Ole Gunnar Solskjær | 2021/22 Discussion

[Ban]

I didn't misunderstand you, you didn't say that in your original post. I can't misunderstand something you're not saying.

All right mate.

 

[devilish]

It's amazing how Perisic achieved God like status here. He is just average and has been poor for 2 years, with occasionally turning up. Somehow he would solve our problems.

I wasn't that much against Perisic signing tbh. Sure we already had Martial there and the RW was screaming for top talent. However, I could understand Mou for wanting an experienced head, whose qualities are different to those of Martial's and could therefore change the game every now and then. We won the treble precisely because Bayern's defence were geared to tackle Cole-Yorke not Ole and Teddy.

What I was against was

a- the manager wasn't really interested in bringing in Perisic to act as cover/competition for Martial but to replace him. That's madness in my books
b- he sulked about it despite Inter were asking crazy money for him.
c- the way the manager distances himself out of every failed transfer he made. Mou seem to think that its ok to just add more players because if they fail he can always bring more. That's unfeasible and silly.

 

[fellaini's barber]

Wonder if this has any kind of resemblance to Mike Phelan at Hull. Flying first month, even got manager of the month. Quickly went down hill after that!

Have they run out of ideas as what to do in-game?! I can't put my finger on it, we haven't really played well for a while now.

Whatever the case, getting better players will go a long way to solving them. I can already see some of the sentimentality showing, Lingard playing whenever fit, approval for extensions for Jones and Young, our great captain.

 

[steakpie]

We played Young as a CB? Well that's news to me.

3-5-2, Young on the right side of the 3. Did you watch the game?

 

[Fredo]

People here start nagging as soon as we face a defeat. We were supposed to be at least 2-0 up in the first half had it not been for their lucky goalkeeper and us not finishing properly. The game plan was okay for the first 25 minutes or so then we succumbed. You look at players like Pogba, Lingard casually strolling around the field as if they own the fecking place. Then you have Young's dire crossing towards Lukaku, not to say that Lukaku will get to all of the long balls played but at least we can show some quality in delivering long balls that at least we can make use of.

The lack of quality in the squad is there to see, we have no proper depth and if our top players like Pogba play dog shit then there isn't much to do.
Happy for McTominay to score, he tried more than anyone to score.

It seems the decision we made to bring back players straight from injury/fatigue is starting to take its toll, we cannot manage a full game without downing our tempo at some point.

The substitutions were not that good as Lingard offered nothing for the whole game. It seems like some of our "superstars" only turn it up when we are playing a big team and this a concern especially when we are not a top team, at least not yet.

I trust Ole because we should not forget how many games we won and how we are now discussing a top 4 finish when back in december we were happy with our 6th position.

What I would like to see from Ole is a ruthless mentality when it comes to players like Pogba and Lingard who think they are warranted a start. A manager can set up a proper game plan but if the players are not up for it then there is no point in playing them.

 

[Ban]

3-5-2, Young on the right side of the 3. Did you watch the game?

Yeah, Young was at the RB.

 

[devilish]

Nobody is blaming them for the crap we are in. Some of us just want them to give their 100 percent and not have any excuse out there for their shit attitude. Back in the day you never saw our WC players strolling lazily around. You have trouble criticize them? Every player should be criticized if it's warranted. I don't expect Pogba to be our fan nor do so think he even cares for the club but for ffs don't play you don't care one bit.

