Ole Gunnar Solskjær | 2021/22 Discussion

Status
Not open for further replies.
Bilbo said:
We do have a very squad. It's great to see what's been built here. A team with potential to be excited by. Seems many can't wait to pull it down though
Click to expand...

Tbf, I'm generally seeing most being happy with the squad for the first time in ages. You'll always have the agenda posters having issues with certain players though, so nothing new there.

I honestly can't fathom how anyone isn't absolutely buzzing about watching us when everyone is fit and available. Even if you don't rate Ole, at least give him the chance to see what he can do this season. If he fails, fair enough, ask the tough questions. But until then, let's enjoy the ride and see how we fare.
 
ITunited said:
There’s a guy here who said we offered him a new contract because we were scared big clubs like PSG would snap him up.
Click to expand...
There's also people who after every dropped points call him a failed cardiff manager, worst manager in the league, a manager who will not even get a job in Norway, worse than Arteta etc. I just happen to see more extreme opinions from Ole outer than inners on a regular basis.
 
ITunited said:
Yeah it’s all subjective. Everbody sees what they want to see even if they don’t want to admit it.
Click to expand...
It's not subjective but facts. Those comments are there to be seen just after yesterday's match and after Southampton match.
 
ITunited said:
Yeah it’s all subjective. Everbody sees what they want to see even if they don’t want to admit it.
Click to expand...
Come on man. That's not subjective. Just compare the pages this thread goes up by after a good win vs when we lose/draw/win unconvincingly
 
anant said:
Come on man. That's not subjective. Just compare the pages this thread goes up by after a good win vs when we lose/draw/win unconvincingly
Click to expand...

To be fair, the player performance threads are similar after poor performances/results.

It's in our nature to be more vocal when we're displeased vs when we're happy.
 
AshRK said:
There's also people who after every dropped points call him a failed cardiff manager, worst manager in the league, a manager who will not even get a job in Norway, worse than Arteta etc. I just happen to see more extreme opinions from Ole outer than inners on a regular basis.
Click to expand...
I feel the issue is some go overboard in criticising him i.e. worst in the league when it's completely subjective and we don't know how shit Pep would be with Burnley's team or vice versa if Dyche would be incredible with City's squad but of those points you mentioned, you can answer the rest very easily and some aren't really extreme. There's an issue of posters getting way to defensive of criticism and then also posters just trolling against Ole looking for reactions.

He did fail as Cardiff manager - no shame there and it's not particularly relevant to anything to do with United.
He clearly did and will get other jobs in Norway, that's a weird criticism as he won the league there.
Worse than Arteta, see the Dyche comment, can't compare us with a midtable club.

Personally I think you have to compare Ole with Pep, Tuchel and Klopp. We have to win something this year.
 
tomaldinho1 said:
I feel the issue is some go overboard in criticising him i.e. worst in the league when it's completely subjective and we don't know how shit Pep would be with Burnley's team or vice versa if Dyche would be incredible with City's squad but of those points you mentioned, you can answer the rest very easily and some aren't really extreme. There's an issue of posters getting way to defensive of criticism and then also posters just trolling against Ole looking for reactions.

He did fail as Cardiff manager - no shame there and it's not particularly relevant to anything to do with United.
He clearly did and will get other jobs in Norway, that's a weird criticism as he won the league there.
Worse than Arteta, see the Dyche comment, can't compare us with a midtable club.

Personally I think you have to compare Ole with Pep, Tuchel and Klopp. We have to win something this year.
Click to expand...

Calling him worse than arteta or the worst in the league is just going overboard or just trolling. Yes one can ignore these comments but then the issue is these comments are way too constant.

I agree that he has to be measured with the best and we as a club should aim for the best. I am not going to say win the PL or CL or else bust but definitely challenge for the title and go till the latter stage of CL(of course depending on the draw) and win atleast one trophy. Note these are bare minimum that I am expecting.
 
Last edited:
AshRK said:
I agree that he has to be measured with the best and we as a club should aim for the best. I am not going to say win the PL or CL or else bust but definitely challenge for the title and go till the latter stage of CL(of course depending on the draw) and win atleast one trophy. Note these are bare minimum that I am expecting.
Click to expand...
Yes I'd agree with that in terms of rough expectations.

CL group we should 100% qualify 1st from but after that it's luck. PL we have to at minimum be in the fight until the last couple of games. I couldn't care less about the EFL cup and would rather we played a second string but FA cup would be nice to see us go far and then it's about luck in the draw as well.
 
Robbie Boy said:
Well, try reasoned responses, instead of coming across like you're constantly having a breakdown because people don't rate Ole. You really shouldn't be taking it personally, and as I said, if you post in hyperbole, expect the responses to be hyperbolic.
Click to expand...

