Ole Gunnar Solskjær | 2021/22 Discussion

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Well done. The 3-5-2 is what we needed now and he delivered. Keep this defensive solidarity for a few games and then we can think about whether to return to a back 4 after a few games. I'd rather not go back to it to be honest. Our forward players simply have to do much much more if Ole is to go back to a 4-2-3-1
 
Great result and fantastic performance but Ole still needs to go, he isn't good enough to be Manchester United manager. The writing is and has been on the wall.
 
zenith said:
He fixed the most obvious problem today and that was leaking goals, so credit there and also for going back to the style he knows best I. E. Counter attacking, v quick release to forwards and pressing deep in midfield.
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Ole's biggest problem is his stubborness and lack of ability to see the problems. He doesn't make changes from the bench, doesn't rotate the squad enough, doesn't change formation.

Now when his job is on the line and there is tremendous pressure because of the horrendous results, Conte and he finally changes the formation, doesn't play his favorites (Rashford and Greenwood) and reaps the rewards.
He's obviously not the right man but I feel he'll be around this season for sure because Cavani, Ronaldo and Bruno will make sure we're in a good position in the table come May.
 
It changes absolutely nothing. He needs to go or it’s another season with all this young talent wasted.

Bought in Sancho and doesn’t know how to use him. Rashford, Sancho and Greenwood all on the bench because he desperately needed this win. Equal on points with Arsenal and West Ham after the money he has spent and the schedule he has had.

I am happy we won, because I love the club and watch every game and my support for the team will never waver, but he needs to go. For the good of the season, for the good of the club and for the benefit of the talent we have at our disposal.

Any sane fan wants the team to win, but all this “very quiet today” is nonsense. You can still enjoy a win and know that he is not the right coach for Manchester United.
 
#07 said:
Yes. 100%. Saying mad stuff before Atalanta like we're going to go 424 and press from the front.

Utter madness. You could tell that the players were sceptical. Pogba's comments after Leicester. Bruno's after Atalanta.

We could all see that Ole's version of playing on the front foot was leaving acres of space for our opponents to play in. It was like he was oblivious to the issues his tactics were causing until Liverpool took a massive dump on us.

As much as I love Ole he has about 90% responsibility for our shakiness over the past month.
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Yep, hopefully he sticks with what works now and pushes on
 
The dream scenario is obviously to get something against City and then sack him. But something against City will buy him the time to then revert to type against Chelsea and Arsenal. It's gonna be a miserable boom bust all year.
 
Kush said:
Resorted to fail-safe with 5 at the back with 2DMs to protect. Probably the sensible thing to do given how leaky we have been. But, I've been trapped in this Ole boom-bust cycle for a while to think it'll lead us anywhere.

A question for those who think he should stick with this formation? What do we do with our set of wingers/inverted forwards of which we have 5 on our books (Rashford, Martial, Sancho, Greenwood and Diallo), including an £80m winger who we signed in the summer. Do we chalk it off?
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Arguably this transitions into a 343 quite well, which accommodates 2 of em, with subs being able to switch in, but you’d have to sacrifice Bruno for it. That’s the reality if you want to maintain the balance.
 
Kush said:
Resorted to fail-safe with 5 at the back with 2DMs to protect. Probably the sensible thing to do given how leaky we have been. But, I've been trapped in this Ole boom-bust cycle for a while to think it'll lead us anywhere.

A question for those who think he should stick with this formation? What do we do with our set of wingers/inverted forwards of which we have 5 on our books (Rashford, Martial, Sancho, Greenwood and Diallo), including an £80m winger who we signed in the summer. Do we chalk it off?
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Tbf, we play with only 1 DM but Fred being Fred helping out the whole pitch. Both Fred and Bruno were playing side by side with Tommy sitting as starting positions.

Tbh, who cares about who we signed or who get dropped if this formation keeps getting the result he or we need. The club is bigger than the players certainly applies here. I am not even sure if he will play this formation as a default now or it is a good one for us. Need a lot more games for that kind of observation.

