Ole Gunnar Solskjær | 2021/22 Discussion

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Swap managers and we win 3-0 last night.

Our squad is a lot stronger than Villareal so I found it pretty funny listening to Rio/Hargreaves/Scholes talk about lack of squad depth whilst ignoring Ole's in game management.

I am pretty sure these pundits also said at the end of last season/ begining of this season that Ole will be judged against winning trophies this season, now they're saying he will judged against trophies next season.

He's done a decent job to point us in the right direction but he's not the bloke that will lead us to honours.
 
Cast5 said:
Horrendous tactics absolutely dominating the game and losing the game on pens? Give your head a wobble.
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Howd we dominate? We had 3 shots.

We just passed it around slowly like peak van goal. We hardly troubled their keeper.
 
UnitedFan93 said:
Swap managers and we win 3-0 last night.

Our squad is a lot stronger than Villareal so I found it pretty funny listening to Rio/Hargreaves/Scholes talk about lack of squad depth whilst ignoring Ole's in game management.

I am pretty sure these pundits also said at the end of last season/ begining of this season that Ole will be judged against winning trophies this season, now they're saying he will judged against trophies next season.

He's done a decent job to point us in the right direction but he's not the bloke that will lead us to honours.
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Our ex players who work as pundits completely are losing credibility because of Ole. Scholes and Gary criticized Jose and Lvg from day one. And in these 3 years they are not saying a word against their friend
 
KiD MoYeS said:
Then why has nobody a response. People are listing players that have done next to f*ck all this season as viable options off the bench. Just shows the level of the squad Ole is working with. He has done such a clean up job none of you realise. Such is the social media age you all want instant impact which just isn't possible under shit ownership. This will take time.
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Been pointed out a few times but these players have been brought in whilst Ole was at the club. The fees to bring those players in were in excess of 90 million. If they’re not good enough to come on and influence a game in which a number of players appear to be either carrying injuries or completely fatigued then you have to question why those players were brought in.

You can’t have it both ways. It can’t be that Ole has rebuilt the squad and doesn’t have a good enough bench whilst at the same time almost 100 million worth of talent on said bench was brought in whilst he was at the club and he doesn’t take responsibility for it.

This is the stuff that grinds peoples gears on here. The moving of goalposts leading to this insufferable defend the manager at all costs attitude.

Why can’t it just be that Oles made some good signings but has also made some not so good signings. It happens, even the elite managers make bad signings. Our bench is our bench because Ole took advice off those close to him and signed the likes of James and Vdb, without appearing to do enough of his own due diligence.
 
Wibble said:
Blood hell. I don't recognise our fans any more. A great 2nd place in the league and lose a European final on penalties.
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Yeah, I don't recognise some of our fans either. "A great 2nd place in the league" where we are closer to 7th than the 1st means feck all. Many people wanted Jose out after his 2nd place finish because we were shambolic against Sevilla. But now look at us. Crashing out of CL groups and then failing to win the competition we are clearly the favourites is apparently a good achievement. I don't have the names but I have no doubts some of you calling that a good/very good season wanted Jose out after his 2nd season. It's not a good season. It's a season where we achieved the very lowest minimum targets that will unfortunately still keep Ole in his job. Nothing more.
 
He has to hit the ground running next season, crowds being back and if we curl out some of those home performances again it won’t be long before the murmurs start.
 
The worst big game managerial performance I've ever seen.

Plenty of us questioned the starting lineup. When was the last time Pogba and McTominay worked well as a two? Lindelof and Bailly without a screening player in front of them?

Still, managers do get lineups and tactics wrong. What is inexcusable is how he did absolutely nothing to respond. I've long thought he can't make subs because he can't read the game, if we don't get it right from the start it's a complete lottery. Last night he froze and didn't even try to buy a ticket. He's get a lot of things right but he will never be a top manager if he can't address things in game.

He is a good custodian of the club but that's all he is until we can find a genuinely top manager.
 
The board should see this performance and genuinely consider if now is the time to change the manager. It doesn't all have to be a shambles when the manager is sacked. We're in a reasonably decent position for a proper manager to come in and make an impact.

Our 2nd position gives false hopes. We're devoid of a tactical plan even in simple home games, just look at our performances at OT against the 3 relegated teams. The in-game management and lack of guts to make a tough call have cost us and will continue to cost us time and again in the future.

This is the 3rd season in a row under Ole where we've ended in a very negative headspace. Hence, our starts to every season is equally depressing and then when we hit a purple patch and haul ourselves to the top 4, it is seen as 'progress'. This rut can only be changed by a proper manager. We desperately need one.
 
He was quite animated when we were losing, towards end of the game he just seemed to freeze up and had a clueless look about him reminiscent of Moyes.

