Ole Gunnar Solskjær | 2021/22 Discussion

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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.

Had we had a normal pre season schedule I believe we would have taken 6 points from the first 2 home games this season.
 
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.

This. I've some big reservations over Ole but how can you be not buzzing right now? We've spend the last two seasons as City fans just to hope Pool doesn't win the title. It's good that we're backing our team so far.
 
I am hopping on the positive side of things, after much deliberation when it comes to Ole. However, I am still not sure if I am seeing a tactical style of play or the design in which he wants us to attack. Maybe that is a good thing, allows for flexibility, but also I feel his gameplans do rely on moments of magic/ brilliant link ups between the players. I can be wrong, of course.

For instance, yesterday against Wolves, you could see that the instructions were to cross the ball in as much as possible in the first 10-15 minutes. Not such a smart decision with 3 huge CBs and 1 striker. I mean, I am yet to convinced of his tactical nuance.
 
I wish that he finally stops playing with wingers. It is just not working. Play with 4 midfielders and 2 strikers. Use the best what you have. We look like a proper team in diamond/4222
 
Last night was an awful game of football, but they’re exactly the kinds of games you need to win to have a crack at the title. It’s great that the team never gave up, it’s testament to the belief and winning mentality that’s being instilled into the club.
 
The distance we are from mourinhos final games is enormous. A huge mentality shift, different recruitment, better football. Keeping in mind he only had 1 full season so far. Regardless of where you think his ceiling is, if you can't see that solskjaer has been great for United overall, you just aren't looking hard enough.
 
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.
Exactly.

It still annoys me that our captain went abroad during a pandemic and got himself into that totally unnecessary mess. But he is hopefully starting to regain his focus now, 4 months later is it?
 
The thing which i struggle to understand the most about him is why he insisted on buying AWB? No matter was his plan to play on counters or any other style, he surely knew that with Awb he will not get attacking threat. Even some defensive managers like Simeone or Mourinho want to have attacking full back. Odd transfer
 
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.
You need a better explanation for why the team lacked fitness other than we had no pre season?
 
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.
I can understand that we were tired and needed to rotate and all. But our inability to create and show a clear pattern of play is worrying, 2nd place or not.
 
I can understand that we were tired and needed to rotate and all. But our inability to create and show a clear pattern of play is worrying, 2nd place or not.

6 changes, packed schedule, horribly negative and defensive Wolves team, it is easy to see why we struggled.
 
I wish that he finally stops playing with wingers. It is just not working. Play with 4 midfielders and 2 strikers. Use the best what you have. We look like a proper team in diamond/4222

It's not working? We are second in the league and one of the best teams in the country for a full year.

When have we looked a proper team playing in a diamond?
 
You know that has been the issue since Ole took over right?

Nope, Ive seen a very different team for the most part in our games for the past 6 months. A team that hasnt particularly struggled against a low block, also a team that scores a lot of goals. W
 
We are the leagues second top scorers!

:lol: People see what they want to see I guess. Maybe we have a reliance on individual brilliance but all clubs do to some extent. We have definitely improved our general play over Oles time with us, dont think anyone can deny that.
 
I can understand that we were tired and needed to rotate and all. But our inability to create and show a clear pattern of play is worrying, 2nd place or not.

would much rather see a pattern of play than to be second, and have the most points in the league in 2020
 
At least he got us dreaming. He should get a lot of credit for what he has done, plus our youth signings have been really exciting again. Ole should get some credit for the restructure of that department too.
 
Those that credit wins to individual brilliance or luck and losses or poor performances to Ole just seem like parody accounts now.
 
Ole deserves so much credit.

Because pre-season did anybody really believe we should be any where close to challenging for the title? I mean we might still not but were doing better than expected. Our squad was not complete at all yet Ole has got us not losing right now (and winning most of our games)

I dont get those who are saying we should be getting a new manager. I dont think a new manager would have us anywhere better than we are. (and if people are expecting that, then are they willing to admit that the United squad is good and thus giving credit to Ed woodward and Ole for recruiting said players?)
I mean it cant be both squad not being good enough (and Ed being bad at his job) AND Ole not doing a good job right?


