"Lack of coaching"
I've probably seen this posted a hundred times now the last couple of days. "Lack of coaching"....what does it even mean? Do you think Ole, Phelan, Carrick and McKenna are just fecking around at Carrington? Letting the players run around freely while they sit and sip tea?
Anyone who has played football at any organized capacity know that it is not rocket science. If you play LB, MF or CF, even at 10 years old you largely know how to perform your role in the team, so its not like these players are completely unable to perform their role unless the manager tells them specifically how to do it. They are not toddlers! If you played football you also know that training is largely the same mundane stuff like fitness drills, technical drills or set pieces, and its not that different in top level football. Here the manager/coaches plays a part because they decide what they focus on so the team can improve in areas they need improving. Its a poorly kept secret that Ole was not happy with the fitness levels of the squad when he took over, and we heard rumors of players complaining about "running a lot" in training so we have to assume the focus has been fitness, which was clearly needed.
For what it's worth, i met a guy who is best mates with Daniel Berg Haestad (played under Ole in Molde) and he told me Ole mostly trusts his coaches to do training, while he observed in the back and very often he did not even show his face on the training field at all.
So because we have focused on fitness the last couple of months, does that mean that all prior knowledge or technical skill of these players just went out the window? No, im not buying that. And regarding our coaches, Ferguson kept Phelan around for years so hes clearly not some clueless clown. Carrick and McKenna i dont know, but Carrick is one of the most intelligent footballers i've seen play, so i have no doubt he knows a thing or two about how to organize a midfield
Then comes stuff like team selection and in game tactics. Team selection is not rocket science. Hell, every armchair expert on this forum has an opinion about it so i would go as far as saying team selections are easy and yes even the famous tea lady can do them. In game tactics is more tricky, but its not the end all be all of football management. I would say the best in class is probably Mouhrino. Hes a reactive tactician, but he regularly outfoxed Ferguson between 04-08 and even here we saw some glimpses of his tactical skills, like completely shutting down Hazard with Herrera which spawned a whole lot of memes. Ferguson was not even that great of a tactician, yet he will go down as the greatest manager of all time because he had two key skills:
Squad building and man management/leadership skills. Anyone read his book? Its a reason he went all over the world to hold leadership seminars because that is what made him a good manager. That and his ability to identify and recruit the right players was what made him so successful. If coaching/tactic is all it takes, then it means everyone can become a pro footballer and any decent manager can turn any league 1 side into world beaters only by the power of their training methods and divine tactical knowledge. If coaching and tactics is all there is, then it means Pep could make MK Dons PL winners, but we all know thats not true.
Pep and Klopp as an example are both pretty unique in the tactical department as they are breaking new ground with their tactical system, but do people here sincerely believe that alone is what makes City and Liverpool good? What sets City and Liverpool apart today is not tactics, its the fact that their players will run themselves into to the ground and they are also insanely talented. Because Pep and Klopp are great at building squads and they are great at motivating their players. Not because of some superb tactical secrets that we mere mortals can not understand.
Man management (or lack thereof) is the reason Jose failed here. When things did not go his way, he had a complete meltdown and we all know how shite the atmosphere was in and around the club. There is no doubt Jose is a great manager, but when things got as bad as they did, there was not really any other choice than letting him go. Then Ole came and we won 10 games in a row. That was probably more down to relief than Ole being a superb motivator, but it still happened. Not going to defend the recent results and the way we have been playing, because its been shite, but is that only down to Ole and his (lack of) man management? The players seems to love him, maybe he is to nice? My point is thats its a bit to early to tell if Ole can motivate his players or not. The second half of last season is a write off since the season was over by Christmas anyway so i would not read to much into what happened then, both positive or negative. This season has started really badly, but building a winning mentality is not done overnight, and even if you do have the ability to motivate and get the very best out of your players, you need the right type of players...which brings me to my last point
This squad is bad. Really, really bad. Its a hodgepodge of four former managers and it is painfully obvious that too many lack both the character and the skill to play for a club with high ambitions or they are simply past it. Giving Sanchez that massive contract also hurt us badly and caused a lot of unrest and unhappiness in the team since the other players found it unfair that a player that barely featured was paid 2x or 3x as much as them. Of all the bad decisions the club has made post Fergie, this was probably the worst one
Rojo, Baily and Jones are injury prone as feck, and despite showing glimpses of quality all of them regularly have brain farts, something you really dont want defenders to be having too often. Lindelof i dont know. He looked good for a while, but has now reverted to being timid and weak. Young is a good professional, but a former winger turned fullback and we all know hes past it. Tuanzebe and TFM are still very young so not much can be said about them.
