Ole Gunnar Solskjær | 2021/22 Discussion

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Ole Gunnar Solksjaer's managerial qualities

Pros

1. Good man-manager
2. Knows the club
3. Encourages expressive play
4. Will blood youngsters
5. Buys well in the transfer market

Cons

1. Doesn't have a "big idea (e.g. Klopp-gegenpressing, Pep-FBs in midfield)" of coaching, doesn't instil patterns of play
2. Is reactive to other teams' tactics, not proactive (Pep, Nagelsmann, Tuchel)
3. Too risk averse - let one loss (Tottenham at home) make him play ultra-defensively when compared to lockdown 2019-20
4. Afraid of making changes - won't do "anything to win (Mourinho)" and makes too few subs too late.
5. Too nice externally (reports of "baby-faced assassin" internally notwithstanding), so our team doesn't get the "us vs. them" mentality Fergie was so good at instilling. Ole should have been running around during yesterday's VAR, inciting our players.

People can improve and Ole, who has had little top-class coaching experience, very well might. The question is, given the above, is Ole better suited to be a sporting director than a manager?

We have the best players in a decade not because of Glazer spending but mostly due to our Academy, and we can't lose this opportunity to really make progress towards multiple PL/CL trophies rather than be happy with top4.
 
Foxbatt said:
We don't have a bus to park. I have always said I don't think he is the man but today this result I would accept. Why? Because if we had gone gung-ho and lost it, it would have been worse.
We need to be realistic. We are not going to catch City. We are missing Pogba and Cavani. It's a massive loss.
My issues with Ole are different. He is not going to get Fred and McTominay to play like Xavi and Iniesta. They can't control the ball and they can't pass. Fred, when we have possession doesn't know what to do. He is good when we don't have possession.
We need a CF who can control the ball and bring others into play. Neither Greenwood nor Rashford can do that.
Today I won't bash him. If he loses to Palace I will.
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Good post.

See people. Its possible to be sceptical to the manager and still give a fair assesment
 
Hellboy said:
Greenwood is the easiest one to replace




Ole is perfect for the glazers as long as he gets top 4. We are a business and they could not care less about trophies unlike Roman or the Arabs.

Ole is happy to be here and will never put pressure on them to spend the money unlike LvG or Jose.

Watch us spend 60m again this summer and struggle to get top 4 next year
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Yeah until he is willing to speak up about the lack of investment then we can continue to expect a crap transfer spend again in the summer and find ourselves saying exactly the same thing this time next year about holes in the first XI
 
united for life said:
the problem is that we lack the depth we need. We’re not able to rest bruno and marcus for instance. Pogba got injured, that didn’t help either. I am not saying we are the finished article, i’m saying we did progress.

he spent the last 2 years bringing back the football we want to see from united. Again, it’s not complete yet and i never said that, but the progress is there. Ole took after mourinho almost shattered the team. After finishing second, the team almost had a free fall under mourinho, ole is fixing this.
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Jose was in free fall and dragging team with him but the idea that this caused some sort of long term damage is nonsense. As soon as Jose was sacked that solves the biggest problem, what Jose left behind was a team that should finish in the top four and that’s what we are now. Our football is better to watch but Ole has tweaked what Jose was doing rather than ripped it up and started again.

As I said I suspect we will finish the season pretty much exactly where we were 3 years ago, we’re going round in circles rather than progressing significantly so far.
 
AshRK said:
Just like how you predicted Chelsea under Lampard would do much better than Ole. Small tip you should stop writing as all you have done here is change your goalpost in regards to Ole.
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I also said they are both rubbish managers. So I’m not surprised he got sacked. If we had Roman Ole would have probably got sacked after we got embarrassed in the Champions League.
 
laughtersassassin said:


I don't want to be anti Ole but this is fairly criminal.

Biggest thing too is our subs in these games are so passive. Always like for like. We never go for the win.
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Criminal? The two teams that beat us are good sides and the defeat to Spurs was with 10 men after Lamela got away with something Martial was sent off for.

Id love to see us next season turn those D into W but as long as we perform in the should win games against “smaller” sides we’ll still end up ahead of most in that list.