Just stood there out of ideas hoping someone would save him and terrified to make any changes. Emery didn’t have great options on the bench but his subs changed the game.
 
I still feel like he’s hit his ceiling with us. We are at best a 2nd-4th league team and the bridesmaid and never the bride in cup competitions. He’s still the guy who sets it up for the next guy who will really take us forward.

He has next season for me but the pressure will be on, as the ‘needs more time‘ excuse is wearing thin after 150 games of managing Utd. If he gets the players he wants then it will almost certainly be no excuses anymore.
 
I really want to back Ole, truly! but I think he has taken us a far as he can. Even with new players like sancho I’m still not sure he can

He left a proven pen saver on the bench for one who’s record is awful
He took Rashford off, name one dribble he pulled off tonight compared to Greenwood who he did take off
No VDB who is €40mil talent wasted on the bench
Fred did nothing
No Amad to try something different

this game should never have reached pens but his game management is brutal. Clock is ticking me thinks
 
arnie_ni said:
Howd we dominate? We had 3 shots.

We just passed it around slowly like peak van goal. We hardly troubled their keeper.
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We had 14 shots, but only 3 on target.

And we did dominate the 90 minutes, but couldn't break down the parked bus - this is where having some extra quality depth (Sancho, a fit Martial, etc) would have made the difference.
 
I'm not really sold on his man management. I think he is just very communicative with the players. To me excellent man management means getting the players to act almost as if they can die for the manager and would go wherever he goes. I dont think that's the case with Ole
 
arnie_ni said:
Howd we dominate? We had 3 shots.

We just passed it around slowly like peak van goal. We hardly troubled their keeper.
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While that's true that was clearly their game plan. They were organised and knew how to defend crosses. Pau torres and Albiol won every header with ease.

Emery had done his homework and knew that we struggle against park buses, they relied on getting that 1 chance or going to penalties. It was up to us to kill them before that point, but we just can't seem to do it.

Ball possession and passing stats all favour us massively, it's just the same old story of not actually knowing what to do with no spaces.

We desperately need to work on this, we need either a new manager or a coach that actually knows how to form patterns to work your way behind defences.

It's clear to me that with our fullbacks it's not possible to just load the box, leave them wide and hope for the best. It might work for liverpool as they've got 2 great offensive fullbacks, but not for us.
 
It’s a sackable offence for leaving Rashford on the pitch for 120 minutes yesterday. He had one of the worst performances I have ever seen from a United player. I cannot believe he took Greenwood off instead of him. Ole is absolutely spineless and scared of the players and it really shows in the big games. Ole is reactive and not proactive he will never make a tactical sub he only makes reactive subs (when someone gets injured). We will never win anything with “Ole at the wheel”.
 
If our manager was not called Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, then our fanbase and our ex-players who are pundits, would all be saying these things:

- he is tactically inept
- his in-game management is atrocious
- he can't inspire the players from the touchline
- he is absolutely crap and shouldn't be anywhere near Manchester United


As it is, because he is an ex-player who is a legend of the club, his ability as a manager is completely overlooked, and instead this is said about him by our fanbase and ex-player pundits:

- give him time
- he's taking us in the right direction
- he only needs to sign a few more players for us to start challenging


Let's be brutally honest about him...

If he was to leave Manchester United, no other top European club would have him as their manager - and that tells you everything you need to know about him.
 
Nickelodeon said:
The board should see this performance and genuinely consider if now is the time to change the manager. It doesn't all have to be a shambles when the manager is sacked. We're in a reasonably decent position for a proper manager to come in and make an impact.

Our 2nd position gives false hopes. We're devoid of a tactical plan even in simple home games, just look at our performances at OT against the 3 relegated teams. The in-game management and lack of guts to make a tough call have cost us and will continue to cost us time and again in the future.

This is the 3rd season in a row under Ole where we've ended in a very negative headspace. Hence, our starts to every season is equally depressing and then when we hit a purple patch and haul ourselves to the top 4, it is seen as 'progress'. This rut can only be changed by a proper manager. We desperately need one.
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I've been impressed with what Ole's achieved in getting a squad together after years of managers decimating it and building a collection of random players which was always going to take years to undo. Last night the subs and seeming inability to spot the issues as they were building from 70 minutes on and not react was a major issue though. Tactically we can't break teams down, but our right back and lack of somebody who will take on players on the touchline is a major cause of that issue as the opposition know that they only have to protect the ball back into the centre.

You're right that moving to a different manager doesn't have to be a shambles. It can just be the right time sometimes and Ole has shown that he is very good at certain things and has managed to achieve what the 3 previous managers didn't by building solid foundations and a team spirit.

