Ole Gunnar Solskjær | 2021/22 Discussion

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The caretaker season begun really well and then there was a big drop off at the end, which has happened in the last couple of seasons too. It should all be scrutinised, although now there will be no doubts about that, the team at his disposal makes that a certainty.



The away form has been brilliant. No question. But in terms of winning at home, I wouldn't really compare to Arsenal or Spurs, if that's what you're implying here. I would just take it as a given that if you are a good side you have a very good home record. I think a 50% win record at home for a team like ours is really really really poor.

I know what you mean but the fact that it's not quantified is annoying me. I looked online and can't find any info on the rest of the teams' home win % in the league..
 
Lampard, where is he now? Do you think PL club chairmen are mugs and don't know what happened with Ole and how he got those top 4 finishes?

Ole and Lampard are not self made managers like Benitez, Moyes etc they got the big jobs because of their playing careers and proceeded to spend tons of money so it's pretty easy to conclude that the financial power of the clubs they played for and later managed is the determinant factor in their high league finishes. Who else could afford to spend £50m on Bruno for Ole in midseason? Some could argue that this is the player that saved Ole's job then.

I think he has done what we brought him in for, stabilize the club in the top 4. The next step is beyond him because at this level the margin for error is too fine and Ole's performances are wildly inconsistent to mount a successful challenge. I said this yesterday, once the pressure of expectation dies down, after we have lost enough ground to be considered a genuine contender, he can put up a run to salvage a third place finish but it's not enough when we are closing in on ten years without a title challenge.

Lampard was getting job at Palace. And there haven't been a lot of openings ever since he was sacked. I'm pretty sure he'd be back managing in a PL club pretty soon because unlike what the caf thinks, player/manager ability isn't binary (shit or WC) and Lampard isn't shit

And how did he get those top 4 finishes? I'm really interested in knowing that. Because the argument you'd use in 1 season to downplay his finish can be used to back him up for the other season, so I'm really interested in that.
 
Some of our memories stretch back further than August, he made a catalog of errors last season, some genuinely sackable because of bad and basic they were, and already he's back at it. He will probably continue to make costly errors because of his tactical ineptitude and stubbornness, so why delay the inevitable? It should be in the club's best interest to have the best possible manager managing the team, because by getting the most out of your players it adds £100 million's worth onto the squad value, and you're much more likely to succeed.

I think you need some context, we came second behind a club with monopoly money and the best manager at being able to win things with unlimited resources.
 
I know what you mean but the fact that it's not quantified is annoying me. I looked online and can't find any info on the rest of the teams' home win % in the league..

Yeah, that's strange. Would be interested in that too. Would definitely expect City and Liverpool to have a great record over the last few seasons, and Chelsea pre and post Lampard.
 
Ole has got us to a final and numerous semifinals. He's clearly a good cup manager. With a better squad than ever, he's got as good a chance as anyone.

Yeah maybe if he actually dropped the old boys club for proper coaches and Mcfred to just squad options rather than starters
 
I think you need some context, we came second behind a club with monopoly money and the best manager at being able to win things with unlimited resources.

Are you talking about under Ole or Mourinho ?
 
Judge at end of season, as of end of last season Ole had best win rate since SAF whose stats are ridiculous……..win rate of 59.7%

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer (2018-July 2021) Matches: 151. Wins: 84. Win percentage: 55.6 per cent

Jose Mourinho (2016-18) Matches: 93. Wins: 50. Win percentage: 53.8 per cent


Louis Van Gaal (2014-16) Matches: 76. Wins: 39. Win percentage: 51.3 per cent

David Moyes (2013-14) Matches: 34. Wins: 17. win percentage: 50.0 per cent


SAF
Games in charge: 1500
Wins: 895
Win percentage: 59.7%

Not bothered about the win percentage when have seen enough evidence of his basic tactics and game management
 
Yeah, that's strange. Would be interested in that too. Would definitely expect City and Liverpool to have a great record over the last few seasons, and Chelsea pre and post Lampard.