First of all players have different characteristics. You wouldn't see Cantona working hard to win the ball for example. Secondly as said before football is a team game were its strengths lie on its weakest link. As said, Scholes, Pirlo and Zidane were magnificent players but they also relied on top players to back them up (Keane, Carrick, Deschamps, Davids and Gattuso) we lack these sort of players. As said, I find myself very uncomfortable to criticise our top performers when we all know that neither the squad nor the board is anywhere near good enough at this level. He's ain't heavy he's my brother was a star song for the Hollies but it translates badly in football (apart from maybe the Nevilles)

 

[Ban]

First of all players have different characteristics. You wouldn't see Cantona working hard to win the ball for example. Secondly as said before football is a team game were its strengths lie on its weakest link. As said, Scholes, Pirlo and Zidane were magnificent players but they also relied on top players to back them up (Keane, Carrick, Deschamps, Davids and Gattuso) we lack these sort of players. As said, I find myself very uncomfortable to criticise our top performers when we all know that neither the squad nor the board is anywhere near good enough at this level. He's ain't heavy he's my brother was a star song for the Hollies but it translates badly in football (apart from maybe the Nevilles)

So if one player has a bad, really bad game you can't criticize him cause he has idiots for teammates? Truly wc player would try to do something on his own yesterday, try to set ak example.

 

[Fracture90]

My opinion is that the board should have waited until the season ends before making Ole, or anyone else for that matter, our permanent manager.

But since that card has been dealt, all I can do is hope for the best. Hopefully this half-season will give him a clearer picture regarding the players he can count on and those that should be moved on.

I cannot blame Ole for last night's defeat, despite the lineup he selected we started off rather well and had some great chances on top of the goal we scored, but we weren't clinical enough.

What I can and will blame him for is his persistence with Young, who's been utter shiit. Also Ole needs to be better with his subs and not to wait for too long before making a change when things aren't going our way.

Either way this club will need to make some big, but before everything, smart investments come summer.

 

[JustAGuest]

If we had waited with the contract, who would people want instead? It seems Pochettino is the most popular choice and he has taken 13 points fewer than Ole since mid December, with an arguably stronger squad.

 

[devilish]

So if one player has a bad, really bad game you can't criticize him cause he has idiots for teammates?

Look mate, there's very few people in here who vent the way I do. However at this point in time, I can't really pinpoint if the issue is about that individual player, the tripe he's working with or the tactics being used. All I say is that we're lucky to still have these top players at the club. They can easily walk away and join a serious club that can actually match their ambitions.

 

[Sauldogba]

I think its important that we acknowledge that hes done a good job so far,that we support him,that we give him the chance to purchase players but its also important that we realize that once again the board as usual acted like complete and utter incompetent idiots for not waiting untill the summer to evaluate things before signing him.

 

[devilish]

If we had waited with the contract, who would people want instead? It seems Pochettino is the most popular choice and he has taken 13 points fewer than Ole since mid December, with an arguably stronger squad.

I think not even a young SAF can stir the ship at the moment. The rot from top (ie board) to bottom (ie players) is far too big for one man to handle. I hope that we finally realise that and bring the necessary changes we need.

 

[Ban]

Look mate, there's very few people in here who vent the way I do. However at this point in time, I can't really pinpoint if the issue is about that individual player, the tripe he's working with or the tactics being used. All I say is that we're lucky to still have these top players at the club. They can easily walk away and join a serious club that can actually match their ambitions.

Nobody thinks it's all about an individual player. It's just that about 10 excuses or so have been trotted out for him.

 

[Fosu-Mens]

Correct gameplan untill the their goal. Not enough movement amongst the attackers. Not enough players on the pitch able to make a single pass. Young gets a red card.

This loss was not on the manager. Personal mistakes. The technical/passing quality of some of the players is not even close to being good enough. Says alot when your second best passer on the pitch is a swedish CB.

 

[TRUERED89]

If we had waited with the contract, who would people want instead? It seems Pochettino is the most popular choice and he has taken 13 points fewer than Ole since mid December, with an arguably stronger squad.

Exactly this, far too many knee jerks going on. There's no guarantee with Poch who's been massively struggling lately. Ole cannot compensate for such school boy errors from so called experienced players, even playground players would get slaughtered for those mistakes. We were brilliant until the equaliser came, the players are just p*ussy's and completely shat themselves, its only 1-1 with more than half the game to play, why are you all panicking? cant get my head around it!

