Ole Gunnar Solskjær | 2021/22 Discussion

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Ultimately I think the consensus this season was that we had to look like a team at least capable of winning the league. It's too early to know for sure how it will pan out, but I'm sure we've all been around the block, you can tell when a team is purring and in the mood. We're not. We've shown little sign of having gone up a gear.

I've generally been supportive of Oles transfer dealings, since it's been a strength of his so far. Our squad is undeniably much better than when he took over. But his failure to strengthen midfield looks like a major error. It looks to me like Ole has worried about stacking quality in attack while the foundations are still broken. Having Ronaldo, Greenwood, Rashford, Bruno, Cavani, Martial and Pogba while we're stuck playing McFred in midfield is bizarre. Individually I think the decision to get, or keep, every one of those attackers made sense, but collectively it's put us in a bad place. That's what good management is about, avoiding that kind of situation. The squad is stacked with quality but unbalanced.

At some point you have to set up the foundations of the team and define how you want the game to be played. You can’t muddle through forever. Ole isn't going to coach a high quality midfield out of the constituent parts we have available. (Whether anyone could is debatable, but he certainly can't.) He presumably thought he could get by with what we had for another season, but judging by our performances so far, he was wrong. Could be costly.

Looking around I don't really see a major threat to us getting top four, so he may get another chance next season. But he may burn through his goodwill and find his position untenable if this carries on.
 
Maluco said:
Are we going to have to wait to be out of Europe and the title race again, to even consider a change?

It’s just so frustrating. Wasting years with some great players on the hope that a coach might improve in the job, or that the pure quality of the players might mean it doesn’t matter so much.

There will always be days like today, and when the coach isn’t good enough, even when the players are world class, those days will come just often enough to mean that we never really challenge for anything.

We should be taking advantage of the fact that Ronaldo is here and we have some fantastic options to really make a go of it. We are holding ourselves back.

Please don’t write off another season with this. Make a change! It’s a coaching job at one of the biggest clubs in the world. No one is sending Ole to the gulag! It’s ok to change coaches if it isn’t working.
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The problem is that Woodward and the Glazers will bulk at the financial implications of sacking him and decide against it even if it costs us a chance to fight for the title or progress in the CL.

Fans won't turn against him anytime soon and the team is too good to lose six or seven on the trot to alert the suits so he will stay and we will cement our place as a richer version of 2006-2015 Arsenal, good enough for top four but zero spine or guile to make it count when big trophies are on the line. At least Arsenal had the stadium excuse, we just have incompetent leadership to steer the ship in the right direction.
 
Our front three when Martial was on form couple of years back was just awesome. If players are in that form now, we will be unplayable with the squad we have so I don’t think coaching is the problem. Fluidity is not present in the front three and I don’t think having both Ronaldo , Pogba will help get us there. Ronaldo/ Cavani with Rashford / Greenwood/ Sancho / Martial is the best option.
Last season Ole started with Pogba and Bruno in CM and it backfired badly and put him under pressure. It was a bad decision last year , because players had a long season before that and we did not have pre-season. Should have sticked with defensive MCFred in early matches last season.
This season he is looking to avoid last season results but individual brilliance is not seen and we are not getting penalties like last season.
I don’t think coaching is as bad as people often highlight , I think it’s his decisions on starting 11 and subs which are often bad. It was obvious from the start of his tenure but people are starting to realize more now because we are bottling way too many important games. If he fixes that we will be good , no doubt.
MCFred always chose to back pass unless they are in Front third of pitch. We need to try Pogba/Donny , Fred / Scott in midfield and can’t continue to complain on not signing CDM.
 
DomesticTadpole said:
So we are the only team as bloody usual who are not yet up to speed. That is the same old excuse that has been rolled out ever since Ole came.
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I dont think so, and didn’t say so. Some football guy pointed it out, that for the top teams who has their players coming back late, now its important to stay in the mix. The form will come later. We are in the mix, and if you think that’s wrong, fine. There where only two fellas down the pub acting like the majority on here today. And they where drunk.
 
We have a brilliant squad. He deserves credit for building it.