I agree you'd expect a top 4 team to be winning the vast majority of their home games but I'm fecked if I'm counting them myself :lol:
 
There will always be people who are short sighted. We have same points as Chelsea, ManCity and one behind Liverpool. All those clubs with managers that media love to talk about and hail as ultimate managers. But when it comes to us it is all hell break lose after one defeat despite being up there at the top. We know ManUtd news sell regardless of news quality.

Solskjaer is doing good job and so is his staff. Progress is clear as day even if it can go up and down.

His staff are bloody awful and highly inexperienced and don't just mean Carrick, McKenna & Phelan either
 
Do you remember how we got third in Ole's first full season or your memory checks out everything else and only remembers us getting third. Leicester practically imploded and Bruno became the Talisman from the first match.
Ole would have been nowhere near the top 4 without either of those scenarios.
The second place last season was when Liverpool went through a run of awful form and Chelsea had Lampard for half a season.

You really think we will see a repeat of those scenarios this season? A better way to realize our progress is our points tally. I am pretty certain our tally from last season would not get top 3 and our performances regularly last season and this have shown that we don't play consistent or coherent enough to actually be better than that.
A group of really talented individuals can only take you so far in a team game.

I've never understood this argument. "Team X only did well because of player Y" yes, teams tend to be directly impacted by the performances of the players they sign, go figure.

"Team X only did this because team Y was poorer than them that year" - this happens every single season.

When is the last time City, Chelsea, Liverpool, Leicester, Spurs all had strong seasons with no underperformance or implosion? City won the league comfortably last year as their direct rival from the prior season imploded (Liverpool) Liverpool won the season prior to that due to a City implosion (finishing 17 points behind Liverpool)

Now don't get me wrong, it's make or break time for Ole and he needs a title challenge and a cup at least to keep his job, or I will want him out. But there is no way the knives would be out for any of the "in vogue" mangers this soon into a season (it's not even October FFS) if they had the exact same results as Ole.
 
Context matters.

The first loss was with 10 men for 1 hour(?).
The second loss was with a B/C team in a competition that isn't prioritised.
The last one is fair enough.




In the media and among fans in here, maybe. But inside the club? I highly doubt it.
This level of confidence or security makes me curious, the decision to sack Ole or all our previous sacking is not made by people in the club. I doubt there is anyone outside the Glazer-Woodward triumvirate who knows the thought processes that the Glazer siblings go through when making such a decision.

The Moyes, LVG and Mourinho sacking had the appearance of a sudden decision from the higher ups and I doubt this one would be made with any consultation either. The people 'inside the club' that give you the confidence to think that Ole is safe don't even have any power when Joel and Avram decide its time, recent history is instructive.
 
The irony
There is no irony. Just simple fact. Progress is here for evreyone to see. This year is the year where we should challenge for league title and with our start I don't see any problem with that. Winning it is another matter.

His staff are bloody awful and highly inexperienced and don't just mean Carrick, McKenna & Phelan either
Inexperienced? Some maybe but there are ton of experience both as coaches and players.
 
I agree you'd expect a top 4 team to be winning the vast majority of their home games but I'm fecked if I'm counting them myself :lol:

Quick browse:

City '20-'21: 68.4%
City '19-'20: 78.9%

Liverpool '20-'21: 52.6%
Liverpool '19-'21: 94.7%
 
There is no irony. Just simple fact. Progress is here for evreyone to see. This year is the year where we should challenge for league title and with our start I don't see any problem with that. Winning it is another matter.


Inexperienced? Some maybe but there are ton of experience both as coaches and players.