For me, the ideal would be to move Ole into an advisory role on the squad side so we can maintain the momentum he's gained by going for the right type of players and the right ages. The argument will be that not all the players were perfect, but that's never going to be the case and the steps we've taken on the squad building side have been significant and I wouldn't want that to be thrown aside as another manager comes in and tears everything up.
 
An extremely limited manager who has no business managing a CL club. I would say I am amazed he's still in a job, but then again when you look at the people who make those decisions, it makes sense.
 
The Hilton said:
We had 14 shots, but only 3 on target.

And we did dominate the 90 minutes, but couldn't break down the parked bus - this is where having some extra quality depth (Sancho, a fit Martial, etc) would have made the difference.
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It's the reverse of the city game. They had the ball and a few pot shots, but we were comfortable and won easily.

We didn't threaten them. They didn't look like conceding any more than the one they did really.
 
If he is our manager at the start of next season with Conte and Zidane available then there’s no hope for us. Last night was pathetic.
 
arnie_ni said:
It's the reverse of the city game. They had the ball and a few pot shots, but we were comfortable and won easily.

We didn't threaten them. They didn't look like conceding any more than the one they did really.
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It's nothing like the City game - we tore them to shreds repeatedly on the break, created a bunch of chances, and battered them really.

Villareal were basically Stoke/Burnley, it took half an hour to get out of their half, nicking a goal with a set piece, they spoiled and wasted time from the very start, and played for penalties.
 
The Hilton said:
It's nothing like the City game - we tore them to shreds repeatedly on the break, created a bunch of chances, and battered them really.

Villareal were basically Stoke/Burnley, it took half an hour to get out of their half, nicking a goal with a set piece, they spoiled and wasted time from the very start, and played for penalties.
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I meant City with the ball. We didn't trouble them at all. That was their gameplay and they were comfortable with it and we didn't look like disrupting it all.

We had the ball but done nothing with it,.exactly what they thought, what they wanted.

We didn't bring on any subs to change it up, mata or dvb might have dragged someone out of position with a clever bit of movement for example.

In the end, we settled for pens as well by not trying to change the game.
 
Wibble said:
Blood hell. I don't recognise our fans any more. A great 2nd place in the league and lose a European final on penalties and you lots are crying as if we we were Sheffield United. If the current membership of the Caf were fans in 1974 we wouldn't have got 10k to OT much less 57k. Ole has been a huge upgrade on every post-SAF manager and he has done more than enough to get at least another season. Which he will get.

27 April 1974Manchester CityH0–156,996
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In Jose’s full two seasons, we once finished second (with 6 points more), won the league Cup, won Europa, passed the group stage of UCL.

How has Ole been better (and mind you, I wanted Jose gone at the end of his second season). It is blatantly obvious that Ole has reached his ceiling with us. This is the best we will be under him, so if you are happy with pointless second place finishes without challenging for the league, and getting beaten by European meh teams like Red Bull or Villarreal, then I am happy for you.
 
He has to do something big next season, i'm starting to lose faith in him. I think he'll get proper reinforcements this summer, after that no more excuses. We are just too soft as a team, never seem to have enough to get over the finish line. I think we'll have to take a serious look at the manager soon enough.
 
Listening to Sir Alex's interview with Neville on ladbible and his mentality to win a game by getting attackers on and sacrificing defensive players compounds the poor game management by Solskjaer.

We had them on the back foot going into extra time and we just let them wrestle control back. Why not use Amad, James and VDB if they are on the bench, Greenwood for Fred was the most negative substitution we could have made.

For me I dont want to see this anymore, our XI was good enough to finish second in the PL, it should have been more than enough to dispatch 7th place Villareal. So the blame has to go the manager for me.
 
shabz said:
Listening to Sir Alex's interview with Neville on ladbible and his mentality to win a game by getting attackers on and sacrificing defensive players compounds the poor game management by Solskjaer.

We had them on the back foot going into extra time and we just let them wrestle control back. Why not use Amad, James and VDB if they are on the bench, Greenwood for Fred was the most negative substitution we could have made.

For me I dont want to see this anymore, our XI was good enough to finish second in the PL, it should have been more than enough to dispatch 7th place Villareal. So the blame has to go the manager for me.
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My main issue with Ole last night. We should’ve turned the screw after we equalised.
 
KiD MoYeS said:
Nah, you're wrong. We've been heavily reliant on the same eleven or twelve players for every two or three days all season. We also missed our captain and most important player. We learned nothing new tonight, people are just getting their panties in a twist. We need a centre-back, no shit could have told you that in August.
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We played villareal my guy not real Madrid. You don't need prime Ronaldo on the bench to beat these. Just a proper plan b.
 
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