With the right investment in the summer then we can start calling this criminal but where we stand right now we’re trying to establish ourselves as future contenders and so not losing to rivals is ok.

Nobody here had the belief this year would be the year we go for the title.
Foxbatt said:
We don't have a bus to park. I have always said I don't think he is the man but today this result I would accept. Why? Because if we had gone gung-ho and lost it, it would have been worse.
We need to be realistic. We are not going to catch City. We are missing Pogba and Cavani. It's a massive loss.
My issues with Ole are different. He is not going to get Fred and McTominay to play like Xavi and Iniesta. They can't control the ball and they can't pass. Fred, when we have possession doesn't know what to do. He is good when we don't have possession.
We need a CF who can control the ball and bring others into play. Neither Greenwood nor Rashford can do that.
Today I won't bash him. If he loses to Palace I will.
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Fair enough. Like finding Narnia to see a sensible critique of Ole.
 
Roboc7 said:
Jose was in free fall and dragging team with him but the idea that this caused some sort of long term damage is nonsense. As soon as Jose was sacked that solves the biggest problem, what Jose left behind was a team that should finish in the top four and that’s what we are now. Our football is better to watch but Ole has tweaked what Jose was doing rather than ripped it up and started again.

As I said I suspect we will finish the season pretty much exactly where we were 3 years ago, we’re going round in circles rather than progressing significantly so far.
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The problem with Joses reign was that he (as he does) went all in to win the league with little to no regard to the underlying issue or long term health of the club.

He made a bloated squad even more bloated and under him our wage bill nearly matched that of Citys, despite having nowhere near the same quality. Tbf, that was as much Eds fault as it was Joses, but it still meant Ole had a big cleaning up job to do.

Our age profile is much better right now and most of the deadwood have been shipped off. That initself wont help us win football matches, but it gives us a much better platform to build from
 
This maybe an unpopular opinion but I would be ruthless and get a new manager in for next season who can take us up a level. Afraid Ole has reached his ceiling to all those people who are Ole in. But sadly if we get top four/champions league football the stupid board will probably offer him a new contract
 
Bobcat said:
The problem with Joses reign was that he (as he does) went all in to win the league with little to no regard to the underlying issue or long term health of the club.

He made a bloated squad even more bloated and under him our wage bill nearly matched that of Citys, despite having nowhere near the same quality. Tbf, that was as much Eds fault as it was Joses, but it still meant Ole had a big cleaning up job to do.

Our age profile is much better right now and most of the deadwood have been shipped off. That initself wont help us win football matches, but it gives us a much better platform to build from
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Who was the deadwood that got shipped?
 
Slysi17 said:
This maybe an unpopular opinion but I would be ruthless and get a new manager in for next season who can take us up a level. Afraid Ole has reached his ceiling to all those people who are Ole in. But sadly if we get top four/champions league football the stupid board will probably offer him a new contract
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It’s a popular unliked opinion!
 
Slysi17 said:
This maybe an unpopular opinion but I would be ruthless and get a new manager in for next season who can take us up a level. Afraid Ole has reached his ceiling to all those people who are Ole in. But sadly if we get top four/champions league football the stupid board will probably offer him a new contract
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Who for? And why are you so sure they have such a high ceiling?
 
Bobcat said:
The problem with Joses reign was that he (as he does) went all in to win the league with little to no regard to the underlying issue or long term health of the club.

He made a bloated squad even more bloated and under him our wage bill nearly matched that of Citys, despite having nowhere near the same quality. Tbf, that was as much Eds fault as it was Joses, but it still meant Ole had a big cleaning up job to do.

Our age profile is much better right now and most of the deadwood have been shipped off. That initself wont help us win football matches, but it gives us a much better platform to build from
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No it meant Ed had a big cleaning up job to do, as you say he allowed it to happen and he will have been responsible for sorting it out. Selling off deadwood, selling to buy and signing younger players were all things the club wanted to do when Jose was in charge, it’s what co tributes to the meltdown. Fellaini was sold off when we didn’t even have a permanent manger, clearing the deadwood happens with or without Ole.

Ole has been part of that process, he isn’t responsible for it.
 