But the standards set are too low. We should be so much better
 
E-mal said:
The result has finally caught up with the performance but anybody who analysed the team dispassionately could see that the performance was poor, tactics where rudimentary and not up to scratch!
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That has been me since the beginning. When you see our performances, I question how our result is what it is under Ole. I feel that it will continue this season because we have to many quality players. If fans on here analyze our performance, they would have realized long ago that Ole isn't the right man for the job.
 
Amadaeus said:
That has been me since the beginning. When you see our performances, I question how our result is what it is under Ole. I feel that it will continue this season because we have to many quality players. If fans on here analyze our performance, they would have realized long ago that Ole isn't the right man for the job.
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He relied on a lot of last gasp come from behind winners. Looks like that is not happening now.
 
Ayush_reddevil said:
It’s genuinely depressing to watch Liverpool play knowing that they have barely signed a player last couple of years while all we talk about is what we are lacking
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Klopp would win the league comfortably with this United squad. It's all on Ole and his coaches, we need to strop throwing our players under the bus.
 
Ayush_reddevil said:
It’s genuinely depressing to watch Liverpool play knowing that they have barely signed a player last couple of years while all we talk about is what we are lacking
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Klopp would win the league with this United side, or push the eventual winners all the way at least. 90+ points. Same for any elite manager.

We’re a top manager away from being an elite side. We’re being held back at the moment. Similarly to Lampard at Chelsea & Kovac at Bayern.
 
our squad is good but so are the squads of chelsea pool or city. its a highly competitive league and it wouldnt even be a given that saf would win it with this team. lets see how we are come january. if we are out of the cl and pl race it will be time over but give him this shout i would say
 
Andycoleno9 said:
It is trending 4 years now. Our owners don't care for it
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Good. Don't listen to the trigger happy morons. Especially on Twitter. But I will say he better improve and fast. He did a great job with this squad before the world class player's that came in. Now all of a sudden there's a struggle to even attack.
 
How many defeats do we have to learn from. He has been here three years. We shouldnt have to learn from this defeat. This is sounding like Mourinho towards the end, where he knew himself that it was game over.
 
DomesticTadpole said:
He relied on a lot of last gasp come from behind winners. Looks like that is not happening now.
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We literally scored at the end against West Ham, today a point should have been secured against Villa after a dodgy penalty. Let’s see it for what it is, a weakness. The team should more often than is the case be in front and smash teams by playing dominant football. We seldom do.
 
TheMitz said:
it must be great being so self righteous and saintly.

us 'plastic' fans who say it like it is, should hang our heads in shame for criticising and expecting more from this management team.
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There’s a difference between criticism and calling for his head every single time we lose, it’s pathetic. Oh we lost. SACK HIM!


TheMitz said:
this is the worse type of supporter, calling people out for dating to criticise, it's not the Utd way when they obviously know nothong about the game. Typical prawn sandwich brigade
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“Know nothing about the game” oh and you do?


amolbhatia50k said:
D

Do you think we should upgrade on Fred or Mctominay?
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I do. I also think we should upgrade the RB. McTominay I rate and Fred is underated and gets a bad rap on here. But I’m not going to sit here and go all in and over the top criticism too. Theyre the players we have so we got to stick by them. The modern fan has this unwavering love


SAFMUTD said:
support Man Utd through and through, no time to have an opinion just support everything. Top reds, above us plastic fans.
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I can stomach most criticism, but when it extends into borderline delusional, that’s when it becomes too much. PE Teacher, only goes out there and says to the players do your best, is only there to keep the players happy etc etc, it’s like you’re actively looking to score points for sacking him. It’s a joke.

Giggsyking said:
Ole out is trending now
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Its always trending
 
I’m a big ole fan and he has done an incredible job but I do think perhaps now it’s time to handover the reigns. He should still retain a role at the club and maybe even as dof as he understands the culture and the way we should be playing football. Having said that I don’t know who we would replace him with, it would need to be an attack minded coach that could build on the great work ole has done…I don’t know who that is
 
friendlytramp said:
I’m a big ole fan and he has done an incredible job but I do think perhaps now it’s time to handover the reigns. He should still retain a role at the club and maybe even as dof as he understands the culture and the way we should be playing football. Having said that I don’t know who we would replace him with, it would need to be an attack minded coach that could build on the great work ole has done…I don’t know who that is
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What’s he done that’s ‘incredible’ ? Genuine question
 
SAFMUTD said:
I think he can lose the dressing room pretty, fast. Ronaldo for once, can't be happy at the moment. It's not just the results, the performances are dross and I just can't imagine him being quiet about it. He probably has one or two years at top level, can't see him happy about wasting them with Ole in charge.
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exactly right , could you imagine what a Thomas Tuchel or a Jürgen Klopp type of manager could do for this club with the depth we have?!! Ronaldo has huge power in influencing the board as hes the GOAT plus one of the reds who played under SAF. He demands silverware without exceptions and there is no fecking excuses anymore with the quality we have!

