Ole Gunnar Solskjær | 2021/22 Discussion

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AndyJ1985 said:
What's with all the laughing at Spurs on here. They are doing a damn sight better than we are and that's largely down to Poch
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They're the new Arsene-era Arsenal. Solid top 4, maybe a run in a cup or two, but never actually managing to bring home the trophy when it counts. Actually, they're worse than Arsene's Arsenal, as they at least grabbed the odd FA Cup along the way.

The season isn't yet over, I suspect Spurs will go out against City and we can *still* finish above them, despite one or two players throwing it away with moments of incompetence.

What would happen if we did hire Poch? - we'd finish top 4 every year, have some good cup runs - and maybe, with our extra spending, he might just win us an FA Cup. But that's not where we want to be. We hired experience in the mad Dutchman and Jose, it didn't work - we now have to roll the die and go with the Ole plan. It may just be a stroke of genius - but even if it doesn't work out, we'll be no worse off than we were when we sacked Jose.
 
I wonder; if our results and general play will be like this( hope not, i still believe in top 4) until the end of the season, will Ed sack Ole? Will he admit that he made a mistake? Or he will do the opposite and sell 10 players and buy 4,5 world class players to make a statement that Ole is a long term solution.

Will we be like Real or United?
 
LVG was here, poor performances and matches lost we should be winning. Enter Mourinho, he was backed well, although debate remains about who was signed by Mourinho and who was signed by Ed. Poor performances and matches lost we should be winning. Ole gets the hot seat now, at what point do we actually stand up and say the players are not performing. Especially given the wages they are being paid, the squad needs a ruthless hand and that hand to be 100% backed by Ed. None of this investment player, we dont want to move him on rubbish. This is a football club, not an investment property.
 
He was never the man and was appointed as a consequence of the post Mourinho 'bounce', which in my view would have been achieved by pretty much anyone who took the Managers chair. He won a few, we had a song for him, we beat PSG who had kidded most people that they were 'contenders' and here we are today having made an emotional decision that's starting to look ridiculous, when we should have made a clinical and dispassionate decision on who's going to spunk the next £250m up the wall. If the next three league games turn into the likely disaster that looks on the cards, the pressure will be right on the lad who loves us and is loved in return, but who has had one of the biggest jobs in the World that he's not ready for dropped on him. I am now at a moment where a 'good season' is hopefully stopping City from winning the Quad. How the worm has turned.
 
Personally, think he picked a decent attacking side, people are nit picking due to results. If we didnt make those mistakes and took our chances, people would be saying amazing management.
Whether he is the right manager long term, time will tell. Love his attitude, not so sure he is though. Althogh overboard, I think Paul Ince and his comment of anybody could have come in and done a good job had a ring of truth. The results have been poor since the PSG peak as have the performances....however, if we went back to his appointment and said would you be happy where we are now, I bet most people would say yes. It would be a fantastic achievment if he gets us in to the top four, which sadly I dont think we will.
The biggest problem at the club for me really is the players though.

We have a goalkeeper for the first time since his first season here who is really inconsistent which is worrying with the contract situation is his head not right?

We have a first choice back four that bar Shaw I think needs totally rebuilding...Young the captain shouldnt have got a new contract, good servant and for me slated too much, but he is declining now from decent to poor by the week, Smalling still for me our best centre back, what an earth are Darmian, Rojo and even Jones (another new contract) still doing here....and Bailly seems to have gone from a rough diamond to plain rough from his first season.

We have a player that has been average since he has been here that a lot of us love for his love for the club......looking to move on in Herrera, a £50m signing that bar the odd European game has been the typical Utd Brazilian midfielder, a player people are saying £150m is nowhere near enough to sell who bar 3 months hasnt played to the standard he is capable of more than two games in ten. Another Brazilian that looks good technically but has been here probably five years now and still hasnt broken through and is now 23 in Perreira. And then Matic £40m odd, good for a season and now already past his peak two years later.

The our attack £50m player in Martial who we all rave about but still isnt decisive or anywhere near the player we want him to be, a £40m record signing still here jsut in Mata who was never what we needed, a world class winger who must have his boots on the wrong feet in Sanchez and a £75m striker who cant even control a ball ith his first touch.

