Ole Gunnar Solskjær | 2021/22 Discussion

[Castia]

Not sure what's going to happen with his line-up's from here

If he goes to 5 at the back he's leaving out too much talent on the bench we can't have a bench of Rashford, Pogba, Greenwood, Sancho and Martial in a position he isn't using.

It's just a mess isn't it, a tactical manager would be using Sancho, Donny, Pogba etc in the same team

 

[redshaw]

Looks like the ole at the wheel song is well and truly buried after the Liverpool fans . I never heard it yesterday which is great.

Hopefully so. These manager songs have been terrible, toe curling bad, the fans took Fergie too literally when he asked for the new manager to be backed. I swear the songs are cursed and all have come back to haunt us. Let a manager prove himself first and even then keep it more straight forward.

United have a large amount of songs to back the club and players.

Come and feel the Moyes. Terrible song and Moyes disliked it, it didn't even sound serious when sung

The Jose song "Something tells me I'm into something good. Jose playing the way United should." Double no, we weren't into anything good and he wasn't playing the way United should. Jose didn't like the song and again more comical that anything.

Ole at the wheel, need we say more.

The players need the strong vociferous backing from our normal songs, these manager songs are too lighthearted and comical and I think can even rub the players the wrong way if it's sung too much like it's all down to the manager. Way too much focus repeating a long song for managers that haven't earned it and don't really fit anyway.

All Fergie meant was not getting on the new managers back.

 

[90 + 5min]

Important win yesterday for him and the staff. To bounce back from last week and change tactics to suit team shows tactical knowledge. Upon that a 3-0 win against Tottenham shows a good work at training ground last week. Let us hope this keeps going.

Lets also hope he keep this tactic for the next couple of games because We are very fragile at the back with Maguire out of form and the central midfield right now. To much open spaces and thats is also because of non exsistent defensive work from wingers in 4-2-3-1.

One thing I hope is that We use squad little better. I’m not jumping on a wagon that Sancho and Beek should play because clearly they have only been passangers when they got their chances. But some more rotation. Playing Cavani from start was very nice view yesterday. I wouldnt mind Telles and Dalot getting some minuters in this formation. Same goes for Matic.

 

[AshRK]

It is sad how he lacks any trust in the squad players. Van de Beek, Telles, Bailly, Martial and even young players who finished the season high like elanga will be wondering what are we doing here. His obsession of keeping too many players and not playing them is idiotic. He could and should have sold Martial and Lingard and even Bailly. I hope we see some outgoings this January.

 

[Pexbo]

It is sad how he lacks any trust in the squad players. Van de Beek, Telles, Bailly, Martial and even young players who finished the season high like elanga will be wondering what are we doing here. His obsession of keeping too many players and not playing them is idiotic. He could and should have sold Martial and Lingard and even Bailly. I hope we see some outgoings this January.

It’s terrible squad management and it comes down to poor coaching and a lack of a system for me.

You should have a core 11 and be able replace any 3 of them in a given match without seeing a huge dip in quality and that’s how you should manage your squad for the lesser teams so when it comes to the end of the season everyone is fresh. The fact we always burns out by the end of March is a manifestation of his reluctance to trust his squad.

He will probably find his feet again soon and we will go on a good run but it ultimately means nothing if you aren’t preparing for squeaky bum time.

 

[ShinjiNinja26]

These cowardly tactics aren’t a long term solution, it got us a result yesterday but it leaves so much of our attacking talent on the bench as we’re playing with 7 defenders. The fact he needs 7 in order to make us look compact and a half decent defensive unit says it all really.

 

[BusbyMalone]

Not sure what's going to happen with his line-up's from here

If he goes to 5 at the back he's leaving out too much talent on the bench we can't have a bench of Rashford, Pogba, Greenwood, Sancho and Martial in a position he isn't using.

It's just a mess isn't it, a tactical manager would be using Sancho, Donny, Pogba etc in the same team

I'm interested to see how he moves forward from here. I'm not sure whether you can continue to play this for the remainder of the season, so how does he manage that.