Feed Me said:
But we’re second and Sheff U are bottom. Why are people getting stressed about the artificial Big 6 construct? Arsenal and Spurs are mid table sides.
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Because it’s stick to beat Ole with. Nobody here expected us to be second in March, now it’s all about digging out negatives.
 
Aresma7 said:
If you are going to mention those games, add up that we should have won against sheffield, ref wouldnt let that happen. Everton scored in the last sec. that’s football
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That’s the easy way out just blaming the refs. We’ve had some bad decisions against us but the refs haven’t dictated our way of playing. We didn’t deserve to win against Shef Utd. We still played the same style and formation that we would against City.We are so predictable it’s ridiculous.
We played well against Everton in the first half. Probably the best we played all year. Second half was a travesty; conceding three goals like that.
 
RUCK4444 said:
Because it’s stick to beat Ole with. Nobody here expected us to be second in March, now it’s all about digging out negatives.
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It’s getting quite tiresome when there’s clear progress. I think people need to accept that you don’t get to the pinnacle of the sport in an instant – there is a journey and there are roadblocks along the way.

I honestly think I watched a different game to some posters yesterday, since I thought we went toe to toe with Chelsea and clearly set up with a high press – there was nothing negative about our approach.

The players failed to execute on the day, which speaks to a general lack of form and the need for some reinforcements.

Let’s get a good result against Palace and look forward to a positive end to the season. We are unquestionably progressing.
 
united for life said:
the problem is that we lack the depth we need. We’re not able to rest bruno and marcus for instance. Pogba got injured, that didn’t help either. I am not saying we are the finished article, i’m saying we did progress.

he spent the last 2 years bringing back the football we want to see from united. Again, it’s not complete yet and i never said that, but the progress is there. Ole took after mourinho almost shattered the team. After finishing second, the team almost had a free fall under mourinho, ole is fixing this.
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God post!
Mourinho himself called the 2 place in 17-18 as his biggest echevment in his career (I don't remember his exactly words)... my point is I believe it was a overetchement in 17-18 seasen, and right now we kind of deserves the points we have.
I dont belive we are the second best team if you look at the squad, more likely the fourth ore fifth. And with that in mind I think is hard to get rid of Ole if if even I have thought the thought...
But there is still alot of games coming up, so lets judge Ole and the team in maj.
 
Feed Me said:
It’s getting quite tiresome when there’s clear progress. I think people need to accept that you don’t get to the pinnacle of the sport in an instant – there is a journey and there are roadblocks along the way.

I honestly think I watched a different game to some posters yesterday, since I thought we went toe to toe with Chelsea and clearly set up with a high press – there was nothing negative about our approach.

The players failed to execute on the day, which speaks to a general lack of form and the need for some reinforcements.

Let’s get a good result against Palace and look forward to a positive end to the season. We are unquestionably progressing.
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Yeah, my thoughts exactly.

The denial of any progress is laughable and at this point it’s so obviously agenda driven.
 
Leftback99 said:
Who for? And why are you so sure they have such a high ceiling?
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Julien Naglisman would be better. I have seen reports Tottenham will go for him if Mourinho gets sacked. Why do you think Ole has such a high ceiling and we couldn't do better? I ain't saying that Ole hasn't been decent. I just think that Ole isnt the manager to take us from a top four side to title challengers. Hence he has reached his ceiling. Doesn't make subs early enough and his tactics are still average after him being in the job for 2 and a half seasons. If your happy just being top four side then fine but I am not.
 
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RUCK4444 said:
Yeah, my thoughts exactly.

The denial of any progress is laughable and at this point it’s so obviously agenda driven.
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I genuinely think people need to stop watching the punditry when United play, and stop using Twitter. The narratives are so toxic for our fan base.
 
According to The Athletic, we forced 11 turnovers in the Chelsea half yesterday, which represents a seasonal high. We lacked a cutting edge up front, but there was a lot to like in our set up.

Also no coincidence in my mind that this coincided with us being more defensively secure. I hate it when we defend deep and always think it’s a recipe for disaster.
 