3/4 signings...dont make me laugh. Our purchases have been absolutely dreadful overall for years. 80% of them poor signings, simple as that, virtually all the rest poor performances. Its pretty much the same summer we have face going back to Fergusons last season not even since. We need an absolute bare minimum of four signings this summer and dependant on the rumours outgoing wise and in an ideal world of what we need a gk, rb, two cb, three cm and a rw and maybe even an additional striker.

I think what happens from now until the end of the season doesnt really give any ideas of whether SOlkjear is the right or wrong manager, a top four finish makes his summer far far easier though and I think regardless....what he does in the transfer marker, fro me personally will go a long way to whether I think he will be a success or not
 
JMack1234 said:
You cannot legislate for two of your key players dropping absolute clangers in the first 20 mins. I hope Ole is ruthless this summer and starts the process of rebuilding this squad.
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You can if one has being doing exactly that on a regular basis including the previous game
 
His persistence with shit like Lingard gets on my tits. What the feck are you doing?

And Young should not play another game for this club if Ole has any self respect.
 
KristianMackle said:
People are going to talk about gulf in class and there was but Ole set us up perfectly to go a goal or two up in the first 15 minutes had we competent finishers and gamechamgers. That would've changed the whole game. You cant prepare your team for the kind of goals we gave away. It's impossible; the tie was effectively over after 20 minutes.

In those first 10-15 minutes, we had them! They were nervous and jittery at the back but we gift them 2 goals and now Barca can slow the game down and pass it about like they want. From that point, we're just chasing shadows and Barca can just pick us off for fun.

Ole will get it right.
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Agreed.
 
I want him to lead us, but just saying, he was very wrong in his lineup today. Young has not been good for a long time and our front 3 today were called to be rubbish. Lukaku is actually better than all of them. So is Sanchez.

I was also baffled by how he started Bailey away to PSG, which he went on to fix but still.

Despite all of this though, there is more good to Ole than bad.
 
KristianMackle said:
People are going to talk about gulf in class and there was but Ole set us up perfectly to go a goal or two up in the first 15 minutes had we competent finishers and gamechamgers. That would've changed the whole game. You cant prepare your team for the kind of goals we gave away. It's impossible; the tie was effectively over after 20 minutes.

In those first 10-15 minutes, we had them! They were nervous and jittery at the back but we gift them 2 goals and now Barca can slow the game down and pass it about like they want. From that point, we're just chasing shadows and Barca can just pick us off for fun.

Ole will get it right.
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This, people need to remember he's had no pre season, none of them he has signed, to get us close to where we are after the Jose effect is effort. Let him sign the players that fit the mould of what makes United great.
 
Should have always gone for Poch he's a much better manager than Ole and that's not over this season, that's within his 5 or so seasons managing in the league.

We need a manager to revolutionise the entire club, Poch im sure would demand a DOF, players not of the calibre of Smalling, Jones, Young while Ole is out here giving dross new contracts ? The last thing we need is a yes man to simply replace the current motto of hire and fire, that model has failed for 10 years we need long term strategy, long term implementations right the way through the hierarchy of the club. If there's not news within the next month or so regarding a footballing director / technical director it will decide the faith of Solskjaer.
 
Ole finds himself in a little bit similar to Cardiff with United.

That is, at Cardiff, he wanted to play a type of style but found out he couldn't because the requisite quality was not there. At United, he has to play a type of style that is reflective of successful United teams. However, he's inherited a squad that doesn't have the requisite quality but will persist with a style suited for United and still get the results. It's been inconsistent the past couple of weeks as the quality doesn't match the tactics but he's got to forge on putting his stamp on the team.

Ole and his staff know enough about United and the players they have. It's not some mystery. Fact is, the current squad isn't talented enough to produce week in week out to get the results needed. It could be talented and consistent enough down the road, but we're getting down the road every year and players like Pogba, Martial, Rashford, Lukaku, Lingard have shown glaring gaps which may be too big to overcome.
 
Making the decision as early as we did was so fecking stupid. Not only does it put unnecessary pressure on him and the players, it ties our hands when inevitable the bounce finishes and we find out maybe he isn't as good as we thought he was. The performances since PSG have been Mourinho-esque. You can play it down and make whatever excuses you liked. Fact of the matter is - Jose also had to deal with a feck ton of injuries to players and whatever else Ole is having to deal with now, yet the consensus under him was the squad was actually really good, he was just holding them back. Now the consensus is back to being that our squad is shit, which is it?