The worry from my perspective is that this seemed like a very desperate move, which you can understand as he's in a very desperate situation. A last roll of the dice that worked against this specific opponent, rather than something that has been really worked on. There's no doubt we looked better defensively and had a much better structure - the players were actually parallel with each other!

Perhaps we've stumbled on something that's going to work for us, or maybe it's just a one-off that worked against a particularly wretched Spurs side. I know the obvious example would be the Chelsea side under Conte when they flipped the switch in that Arsenal game and changed to a back three and went on to win the league. Obviously, I don't think we're going to do that, but that seems to be the obvious comparison that some are making.

At the risk of stating the obvious, next week is going to be huge.

 

[PoTMS]

Wait a minute. So 4-3-2-1 and 4-3-3 after 3 years of planning just goes in the bin. Just stop for a second and look at the talent we have in our squad. After all the money we've spent, the way forward now is 5-3-2. Shaw, Maguire, Varane, Lindelof, Wan-Bissaka with Fred and McTominay in front of them. Then look at all those sitting on the bench.

Are you seriously telling me the best way forward is to play that back 7 every game and let our attackers fight it out for the 2 remaining positions (Bruno is an automatic starter for Ole regardless of form)?

I can see some of the flip floppers are out. Feck me, Ole has done a number on some of you. It's not being negative, it's just not being naive. We've gone down this road multiple times before with the same end result. Diddly squat. The only reason we need to play 5 at the back now is because it hides Ole and co's coaching deficiencies. A better manager would get a lot more out of this squad and wouldn't necessarily have to resort to 5-3-2.

 

[Oranges038]

These cowardly tactics aren’t a long term solution, it got us a result yesterday but it leaves so much of our attacking talent on the bench as we’re playing with 7 defenders. The fact he needs 7 in order to make us look compact and a half decent defensive unit says it all really.

Reverting to 5 at the back to sort out a defence that cost well over 200m really is a joke, he's afraid to drop certain players and at the same time is accepting that his 2 holders in the 4231 just aren't good enough.

While I enjoyed the win, I'm not a fan of this 532, I wouldn't mind seeing it against the bigger teams occasionally, you do what's required there to win but not against the weaker teams.

Playing with 7 defensive players every week with the attacking options at his disposal would be nothing more than a cowardly approach and I don't think the fans would accept it for long, it would end up like it was with Jose, winning games but being absolutely bored out of your skull for most it. Southgate does it with England and it's fcuking awful to watch.

 

[Chairman Steve]

At absolute worst I hope he’s given the LVG treatment and booted out the door the moment the seasons over, whether that’s him scraping into 4th on the final league game or winning the FA Cup.

I do not think this man is going to get any better than what we’re seeing now. Just the usual rollercoaster of him getting good run of results followed by a descent into mediocrity (usually when it looks like we’re making serious headway) then saves himself from the jaws of the P45 somehow. He will not trust anyone outside his dozen or so players despite him buying some of these players he never uses. He stumbles upon something that works then he’s fecked when teams figure it out.

Hes been here 3 years and that’s more than enough time for a manager to make an impact. We as fans should not feel guilted into severing ties from him by his mates in the media. He’s absolutely had his chance. There is no danger that he will go somewhere else of our magnitude and be a title winning elite manager. No PL team is touching him. No regular CL team is touching him. No major to medium European league team is touching him. He is fading back into the obscurity of Norwegian football and he will spin it like “well I’ve managed Utd and I deem that the peak”.

We are witnessing someone who won the Euromillions in managerial form.

 

[BusbyMalone]

Wait a minute. So 4-3-2-1 and 4-3-3 after 3 years of planning just goes in the bin. Just stop for a second and look at the talent we have in our squad. After all the money we've spent, the way forward now is 5-3-2. Shaw, Maguire, Varane, Lindelof, Wan-Bissaka with Fred and McTominay in front of them. Then look at all those sitting on the bench.

