Ole Gunnar Solskjær | 2021/22 Discussion

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I was all over the show with in/out with his time here due to the roller coaster nature of our results/play but the last time I changed my vote to sack (after the champ exit) I have kept it and I will never change my mind now. He's a good manager obviously and definitely the best we have had since Fergie but this is one of the best clubs in the world and should have one of the best manager in the world, you shouldn't be able to keep a straight face and say Ole is that.

I have also just noticed that quote above me. He's back to protecting his job again by playing down expectations and saying how far we have come and we should't be considered title chasers which is nonsense considering how the season has panned out. Maybe we should get Moyes back in or dean smith seeing and though they have come an even longer way.
 
MadDogg said:
Playing the occasional game here and a game there is difficult for anybody, but particularly a goalkeeper.

It's absolutely possible that Henderson might be no better than De Gea, or perhaps even worse. He might also be better. We won't know until he gets a proper run of games. What we do know is that Henderson was better at Sheffield United last season than De Gea was here, and De Gea is no longer good enough. We need to know whether Henderson is the right one to take over otherwise we need to start looking outside the club.
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Henderson had an organised, very well drilled defence in front of him. This defence would give anybody the jitters.
 
Adisa said:
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He’s had this answer loaded for a while. He never wanted to be considered challengers in a season where the league is wide open . Does he think next season Tuchel,Pep and Klopp are going to let him have a run for the league again? This was our best chance. I’m not confident he will sign the right DM & CB next season and ease the transition of De Gea and Pogba out of the team.
 
Leroy The Red said:
Today is not on him at all. Not even a little bit. I see complaints about bringing on Tuanzebe but the whole point was to deal with Evertons late aerial bombardment. It isn’t Oles fault his defenders and goalkeepers decided to act like a bunch of arseholes. Literally every goal was a clanger from our centre backs and keeper that was more easy to avoid.
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I'm sick of reading this, the very fact that it gets said over and over game after game is proof that it is on Ole.

Also Tuanzebe is shocking in the air, if that was the plan then he probably would have been better bringing magic on who is 11cm taller, better in the air and a million times better under pressure seeing as though he has seen it all.

This is the problem with Ole, he's just really basic. defending a lead throw on defender, haven't conceded yet keep playing the same team/same way even if we are getting outplayed. Players out form? not changing them because I know they have been good in the past.

I also get the impression that if we're a drawing, the risk of going all out for he win is too much for him, it's continue as is to make sure we don't concede and hope we score rather than going all out to make sure we score and hope we don't concede. This could also explain our poor starts considering the score is 0-0, you must be able to count on one hand the amount of games we have come flying out the traps in the 2+ years under Ole no matter how big the occasion is.
 
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reddev3 said:
I'm sick of reading this, the very fact that it gets said over and over game after game is proof that it is on Ole.
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We have one of the worst defences out there, that is down to the coaching. They are not organised, nobody seems to know whose job it is to do what, they get caught in offside situations as they do not come out as a line. That is down to coaching. The refusal to realise David is no longer imperious is costing us. You cannot drop a prospective England goalkeeper in and out of the team and expect him to build a confidence with his defence.
 
I am not going to get into any debate just going to leave my two cents.
He has a three year contract. If in that time he cannot make us genuine title challengers, we should look for another manager.
 
reddev3 said:
I'm sick of reading this, the very fact that it gets said over and over game after game is proof that it is on Ole.
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What would you like Ole to do then? Run on the pitch and clear the ball himself?
I also take his quote from the Sky tweet more directed at the players, as in "You bottled it again, proved to me you're not ready to challenge for the title yet" more than deflecting blame away from himself.
 