I love Ole, but why not wait until the end of the season before making a decision, you know, as originally intended, rather than blowing your load after one pump? He may still turn it around and I really hope he does, who doesn't love Ole. That being said, I don't ever see him being in the top tier of managers though. Think it's a mistake we are going to have no chance of Poch or someone else after this. We only ever looked really good in that incredible run where teams were attacking us and we could counter attack with pace. Apart from that, our only big game tactic seems to be 5 at the back, Lukaku and Rashford or Martial up front and hope we can hit them on the counter. Teams are beginning to figure it out.

If he has any chance, he's going to need to get a large transfer budget and sign 3-4 top class players. In his presser today he said we were looking at 1-2 though, didn't he? I'm hoping it was lost in translation as that's not enough frankly. You could see the difference in levels today.
 
Ace of Spades said:
Ole has done fine, a bad patch of form where players play like idiots does not help. He plays the young players, and they get shredded for not being consistent enough, and that he should have gone with experience. He plays the older players, who feck up and then he is blamed picking players who are past it. Stuck between a rock and a hard place.

The problem is our squad is very poor, the players that are playing are ones that have done the best. Players not in form have been dropped, but there is not much to rely on unfortunately.
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This is exactly it. If we take our chance and don't wrap up 2 gifts everyone will have been lauding the selection. It was as good of a team that we can put out and the alternative isn't much better.
 
Just seen a video of Ole talking to media after match on Sky Sports app regarding the rebuilding job. He talks about the rebuilding job starting with the staff and players and that he has some very good players there but with one or two additions we will look to improve.

One or two additions doesn't sound promising. We need 5-6 players if we are to compete at all for silverware.
 
passing-wind said:
Should have always gone for Poch he's a much better manager than Ole and that's not over this season, that's within his 5 or so seasons managing in the league.

We need a manager to revolutionise the entire club, Poch im sure would demand a DOF, players not of the calibre of Smalling, Jones, Young while Ole is out here giving dross new contracts ? The last thing we need is a yes man to simply replace the current motto of hire and fire, that model has failed for 10 years we need long term strategy, long term implementations right the way through the hierarchy of the club. If there's not news within the next month or so regarding a footballing director / technical director it will decide the faith of Solskjaer.
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Poch has very functional players and settled players. The backline is better than United's as a unit. The central midfield work together very well. Their attacking players have at least a couple match winning moments every match. Lots of continuity at Spurs under Poch, something that cannot be said at United. Spurs are at the same level as United if we look at the league table, but they also have better players at each level - Kane, Son, Dele; Eriksen; Vertongen, Aldwerwerld.

It has taken Poch a few years to get Spurs to where they are at. But the squad made good investments over the years and players have continued to improve.

Ole and staff need time, but the players coming into United need to be consistently good bordering on greatness. Fred will be an important player next year, as will Dalot (needs to improve defensively at RB tremendously). The right hole that is right forward and a second midfield player next to Pogba is crucial.
 
In terms of the Poch vs Ole argument, I don’t think either have done anything in their careers so far to show they can do what is needed at United. That’s not saying neither is the right man, but that what they’ve both achieved so far is broadly an irrelevant barometer for how they’d handle this job.
 
We've made our bed by jumping the gun and appointing him permanently early, when we started this whole thing by saying we will take our time to go through a process of appointing the new manager. Club remains a shambles that it's been under Woodwards leadership. Don't expect that to change, Woodward is an arrogant man that will never admit he's out of his depth and get the right people in place to move the club forward. Ole will be the next fall guy.
 
A meltdown because Ole's failed to turn the squad that Mourinho was steering towards mid-table into Barca beaters within 4 months. Got to laugh at some expectations around here. If Poch had taken over when Ole did, we'd be no better off and the knives would already be out for him instead.
 
Sacking Jose Mourinho was Ed Woodward and Glazer biggest mistake ever. Now they have no scapegoat anymore , we all can see how bad our players is and how far we are behind European Elite.
 