That leaves Shaw, AWB and Maguire. The latter two have been our best defenders this season and both were brought here by Ole
Midfield is even worse. Fred, Pereira and Lindgaard are not Premier League quality players. Not even close. Mata and Matic are well past it, Gomes and Garner are unblooded teenagers, which leaves Pogba, McTomminay and James. We all know how good Pogba can be, but he seems to have some serious primadonna problems about him and seems to be more about himself than the team. McTomminay is alright, but not really someone we would have seen as a first team regular in a Fergie side. Then we have James, probably one of the few bright spots so far this season and he was brought here from the fecking Championship. When a Championship player comes in and shows up supposed PL stars then you know something is not right
We are super thin in attack, we knew this when the season started and now injuries have made it even worse. Rashford and Martial are alright, but they are both super inconsistent and Greenwood is just a kid. Pretty far from the days of Ronaldo, Rooney, Tevez and Berbatov eh? Our squad is not top 4, its not even top 6. Thats how bad it has gotten. The game yesterday was pretty telling because usually in cup ties like these were PL sides face lower league teams you can clearly see the difference in quality between the players, but that was hard to see yesterday...simply because so many of these players are not that much better than the Rochdale players
Ole gutted the squad this summer and some of the responsibility lies with him, but most of it lies with Ed and the former managers. People say this is as bad as Moyes, but people seems to forget that Moyes inhereited the PL winners that had players like Rooney, RvP, Vidic, Nani, Kagawa and Evra. Players that would improve the current United immensely. Getting rid of so many players at once has left us utterly bare bones, but it had to be done sooner or later and its clear this was about thinking in the long term rather than the short term. Ole says hes happy with the squad to the press, but thats clearly not true and the alternative would be to say "No most of these players are shite and are going to get axed pretty soon" does not build squad harmony does it? If Ole is actually happy with the squad, then hes an idiot and there is simply no hope, but i really doubt that is the case.
Considering the dire state our club and our squad was in, making us look good again within one summer was always an impossible task. Out net spend this summer was only 70 million, but i'd rather we spend time and sign the right players, rather than sign more players like Fred, Sanchez, Matic and Lukaku. And as i said, there is no way Ole can be happy with the current squad. If he is, then hes clearly insane
Now, this wall of text is not some grand defense from some Ole fanboy. To be honest, if he was sacked tomorrow and replaced with Poch, i would be just as happy. But i really doubt changing managers now would do us any good. So hypothetically, say we get Poch and he fails to get into the top 4? "Unacceptable. Sack him" cries the Caf. Hes been at Spurs 5 years now and they have started the season just as badly as us, with a much better squad. He would come in, fail to get into top 4 because the team is not even a halfway finished article, then the fans would turn on him because nothing but instant success is good enough it seems.
After the summer we all knew it was going to be a long and painful season. The second we see signs of players downing tools because Ole cant motivate them, or if Ole is truly happy with the squad hes got here, then he needs to be replaced immediately, but right now i dont see what benefits that would bring. We cant go on sacking and hiring new managers every 1-2 years, especially now consider the state of our squad. As i said, i would be just as happy if we got Poch tomorrow, but when he failed to get into the top 4 come May, the narrative would shift from him being a savior to "the job being to big for him" or something like that and we would start looking for yet another manager
At least read the post properly, it might be hard but at least try.