It is all about stabilizing the defensive structure with low confidence. He might and almost certain will change back to 4 2 3 1 at some point again.
 
At best it was just a good performance against an absolutely terrible Spurs that will sack their manager in the coming weeks.

Most of the flaws in Ole's football were there

Bad passing - check
Failure to dominate the ball (42% possession against a Nuno side) - check
The need to be extra clinical to score goals (3 goals from 4 shots on target) - check
Lack of real chances apart from the goals - check
Bad defending from free-kicks - check

What he got right is playing 3 defenders so Varane could cover the clown show around him and partnering Ronaldo with Cavani though that's gonna create a problem with some of the many forwards he hoarded.
 
Thrilled with the result which was badly needed. And I guess there is something to be said for bouncing back after last week's shit show.

But I just can't help but feel for the players that don't get picked. It must be so demoralizing that there are no consequences for Harry and Luke putting in legitimate 0's out of 10 performances last week. They couldn't have possibly played any worse and yet they still get picked the next week.

I know that the others are professionals and they should still be expected to turn up and put in work, if for nothing other than personal pride, but they are also humans so I wouldn't blame them if they were exasperated with the situation.
 
I don't mind playing 352, in matter of fact i like it. It is formation which, when properly used (Tuchel, Conte), gives you full control of the game.
I don't mind going defensive in some games either. Result is what is matter.
But after today's match i question this:
1) 3 years i hear from him about attacking football, United DNA and shit and then he goes with full defensive lineup. And during the game he even changed it in most defensive lineup ever.
2) 3 years he spent in "building something big" with buying specific players for his 4231 system. And now after 3 years, after that system is complete failure, he goes with 352. If 4231 doesn't work (and it doesn't) then it means that he spent 3 years and 100 mil at least (Sancho, Donny, AWB) in nothing.
3) We didn't beat Spurs because we played well. (we had 4 shots on target and lost possession vs Nuno's side). We beat them because we defended very well and waited for counter attacks.

He needs to go. This game changes nothing. This team can play 352 very well. Lets bring master of that formation. Especially now, when Chelsea is still in "normal" reach.
 
Good win today against a fecking shocking Spurs, nothing changes though and he has to go. A win against Atalanta and City would be a perfect way for him to sign off and get a replacement over the break.

We can go on 5/6 game winning streak and we can win the odd match against a ‘big’ team because we have a lot of quality in the squad. Can he hold it all together over the course of a season and go toe-to-toe with Pep, Klopp and Tuchel? Sorry but no.
 
Di Maria's angel said:
All is good now. Sorted our defensive issues out today by just packing the defence. Don't think we were that good going forward but its the same old - Ronaldo with an incredible goal and a superb assist to bail Ole out for the 100th time.
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Good to see you back, must have been hard to not have anything to moan incessantly about.
 
Pleased we got the win but there’s no long term plan and stuck in this cycle with Ole. He might just have to stick to what he knows, keep the team compact and play on the counter.

It will only take him so far and club have to realise that and work on finding a successor and don’t fall into trap of thinking Ole is right man to take club forward.
 
Andycoleno9 said:
I don't mind playing 352, in matter of fact i like it. It is formation which, when properly used (Tuchel, Conte), gives you full control of the game.
I don't mind going defensive in some games either. Result is what is matter.
But after today's match i question this:
1) 3 years i hear from him about attacking football, United DNA and shit and then he goes with full defensive lineup. And during the game he even changed it in most defensive lineup ever.
2) 3 years he spent in "building something big" with buying specific players for his 4231 system. And now after 3 years, after that system is complete failure, he goes with 352. If 4231 doesn't work (and it doesn't) then it means that he spent 3 years and 100 mil at least (Sancho, Donny, AWB) in nothing.
3) We didn't beat Spurs because we played well. (we had 4 shots on target and lost possession vs Nuno's side). We beat them because we defended very well and waited for counter attacks.