The biggest shame of course is the loss to Istanbul as that knocks us out of the CL. Thats the one big blip of this season.
 
You cannot win or challenge for title if you cannot win ugly. Liverpool last 2 season's did that on regular basis and I doubt any of their fana complained.

The problem is people have already made their up that Ole is a shit manager and anything we achieve under him will be a fluke. I pretty much guarantee had we been in the same position with Sima stats under Poch, people and pundits would have hailed Poch as genius.

I will keep on saying it Ole for me is the most abused manager I have ever seen.
 
I am hopping on the positive side of things, after much deliberation when it comes to Ole. However, I am still not sure if I am seeing a tactical style of play or the design in which he wants us to attack. Maybe that is a good thing, allows for flexibility, but also I feel his gameplans do rely on moments of magic/ brilliant link ups between the players. I can be wrong, of course.

For instance, yesterday against Wolves, you could see that the instructions were to cross the ball in as much as possible in the first 10-15 minutes. Not such a smart decision with 3 huge CBs and 1 striker. I mean, I am yet to convinced of his tactical nuance.

I bet you we'll all see that more clearly once there's a proper right sided creator in the team (winger or whatever). Nobody can expect attacking patterns to look consistently amazing when fielding only 2/3rds of an attacking creative line. Yesterday, Greenwood created one chance from the right. And that's no slight on Greenwood, who consistently works hard with the press in a position which isn't really made for him (he's more one for getting on the end of chances). But imagine if you could see 4-5-6-7 of those chances created from the right each game, like we're already seeing from the left and center. It's going to look so much better, so much more consistent. It's still too easy for the opposition to pack the center and their right, and that's why we sometimes see periods in the game where there seems to be a lack of ideas (because the spaces and passing options aren't there across the whole width of the pitch).
 
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You cannot win or challenge for title if you cannot win ugly. Liverpool last 2 season's did that on regular basis and I doubt any of their fana complained.

The problem is people have already made their up that Ole is a shit manager and anything we achieve under him will be a fluke. I pretty much guarantee had we been in the same position with Sima stats under Poch, people and pundits would have hailed Poch as genius.

I will keep on saying it Ole for me is the most abused manager I have ever seen.

100%
 
It's ok to have reservations about Ole, I know some get overly upset on here, even when it's constructive criticism. But ffs, why not just enjoy being second in the league and looking like a good attacking side. Yeah sure, the CL exit can't be ignored nor can other aspects of his management, but just enjoy the moment.

If Liverpool only draw tonight, and we beat Villa, we could be joint top of the league going into Saturday. I mean, who wouldn't have been happy with that 4 or 5 weeks ago. If Liverpool really feck up and lose, and we beat Villa, we could be a point clear at the top come Friday night. Both extreme camps have a-lot of copping on to do. Far too many personal battles have moved from the 'Ole out' thread to this and other threads. Both 'sides' are absolutely toxic.
 
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I can understand that we were tired and needed to rotate and all. But our inability to create and show a clear pattern of play is worrying, 2nd place or not.
We are flexible and we put in place plans to give the opportunity for interplay between our forwards. It's not the Pep-style drills but we have never been about that, even at our zenith under Fergie. We score on the counter, from crosses and build up. It's not like we only have a plan A and nothing else.

Yesterday was a case of us having a tired and rotated XI and more importantly, Wolves carrying out their tasks to a tee, and when they're like that they are a very tough nut to crack. Credit it to them, but credit to us for getting through and getting the win.

We aren't going to win the league, but results like that are ones which title charges have been built on historically. City had it in 17/18, and they were Liverpool's MO for the last 2 years.
 
You cannot win or challenge for title if you cannot win ugly. Liverpool last 2 season's did that on regular basis and I doubt any of their fana complained.

The problem is people have already made their up that Ole is a shit manager and anything we achieve under him will be a fluke. I pretty much guarantee had we been in the same position with Sima stats under Poch, people and pundits would have hailed Poch as genius.

I will keep on saying it Ole for me is the most abused manager I have ever seen.
This. It must be depressing not being able to fully enjoy these wins just because you made up your mind on the manager long ago.
 
This. It must be depressing not being able to fully enjoy these wins just because you made up your mind on the manager long ago.
Exactly that. Too many people have an entrenched view and appear to want Ole to fail so that they can be "proved right".