Like lampard at Chelsea, sometimes the fans let nostalgia and pride get in front of the nitty gritty reality that the gaffer is crap and holding the team back. Look what replacement Tuchel has done for Chelsea showering them with silverware so maybe its time for ole to step aside...
 
I’m not one of those calling for Ole’s head but I do think the club will act quickly if it’s not working. Our squad is excellent and has been invested in heavily, it feels make or break for Ole. unfortunately that’s 3 poor results in a week, pressure will be mounting if we don’t get 3 points against Villarreal.
 
M Bison said:
I’m not one of those calling for Ole’s head but I do think the club will act quickly if it’s not working. Our squad is excellent and has been invested in heavily, it feels make or break for Ole. unfortunately that’s 3 poor results in a week, pressure will be mounting if we don’t get 3 points against Villarreal.
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I‘m not saying it should be the case, but I can’t see his job being at risk unless they are in danger of losing out on top 4.
 
James Peril said:
We literally scored at the end against West Ham, today a point should have been secured against Villa after a dodgy penalty. Let’s see it for what it is, a weakness. The team should more often than is the case be in front and smash teams by playing dominant football. We seldom do.
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That's the whole point, we should be playing dominant football with his options. Instead he plays two midfielders who offer nothing. That will give the other teams confidence as they can just bypass them.
 
g11 said:
Jippy,
I won’t try to move the goal posts with my reply but here is my take:
Ole has been in charge of Man Utd for 159 games total -


That 3 games out of 159 that he has been in charge of us.
and the tactics for those 3 games were not any different than any his other games - the guy only knows how to play counter attack and those three teams played right into his setup.
Looked at what happened in those Champion league returned games against PSG and Leipzigz
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You are moving the goalposts though. Your comment was something along the lines of Ole never having demonstrated good tactics in a single game.

Those three I mentioned were high profile examples to the contrary.

Incidentally, I don't think Ole has the tactical nous to be successful at United, but we can agree that without the hyperbole.
 
NewUser777 said:
I dont think so, and didn’t say so. Some football guy pointed it out, that for the top teams who has their players coming back late, now its important to stay in the mix. The form will come later. We are in the mix, and if you think that’s wrong, fine. There where only two fellas down the pub acting like the majority on here today. And they where drunk.
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We aren't out of yet of course. A bit of practice at attacking might help. Last couple of games we have resorted to shooting from anywhere which is not a good sign.
 
We have a Champions League squad with a Conference League manager. It's as simple as that.
 
Jippy said:
You are moving the goalposts though. Your comment was something along the lines of Ole never having demonstrated good tactics in a single game.

Those three I mentioned were high profile examples to the contrary.

Incidentally, I don't think Ole has the tactical nous to be successful at United, but we can agree that without the hyperbole.
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Yeah, it's clear that Ole is a good coach. A good Europa League coach and he has done a good job at United but it seems that he has reached his limits which doesn't warrant any bashing or anger towards him.
 
SirAF said:
I‘m not saying it should be the case, but I can’t see his job being at risk unless they are in danger of losing out on top 4.
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Up until this point I’ve always assumed that too, but it feels different with the signings we’ve made and especially after the comments Neville made this week. This is the year more than any, where the expectation is we should be challenging imo.
 
Coxy said:
What’s he done that’s ‘incredible’ ? Genuine question
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We have a fantastic squad of players with a strong focus on youth and attacking football. That’s a million miles ahead of where we were when he took over.
 