He needs to go. This game changes nothing. This team can play 352 very well. Lets bring master of that formation. Especially now, when Chelsea is still in "normal" reach.
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He played one game in 18 months with 3-5-2... and good. He needed to mix things up and it may be a good formation for tougher games. However, I don’t think that the intention is to stick to 3-5-2 all the time. Before COVID break, Ole used to change the formations in some games and maybe he will try to do this again, I.e. too be more pragmatic and adapt to the style of the oppo. Given that he doesn’t have any strong philosophy, this is what he should be doing. He doesn’t have any visible style that he can impose on opposition so the way forward for him is to be pragmatic, defensively solid and trust our attacking players to their job.

Sancho will find his way to this team as he is class and just needs time. Ole wanted him for 2 years and I really doubt that he will easily give up on him.

We beat Spurs 3:0 and it is ridiculous to say that we were poor. Ole now needs to show that team has turned the corner. Win next 2 games and he deserves more time. If he fails, he will be probably sacked and I hope that our board is lining up a suitable replacement who can build on the foundations laid by Ole with these set of players rather than ripping the whole team apart and starting another rebuild.
 
Halftrack said:
Good to see you back, must have been hard to not have anything to moan incessantly about.
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It's boring to be honest.



Had people message me earlier seemed to raged we won and played well. Bizarre mentality to have.......then remembered they moan even when we on a win run..................but they show incredible support themselves to the team they deserve all the best no matter..........poor guyz having to endure this pain every match for last 3 years
 
We win a game against a shit Spurs side and I see the Ole supporters are back in full force to mock anyone daring to sound negative.
 
Ronaldo's ego said:
Good win today against a fecking shocking Spurs, nothing changes though and he has to go. A win against Atalanta and City would be a perfect way for him to sign off and get a replacement over the break.

We can go on 5/6 game winning streak and we can win the odd match against a ‘big’ team because we have a lot of quality in the squad. Can he hold it all together over the course of a season and go toe-to-toe with Pep, Klopp and Tuchel? Sorry but no.
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The board did not sack him after the relegation form in the past month gaining only 1 point of 12. Do you really believe they will sack him if he wins 3 games in a raw including a derby match?
 
The United said:
Tbf, we play with only 1 DM but Fred being Fred helping out the whole pitch. Both Fred and Bruno were playing side by side with Tommy sitting as starting positions.

Tbh, who cares about who we signed or who get dropped if this formation keeps getting the result he or we need. The club is bigger than the players certainly applies here. I am not even sure if he will play this formation as a default now or it is a good one for us. Need a lot more games for that kind of observation.

It is all about stabilizing the defensive structure with low confidence. He might and almost certain will change back to 4 2 3 1 at some point again.
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Does this rule apply on managers too?
I agree with the rest of your post.
 
I thought he was a dead man walking but he might survive now. Unless there is a disaster against Atalanta and City, they may not sack him soon as there are reports of club not being keen on Conte and waiting for others (Rodgers, Pochettino etc.).
 
Great result. But I still want him out. The house can still run but the boiler is broken and needs replacing.
 
Idxomer said:
At best it was just a good performance against an absolutely terrible Spurs that will sack their manager in the coming weeks.

Most of the flaws in Ole's football were there

Bad passing - check
Failure to dominate the ball (42% possession against a Nuno side) - check
The need to be extra clinical to score goals (3 goals from 4 shots on target) - check
Lack of real chances apart from the goals - check
Bad defending from free-kicks - check

What he got right is playing 3 defenders so Varane could cover the clown show around him and partnering Ronaldo with Cavani though that's gonna create a problem with some of the many forwards he hoarded.
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Exactly. Just a good performance.
That should be our base level.
We all know people that have reached the limit of their ability in a job. If Ole had brought in an experienced coaching staff at the end of last season he could have saved himself by learning and becoming better, but our standards have fallen so far that so many on here are saying it was an great/excellent performance.
If Spurs could pass at all and if Kane was bothered at all then we could very easily have made that a much tougher game.
Our base level is could get beaten by any team. Unfortunately he will never be good enough to manage a club of this stature sufficiently. Even more unfortunately our board don't know what they are doing at all and don't care about any results except for top 4
 