Simply put, he needs to grow a pair and request from Woodward selling and replacing as much of the squad as possible, and if the board refuses he should resign in summer. If the summer went as shite as last season, with 2 or 3 in and 2 (Herrera and Velancia out), the players would get him sacked by the end of the season.
 
jesperjaap said:
Personally, think he picked a decent attacking side, people are nit picking due to results. If we didnt make those mistakes and took our chances, people would be saying amazing management.
Whether he is the right manager long term, time will tell. Love his attitude, not so sure he is though. Althogh overboard, I think Paul Ince and his comment of anybody could have come in and done a good job had a ring of truth. The results have been poor since the PSG peak as have the performances....however, if we went back to his appointment and said would you be happy where we are now, I bet most people would say yes. It would be a fantastic achievment if he gets us in to the top four, which sadly I dont think we will.
The biggest problem at the club for me really is the players though.

We have a goalkeeper for the first time since his first season here who is really inconsistent which is worrying with the contract situation is his head not right?

We have a first choice back four that bar Shaw I think needs totally rebuilding...Young the captain shouldnt have got a new contract, good servant and for me slated too much, but he is declining now from decent to poor by the week, Smalling still for me our best centre back, what an earth are Darmian, Rojo and even Jones (another new contract) still doing here....and Bailly seems to have gone from a rough diamond to plain rough from his first season.

We have a player that has been average since he has been here that a lot of us love for his love for the club......looking to move on in Herrera, a £50m signing that bar the odd European game has been the typical Utd Brazilian midfielder, a player people are saying £150m is nowhere near enough to sell who bar 3 months hasnt played to the standard he is capable of more than two games in ten. Another Brazilian that looks good technically but has been here probably five years now and still hasnt broken through and is now 23 in Perreira. And then Matic £40m odd, good for a season and now already past his peak two years later.

The our attack £50m player in Martial who we all rave about but still isnt decisive or anywhere near the player we want him to be, a £40m record signing still here jsut in Mata who was never what we needed, a world class winger who must have his boots on the wrong feet in Sanchez and a £75m striker who cant even control a ball ith his first touch.

3/4 signings...dont make me laugh. Our purchases have been absolutely dreadful overall for years. 80% of them poor signings, simple as that, virtually all the rest poor performances. Its pretty much the same summer we have face going back to Fergusons last season not even since. We need an absolute bare minimum of four signings this summer and dependant on the rumours outgoing wise and in an ideal world of what we need a gk, rb, two cb, three cm and a rw and maybe even an additional striker.

I think what happens from now until the end of the season doesnt really give any ideas of whether SOlkjear is the right or wrong manager, a top four finish makes his summer far far easier though and I think regardless....what he does in the transfer marker, fro me personally will go a long way to whether I think he will be a success or not
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I gotta feeling you are not exactly a fan of Brazilians:lol:
 
Solskjaer has a lot of big decisions to make in the summer. Some are straight-forward. Others I don't know the answer.

How many of our squad can you actually trust for a new project ?

How many would rather be elsewhere ?
 
The thing Ole needs to do more than anything is to single out Ed Woodward if he forces Ole to make the wrong decisions - before the consequences start occurring.

As a club legend that is what he needs to do more so than just being a manager.
 
Ole was never considered a candidate.He's closed the gap to top 4 from 10 to 2 points, top 3 of the mini league table, which is great I guess. But let do a recap, this squad finished 2 last season, nothing to brag about but we know they're capable of, to some extent, that's within expectation with a competent manager.
We lost FA, lost UCL, top 4 race is not that promising, our form since PSG away 's been slowly crawling back to the point when Mourinho left. Players don't seem to be coached much better either; they played better for 10 matches until Liverpool & PGS at OT. Our football has been a question mark since then.

So what is the logic behind his early appointment again? Couldn't the board just fecking wait for 2 more months? Don't they have DoF to hire or a big reconstruction ahead for summer?
It wasn't like Molde going to reject us and I'm sure Ole wouldn't take any job over United' one.
This is the reason we need a DoF who has a plan and it's longer than 2 weeks. Right now club is run by literal jesters.
 