Are you seriously telling me the best way forward is to play that back 7 every game and let our attackers fight it out for the 2 remaining positions (Bruno is an automatic starter for Ole regardless of form)?

I can see some of the flip floppers are out. Feck me, Ole has done a number on some of you. It's not being negative, it's just not being naive. We've gone down this road multiple times before with the same end result. Diddly squat. The only reason we need to play 5 at the back now is because it hides Ole and co's coaching deficiencies. A better manager would get a lot more out of this squad and wouldn't necessarily have to resort to 5-3-2.

Yeah, this is something I was saying in my post. A desperate move from a man in a desperate situation that worked against this specific side, but this isn't something that we were working towards. At least, it doesn't seem that way, otherwise, why would you build a squad like this when playing this formation would leave a lot of those players out.

Interesting to see how this goes moving forward, that's for sure.

 

[Rhyme Animal]

If he takes the blame after the Liverpool defeat (which I think he should, even if he didn’t appear to acknowledge it at any point…), then he also must take credit for the win yesterday.

You can only beat the team that’s in front of you, and he did so, soundly.

I think the City game will be fascinating now, and safe to say City will be a lot more nervous for that game than many would’ve thought a week ago!

 

[#07]

Yeah. It want like the warning signs were not there earlier in the season, it's just that vs Leicester and Liverpool we didn't get away with it.

I said it in another thread, but with such a star studded squad, I think he felt the pressure to play swashbuckling, modern football, but he and his coaches cobbled together some ramshackle formation and tactical approach in a hurry and it bit him in the arse.

Completely agree with you that he buckled under pressure and that's very worrying to me.

A coach cannot change his approach just because of what people think. It reminds me of David Moyes saying he would've been criticised for subbing Van Persie or Rooney.

Does anyone think Diego Simeone would change his whole approach because of expectations?

A manager is supposed to manage, not be managed. Ole has let himself be managed, by expectations, by circumstances, by his playing staff. That's a bad sign. It maybe goes some way to explaining why he's never been able to get his team right when we're in a final or when we went top of the table: He is lacking personality and self-confidence as a coach.

Hopefully he's learned from this? Hopefully he goes forward doing things his way rather than the way he thinks the sports pages think he should be doing it. I would love to see Solskjaer prove us all wrong and win something significant. He's a club legend, who wouldn't be taken in by the romance of that? However, the way he's done himself this season gives me serious cause for concern.

If our issues had been caused from the outside e.g., injuries, suspensions, okay. But he caused our problems by abandoning what had worked for us. That's where you start having real doubts.

 

[rotherham_red]

Looks like the ole at the wheel song is well and truly buried after the Liverpool fans . I never heard it yesterday which is great.

Then you're either deaf or the TV mics didn't pick it up. I was there and it was getting belted out throughout the game.

Ole retains the support of the hardcore, even if there are doubts. Cos that's what supporters do.

 

[Bebestation]

Wait a minute. So 4-3-2-1 and 4-3-3 after 3 years of planning just goes in the bin. Just stop for a second and look at the talent we have in our squad. After all the money we've spent, the way forward now is 5-3-2. Shaw, Maguire, Varane, Lindelof, Wan-Bissaka with Fred and McTominay in front of them. Then look at all those sitting on the bench.

Are you seriously telling me the best way forward is to play that back 7 every game and let our attackers fight it out for the 2 remaining positions (Bruno is an automatic starter for Ole regardless of form)?

I can see some of the flip floppers are out. Feck me, Ole has done a number on some of you. It's not being negative, it's just not being naive. We've gone down this road multiple times before with the same end result. Diddly squat. The only reason we need to play 5 at the back now is because it hides Ole and co's coaching deficiencies. A better manager would get a lot more out of this squad and wouldn't necessarily have to resort to 5-3-2.

I don't think it's really that complicated.

Cristiano Ronaldo was not a player who was planned as a transfer for this season and has now come and we have to adapt the team to get the best out of him.

Players like Sancho who were going to be main players this season has to take a back seat because ultimately Ronaldo has always needed a central striking partner to get the best out of him.