Personally i think he deserves a couple of seasons to complete the team in his vision. Give him Sancho and a centre back and then let see how they settle next season, looking to a title push in 2022/2023. Its a fecking long way a way i know but i like how he gets on with the players and there have been many positives this season. But we will never challenge with Maguire partnered with Lindelof and De Gea in goal. An FA cup win along the way would go down nice and a champions league run.
 
iammemphis said:
Personally i think he deserves a couple of seasone to complete the team in his vision. Give him Sancho and a centre back and then let see how they settle next season, looking to a title push in 2022/2023. Its a fecking long way a way i know but i lile how he gets on with the players and there have been many positives this season. But we will never challenge with Maguire partnered with Lindelof and De Gea in goal.
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Will signing Sancho and CB suddenly make his in game management better? Will it also make DeGea a better goalkeeper?
We also have a gaping hole in our midfield and will almost certainly lose Pogba too.
Although a definite improvement on the RW i don’t think the difference between Sancho and Greenwood/Rashford will be as big as people think.Sancho will still us inconsistency and frustration.
The point I’m trying to make is I don’t think Ole will challenge the title next season. Tuchel will almost certainly improve Chelsea for next season. Klopp will bounce back I’m sure and Pep is Pep.
 
feck it. Can we just play like that every game? We know our defense is shit. Hopefully it can be fixed but going forward, we were awesome and that was so entertaining to watch. Hopefully Liverpool win today and it keeps us in the race.
 
Di Maria's angel said:
feck it. Can we just play like that every game? We know our defense is shit. Hopefully it can be fixed but going forward, we were awesome and that was so entertaining to watch. Hopefully Liverpool win today and it keeps us in the race.
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The annoying thing is if Liverpool do win today it makes last night even worse, since the 2 points dropped could’ve been even more useful - yet I still want it to happen since one point closer is better than nothing. God I’m still gutted.
 
Adisa said:
I am not going to get into any debate just going to leave my two cents.
He has a three year contract. If in that time he cannot make us genuine title challengers, we should look for another manager.
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I agree with this. I hope the board doesn't do a stupid thing and offer him a contract extension now. Let us wait for the season to end and see where we are.
 
Barnslig said:
What would you like Ole to do then? Run on the pitch and clear the ball himself?
I also take his quote from the Sky tweet more directed at the players, as in "You bottled it again, proved to me you're not ready to challenge for the title yet" more than deflecting blame away from himself.
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No, he's not allowed on the pitch. Either make them not make the mistakes by coaching them better or don't keep playing these players that are making the mistakes. You know, good management.

Twice yesterday Wan Bissaka was looking along the line and was playing on their striker because he was about 8 yards behind the defensive line, it was so amateur it was like something I would do because I wouldn't be sure what I was meant to be doing, this is the sort of thing that is on Ole that constantly cost us goals as they should be drilled on where to be at all times.

If you ever needed an example of a poorly coached team that Instanbul goal would be the prime example from all of football history, he didn't even bother to get up and scream at someone to get back and cover the half of filed the opposing striker had to run into, was he even looking at the game?
 
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DomesticTadpole said:
Henderson had an organised, very well drilled defence in front of him. This defence would give anybody the jitters.
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That Sheffield Utd defence doesn't look very well drilled this season.

Obviously it's not completely on him, but having a keeper that communicates and instils confidence in the defence can have an impact in that organisation.

In saying that, our defence isn't as bad as people are making out. We conceded 11 of those goals in the first three games of the season when our players were obviously behind on their preseason (not Ole's fault) and a very open midfield with Pogba seemingly not recovered from Covid (this is Ole's fault for picking that team). We've conceded 19 in the next 20 matches. Ignore those first three games (not something that you should normally do but these were unique situations) and we're conceding at about the same rate or better than all the other teams up near the top, with only City actually being better.

That doesn't mean our defence couldn't be improved, it obviously could be. But it's not as bad as some seem to think.
 
I think Oles proved himself to be very competent in recent months. We've seen a lot more consistency in terms of results and a little in terms of performances. That said, we need a trophy. Our previous managers still managed to win something. The next few months will go a long way in deciding his future and whether he can be a top manager.
 