There's no use with reasoned responses with Ole outs or doubters. Their standards and expectations are "too high" for Manchester United football club.

I'm not the one having breakdown everytime we win.

These people are, saying oh if we have elite manager, ole can't coach, carrick can't coach, bla bla bla.

In truth they know shite mate, they know shite. Who are these people with footballing badges?

Get behind your manager, your team, and your club during their biggest season after steady progress.

Criticism is fine, but not after a hard fought win, it's annoying.
 
meamth said:
There's no use with reasoned responses with Ole outs or doubters. Their standards and expectations are "too high" for Manchester United football club.

I'm not the one having breakdown everytime we win.

These people are, saying oh if we have elite manager, ole can't coach, carrick can't coach, bla bla bla.

In truth they know shite mate, they know shite. Who are these people with footballing badges?

Get behind your manager, your team, and your club during their biggest season after steady progress.

Criticism is fine, but not after a hard fought win, it's annoying.
Click to expand...
Bla bla bla :)
Cheer up and thank god, you are not the one having the breakdown. I think, you way overestimate what most of "them" put into their posts. Frustration after a bad result. Get over it. And if you want, get behind anybody you would like to be behind. But accept, that not everybody is living life following your standards.

:) Man I wish I would be more capable with web-technique. Would be great to compare numbers of posts over time... Number of posts with criticism against the manager and number of posts criticising those who criticize :D
 
meamth said:
There's no use with reasoned responses with Ole outs or doubters. Their standards and expectations are "too high" for Manchester United football club.

I'm not the one having breakdown everytime we win.

These people are, saying oh if we have elite manager, ole can't coach, carrick can't coach, bla bla bla.

In truth they know shite mate, they know shite. Who are these people with footballing badges?

Get behind your manager, your team, and your club during their biggest season after steady progress.

Criticism is fine, but not after a hard fought win, it's annoying.
Click to expand...

Well maybe stay out of the Ole thread for a-bit if it riles you up so much. Or, have a debate with the posters who have reasonable doubts about Ole, rather than the extreme ones.

The truth is, none of us know much, we're all just a bunch of opinionated footie fans shooting the shit on an internet forum.
 
If Ole thinks our current midfielders are capable of winning us trophies, then we have no choice but to trust him. He's had plenty of budget and time to upgrade, so there's no excuses. Good luck Ole.

Robbie Boy said:
Well maybe stay out of the Ole thread for a-bit if it riles you up so much. Or, have a debate with the posters who have reasonable doubts about Ole, rather than the extreme ones.

The truth is, none of us know much, we're all just a bunch of opinionated footie fans shooting the shit on an internet forum.
Click to expand...

except Shola's dad. I'm sure he knows something.
 
Any claims of Ole being ruthless with squad decisions behind the scenes, or good at moving on dead wood, can feck off for good after this window.

If it were up to him, James, Lingard and Martial would all stay at United forever. And he genuinely looks at McTominay and Fred and sees players worthy of starting every game for us. All you need to do to get contract extensions under Ole is to run around a lot or appeal to his apparently overflowing sentimentalism.
 
hobbers said:
Any claims of Ole being ruthless with squad decisions behind the scenes, or good at moving on dead wood, can feck off for good after this window.

If it were up to him, James, Lingard and Martial would all stay at United forever. And he genuinely looks at McTominay and Fred and sees players worthy of starting every game for us. All you need to do to get contract extensions under Ole is to run around a lot or appeal to his apparently overflowing sentimentalism.
Click to expand...
This didn't age quite so well, did it?
 
hobbers said:
Any claims of Ole being ruthless with squad decisions behind the scenes, or good at moving on dead wood, can feck off for good after this window.

If it were up to him, James, Lingard and Martial would all stay at United forever. And he genuinely looks at McTominay and Fred and sees players worthy of starting every game for us. All you need to do to get contract extensions under Ole is to run around a lot or appeal to his apparently overflowing sentimentalism.
Click to expand...
Is it not tiring being so desperately miserable?
 
If Ole isn't pushing for a midfielder, then he thinks our midfield is good enough to compete.

No excuses this season.

Hopefully he proves a lot of people wrong and we have a great season.
 
Pexbo said:
Yeah Ole spent the last 24 hours begging for James to stay.
Click to expand...

Maybe not quite begging but I bet he put forward a case to James to try to convince him to stay.

Every reference to any sort of James deal all window has said Ole does not want him to leave. The only reason he's leaving and others further behind in the pecking order are not is that he's clearly pushing it through himself.
 
hobbers said:
Maybe not quite begging but I bet he put forward a case to James to try to convince him to stay.

Every reference to any sort of James deal all window has said Ole does not want him to leave. The only reason he's leaving and others further behind in the pecking order are not is that he's clearly pushing it through himself.
Click to expand...

Ever considered that the reason we got close to £30m is because Ole hadn’t discarded him as a waste of space?
 