UnitedSofa said:
I can stomach most criticism, but when it extends into borderline delusional, that’s when it becomes too much. PE Teacher, only goes out there and says to the players do your best, is only there to keep the players happy etc etc, it’s like you’re actively looking to score points for sacking him. It’s a joke.
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Most of the criticism here is level headed, cant be as simplistic and think all that judge Ole are claiming he's a PE teacher.
 
NewUser777 said:
Clearly! We just lost a football match and is only joint on the top of the table. Sack him now, before he can bring our top players up to speed after a COVID season end euro championship. Some of you lads are so melodramatic that your left wondering about sanity. How about just being critical of something and see how it goes this season?
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You wont succeed in persuasion by questioning the sanity of someone who holds a different view from you. It is not all about one match.
 
NewUser777 said:
Clearly! We just lost a football match and is only joint on the top of the table. Sack him now, before he can bring our top players up to speed after a COVID season end euro championship. Some of you lads are so melodramatic that your left wondering about sanity. How about just being critical of something and see how it goes this season?
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We're joint top of the table while playing the easiest run of fixtures among our rivals.

Chelsea played Arsenal, City and Liverpool. City played Arsenal, Leicester, Tottenham and Chelsea.

We didn't play a single big team and at the end, Chelsea and City have the same points as us.

There's no achievement in this. We had a good chance with our fixtures list to put on a nice gap with our rivals before we start our shit run next 2 months. Now our rivals who already had their shit run have the same points as us regardless.
 
SirAF said:
I‘m not saying it should be the case, but I can’t see his job being at risk unless they are in danger of losing out on top 4.
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it's wishful thinking at best. This has nothing on some of his worst runs and those didn't get him fired. The only difference is there'll now be a couple extra people coming around to the idea he isn't the guy but the board will stay behind him. Having SAF also backing him is no joke, and that new contract coming when it did was also some serious faith. They didn't have to, they're sure he's the one. It would even be embarrassing to do a complete u-turn only after several months, whoever made that decision is in too deep.

The vanity aspect and club legend element will always be just enough to keep him around long enough to reach his next winning run boom cycle. The only thing I hate is being told it's unfair to think he isn't good enough. You'd think we've been winning trophies the way those posts try to make skeptics sound crazy.
 
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The realisation hit this week, we aren’t winning anything under Ole unfortunately. He’s done a good job rebuilding but like Lampard at Chelsea he doesn’t have the skill to deliver at the highest level.

Noticed a lot of journalists today questioning the tactics/system of United today he won’t get an easy ride if results start going sour the squad is good enough now unlike his last couple of years.
 
JPRouve said:
Yeah, it's clear that Ole is a good coach. A good Europa League coach and he has done a good job at United but it seems that he has reached his limits which doesn't warrant any bashing or anger towards him.
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I think a-lot of the anger stems from posters having agendas and personal battles with one another. It's become an absolute shit fest, with both sides looking to get one up over the other.

Every single thing that Ole does, be it good or bad, is micro analysed, and used to praise/critisise him, depending on your stance. Our run is tough now for the next few months, so I can sense the atmosphere on here getting worse. I agree that some of the criticism is wildly OTT, but some of the praise for the most basic of functions, is just as annoying to read. An agenda is an agenda, at the end of the day. The stauch 'in' crowd may think they are fighting the good fight, but their self righteous, tiresome agenda-driven posts, are just as nauseating to have to read on a daily basis. Being overly negative is obviously counter productive, but imo, exonorating Ole of all blame, is equally as counter productive to balanced, nuanced discussion.

I came into this season brimming with confidence, but I'll admit that my lingering doubts about him are coming to the fore again. I've been far from enamored with our performances so far. We have two winnable home games coming up, so lets hope we put up two good performances and restore some positivity.
 
People are finally seeing that he sadly isn’t good enough. Great at building a good squad on paper but not good enough as a manager, not even at premier league level imo.

He needs to be sacked before the season is completely ruined. I’d rather have Graham Potter than Ole.
 
We've been inconsistent for too long to tolerate such poor displays of form for a prolonged periods of time. Ole has done well in clearing out a lot of deadwood, bringing in quality players, and putting us back in top 4 territory, but is sadly showing this season (and portions of last) that he's not a good enough manager to take us to next level.

Only reason I'm not immediately calling for his head is that we need to find a suitable replacement to take over mid season and nobody really comes to mind other than Zidane.
 
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