 

[Jacckk1985]

Nobody even knows what's this so called OGS gameplay looks like. A lot were saying that give Guardiola, Klopp, Pochettino, Sarri* a full season to implement his ideas and ways of play.

Now some of you are already trying to tie the noose for OGS for getting a mentally broken squad in middle of season trying to get their heads straight and then to perform for the highest level the squad can offer - newsflash, it's kind of unfair?

 

[Stookie]

Pretty much this. We should have been out of sight by the time Wolves scored.

This was my thoughts too

 

[dogwithabone]

Perspective required. We lost at Arsenal but were comfortably equal to them on the day and spurned a few glaring chances. Arsenal are currently 3rd and having a much improved season. Lost an FA Cup tie away to the stand out team of the season outside the top six, didn't play well but that happens in football. Beaten last night after controlling large periods of the game and a couple of pivotal misses from McTominay and Lukaku probably change the course of the game. Down to 10 late on away at a decent team is a big ask in anyone's book.

Ole is saying all the right stuff to try and inspire these players to get us over the CL qualification line but inwardly each inept individual performance will be ringing always bells in his head and I bet he cannot wait to shift as many as six or seven out of the club.

 

[AJ10]

Definitely a few there who should not be nailed on starters and won't be by the time we challenge for the league. Actually it's possible none from that list are starters in our next league challenging squad.

Of course anyone in our squad can be upgraded this season but they're the best we have and anyone lower than them gets to be automatic starters is a big problem.

 

[AJ10]

This is what we have all been saying for six years now and nothing happens because the structure of the club prevents this from ever happening. We havn't got the right people in charge in that department. This is fecking football not rocket science. Six years is more than enough to build a solid and competetive squad and yet look at us. And now people are thinking that just because Ole is here all of a sudden this summer is going to be any different.

That summer where Ed and Moyes were chasing around Bale and Fabregas for an entire window and then ending up with Fellaini in the final seconds of deadline day £10m more expensive than what his clause had been earlier in the summer showed how clueless Ed is. Get these feckers Glazers and Woodward out of this club please.

They clearly have no plan and that was evident from hiring moyes + fellaini + mata. One is a mid table manager,the other doesn't fit as your typical United player and we don't play with a no. 10.

 

[Bobcat]

How long we will talk about that great Ole's run? It was great run, he did excellent job lifting players spirit, brought good mood in whole club and had results. It was great short term job. Fantastic. As a caretaker he was 10/10.
But it is history now. Now it is time to talk about him as a Man Utd manager. Forget that run, forget how nice guy he is and the fact that he is our legend. Lets look how things stand now. 3 months after he took over.

1) Are we playing good football? No
2) Are we playing that "United way" attacking football? No. We play on counters against teams like Watford at OT.
3) Do we have results? Not anymore
4) Did he resolve our problem with deadwood? Yes, he gave them new contracts. He did that. He said that he was the one who adviced Ed to give Young and Jones new contracts. He plays Lingard 90 minutes every single game.
5) Do we see his signature in our general play? I don't see it. I see squad which have problems to dominate Watford, Leicester, Wolves, Saints.

Our form and attitude now is very low. If players play badly and have bad attitude, it is on coach. He is the one who picks them. He is the one who can drop those players or lift them up. He is payed to find solution.

Most managers have bright start in their clubs. It is common thing. Especially in big clubs when you have players who can decide games purely on their individual quality but after first few months you can see how good manager is.
This is not attack on Ole. He is what he is. This is attack on Ed. I don't see any logic why he gave him contract now. His first plan was to wait end of season and then decide. After we sacked Jose, i said that with next manager we must not feck up. Sooner or later our ride on SAF's legacy will stop and we will be in real danger to become Arsenal or Spurs. To drop from giant club to big club who fights for top 4 every season. Club who buys players AFTER giant clubs buy the best.