There is a lot of irony in your post. Looking at the fecking table after 6 games played is short sighted. Especially considering the dross we faced so far. Our under par performances in 4,5 of 6 PL games tell a bigger picture. Combine that with our embarrassing loss to Young Boys and our game against West Ham in the league cup and there's not much left of that improvement you are talking about. Especially as we struggle at exactly the same things we struggled throughout of Ole's tenure here. Albeit spending half a fecking billion on players
 
Unless he totally tanks the next few games he deserves to see out the year. Long term however, if we keep coming back to the same question as to whether he's good enough, it sort of answers it doesn't it? He wins the Prem or UCL, then everything changes. We won't have this great squad for very long in the condition it's in. It's not "now or never" but we absolutely have to take advantage of having the likes of Ronaldo/Pogba/Varane in their peak or close to it.
 
Unless he totally tanks the next few games he deserves to see out the year. Long term however, if we keep coming back to the same question as to whether he's good enough, it sort of answers it doesn't it? He wins the Prem or UCL, then everything changes. We won't have this great squad for very long in the condition it's in. It's not "now or never" but we absolutely have to take advantage of having the likes of Ronaldo/Pogba/Varane in their peak or close to it.

Spot on
 
As long as Ole is here we'll have to hope that the Glazers keep spending money until we've such a good squad it makes up for Ole's shortcomings. With the oil clubs around I doubt that will ever happen
 
This level of confidence or security makes me curious, the decision to sack Ole or all our previous sacking is not made by people in the club. I doubt there is anyone outside the Glazer-Woodward triumvirate who knows the thought processes that the Glazer siblings go through when making such a decision.

"Inside the club" of course means the Glazers etc.

The Moyes, LVG and Mourinho sacking had the appearance of a sudden decision

Not really. Moyes failed spectacularly and the writing was on the wall for a long time. Stories that have come out also shows that the players didn't have much faith in him. Van Gaal failed to get CL football in his 2nd season and that was always going to lead to his sacking. Mourinho had a complete meltdown and the writing was on the wall for several weeks/months.
 
Unless he totally tanks the next few games he deserves to see out the year. Long term however, if we keep coming back to the same question as to whether he's good enough, it sort of answers it doesn't it? He wins the Prem or UCL, then everything changes. We won't have this great squad for very long in the condition it's in. It's not "now or never" but we absolutely have to take advantage of having the likes of Ronaldo/Pogba/Varane in their peak or close to it.
The question should be is he good enough to take us to the next stage? If not then the long term and short term health of the club has to be taken into consideration and a decision made. I also don't think there is much to see beyond what we have seen, his teams can conjure an impressive run of results and at the click of a finger play like drunkards.

So far he has lost three out of four, the trend for him suggests he could draw or lose the next three then when the pressure is on he pulls a couple of impressive wins. But the issue is that a team that is fighting for the title can not afford that at all because by the time the team stabilizes from this latest slump we could be out of the title race and out of the CL.

For me the club shouldnt have to wait until the end of the season to answer a question they already know the answer to. The club has to take care of itself or it runs the risk of the big investments it has made not paying off and facing another rebuild in a couple of years.
 
"Inside the club" of course means the Glazers etc.



Not really. Moyes failed spectacularly and the writing was on the wall for a long time. Stories that have come out also shows that the players didn't have much faith in him. Van Gaal failed to get CL football in his 2nd season and that was always going to lead to his sacking. Mourinho had a complete meltdown and the writing was on the wall for several weeks/months.
If you remember the time Moyes was sacked the writing wasn't on the wall, the club looked like they were sticking to Gary Neville's assertions that he needed time. He had failed but the likes of Woodward never really showed him or us that the writing was indeed on the wall. The guy was still making scouting trips to watch Kroos and Shaw days before he got the sack.

Same with Van Gaal, wasnt he shocked to hear question about his future during a Cup win celebration? The man had survived the slump in the run up to Christmas, discovered Rashford and I think he and most amongst us believed he would survive.

I will give you the Jose sacking, it was quick and brutal but the sadist had been asking for it from preseason.
 
I've never understood this argument. "Team X only did well because of player Y" yes, teams tend to be directly impacted by the performances of the players they sign, go figure.