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Why didn't we wait until end of the season? Wouldn't surprise me if he's gone next season.
 
shaky said:
A meltdown because Ole's failed to turn the squad that Mourinho was steering towards mid-table into Barca beaters within 4 months. Got to laugh at some expectations around here. If Poch had taken over when Ole did, we'd be no better off and the knives would already be out for him instead.
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It really is a testament to the job he’s done isn’t it. I mean, I actually had hope we might come out of the match with something if not progress.

I’ll call a spade a spade regarding team selection and all. But the mere fact that he’s instilled so much hope in the fans is telling.

The Poch talk is just pure muppetry. If anything, fans should be awed that we managed to come out and put Barca on the backfoot at the Nou Camp today before a couple of ridiculous individual errors cost us the tie.
 
I fear Ole's fate will eventually be decided by his inability to throw sentiment out of the equation when it comes to team selection. We have hungry players in the squad but it's too little too late to start playing them now. Thursdays look a more likely outcome than finishing 4th. Well done to Ole for getting something out of the season with that run. If Jose was still around we'd be fighting for 10th. Something has happened with the players since PSG. Can't fathom what it could be but something in the squad is rotten and needs gone.
 
KristianMackle said:
People are going to talk about gulf in class and there was but Ole set us up perfectly to go a goal or two up in the first 15 minutes had we competent finishers and gamechamgers. That would've changed the whole game. You cant prepare your team for the kind of goals we gave away. It's impossible; the tie was effectively over after 20 minutes.

In those first 10-15 minutes, we had them! They were nervous and jittery at the back but we gift them 2 goals and now Barca can slow the game down and pass it about like they want. From that point, we're just chasing shadows and Barca can just pick us off for fun.

Ole will get it right.
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I think Ole is a solid manager, not a miracle worker or an idiot.

Good job today, unlucky we didn't score early and while the game might have been competitive for 15 more minutes if he'd benched Young, he basically did well. I'd have played Martial over Lukaku too, even if it turned out to be the wrong choice.

Cautiously optimistic, assuming we make the requisite signings.
 
When Mourinho lost: “He needs to play the United way!”

When Solskjær loses: “Its not his fault. It’s the players!”

So why was Mourinho sacked then? :rolleyes:
 
Infra-red said:
It's certainly a bold decision to appoint a relative novice with no experience of this kind of thing (especially when there's no technical director overseeing it). Hopefully it pays off.
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A very bold move. Remove the fact it is Ole for a moment, and let’s just say it’s a man who has experience managing Cardiff (relegated) and Molde, is he really going to be United’s first choice? To go toe to toe with Klopp and Pep? It’s pretty close to hiring an unknown!

I think for the owners it was manna from heaven, a free and pliant manager on the cheap, who the fans themselves chose! They don’t want to invest billions in pushing for the top spot, why take the risk? The club makes enough from its brand and merchandise around the world, so why spend all that money for no guarantee when you can still make a hefty amount if you get top four. Profitable business is the main thing for them.

This is I think why they so obviously snapped Ole up quickly before the shine began to fade, and fans started to wake up.

I think had they waited until now even fans still clinging to the fairytale dream of the ‘returning hero’ would be talking about a new manager.

Not even because he’s a bad manager, but surely just because if being honest they have absolutely no fuc*ing idea what kind of manager he really is. As an unknown with the insecurity that necessarily brings, does he have the stature to get what he wants from the board, or control a difficult dressing room even?

Anyone has to see that hiring him in those two days, after two straight loses was a very bewildering thing to do...
 
Negan said:
When Mourinho lost: “He needs to play the United way!”

When Solskjær loses: “Its not his fault. It’s the players!”

So why was Mourinho sacked then? :rolleyes:
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When Mourinho was ousted by Sevilla in the most cowardly of fashions he threw his squad under the bus talking as if their squad was superior to ours.

When Ole lost to Barca after ousting PSG he said we have to look at a few things and there will be one or two additions coming in even though there will probably be four or five in truth.

I know it’s hard for you to see the difference. But words like optimism, belief and leadership come to mind rather than excuses, blame-shifting and ego.
 
shaky said:
A meltdown because Ole's failed to turn the squad that Mourinho was steering towards mid-table into Barca beaters within 4 months. Got to laugh at some expectations around here. If Poch had taken over when Ole did, we'd be no better off and the knives would already be out for him instead.
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The focus here should be on Ed not Ole..
Next time the banner gets on the plane it should be Ed.. The club is in tatters Ole has nothing to do with it.
 