This makes no sense. Say we hired Ranieri or Poch or literally anyone else instead, would you have expected them to completely transform us midseason, without any transfers and without a preseason? Most of us had completely given up on top 4 in December, it might be hard now but the fact that we are still in the mix does not exactly paint the picture of a club in complete meltdown

1. Football might not be "good", but its a hell of a lot better than 1 shot on goal that we had under Jose. The past 6 years with all the chopping and changing of managers has left us with a sub par squad in most areas
2. "The United Way" was about having extreme quality in the squad and a "never say die" attitude. Thats not something that can be built in 4 months with a completely inherited squad, especially not this lot
3. Hes a 11W 2D 2L in the league. Ignoring the results we had in January, Ferbruary and March because it suits your narrative is bollocks
4. What was he supposed to do? Let them go for free? If we had let Young out on the pastures we have one (1!) player that can play RB and hes a teenager. I agree that Young should never start again, but we need to replace him before we get rid of him. Jones is English and despite being injury prone and error prone, will have some market value so if we want we can get a decent fee for him. Lingaard was great when Ole first got here and has always been wildly inconsistent, he was dreadful yesterday, but with injuries and terrible form its not like we have a lot of good options either. Mata is terrible at RW, Sanchez dont know how to kick a ball. Best option would probably be Lukaku but he had to play CF.
5. The days when we could just roll over midtable clubs in second gear are gone as the league has become way more competitive the last 10 years with even "small" clubs being able to purchase high profile internationals from abroad.

No one wants to see the club plunge any further, but throwing our toys out the pram NOW wont do any good either. I agree that it was a bit senseless to appoint Ole now instead of waiting, but except Poch that turned out to be just media rumors, there were no other realistic candidates, at least none the club had made contact with to my knowledge. Ed might be a lot of things, but i dont think he is so thick he appoints someone he thinks is unqualified simply because hes popular among the fans. After the PSG game there were United fans here, on reddit all over the internet (and TV) who said there would be riots if Ole did not get the job. That was hyperbolic and dumb, but clamoring for blood after three defeats (two of which were disgustingly undeserved) is equally bad.

My point is that its way to premature to make any judgement on Ole either way. He does not deserve undying loyalty simply because hes a legend and had a great run in the start, but hes the manager we got now so he should be given a fair chance like anyone else. If we find ourselves in the same place a year or two from now then yeah, he should be sacked. Guardiola won feck all in his first (full) season at City, and that was despite inheriting a much better squad and spending an absolute feckton of money

tl;dr: Its way to early to make any judgments on way or the other, calm down

 

[GlastonSpur]

If we had waited with the contract, who would people want instead? It seems Pochettino is the most popular choice and he has taken 13 points fewer than Ole since mid December, with an arguably stronger squad.

Ole was made permanent now, rather than waiting until the summer, likely because of the dawning realisation by the United board that no other acceptable managers were going to be ready, able and willing to move to United in the summer.

Pochettino most certainly would not have been willing to leave Spurs. Zidane has gone back to Real Madrid. And others are at clubs that provide guaranteed CL football every season.

So if not Ole, then who else, realistically speaking, could it have been?

 

[roonster09]

Ole was made permanent now, rather than waiting until the summer, likely because of the dawning realisation by the United board that no other acceptable managers were going to be ready, able and willing to move to United in the summer.

Or maybe because Ole made superb start and deserved to be hired.

 

[Vault Dweller]

He’s obviously going to be judged by the high standards he set himself and the team after winning the first 10/11 games, though. He’s a victim of his own success. That’s a good thing, expectation is now high (perhaps too high? Hard to begrudge United fans that after all the shit). His team or not, though, this was a game we had to win after he’d gotten us back into contention.

I think he probably is a victim of his own success you’re right. We needed to win yea, but as I said if individual players didn’t miss easy chances or make mistakes we would have. This defeat wasn’t the fault of Ole.

You have allowed Mourinho to lower your standards.

If we kept on playing with title challenging form like we should as that was our minimum standard, we will confortably be in top 4.

