Unlike many, I'm not going to blame Ole for what happened at the weekend. People questioning the inclusion of pace in forward areas should recognise the following things:
- That pace should have got Cahill a red card
- United should have had three penalties, all of which were because Palace struggled to cope when we attacked them with direct running
- Our goal ultimately came because we had the front three running in tandem at Palace and James finished the move
The idea we needed Mata to start instead of Lingard makes no sense to me. What did Mata actually do when he came on? He was a mirage, a ghost, Palace played around him. Lingard wasn't at the races but, the idea he might run at Palace and get some joy out of them was not stupid.
The lineup Ole picked should have got the job done. Unfortunately when we got into forward areas, to be frank, too often our players turned chicken. There were the same lay offs we saw under Mourinho, giving the ball to someone else (usually Pogba) to abdicate responsibility for making something happen. It wasn't really until we started to get desperate that our forwards really began demanding the ball and going directly at Palace. For example, how many times can you remember Rashford really challenging Palace players to commit until after he missed the penalty and desperately tried to make up for it?
If you wanna try blaming Ole for
something it would be that we didn't play with an urgency for most of the match. Even 1-0 down we played at a tempo that would have had you believing we were 3-0 up. However, and I said this under Mourinho too, unless we want Ole to strap up his boots and get out there himself, I am not sure you can hold him accountable.
The players need to be able to take responsibility for making things happen, instead of waiting for solutions to drop into their lap. Yes, we have a young squad. Still, that squad needs to grow the f-k up and take it on. Too many players in this squad play within themselves. When things get tough instead of stepping up they step aside. Too often its the safe ball or looking for Pogba to make something special happen. Honestly our players need to start looking in the mirror for answers instead of hoping that a hero is gonna swoop in and save them.