"Team X only did this because team Y was poorer than them that year" - this happens every single season.

When is the last time City, Chelsea, Liverpool, Leicester, Spurs all had strong seasons with no underperformance or implosion? City won the league comfortably last year as their direct rival from the prior season imploded (Liverpool) Liverpool won the season prior to that due to a City implosion (finishing 17 points behind Liverpool)

Now don't get me wrong, it's make or break time for Ole and he needs a title challenge and a cup at least to keep his job, or I will want him out. But there is no way the knives would be out for any of the "in vogue" mangers this soon into a season (it's not even October FFS) if they had the exact same results as Ole.
Well I am not saying we sack him right away (primarily because I don't think we have managers available who I feel should be managing us), but the signs are there for all to see. See the fixture list which Chelsea have come through and compare it to ours. At this point if we were ahead of Chelsea, it would have made sense to say we can only beat what's in front of us. However, we have lost 4 points while struggling in most of our matches except the Leeds one and are already out of a cup.
The CL group is easy and Wednesday's fixture already holds such an importance that it's worrying to think that we could conceivably lose that too.

All this points to us not being good enough despite the quality at our disposal. And for many, Ole is the primary reason for it.
Sack him now or let him see out the season is not the point which people are making. People are saying it's pointless to think he will suddenly transform us into a proper unit when he has struggled to do so after nearly 3 years in charge.
 
I don't think he deserves to be sacked, nor do I expect him to be anytime soon. He has built this star studded squad, so if this season is a failure, then the failure is firmly on him. I feel he's been afforded a very fair amount of time and resources to rebuild, and failure this season, would warrant the sack. I hope it doesn't end like that, and he can leave on his own terms. However, if things go really tits up over the next 12 games, he has to go.

I'm not really a fan of us sacking managers mid-season, and I have no idea what the data is like, in regards to whether it usually works or not. We saw with Chelsea it worked wonders and the same with us when we sacked Jose for Ole. Obviously, there will be some kind of new manager bounce, but it's about proper sustainability and not a short term bounce. Our next appointment needs to be so well thought out, and the fear is if we sack Ole before the end of the season, we will make another rash, impulsive decision that sets us back again. On the flip side, if we have a really bad next 2 months, the Boards hand might be forced.
 
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See this is where people disagree. People don't back him because we haven't imploded, but because he's meeting the pre-season expectations. And those expectations haven't been set low or anything - they're pretty reasonable, neither too high nor too low. If he fails to meet the expectations this time, I'm pretty sure a lot of us will go against him.

Coming to the next part of more talented manager - no team sacks a manager that's meeting the expectations and rightly so. Getting the right manager is as difficult if not more difficult than getting a right signing. So, unless the club has belief that the worst x manager can do is significantly higher than the current level, which in our case is ticking most of the boxes, you won't really see a managerial change. Either that or poor ROI on transfers made.

You also need to account for the worst case scenario in case the managerial appointment goes wrong. You sign a "proven winner" but he doesn't win you PL/CL, then in most likelihood, you'd be left with an ageing squad that will require another 3 years and half a billion to rebuild.
What are those preseason expectations that he's meeting actually? Has our football been good? Have we been consistently convincing in our performances? Do we look like a team who are on the verge of breaking out?

If the expectations were to play average to poor with bits and pieces of individual brilliance in between to get us over the line in games, then he is just about delivering. Though I doubt we want that for our club.

As for the "next manager" concern, I don't think we will sack Ole now, mostly because the market isn't filled with top managers available now. We may have to see out this season, but we must plan for the future as we won't magically just become good when the signs haven't been there for 3 seasons. It's always been a series of false dawns and 1 steps forward and 2 back.
 
I think anyone pretending that there isn't a conversation to be had about Ole, isn't being honest. There's some fantastic debate going on around the forum just now, which is refreshing to see. Also credit to some of the 'in' posters for being very nuanced and honest over the past few days. It's made for some really good, healthy debate.
 