I can honestly say I haven’t, just that we were so terrible the first half of the season that we needed to go on title winning form to even get back into contention and with this squad that was never going to continue until seasons end. We were over 10 points behind fourth when Jose left, which people seem to have forgotten.

You say we should still be playing with title winning form, may I ask why you think we should be?

 

[Nick.]

And get who exactly?
I think you need to chill.
Ole has done a great job so far, and once again only time will tell if it's the right call, not sure if you are really understanding that? Or whether you're just choosing to ignore it because it actually makes sense and blows your narrative to bits?

If we waited until the end of the season we would have had more data to judge Ole on. In terms of who to get there would have been pleny of options (including Ole himself). I'm saying we didn't have to do it there and then, but you can't seem to compute that.

 

[roonster09]

He learned the mistake of the previous wolves game and rectified the tactics. Freshened up the midfield after the dreadful Saturday game and within 20 mins we create enough for 0-3.

Players don't finish their dinner and the rest Deadwood FC strike again. I'm worried we might not be able to clear out as much dross as we need too tbh but I will trust Ole with the job. He demonstrated enough yesterday dropping the likes of Matic. We need at least 4/5 quality additions to walk straight into the team. Not squad player. First team.

Yeah, I was happy with the way we started. We created few very good chances and should have put the game to bed. 1 silly mistake and then we started to lose the control. Solskjaer said we are not working much on fitness because of lack of time, which is understandable considering he joined during the busy period and mid season. So I'm confident we will see much better ManUtd next season with more time to work on fitness, tactics in preseason.

 

[AJ10]

He learned the mistake of the previous wolves game and rectified the tactics. Freshened up the midfield after the dreadful Saturday game and within 20 mins we create enough for 0-3.

Players don't finish their dinner and the rest Deadwood FC strike again. I'm worried we might not be able to clear out as much dross as we need too tbh but I will trust Ole with the job. He demonstrated enough yesterday dropping the likes of Matic. We need at least 4/5 quality additions to walk straight into the team. Not squad player. First team.

That was one thing i was looking forward to seeing how he would approach this game after that fa cup game. We should have been in cruise control but if you miss 3 sitters and F up like fred did then you're asking for trouble. Him changing it up in this game shows he's willing to adapt for specific teams unlike some other managers who approach every game the same way and with better players who don't shat them self we might improve. But he did F up with taking lukaku off and not Lingard IMO.

We seriously need to have a garage sale this summer and buy players with some footballing intelligence which our deadwood seriously lack (forget about football quality).

 

[charlenefan]

1 win in 4, fecking atrocious form

 

[NoLogo]

He has a lot to do. Mentality and fitness needs to be improved across the whole squad and on top of that we need some genuine quality at the back. As well as up front. I especially think we need to make sure that our future recruitment factors in mentality and quality in equal measures. By that I mean we need players like Mane and Sterling, attacking quality who also work their socks off and have the desire to be first to every lose ball and constantly make runs. Players who do the extra sprints even in the 90+5th minute. Players who only turn up when ever they feel like it are not the kind of players we need anymore.

 

[TRUERED89]

We're lucky to even have anything to fight for this season. We shouldn't be anywhere near a top 4 race and have a CL to fight for considering where we were in December. Ole deserves plenty of credit for that, yes performances have been inconsistent, but the way we started last night shows we can do it! Utterly depressing result last night but those mistakes cannot be put on the manager. He set us up on the front foot and we dominated. But the knee jerking is as usual out in full force! Unless we lose all our remaining games no one should be questioning Ole yet!

 

[dove]

We're lucky to even have anything to fight for this season. We shouldn't be anywhere near a top 4 race and have a CL to fight for considering where we were in December. Ole deserves plenty of credit for that, yes performances have been inconsistent, but the way we started last night shows we can do it! Utterly depressing result last night but those mistakes cannot be put on the manager. He set us up on the front foot and we dominated. But the knee jerking is as usual out in full force! Unless we lose all our remaining games no one should be questioning Ole yet!