MadDogg said:
That Sheffield Utd defence doesn't look very well drilled this season.

Obviously it's not completely on him, but having a keeper that communicates and instils confidence in the defence can have an impact in that organisation.

In saying that, our defence isn't as bad as people are making out. We conceded 11 of those goals in the first three games of the season when our players were obviously behind on their preseason (not Ole's fault) and a very open midfield with Pogba seemingly not recovered from Covid (this is Ole's fault for picking that team). We've conceded 19 in the next 20 matches. Ignore those first three games (not something that you should normally do but these were unique situations) and we're conceding at about the same rate or better than all the other teams up near the top, with only City actually being better.

That doesn't mean our defence couldn't be improved, it obviously could be. But it's not as bad as some seem to think.
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Actually think losing McConnell has made a big difference and they might not trust Ramsdale funny enough.
 
I'm enjoying the ride, I have to say. Last night was a great game and we were ten seconds from being delighted but de Gea had other plans. Shit happens. This team didn't guarantee top four until the final game last season so we can be satisfied with the continued progress from Ole. A centre-back and a goalkeeper are needed to get to the next level, I could have said that to you before the game last night. Calm.
 
2 man midfield said:
The annoying thing is if Liverpool do win today it makes last night even worse, since the 2 points dropped could’ve been even more useful - yet I still want it to happen since one point closer is better than nothing. God I’m still gutted.
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We are not going to win the title this season, but keeping in touch with City is good for the confidence of the team. Liverpool winning today is important for us in the long run.
 
DomesticTadpole said:
We have one of the worst defences out there, that is down to the coaching. They are not organised, nobody seems to know whose job it is to do what, they get caught in offside situations as they do not come out as a line. That is down to coaching. The refusal to realise David is no longer imperious is costing us. You cannot drop a prospective England goalkeeper in and out of the team and expect him to build a confidence with his defence.
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Liverpool have been playing the the whole season with not a single centre back to name, yet we have conceded more goals than them, even though we broke the world record on a defender, and have spent 170m on our defence, somebody is doing something wrong.
 
Dr. StrangeHate said:
We are not going to win the title this season, but keeping in touch with City is good for the confidence of the team. Liverpool winning today is important for us in the long run.
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It’s difficult really, I still think a draw is a better result overall since i see Liverpool catching up with us at some point.
 
UnofficialDevil said:
Liverpool have been playing the the whole season with not a single centre back to name, yet we have conceded more goals than them, even though we broke the world record on a defender, and have spent 170m on our defence, somebody is doing something wrong.
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Most definitely. I am beginning to think we are only addressing one end of the pitch at a time. They seem to have got the attacking side right on the most part, it has got better as the season has progressed, but are not spending time with the defence. They work so much out for themselves, but all footballers need coaching or they will just continue to play like raw 16 year olds all their career.
 
DomesticTadpole said:
Most definitely. I am beginning to think we are only addressing one end of the pitch at a time. They seem to have got the attacking side right on the most part, it has got better as the season has progressed, but are not spending time with the defence. They work so much out for themselves, but all footballers need coaching or they will just continue to play like raw 16 year olds all their career.
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It’s totally up to coaching and tactics, if you have two slow centre backs then you play a system appropriate for that, you don’t play a high back line that’s good for attack knowing its never going to work defensively for example.
 
DomesticTadpole said:
The fact we have one of the worst defences this season is on Ole and his coaches. What on earth do they do for training, run around a bit, lift a few weights. As someone said why isn't Maguire the one being used to win the ball in the air instead he is the one waiting for the knockdown against fast forwards. Our goalkeeper is weak and has been for ages. He now has to drop him and start trying to bed in Dean Henderson. They have absolutely no idea how to play an offside trap, that is down to relentless coaching. He has got the attacking just about spot on, but he has to take some blame for the ineptitude of the defending. Also bring Matic on, not Axel.
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reddev3 said:
I'm sick of reading this, the very fact that it gets said over and over game after game is proof that it is on Ole.