If you remember the time Moyes was sacked the writing wasn't on the wall, the club looked like they were sticking to Gary Neville's assertions that he needed time. He had failed but the likes of Woodward never really showed him or us that the writing was indeed on the wall. The guy was still making scouting trips to watch Kroos and Shaw days before he got the sack.

Same with Van Gaal, wasnt he shocked to hear question about his future during a Cup win celebration? The man had survived the slump in the run up to Christmas, discovered Rashford and I think he and most amongst us believed he would survive.

We sacked Moyes immediately after it was mathematically impossible to get top 4.

Van Gaal had a mathematical chance of making top 4 all the way up until the last match. I'm 100% sure that the only reason for why the club didn't sack him right after this was because they didn't want to shake things up too much before the cup final. But his fate was very much sealed after failing to get CL football.

Do you really think the club just randomly decides to sack the manager out of nowhere? There will be certain minimum demands.
 
I really hope that Ole goes on a winning streak, gets Utd through the group stage and stays close to the top of the league. I don't want him sacked.

HOWEVER

If Utd get knocked out the the group stage and lose touch with the top of the table then I really hope the board act quickly and replace him.


I have my doubts about Ole"s managerial ability but I still want to see him succeed and prove everyone wrong. That being said you only get so many chances to bring success to a huge club like Utd. I think it is fair to judge him this season because he has had backing and he has a good squad. If he doesn't deliver then it is obvious he has reached his ceiling.

Pretty much this.

As bad as Villa was, its obviously knee jerk to sack him now, especially with no realistic replacement lined up, but as you said, he has to show he deserves that seat. Club legend or not
 
What are those preseason expectations that he's meeting actually? Has our football been good? Have we been consistently convincing in our performances? Do we look like a team who are on the verge of breaking out?

If the expectations were to play average to poor with bits and pieces of individual brilliance in between to get us over the line in games, then he is just about delivering. Though I doubt we want that for our club.

As for the "next manager" concern, I don't think we will sack Ole now, mostly because the market isn't filled with top managers available now. We may have to see out this season, but we must plan for the future as we won't magically just become good when the signs haven't been there for 3 seasons. It's always been a series of false dawns and 1 steps forward and 2 back.

I believe the expectation in 2019/20 was top 4, in 2020/21 was comfortable top 4 and reduce the gap. The expectation this summer is genuine title challenge. The season is 6 games old, so it's stupid to say that he is or isn't hitting that target right now.

Secondly, the individual brilliance piece is overblown. Do you really think a side with just individual brilliance will get this far without being found out. The side has good players, but people think that this is some Brazil 1970 side where the flair players will blow teams over. We struggle in parts - like against teams that press our midfielders and that needs to be worked on. However, if anyone thinks that the team is running on vibes, passion and individual brilliance for the past 2.5 years and getting good results in the most competitive league, they're just kidding themselves. Shit managers get found out in less than half a season, hell the players under the manager will stop playing for such a manager and that will start getting reflected in the results as well
 
Pretty much this.

As bad as Villa was, its obviously knee jerk to sack him now, especially with no realistic replacement lined up, but as you said, he has to show he deserves that seat. Club legend or not

You, bloody you!

You're one of the posters that I absolutely want to call out! Call on out on some really good posts since Saturday! Fair play.
 
I think Ole has done good building this squad, and with all the ups and downs, overall I’ve enjoyed his appointment, but to me, he’s not the one to take us further, thus we should look for someone who can compete for trophies. Maybe Ole can have another role within the club.

My main worry is that, with this current squads, we should be competing with Europes Top teams, if we stick with Ole and fail, then in my opinion,

-Pogba will leave.
-VDB will also leave (due to lack of playing time).
-Cavani would be gone.
-Possible issues with Bruno contract renewal, he seems like he wants to win any way possible.