I'm confident that Ole will make the right decisions over the summer. I've not been able to say that about any other manager since Fergie left. That's the main thing that needs sorting now, before the squad gets any worse.
 
tentan said:
Why didn't we wait until end of the season? Wouldn't surprise me if he's gone next season.
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If he's gone the Glazers will go with him. If Ole is not given a platform to succeed the fans are going to run out of patience and hound them out. This is something I have been looking forward to. The fans revolting about how poorly and damaging this club is being run.
 
jesperjaap said:
Personally, think he picked a decent attacking side, people are nit picking due to results. If we didnt make those mistakes and took our chances, people would be saying amazing management.
Whether he is the right manager long term, time will tell. Love his attitude, not so sure he is though. Althogh overboard, I think Paul Ince and his comment of anybody could have come in and done a good job had a ring of truth. The results have been poor since the PSG peak as have the performances....however, if we went back to his appointment and said would you be happy where we are now, I bet most people would say yes. It would be a fantastic achievment if he gets us in to the top four, which sadly I dont think we will.
The biggest problem at the club for me really is the players though.

We have a goalkeeper for the first time since his first season here who is really inconsistent which is worrying with the contract situation is his head not right?

We have a first choice back four that bar Shaw I think needs totally rebuilding...Young the captain shouldnt have got a new contract, good servant and for me slated too much, but he is declining now from decent to poor by the week, Smalling still for me our best centre back, what an earth are Darmian, Rojo and even Jones (another new contract) still doing here....and Bailly seems to have gone from a rough diamond to plain rough from his first season.

We have a player that has been average since he has been here that a lot of us love for his love for the club......looking to move on in Herrera, a £50m signing that bar the odd European game has been the typical Utd Brazilian midfielder, a player people are saying £150m is nowhere near enough to sell who bar 3 months hasnt played to the standard he is capable of more than two games in ten. Another Brazilian that looks good technically but has been here probably five years now and still hasnt broken through and is now 23 in Perreira. And then Matic £40m odd, good for a season and now already past his peak two years later.

The our attack £50m player in Martial who we all rave about but still isnt decisive or anywhere near the player we want him to be, a £40m record signing still here jsut in Mata who was never what we needed, a world class winger who must have his boots on the wrong feet in Sanchez and a £75m striker who cant even control a ball ith his first touch.

3/4 signings...dont make me laugh. Our purchases have been absolutely dreadful overall for years. 80% of them poor signings, simple as that, virtually all the rest poor performances. Its pretty much the same summer we have face going back to Fergusons last season not even since. We need an absolute bare minimum of four signings this summer and dependant on the rumours outgoing wise and in an ideal world of what we need a gk, rb, two cb, three cm and a rw and maybe even an additional striker.

I think what happens from now until the end of the season doesnt really give any ideas of whether SOlkjear is the right or wrong manager, a top four finish makes his summer far far easier though and I think regardless....what he does in the transfer marker, fro me personally will go a long way to whether I think he will be a success or not
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I think our signings on paper aren't too bad, but I think our biggest problem is our utter inability to improve and develop our signings. I don't know what's happening in training, as I know we have had high-quality coaching staff in most of our seasons since SAF (Moyes-era notwithstanding).

How many of the following signings have actually improved their games since they joined us? How many have even maintained the standards which prompted us to sign them?

Fred - no
Dalot - yes?
Lukaku - no
Matic - no
Lindelof - yes
Sanchez - no
Pogba - no
Bailly - no
Martial - yes?
Darmian - no

Of the signings we've made over the last 5 seasons (who remain at the club) it could be argued that only one of them has made any improvements to their game. This is why we're falling miles behind the leading teams.
 
shaky said:
A meltdown because Ole's failed to turn the squad that Mourinho was steering towards mid-table into Barca beaters within 4 months. Got to laugh at some expectations around here. If Poch had taken over when Ole did, we'd be no better off and the knives would already be out for him instead.
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But but but...........I won the treble with this team on fifa. Why is Ole sooo shit !?!?
 
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