Also Tuanzebe is shocking in the air, if that was the plan then he probably would have been better bringing magic on who is 11cm taller, better in the air and a million times better under pressure seeing as though he has seen it all.

This is the problem with Ole, he's just really basic. defending a lead throw on defender, haven't conceded yet keep playing the same team/same way even if we are getting outplayed. Players out form? not changing them because I know they have been good in the past.

I also get the impression that if we're a drawing, the risk of going all out for he win is too much for him, it's continue as is to make sure we don't concede and hope we score rather than going all out to make sure we score and hope we don't concede. This could also explain our poor starts considering the score is 0-0, you must be able to count on one hand the amount of games we have come flying out the traps in the 2+ years under Ole no matter how big the occasion is.
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Barking up the wrong tree here guys. I’m someone who is usually critical of Ole and if he’s had a bad match I’m in here pointing it out. In the general discussion of him, I’ve been critical of the poor defending and set piece defending.
But this is a game by game performance thread and that’s how I use it.

I don’t think he got much wrong today, we carried on attacking at 3-2 and only tried to shut up shop during injury time as it should be. Everton were bound to start getting late free kicks so it made sense to bring on a defender, Matic in hindsight yes would have been the better option. But Everton had basically 3 shots today and scored from all of them (how the heck do you account for that) which tells you our overall set up and the unfolding of the game was in our favour.

And yea I know we need to be better defensively but those first two goals today can’t really be fixed on the training ground. There is an argument that the players who made those mistakes shouldn’t be playing but the mistakes were so avoidable.
Maguire isn’t going to stop being useless at taking control of a situation with training and degea pathetically palming a ball back into the six yard box can’t really be fixed with training. Unfortunately these things are ingrained in those two players and unfortunately I don’t think we have anything better at the club. Though that would then lead to the question why we spent 80 million on an average centre half and why have a portion of our fanbase spent two years pretending the current regimes transfer record is a good one but that’s for another thread....

The third goal yes, it’s from a set piece, we failed to hold the line and we concede way too many of them and that’s definitely on the coaching staff and at this points it’s bordering on negligence that it hasn’t been fixed.
 
Leroy The Red said:
Barking up the wrong tree here guys. I’m someone who is usually critical of Ole and if he’s had a bad match I’m in here pointing it out. In the general discussion of him, I’ve been critical of the poor defending and set piece defending.
But this is a game by game performance thread and that’s how I use it.

I don’t think he got much wrong today, we carried on attacking at 3-2 and only tried to shut up shop during injury time as it should be. Everton were bound to start getting late free kicks so it made sense to bring on a defender, Matic in hindsight yes would have been the better option. But Everton had basically 3 shots today and scored from all of them (how the heck do you account for that) which tells you our overall set up and the unfolding of the game was in our favour.

And yea I know we need to be better defensively but those first two goals today can’t really be fixed on the training ground. There is an argument that the players who made those mistakes shouldn’t be playing but the mistakes were so avoidable.
Maguire isn’t going to stop being useless at taking control of a situation with training and degea pathetically palming a ball back into the six yard box can’t really be fixed with training. Unfortunately these things are ingrained in those two players and unfortunately I don’t think we have anything better at the club. Though that would then lead to the question why we spent 80 million on an average centre half and why have a portion of our fanbase spent two years pretending the current regimes transfer record is a good one but that’s for another thread....

The third goal yes, it’s from a set piece, we failed to hold the line and we concede way too many of them and that’s definitely on the coaching staff and at this points it’s bordering on negligence that it hasn’t been fixed.
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Then we are going nowhere really, until something is done about the things you said. We will just be challenging for Top 4 until kingdom come.
 