I feel like we would fall further behind if we stick with Ole and it doesn’t pay off, on the contrary if we bring someone in and they win us a trophy or two (which with this squad, it’s absolutely possible), and would be back in business and can finally bucks from here on..

to me this is a defining season, as big as Moyes season, I think it’s a huge gamble to stick with Ole, even though he built a great squad, it should be the end of the road for him.

very nervy times in my opinion.
 
When ever you cant take it, you can always ignore the issue and reply with "2nd, 2nd, 2nd". Straight out of book written by Jose acolytes, same shit just different posters.
 
You, bloody you!

You're one of the posters that I absolutely want to call out! Call on out on some really good posts since Saturday! Fair play.

Cheers.

I really have not changed my view that much really and its wasnt like Villa was some sort of turning point or eureka moment for me. I've always maintained the stance that he should stay in the job as long as i think its beneficial for the club and that has not changed at all.

I honestly think hes done very well in bringing stability and crafting a squad that can compete for the top prizes. Now that part of the job its done and its time to put that squad to purpose and actually compete and ideally win those top prizes. Thats also why i was so staunchly opposed to the club sacking him last year and the year before, because it might have undone the whole rebuild project and put as back at square one.

Now though, we have a squad that is filled to the brim with top talent and a great mix of youth and experience so the bar has been considerably raised for Ole in my book. Especially after adding two serial winners in Varane and Ronaldo and of the most coveted young players in the world this summer. When Ole took over from Jose, icant imagine any top manager would wanting to touch us with a 10 foot pole, where as now i'd imagine we would have plenty of suitors considering the talent we can field

Tl;dr: I think hes done admirably in steadying the ship and creating a top team, now its time to use that top team to its full effect and Villa was not it
 
I'm checking the previous bit of posts and see a large contingent of folks saying Ole is not the right one to take us forward.

On that basis, who do you bring in to the football club?

How do we maintain the heritage and philosophies of Man Utd with a new manager. I think Ole has done a great job of bringing that back to United.

Prior to Ole, it was really difficult to get hyped up about watching the team play each time - it was poor football and the result was always in doubt.

We need to give it time - season has just begun - a new CEO is coming into the club - operating principles like transfers and style of play need to be embedded into the fabric of the club as whoever manages United next need to abide by those core operating principles for the club.
 
Hmmmm, this all looked ok until the passive aggressive last sentence. Not sure why I would need to 'become a better poster' on here? What have I said that could be construed as bad posting, may I ask? I held my hands up to some shit posting about Ole back around 2019, but he changed my opinion on him, and I've always tried to be pretty rational since. I also didn't ask you to become a 'better poster' - I stated how you can actively participate in making the forum more pleasant by not wumming and feeding into the bullshit. I thought that was the goal around here? You can't complain about one side being irrational, but then contribute to it yourself.

I've quoted two posts below that you posted since Saturday, that I believe add absolutely nothing in the way of fair debate or nuanced discussion. If you don't see them as wummy type posts, then I guess you're quite the hypocrite. I really don't believe for a second that you have a desire to engage in reasoned debate, although your last post was certainly much better, bar your childish last sentence.

I was being genuine and sincere, apologies if it came across that way, but I genuinely was looking for some advice as to how to become a better poster, as to not have my posts come across as wummy. I genuinely want to be a part of the discussion and not seen as some sort of wind up merchant. Again, I was being sincere.

I wasn't talking about you becoming a better poster, I was asking for your help as to how I can become better. I wasn't criticising any of your posts. I was saying 'if you willing to of course' as in if you are willing to help me [become a better poster].

I wasn’t trying to be a wind up merchant at all, do you mind highlighting any that you/others felt or could be seen as a wum type of post & I’ll evaluate them & take in your advice as to why they may be seen that way, if you’re willing to of course, to become a better poster on here?


I have to point out that @UnitedSofa is never in that thread so that's a little unfair.

Thank you, I was a little confused, I will admit haha.

Fair enough, I did clarify later that I thought he was a participant. Apologies for that one @UnitedSofa

It's no problem at all, mate
 
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