics. You keep saying we'd be 6th had we not scored, which is factually incorrect. We'd be 4th on 28 points. We'd then be 5th if City win their game in hand, which there's absolutely no guarantee they will do.

Honestly. Post like this are just sucking the life out of this place. We got a dramatic last minute winner to put us 2nd in the league at the turn of the year yet there's still the relentless need to criticise the manager.

I honestly think there's a subset of posters on here that would take more joy out of us getting beat, because they see it as vindication of their agenda and opinions.

 

[Strelok]

He was always used in big game by Jose though.

Yeah but that doesn't make him a Jose boy I think.

 

[Polar]

Come on mate, those are Mourinho bench players and some of them weren’t even highly rated by the manager & people during Mourinho’s years. These are Mourinho boys:

DDG
Valencia Smalling Jones/Bailly Young
Matic Pogba/Herrera
Mata Lingard/Fellaini Sanchez
Lukaku

Really good example of how bad we were; what Ole took over. Some people seem to forget a massive overhaul was needed; it wasn’t a quick fix.

The rebuilding isn’t over, but we are getting there step by step. 3 reinforcements (RB, RW, CDM) and the squad starts looking really good.

I expect us to be at full speed at this time next season.

We have much pleasure to look forward to next season Our patience will be rewarded

 

[dev1l]

That is so erelevant.

Look what I'm saying is this.
We didn't play well today. A full squad no injuries against a very young Wolves team that had played a game less than three days ago and couldn't name a striker.
We could barely create chances.
If it wasn't for an own goal on the 94th minute we would now be 5th. 6th if City won their game in hand. The same position we were in this time last year, 6 points more than last year.
So that own goal on the 94th minute was the difference between being 2nd or 6th.
I think we should be playing a lot better than we are with the squad we have.
If that makes me a miserable fecker to you that ok with me.

Lot of IFS

 

[RUCK4444]

Ole deserves high marks for his management in the PL so far this season, although I still believe we deserve a better explanation as to why the squad was so unfit — mentally and physically — at the beginning of the season.

It’s clear we were totally unfit with the lack of a pre-season.

Player fitness, or the lack of it, is a massive leveller at this level. Palace game being a prime example.

It’s frustrating as our league position would no doubt be even stronger had this not been the case.