Dr. StrangeHate said:
We are not going to win the title this season, but keeping in touch with City is good for the confidence of the team. Liverpool winning today is important for us in the long run.
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Unless Liverpool suddenly wake up, City will win the title by at least 10 points. Any team that drops 18 points at home and counting isn't going to get anywhere close to them.
 
Shark said:
Unless Liverpool suddenly wake up, City will win the title by at least 10 points. Any team that drops 18 points at home and counting isn't going to get anywhere close to them.
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If we lose touch with City completely this season then next season will again be seen as building up for a title challenge the season after. If we keep in touch with City we might get more players to mount an actual challenge next season.
 
Dr. StrangeHate said:
If we lose touch with City completely this season then next season will again be seen as building up for a title challenge the season after. If we keep in touch with City we might get more players to mount an actual challenge next season.
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I've no idea what you mean here.

The club will spend more and be more ambitious if we run City close? What are you basing this on?
 
MadDogg said:
Playing the occasional game here and a game there is difficult for anybody, but particularly a goalkeeper.

It's absolutely possible that Henderson might be no better than De Gea, or perhaps even worse. He might also be better. We won't know until he gets a proper run of games. What we do know is that Henderson was better at Sheffield United last season than De Gea was here, and De Gea is no longer good enough. We need to know whether Henderson is the right one to take over otherwise we need to start looking outside the club.
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Exactly, and it's not as if he's some unknown just coming up from the reserves. He's a keeper with extensive first-team experience who we went out of our way to bring back (and to whom we gave a pretty generous wage packet, if I'm not mistaken.)
 
Withnail said:
I've no idea what you mean here.

The club will spend more and be more ambitious if we run City close? What are you basing this on?
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If I were the Glazers, I would not spend more money just for a Top 4 challenge. For a title win/challenge I would spend money. Ole needs to show he can challenge till the end of season for Glazers to allow a good transfer spend.

Disclaimer: This is just my personal view. I don't know what the Glazers actually think.
 
His game management is still poor. Why did he bring on Axel when he can bring on Matic? Game management is natural. Either you have it or you do not have it. Some players can see moves ahead while others cannot see it in front of them. Matic is a good header of the ball and also very experienced. He knows what to do in these situations. He needs to get his act together.
 
jem said:
Exactly, and it's not as if he's some unknown just coming up from the reserves. He's a keeper with extensive first-team experience who we went out of our way to bring back (and to whom we gave a pretty generous wage packet, if I'm not mistaken.)
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I do not think Hendo is any better. He has his strengths and his weakness and he is not much better in claiming high balls and coming for them compared to DeGea. Where DeGea excels is his shot stopping.
 
Foxbatt said:
I do not think Hendo is any better. He has his strengths and his weakness and he is not much better in claiming high balls and coming for them compared to DeGea. Where DeGea excels is his shot stopping.
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Then we have wasted time and money giving Hendo a contract. However you cut it, it’s yet another feck up by the higher ups
 
I think he has made this quote because he realises that this teams defensive performance has nose dived since the title talk began.

He is lowering expectations to get some performance out of them. If we don't buy a CB and replace DDG at the end of this season, it will be massive negligence from our board.

There are 16 games to go now, and we need to make sure we come out fighting in the end. Can't let this mid season slumber destroy all momentum built in 2020.
 
An awful week for us and another failed season by the looks of things. Yes we still got the cups and top 4 chance, but the league looks lost now.
3 weeks ago we had the best position so it has been terrible from us recently.

Unless we actually wins the EL then I think he must go. I say even if he win it we should aim for a better manager if we can identify one.
 
Paul_Scholes18 said:
An awful week for us and another failed season by the looks of things. Yes we still got the cups and top 4 chance, but the league looks lost now.
3 weeks ago we had the best position so it has been terrible from us recently.

Unless we actually wins the EL then I think he must go. I say even if he win it we should aim for a better manager if we can identify one.
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Bore off! Luton are still looking..
 
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