I think most of people give him credit for the job he has done so far. At the same time we have been very average for 2 months now and even before that some of our wins were smash and grab. However good results masked that and everyone was happy. Having doubts about him as a manager is not a knee jerking, I think it's a valid concern.

 

[LeftyBlaster]

Yeah, I was happy with the way we started. We created few very good chances and should have put the game to bed. 1 silly mistake and then we started to lose the control. Solskjaer said we are not working much on fitness because of lack of time, which is understandable considering he joined during the busy period and mid season. So I'm confident we will see much better ManUtd next season with more time to work on fitness, tactics in preseason.

Agree. While the loss is galling because of individual errors and poor finishing, the approach was heartening. It wasn't a Mourinho performance by any stretch of the imagination.

 

[united13]

Pochettino took Southampton to their highest league finish (8th) since the 2002-2003 season and their highest points tally since the Premier League began.

Furthermore, he went close to winning the league the year Leicester won it and in my opinion if his squad had a little more depth/quality they would have beat Leicester to it. The year after they finished second with 86 points.

Granted the last two years they have fallen behind Liverpool/City due to a lack of investment and outside distractions e.g. stadium and being linked with Utd and Real Madrid job.

However, I still can't help but feel Utd have missed a real trick by appointing Solskjaer over Poch. Utd are at a stage where they need to rebuild - remove dead wood and bring in a total new style of play alongside new players. I cannot for the life of me see how Utd will be in a better position in 4-5 years with Ole in charge as opposed to having Poch in charge.

Why go for an inexperienced/unproven manager over someone who has delivered year on year in the premier league - knows the league inside out and has a proven ability to build a good squad (imagine what he could build with the full backing of the UTD board).

I hope it works out with Solskjaer in charge but I do believe that getting rid of Mourinho was going to have a positive effect on the group whoever came in to replace him. Granted - Ole did a better than expected job, however you can't help but that the honeymoon period is now over and Ole's appointment is a rushed decision by the board. Yes they have had some fantastic results - but they've also had some pretty poor ones? Burnley draw at home? Losing to Wolves twice. Arsenal away they were poor.


At the stage UTD are at - 3 failed managers and a real long term plan was needed. They have fallen into the trap of appointing a manager based on three months of results that Utd should be expected to achieve

 

[rpg]

Have he won a single game yet since he became permanent?

 

[R'hllor]

Have he won a single game yet since he became permanent?

Ehm

 

[Inigo Montoya]

Just read Ole's post-match comments.

I wonder how long the positivity schtick will last for.

"We should have scored three or four." Yeah, but we didn't, because our forwards are overrated.

"We made silly mistakes at the back." Yeah, that's not new, because we have shit defenders.

Do you want him to rip into them like Jose?

Have he won a single game yet since he became permanent?

He's won 1 and lost 1.What's your point?

 

[amolbhatia50k]

As long as Ole commits to technical, exciting football and moves us in that direction, he'll get support and time.

Really hope he makes changes this summer along those lines.

 

[amolbhatia50k]

Just read Ole's post-match comments.

I wonder how long the positivity schtick will last for.

"We should have scored three or four." Yeah, but we didn't, because our forwards are overrated.

"We made silly mistakes at the back." Yeah, that's not new, because we have shit defenders.

He won't gain anything by tearing into his players. Of course you have to hope he can see that this wasn't good enough. Some of our own fans feel the only problem was missing chances. I mean we created some very good ones early on. But beyond that it was all pretty average.

 

[Roboc7]

To stand any chance he needs to be prepared to have a big clear out over next two summer windows.

There are too many players whose mobility, passing and movement simply aren’t up to scratch. Work rate is another issue, some aren’t able, others aren’t willing.

He has to start to build a team rather than try to patch one together and make do with people ‘doing a job’ or ‘not being that bad’. Board and fans need to prepared to back him and show some patience to try and break the cycle we have been in since SAF left.