Look, I don’t want to be too negative after an objectively very good win, but there’s certainly something a tad ironic about Ole reverting to such a conservative set up staffed by our more experienced elder statesman, when one of the most oft repeated excuses for his slow trophyless progress is that he’s reinvigorated the progressive youthful traditions of the club…

Somewhere in Italy Jose opened an obnoxiously expensive bottle of wine
 
Mockney said:
Look, I don’t want to be too negative after an objectively very good win, but there’s certainly something a tad ironic about Ole reverting to such a conservative set up staffed by our more experienced elder statesman, when one of the most oft repeated excuses for his slow trophyless progress is that he’s reinvigorated the progressive youthful traditions of the club…

Somewhere in Italy Jose opened an obnoxiously expensive bottle of wine
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I don't think he will keep this formation as defaults in long term. I just think it is just to assure everyone especially his defenders that they can actually defend properly. Just to raise their all time low morale that way.
 
el3mel said:
We win a game against a shit Spurs side and I see the Ole supporters are back in full force to mock anyone daring to sound negative.
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They will celebrate us fielding 7 defensive players parking the bus weekly after spending over 400 million with Sancho, Greenwood and Rashford on the back whilst 2 guys with a summed age of 70 lead the line.

They'll have told us so.
 
lex talionis said:
Job done, but Conte will make additional tweaks to prepare us for stronger opponents.
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Although, todays game showed that we don´t need to change manager to play Conte-football, if that´s what we want.
 
el3mel said:
We win a game against a shit Spurs side and I see the Ole supporters are back in full force to mock anyone daring to sound negative.
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Nobody takes them seriously, I wouldn't worry.

Just like the real thing.


Dve said:
Although, todays game showed that we don´t need to change manager to play Conte-football, if that´s what we want.
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You'll reassess that opinion as soon as you see us face a somewhat competent side with this formation under Ole. Not talking about City and Liverpool either. Brighton and West Ham would do the trick.
 
AjaxCunian said:
They will celebrate us fielding 7 defensive players parking the bus weekly after spending over 400 million with Sancho, Greenwood and Rashford on the back whilst 2 guys with a summed age of 70 lead the line.

They'll have told us so.
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Ffs. Listen to yourself. It's United fans pleased with a United win.
 
This man signed one of the worlds biggest talents and have made him a bench warmer. Ever since his first season at Dortmund most United fans were crying out for us to sign Sancho because he was exactly what we needed on the wings.

The club finally does what most of us think would never happen and signed him only for him to end up not playing... How ironic is this? Something needs to be done about this asap because if this shit carries on and he'll end up wanting out we will have lost an absolute gem of a talent. Cringeworthy stuff by Ole this.
 
Sometimes you just have to admit that the other team's players wanted their manager to get sacked more than our players wanted Ole to get sacked
 
The United said:
I don't think he will keep this formation as defaults in long term. I just think it is just to assure everyone especially his defenders that they can actually defend properly. Just to raise their all time low morale that way.
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Of course, and that’d be fine 6 months into a rebuild. Maybe even a year. But we’re 3 years in now. We shouldn’t just be competing for the title (which we aren’t) but doing so in the adventurous, daredevil youth filled style we were promised was the end reward for sticking it out with Mr ‘United DNA’….

We ended that game with 7 players from Jose’s team on the field, playing the kind of formation Jose would approve of… even if it’s just a temporary fix, what was the fecking point of the last 3 years if that’s our reflexive fall back? The same as we were, but with older players, and no trophies. Great.

Dammit! I said I wouldnt be negative… Erm… at least we haven’t gone backwards like Spurs?
 
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