Slysi17 said:
Julien Naglisman would be better. I have seen reports Tottenham will go for him if Mourinho gets sacked. Why do you think Ole has such a high ceiling and we couldn't do better? I ain't saying that Ole hasn't been decent. I just think that Ole isnt the manager to take us from a top four side to title challengers. Hence he has reached his ceiling. Doesn't make subs early enough and his tactics are still average after him being in the job for 2 and a half seasons. If your happy just being top four side then fine but I am not.
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Why though? If he wasn't young he wouldn't half half the hype around him. He's good but it's just blinkered thinking that things can only get better under a different manager. We've had champions league winning managers (the highest 'ceiling'?) and we were going backwards despite a couple of fortunate cup wins.

I don't think Ole has such a 'high ceiling' I think talk of ceilings is a load of nonsense to be honest. I don't think any manager here challenges Guardiola until we have better players than City.

I'm pretty sure that there was a stat the other day that our subs are no later than anybody else. Lack of quality on the bench is the problem, it's pointless subbing on average players and expecting them to make a difference.
 
BenitoSTARR said:
Criminal? The two teams that beat us are good sides and the defeat to Spurs was with 10 men after Lamela got away with something Martial was sent off for.

Id love to see us next season turn those D into W but as long as we perform in the should win games against “smaller” sides we’ll still end up ahead of most in that list.

With the right investment in the summer then we can start calling this criminal but where we stand right now we’re trying to establish ourselves as future contenders and so not losing to rivals is ok.

Nobody here had the belief this year would be the year we go for the title.

Fair enough. Like finding Narnia to see a sensible critique of Ole.
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Shouldn't they also be looking at why the Big 6 teams struggle to beat us?
 
BenitoSTARR said:
Criminal? The two teams that beat us are good sides and the defeat to Spurs was with 10 men after Lamela got away with something Martial was sent off for.

Id love to see us next season turn those D into W but as long as we perform in the should win games against “smaller” sides we’ll still end up ahead of most in that list.

With the right investment in the summer then we can start calling this criminal but where we stand right now we’re trying to establish ourselves as future contenders and so not losing to rivals is ok.

Nobody here had the belief this year would be the year we go for the title.

Fair enough. Like finding Narnia to see a sensible critique of Ole.
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Mate have some shame. We have scored 1 goal in all of these games. It is criminal.

I think a major reason is the McTom Fred pivot he plays versus the top teams. Of course yesterday it was practically our only option.
 
laughtersassassin said:
Mate have some shame. We have scored 1 goal in all of these games. It is criminal.

I think a major reason is the McTom Fred pivot he plays versus the top teams. Of course yesterday it was practically our only option.
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It takes two to tango. Focus on the other team as much as you focus on us if you actually want to find out why. fecking Pep played two fecking holding midfielders against us, Pep of all people!
 
AshRK said:
Maybe this time we kick on from that 2nd position which we didn't in 18-19 season. I don't think finishing 2nd will be something to celebrate but hands on heart many would have taken us finishing 2nd with 75 points at the start of the season. No one expected us to win or to be fair even challenge for it but we have made decent progress again. Now whether we kick it or not only time will tell.
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I don’t think anyone would have thought 75 points would be enough for any team to finish second.

I doubt anyone have been impressed by us getting 75 points before start of the season. Last season we only had Bruno for half the season and had our worst ever Premier League start, a small improvement should have been inevitable. Finishing second would have been seen as impressive before season started but in the context of how season has panned out less so.

It’s possible we could kick on but making that jump is the tough part and there’s no real sign of it happening.
 
dabeast said:
Paul Scholes pointed out yesterday that because our base triangle (Lindelof, DDG and Maguire) is weak and therefore not trusted, our holding midfielders have to sit right on top of them and there is no connection, sometimes 40 yards, between them and our forwards.
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Scholes is so fecking wrong. We play 2 defensive midfielders because they are our default tactics, we’d play the same with Vidic and Rio.
 
Regulus Arcturus Black said:
Scholes is so fecking wrong. We play 2 defensive midfielders because they are our default tactics, we’d play the same with Vidic and Rio.
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They are just the two base midfielder in a 4231, I honestly don’t understand the criticism. They both put in a huge shift defensively (the thing everyone moans at Pogba for not doing) and also in attack too as you could argue they had some of our best chances in the game.
 