Pexbo said:
Ever considered that the reason we got close to £30m is because Ole hadn’t discarded him as a waste of space?
Click to expand...

No I put that down to Leeds having a bizarre and presumably data-driven fixation with him.
 
anant said:
Come on man. That's not subjective. Just compare the pages this thread goes up by after a good win vs when we lose/draw/win unconvincingly
Click to expand...
But this is not only related to Ole. Supporters of any team, and generally of other team sports I would say, are more vocal after a loss.
 
As always there's a middle ground. The performance yesterday was pretty abhorrent, and far from the first time we look utterly uncoached under Ole.

But, it's kind of an 'odd XI' at the moment in that Sancho and Varane had their first starts, James is out on the wing and Pogba/Fred has never worked.

Assuming we can successfully bed in just those two, get McT and Fred functioning properly and get back some more of the attacking depth, we definitely shouldn't be seeing that level of performance.
 
The Mitcher said:
Yet he got rid of one them and has actively tried to get rid of Lingard. You're full of it.
Click to expand...

No it just seems you're deluded.

Tried to get rid of Lingard :lol: If Ole wanted rid of Lingard he'd have been sold weeks ago.

Take Ole at his word, he views/viewed both James and Lingard as United players and wants both in his squad. Only way either was ever going to leave this window is if they asked to leave.
 
hobbers said:
No it just seems you're deluded.

Tried to get rid of Lingard :lol: If Ole wanted rid of Lingard he'd have been sold weeks ago.

Take Ole at his word, he views/viewed both James and Lingard as United players and wants both in his squad. Only way either was ever going to leave this window is if they asked to leave.
Click to expand...
When the player refuses to leave, Ole and the club can't actually do anything about that, you fool. Why the hell did he go out on loan if Ole wants him? Answer that.
 
The thing with the criticism of performances like last match, is that these types of performances have been going on for far too long.

Case in point the Europa League final. Ole was badly exposed against the 7th best team in Spain, and basically all the complaints throughout the season manifested in that game which we lost in pretty shocking fashion. At the time it was a big deal, but time heals all wounds, and thus it's now been forgotten.

Fast forward a few months, and with huge investments and multiple top players coming in, we're still seeing similar issues. And pointing them out still seems to be met with the same old "7 points out of 9", or "only 3 games in", and so on. The thing is, these issues have been there for too long and have already cost us. And if we don't find a way to solve them, you can be sure they'll cost us again, certainly at the highest level.

And if we couldn't even win the Europa League against a mid-level team due to glaring issues that were consistently pointed out by "moaners" throughout the season, what exactly gives people hope after seeing the same things pop up again this season? The only hope I can see is that our world class signings can cover up those deficiencies and basically hard carry us over the finish line.
 
The Mitcher said:
When the player refuses to leave, Ole and the club can't actually do anything about that, you fool. Why the hell did he go out on loan if Ole wants him? Answer that.
Click to expand...

Why are you getting so angry about this? :lol:

When Ole consistently puts an arm around Lingard, as he has with James, Jones and Martial as well, and promises him a chance to fight for a place in the squad, you can hardly be surprised when he then refuses to push for a move away from a big club and earning £75k a week. He went out on loan to play football after a long period of not playing any football, quite simple. Also partly for his Euro prospects and partly to increase his market value.

Honestly what sort of view do people like you have of Ole? He's brilliant at man management while also being a duplicitous arse hole? He motivates and praises players who fall short while secretly trying to get rid of them by hook or by crook?

I'm pretty sure if Ole was actually ruthless at putting the clubs interests before sentimentality he'd have been unequivocal with the dead wood about their chances and unequivocal with the board about what to do with them. Also Matic and Mata wouldn't have extensions. Patience with Martial and Lingard would have expired long ago. Fred and McTominay wouldn't be set in stone as our first choice midfield pairing.
 
i love Ole and think he's done a fantastic job so far but if he fails to sort out our midfield this season I'd put the blame squarely on his shoulders

he's had plenty of windows and plenty of funds to build his team, but he's (so far) neglected it

the only conclusion I can come to is he just doesn't see it as a problem that needs fixing

hopefully the performances improve just as they did from last seasons early games

but 7/9 points is fine

we might end up in a situation where fans are calling for his head during a title challenge the way this is going
 
Last edited:
As good as Sancho is and will be for us, in hindsight a top quality CDM like Rice or Ndidi should've been prioritised given the budget available. Let's hope Fred adapts to the solo role fast.
 
The real reason we have no interest in signing a midfielder is, aside from putting the arm around Jones, Martial and Lingard and (purposefully or not) convincing them all to stay, we gave Mata and Matic extensions and for some bizarre reason decided we need 4 senior goalkeepers instead of 3. And even with James leaving are sitting on 25 players over the age of 21 (26 if Sancho counts towards that, don't know if he makes the age cut-off).