Keep it up, you'll get your wish eventually. In the meantime I'm going to enjoy the ride.
 
Dont know what you are laughing about. Our squad is so much better than wolves, they didn't even have a striker to start the game, and we have the luxury to have 50m pound striker on the bench, they also played a game less than 3 days ago.
We should have won this game easily but instead managed to score our goal with a deflected shot on the 94th minute, that is luck.

I get what you are saying, we have been hugely lucky in more than our fair share of games. VAR overturn & VAR penalty vs WBA, last minute deflected goal Wolves, scoring with VAR after the final whistle at Brighton and them hitting the woodwork 5 (yes 5!) times, Henderson's pass was out of play at WHUM...that's a massive amount of points off the top of my head that I think it's fair to say are 'lucky'.

The issue when saying we keep being lucky is that, at some point, you have to accept it is not just luck. I am not Ole's biggest fan but I'm fine with accepting that there is something about the team this season that is unquantifiable (we have looked like dog shite in multiple games, almost always concede and have still won multiple times) and currently we're 2nd with an unbelievable form guide in the PL: WWWDWWDW. If you couple that with us looking less shite and a lot more cohesive recently it should have us looking forward to each game now and thinking more positively about Ole. The jury can still be out, it definitely should be, but it surely can't just be luck.
 
We all know the issues with our current owners but it strikes me that if we want them to invest in the team in January, there’s a better chance if we are on top or within a point or two when January arrives.

I’m not Ole’s biggest fan but I have to applaud him for getting us to a position where we are seen as potential champions. He’s strengthening the narrative for investment and he’s also making it easier to sell the club to our transfer targets.

I’d love to see us playing to our full potential more often as a team, because it’s surely a thing of beauty. But if that’s going to remain elusive, I’m more than happy to take some ugly victories if it’s the price of getting back on the perch.
 
He needs to get a RB and a DM right now. I would say our problem at RW or ride side would get sorted out if we get a RB who can cross the ball.
 
I get what you are saying, we have been hugely lucky in more than our fair share of games. VAR overturn & VAR penalty vs WBA, last minute deflected goal Wolves, scoring with VAR after the final whistle at Brighton and them hitting the woodwork 5 (yes 5!) times, Henderson's pass was out of play at WHUM...that's a massive amount of points off the top of my head that I think it's fair to say are 'lucky'.

The issue when saying we keep being lucky is that, at some point, you have to accept it is not just luck. I am not Ole's biggest fan but I'm fine with accepting that there is something about the team this season that is unquantifiable (we have looked like dog shite in multiple games, almost always concede and have still won multiple times) and currently we're 2nd with an unbelievable form guide in the PL: WWWDWWDW. If you couple that with us looking less shite and a lot more cohesive recently it should have us looking forward to each game now and thinking more positively about Ole. The jury can still be out, it definitely should be, but it surely can't just be luck.
As Neville said, we have 3 or 4 players who have enough quality to produce goal scoring moments from game to game. So its not necessarily luck per se neither is it a clear tactical identity.
 
As just evidenced once more, its difficult for everyone this season. Thus making the over the top criticism of Ole even more ridiculous.

2nd place. 3 points off top. Game in hand.

I'd have fecking jumped at that at the start of the season.
 
I wish that he finally stops playing with wingers. It is just not working. Play with 4 midfielders and 2 strikers. Use the best what you have. We look like a proper team in diamond/4222
We look like a proper team in diamond/4222? That's new.
 
What's that noise???? If you listen carefully that's the backtracking of the Ole out brigade slowly creeping away.

Sssssshhhh!!!!!
 
The best thing about everything now is that we, who said he should be given time because we are showing progress, don't need to write to much. Results and performences are talking. Even when results didn't show points we were taking steps forward. At that time it was more important to defend our approach because of all anger and hatred.

We should not be ready this year but being now where we are and performing how we do our progress seem to have taken off even faster. We are looking at very bright future.
 
Don’t worry, there will be a new Ole out poll as soon as we drop points.

Yeah of course there will be. They will all be angry and upset with how well we are doing. They won't want to admit they went too early with their agenda.
 
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