Berbasbullet said:
They are just the two base midfielder in a 4231, I honestly don’t understand the criticism. They both put in a huge shift defensively (the thing everyone moans at Pogba for not doing) and also in attack too as you could argue they had some of our best chances in the game.
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Agreed.

The targeting of Fred and McTominay on here is utterly bizarre. They are two good players whose job is to be the hard-working engine in the middle of the pitch and they do it very well. They contribute defensively to help keep us tight at the back, but they also sprint forward and can get the ball into the feet of our frontline, and provide the basis of those quick transitions for when we break forward. Neither of them are prime Pirlo, but that's not their job and personally I think it's the strongest area of the pitch for us at the moment.
 
Leftback99 said:
Why though? If he wasn't young he wouldn't half half the hype around him. He's good but it's just blinkered thinking that things can only get better under a different manager. We've had champions league winning managers (the highest 'ceiling'?) and we were going backwards despite a couple of fortunate cup wins.

I don't think Ole has such a 'high ceiling' I think talk of ceilings is a load of nonsense to be honest. I don't think any manager here challenges Guardiola until we have better players than City. An expectional manager with decent players can exceed expectations and win the title with inferior players just like Ferguson did and previous managers have.

I'm pretty sure that there was a stat the other day that our subs are no later than anybody else. Lack of quality on the bench is the problem, it's pointless subbing on average players and expecting them to make a difference.
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But why do you think Ole had what it takes to win us a premier league or a champion leagues. He doesn't. He hasn't shown he can do that. He still plays McTominay and Fred together and is leaving out Donny Van De Beek. Plus he is playing our worst centre back pairing in Maguire and Lindelof when Eric Bailey should be one of the starting centre backs. Plus we have lost 3 semi finals in a row. Also we haven't beaten any of the top 6 this season which includes Tottenham and Arsenal who are awful. It included 5 games where we drew 0-0.today we had Donny Van De Beek and Anthony Martial on the bench who could of changed the game. Give me a reason why you think Ole can win us a premier league or champions league title. Otherwise your views are blinkered just because Ole won us the treble and he's a legend.
 
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Feed Me said:
I genuinely think people need to stop watching the punditry when United play, and stop using Twitter. The narratives are so toxic for our fan base.
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Yeah, I think they are just more prone to absorbing the ABU media and posts and punditry. Which tbf is rife with our club.

When the anti-United narrative is strong with the pundits and twitter in particular you can usually take that as an indication we are doing ok.
 
Talented, well motivated individuals like Bruno will drag you through games against average teams, but against the top teams you need proper coaching. That's where we have struggled since the beginning of Ole's reign and he either doesn't recognise it, or can't fix it. I'm happy for him to stick around as we are doing ok, and maybe he will learn some day, but we should be keeping an eye out for the next time a really top manager comes available. I don't have much faith in Ole ever becoming a great coach long term.
 
Impressed with the first half tactics, Chelsea didn’t expect that high press with our slow CBs. This performance was much better then the other top6 ones we had. With Pogba and Cavani in the team we might had won. Chelsea look really good under Tuchel so far and are hard to break down.
We have to remember that this team isn’t ready to challenge for the title yet, the squad is not good enough and have holes. Its very clear when key players are out too and Rashford/Martial in bad form.
I think and really hope Ole will play more attacking football when he got the team for it. He’s not naive like Bielsa and go all out attack whatever opposition or circumstances there is.
A creative cm beside a DM, a striker and rw, pacy cb to partner one of Lindelöf/Maguire and we can judge Ole and demand a title challenge.
We are taking steps forward and are almost there. Under Mourinho, LVG, Moyes is was just dark, hard to watch our football and no light in sight as it is now under Ole. It was/is a real challenge for Ole to clean up after those managers and its hard to say how long it will take, up to the board really with the backing of him.

I think the football we played under interim Ole is how he really wants to play but with the massacre of injuries in the spring and tired legs he realised it wasn’t possible, yet. Things take time and I still have fate in him.

I will also say that there are some concerns, the to late or wrong substitutions, the CB partnerships and the favouriting of players. If its a lack of depth or trust issues I don’t know but he could easily been giving more playtime to some and less for others.
 
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