So because of how poor we've been at shifting deadwood we could not register another midfielder even if we signed one, without more outgoings. It's been stellar squad management.
 
Last edited:
@Wumminator
Obviously improved since Jose left, which was a low point as bad as LvG's second season Christmas or Moyes losing 8-0 to City, Liverpool, and Everton. Improved firstly in terms of (visible) spirit, but also personnel, results, and style. All to his credit.

Also improved season-on-season based on points, though that's a little harder to pin down.
When he came in, excellent in his caretaker spell, very poor once he became permanent.
Then next season starts with incomplete recruitment (obvious holes at CM and RW), 4-0 vs Chelsea but soon Pogba and Martial are injured and it's 6 points off 4th place by Jan, with some awful football. Bruno changes everything, Martial comes back in form, some amazing football when the season restarts, 4th secured on the last day.
Strange signings, leaving the same 2 gaps in the team- and next season has an awful start, nobody except Bruno and Rashford are performing. November and Feb/March are much better, a mostly solid run till 2nd.

That's the results. Spells of good results (coinciding with good football) and spells of pretty dire stuff. I'm guessing his caretaker spell, the lockdown games, and last season Nov/Dec and Feb/March were all equally good in results and performances, and the other times were average or poor. So there's been overall progress but it's not as smooth as 6->3->2 suggests.

What's worrying are the performances. On the one hand, excellent record against City and a decent ones against the other big teams. But overall, still inconsistent. Still some obvious issues in breaking down "lesser" teams. Obvious issues in possession. Obvious issues with squad balance. As much as the improvement is on him, not addressing these very obvious and long-standing issues is on him too.

I don't know if he can fix these things after 3 years and a seemingly total refusal to buy a CM, or change formation to compensate. Maybe having (by far) the best attack in the league, extremely good defence, and one world-class creative midfielder can compensate for not having a structure. The 2011 and 2013 titles were won with unbalanced squads too.

But he's had enough time and big financial backing - this season needs to be a proper title challenge, plus a deep run in the CL or cup win. Wouldn't you agree, if there's indeed been progression, that that is the minimum next step?
 
hobbers said:
The real reason we have no interest in signing a midfielder is, aside from putting the arm around Jones, Martial and Lingard and (purposefully or not) convincing them all to stay, we gave Mata and Matic extensions and for some bizarre reason decided we need 4 senior goalkeepers instead of 3. And even with James leaving are sitting on 25 players over the age of 21 (26 if Sancho counts towards that, don't know if he makes the age cut-off).

So because of how poor we've been at shifting deadwood we could not register another midfielder even if we signed one, without more outgoings. It's been stellar squad management.
Click to expand...

Mata keeps getting extensions and he apparently deserves them he's a "nice guy" and "great influence in the locker room" according to people here. He's on 160k/w for god's sake. It was also shocking to see people celebrate Grant's renewal, again because he's a "nice guy" who "never kicks up a fuss".

We are sentimentality FC.
 
Robbie Boy said:
Tbf, I'm generally seeing most being happy with the squad for the first time in ages. You'll always have the agenda posters having issues with certain players though, so nothing new there.

I honestly can't fathom how anyone isn't absolutely buzzing about watching us when everyone is fit and available. Even if you don't rate Ole, at least give him the chance to see what he can do this season. If he fails, fair enough, ask the tough questions. But until then, let's enjoy the ride and see how we fare.
Click to expand...
I'm buzzing about watching us but not while watching us.
 
hobbers said:
No it just seems you're deluded.

Tried to get rid of Lingard :lol: If Ole wanted rid of Lingard he'd have been sold weeks ago.

Take Ole at his word, he views/viewed both James and Lingard as United players and wants both in his squad. Only way either was ever going to leave this window is if they asked to leave.
Click to expand...

This isn't like here in the states bud. He didn't even put him on the bench all first half of last year, and one of the few players he publicly bantered during a game.
 
Robbie Boy said:
Tbf, I'm generally seeing most being happy with the squad for the first time in ages. You'll always have the agenda posters having issues with certain players though, so nothing new there.

I honestly can't fathom how anyone isn't absolutely buzzing about watching us when everyone is fit and available. Even if you don't rate Ole, at least give him the chance to see what he can do this season. If he fails, fair enough, ask the tough questions. But until then, let's enjoy the ride and see how we fare.
Click to expand...

Sure but I am desperately disappointed that we haven't got in a CM who could make all the difference for us in our current state.

As is we are depending on Ole solving the midfield situation. Which isn't an unreasonable ask of him.

Having said that, we are still short numbers. Ah well, we shall see what Ole can do. I for one am not holding much hope he can do anything. I don't think he is a great coach, seems to be a very good man manager though.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.