Does that mean the 4231 goes in the bin? I dont think so - I just think Ole whilst he has the job is going to aim to get the best out of Ronaldo - which is in a striking partnership.

Now what happens in the backing? In a 352 he arguable gets to be more defensively better than how Maguire has been playing + with strikers like Cavani and Ronaldo telling the fullbacks like shaw and Wan Bissaka to get forward at free will and cross is going to be useful than playing only 4 at the back.

Finally, I think we might slowly see this - Pogba should technically fit in to a 352 because their is less defensive work for him to do with the 3 defenders behind him as we saw with Fred and Mctominay getting forward.

Ole clearly knows he is loosing his job and during his last matches here he has to get the best out of who he regards to be his most important players.

 

[united_99]

Every domestic rival and their fans want Ole to stay... so much so they were all cheering for United yesterday just so that Ole stays at the wheel. If this isn't the most damning indication of his incompetence I don't know what else is.

First of all you were talking about our European rivals in your original post.
And I couldn’t care less what rival fans think about us. A lot of insecure fans around nowadays who seem to care a lot about rival fans’ thoughts and feelings.

 

[Plant0x84]

Anybody know what Ole was on about in his post match presser? A dig at a journalist? Seemed an odd comment.

 

[Sviken]

First of all you were talking about our European rivals in your original post.
And I couldn’t care less what rival fans think about us. A lot of insecure fans around nowadays who seem to care a lot about rival fans’ thoughts and feelings.

It's not that anybody cares what rival fans think, but it is indicative to the fact that they think Ole is not good enough and that's good for them and bad for us. You wouldn't have heard a Liverpool fan wishing Sir Alex would stay another 5 years, would you?

 

[united_99]

It's not that anybody cares what rival fans think, but it is indicative to the fact that they think Ole is not good enough and good for them and bad for us. You wouldn't have heard a Liverpool fan wishing Sir Alex would stay another 5 years, would you?

SAF needed to win several titles before he got credit from everywhere. Also a lot of Liverpool fans found most our players overrated even when we were winning everything under SAF. A lot of rival fans still called Ronaldo a flat track bully until he left United.
I am not interested in rival fans’ opinion. This doesn’t bother me.
I am much more interested in the running of our own club and disappointed that we have been a non entity in Europe and domestically for almost a decade now.

 

[R'hllor]

Funny thing is, people yap about this 5-3-2 formation change, we should stick with it etc. Formation aint the issue when we dont have a a ball majority of the time, the feck we gonna do when we have to break a defense.

 

[Idxomer]

Funny thing is, people yap about this 5-3-2 formation change, we should stick with it etc. Formation aint the issue when we dont have a a ball majority of the time, the feck we gonna do when we have to break a defense.

Spam balls in the box to Ronaldo and Cavani.

 

[pocco]

These cowardly tactics aren’t a long term solution, it got us a result yesterday but it leaves so much of our attacking talent on the bench as we’re playing with 7 defenders. The fact he needs 7 in order to make us look compact and a half decent defensive unit says it all really.

Not to mention he didn't have the foresight to try something different until he was practically told to in order to save his job. He's a buffoon, but nothing we didn't know already. It wasn't a tactically brilliant performance either, simply changing formation. He put in 7 players that he knew had the individual qualities to keep the 2 dangerous Spurs players at bay. That the Spurs defence was good awful helped turn what, tactically, should have been a 0-0 into a 3-0.

 

[Jibbs]

First of all you were talking about our European rivals in your original post.
And I couldn’t care less what rival fans think about us. A lot of insecure fans around nowadays who seem to care a lot about rival fans’ thoughts and feelings.

I qouted Paul Marson.

 

[jem]

Then you're either deaf or the TV mics didn't pick it up. I was there and it was getting belted out throughout the game.

Ole retains the support of the hardcore, even if there are doubts. Cos that's what supporters do.

Did the hardcore continue to support Moyes, LVG, and Mourinho to the end? Genuine question, as I've never been to a game at Old Trafford.

 

[Sviken]

SAF needed to win several titles before he got credit from everywhere. Also a lot of Liverpool fans found most our players overrated even when we were winning everything under SAF. A lot of rival fans still called Ronaldo a flat track bully until he left United.
I am not interested in rival fans’ opinion. This doesn’t bother me.
I am much more interested in the running of our own club and disappointed that we have been a non entity in Europe and domestically for almost a decade now.

I'm not talking about what delusions Liverpool fans have towards us. They'd call Sir Alex overrated and that the only reason for his dominance was because we brought the refs. That's an easy shot at us, of course. But what a person cannot do is lie to themselves. They want Ole to stay, that's clear and obvious. They were over the moon that SAF retired, regardless of what they say about his managerial capabilities and they were over the moon when Ronaldo left to Madrid. That's because, as much shit they'd like to talk about our players and what not, they were well aware that they were lying to themselves. If Ole leaves tomorrow, they'd be devastated. This is very telling on how much they actually rate our manager as a threat to them. Same way we thought about Hodgson or Dalglish. Anyone here ever said "oh shit, I hope these guys go". No, we wanted them to stay as long as possible because they were terrible. I want Klopp to leave, I'm sure you do too. Doesn't that tell you something?

 

[Zen86]

These cowardly tactics aren’t a long term solution, it got us a result yesterday but it leaves so much of our attacking talent on the bench as we’re playing with 7 defenders. The fact he needs 7 in order to make us look compact and a half decent defensive unit says it all really.

If it works, why is it cowardly tactics? Do you call Ole brave when we’ve practically played with 4 up top?

 

[UnitedSofa]

Not sure what's going to happen with his line-up's from here

If he goes to 5 at the back he's leaving out too much talent on the bench we can't have a bench of Rashford, Pogba, Greenwood, Sancho and Martial in a position he isn't using.

It's just a mess isn't it, a tactical manager would be using Sancho, Donny, Pogba etc in the same team

These cowardly tactics aren’t a long term solution, it got us a result yesterday but it leaves so much of our attacking talent on the bench as we’re playing with 7 defenders. The fact he needs 7 in order to make us look compact and a half decent defensive unit says it all really.

The CAFs shiny new toy Conte religiously plays a 3,5,2 - so leaving talented players on the bench will continue if he comes in.

So what’s the difference?

 

[FootyGirl88]

 

[Bobcat]

If it works, why is it cowardly tactics? Do you call Ole brave when we’ve practically played with 4 up top?

The way we played earlier the season was basically 4-2-1 in defense. Kamikaze football.

Only way we can revert to 4231 is if the front four actually defends by tracking back and keep the shape, or actually presses, not this half arsed thing

 

[VP89]

At least

These fecking lemons

 

[NewYorkRed]

Great result. Happy for the team and enjoyed the win. He still needs to leave.

 

[Sviken]

How can clown clubs like Barcelona (at the moment) and Tottenham be more decisive than us and have bigger standards? I don't get it. Tottenham are about to sack a manager who's 2 points behind us. Let that sink in.

 

[MattyLT]

Sepp Häagen Dazs?

Don't know who he is, but definitely sounds world class!

 

[KiD MoYeS]

I've no issue with this. There are not enough clear candidates right now to sack Ole in my opinion.

 

[ShinjiNinja26]

If it works, why is it cowardly tactics? Do you call Ole brave when we’ve practically played with 4 up top?

It’s cowardly because he’s only doing it to save his skin and it seems the only way he can make us look even remotely solid is by playing 7 defenders. Look at the make up of the squad he’s built, do you think it’s catered to playing a back 5 system? It leaves so much of our attacking talent on the bench, some of our best players going to waste. It tells you he isn’t capable of playing the system he intended that makes best use of the squad he’s assembled. This is just a last throw of the dice, the fact it’s taken a humiliating hammering from Liverpool and his job hanging by a thread to finally change something up is alarming. It’s not sustainable though, we can’t be playing the likes of Villa and Brighton etc. parking the bus with a back 5 that definitely screams cowardly.

 

[Zen86]

The way we played earlier the season was basically 4-2-1 in defense. Kamikaze football.

Only way we can revert to 4231 is if the front four actually defends by tracking back and keep the shape, or actually presses, not this half arsed thing

Of a likely front 4 of Rashford, Bruno, Ronaldo, and Greenwood, I don’t think you can count on much defensive support. It’s basically the reason we’ve been torn a new one during various games.

 

[Zen86]

It’s cowardly because he’s only doing it to save his skin and it seems the only way he can make us look even remotely solid is by playing 7 defenders. Look at the make up of the squad he’s built, do you think it’s catered to playing a back 5 system? It leaves so much of our attacking talent on the bench, some of our best players going to waste. It tells you he isn’t capable of playing the system he intended that makes best use of the squad he’s assembled. This is just a last throw of the dice, the fact it’s taken a humiliating hammering from Liverpool and his job hanging by a thread to finally change something up is alarming. It’s not sustainable though, we can’t be playing the likes of Villa and Brighton etc. parking the bus with a back 5 that definitely screams cowardly.

It’s not really cowardly though is it? Unless you think carrying on with the same system that has been torn to pieces over and over this season would be the brave thing to do.

 

[#07]

Funny thing is, people yap about this 5-3-2 formation change, we should stick with it etc. Formation aint the issue when we dont have a a ball majority of the time, the feck we gonna do when we have to break a defense.

Bruno will do it like he always does. Honestly, breaking down packed defences is much less of an issue for us now than it was pre-Bruno.

The main difference between last season and this season is, until yesterday, we were kamikaze out of possession. Leaving four men isolated upfield, spreading the lines of the team across 50m like Red Nev said last night. Genuinely insane stuff at the highest level of pro football.

Whether we change formation or not our default has to be compact out of possession. The fact we went so far away from that, pretty much until Ole was on the verge of the sack, is an indictment of the coaching staff.

However, if playing 3-5-2 for a bit is a way to get back to that I can deal.

 

[Berbasbullet]

It’s cowardly because he’s only doing it to save his skin and it seems the only way he can make us look even remotely solid is by playing 7 defenders. Look at the make up of the squad he’s built, do you think it’s catered to playing a back 5 system? It leaves so much of our attacking talent on the bench, some of our best players going to waste. It tells you he isn’t capable of playing the system he intended that makes best use of the squad he’s assembled. This is just a last throw of the dice, the fact it’s taken a humiliating hammering from Liverpool and his job hanging by a thread to finally change something up is alarming. It’s not sustainable though, we can’t be playing the likes of Villa and Brighton etc. parking the bus with a back 5 that definitely screams cowardly.

Cowardly ole, making changes to win football matches. Disgraceful!

 

[united_99]

I'm not talking about what delusions Liverpool fans have towards us. They'd call Sir Alex overrated and that the only reason for his dominance was because we brought the refs. That's an easy shot at us, of course. But what a person cannot do is lie to themselves. They want Ole to stay, that's clear and obvious. They were over the moon that SAF retired, regardless of what they say about his managerial capabilities and they were over the moon when Ronaldo left to Madrid. That's because, as much shit they'd like to talk about our players and what not, they were well aware that they were lying to themselves. If Ole leaves tomorrow, they'd be devastated. This is very telling on how much they actually rate our manager as a threat to them. Same way we thought about Hodgson or Dalglish. Anyone here ever said "oh shit, I hope these guys go". No, we wanted them to stay as long as possible because they were terrible. I want Klopp to leave, I'm sure you do too. Doesn't that tell you something?

Again, no.
One should want Ole to leave if they are of the opinion that he can’t take us forward and we would be better off without him.
One should not want him to leave just because rival fans don’t rate him.
People getting upset because rival fans are making fun is something I just cannot understand. Maybe because it never annoys me.
They also don’t know our club as they are making fun of the wrong person anyway.
And they will keep making fun of our future managers until the board gets it right and one of them wins us the league or CL.