Ole Gunnar Solskjær | 2021/22 Discussion

[Litch]

Marco Rose joins a team that finished 5th last season and in November he has them top of the Bundesliga and playing really good stuff.

But yeah, we should keep waiting for Ole to make any semblance of a positive impact. It’s funny, so many managers go into clubs and automatically transform their playing style and improve them within literal months. But yet some on here are so blinded as to just how bad a job Ole is doing, they have convinced themselves that all managers need a shit tonne of money and time before they can significantly improve a team.

......but Ole put the ball in the Germans net!!!!

 

[thepolice123]

It’s not the tactics that concern me, its the work done behind the scenes - the coaching, trainings, the pre-match preparations. All of which seems shockingly bad and the little things on the pitch can tell a lot.

We have no drills for throw-ins, its like pick up the ball and throw it at someone else. Who is our designated PK taker? You don’t just change after the initial person fails to convert. Indirect free kicks are laughably bad, we do not know who to aim at, we hit it long or short at a whim. A few games back we even had Maguire personally removing Young from free kick duties and asking to Lindelof to take it instead. That was Sunday League stuff. No discernible passing patterns for combination play. It’s as if players are put on the pitch and just told to play Football.

 

[Bobcat]

Our squad is crap. Filled with deadwoods.
Ole 3 purchases is very good. Yes?

But that grumpy other fellow finished 2nd with a cup with the worse squad then what ole has. With a lot more deadwoods and minus the 150m 3 very good purchase.

Jose is probably top 3 in the world in terms of getting the most out of his players. Had he gotten here in 2013 instead of Moyes i am pretty confident we would have won another PL or two. Problem is that it always ends in disaster since he ends up in conflict with someone.

And i am not making excuses for Ole here, but on my last flight to Manchester i talked with a guy who claimed to be best mates with Daniel Berg Hæstad (was captain under Ole in Molde). He told me Ole trusted his coaches to conduct the training sessions and half the time he was not even there. He also mostly listened to his tactical coaches regarding team selections and in-game tactics. Now this was just some guy, but it seems like a strange thing to lie about and imo if this was how he did things at Molde i dont see why it is any different here. Regarding our coaches though, i seem to remember us getting significantly worse when Jose replaced Rui Faria with Carrick/McKenna and i also seem to remember Phelan was a big step down from Queiroz

Now Ole is the one who has picked the coaches so hes responsible in the end, but his coaching team are hardly pulling up trees either. Overall i think we look more solid in defense, but that might just be down to the fact that we actually have a competent RB now. Every single PL game this season we just seem to switch completely off and concede some cheap fecking goal. Like yesterday, granted it was well done by King, but why the feck do we allow him so much time? AWB could have done better, but its not his fecking job to look after their CF. The way Lindelof reacts is just bizarre. Get your body between him and goal, dont move in the opposite fecking direction, that is schoolyard stuff.

The lack of chances created is an even bigger problem and when we do get into decent positions we fail to make an impact because either the final ball is lacking or the finish is lacking. I dont know if this is mostly a player quality issue, a confidence issue or a coaching issue, probably a mix, but either way its fecking dire. Take yesterday again as an example. James get played through and squares it to Pereira who tries to to shoot first time despite having loads of time and space and then he misses the ball completely. Good chance that does not even result is an attempt. Fred gets a free shot a couple of minutes later and just blasts it into the stands. Corners for us is probably 0.1 xG since we have not scored from a corner in fecking ages

Another thing is the players mentality or lack there off. Remember when Ole first got here? Players who looked like they gave zero fecks in December suddenly looked like world beaters and played like men possessed and then they reverted back to playing like complete fecking fannies. The last couple of weeks has also been mirrored that albeit in a smaller scale. Liverpool, Norwich and Chelsea we actually looked like we gave a feck and most of the player delivered legit 7-8/10 performances and then we get served shite like yesterday were everyone bar maybe James and AWB looked like Championship players. Granted there were probably some tired legs out there, but so early in the season there is no excuses to turn off completely like that.

I would also ask questions about our medical staff and fitness coaches. Why the feck are sustaining so many muscular injures? Is everyone here made from paper? Liverpool and City play with much higher intensity than us and they dont have half of our injury problems. I also wonder what the feck our scouting department have been doing these past years. I dont know if is they, Ed or the former managers who should take most of the blame, but the amount of money we have pissed away on shite players is just astonishing. We have spent the second most only below City since Fergie left and most of those transfers have been utter shite.

Ole does deserve credit for his transfers though. Buying an actual RB, a good CB instead of 3 mediocre ones and a cheap, young RW is more than can be said about his predecessors. The fact that James and AWB have been head and shoulders above the rest this season says a lot imo.

I think Ole has the right ideas regarding squad building, but his coaching or lack thereof is seriously holding us back, and if his manager style is the same as it was in Molde i think his choice of coaches has been detrimental. I perfectly understand those who wants Ole out, because despite us being in a rebuild, midtable is clearly not good enough

BUT! There is a couple of more things i would like to see before the plug is pulled on Ole

• Assuming Ole does as he did in Molde and this guy i met is not full of shit: Getting some new coaches and especially a new world class attacking coach could hopefully change things for the better
• Some kind of change in both medical/fitness and scouting. We should not be having so many injuries early in the season and besides James we have not unearthed a hidden gem in ages
• See what happens in the January window. As i said i think Ole has done really well in the market and if we do one or two key signings in January we might suddenly look a lot stronger. We have also been heavily linked with Haaland who looks like the real deal, 6 goals in three matches in the CL (Messi 17, Ronaldo: 32 to reach the same). And honestly the only realistic way we are going to secure his signature is if Ole is managing us, considering their history and close personal relationship. Also, regarding our transfers i think Woody has promised Ole x amount of time to build his squad. If he was told this summer that top 4 was a minimum requirement then i am pretty sure we would have bought more players, even if they were stop gap solutions
• If we are sacking him, the nest guy has to be the right one. No point in getting a new manager if we just are going to keep threading water and scramble for a top 4 finish. We need someone with the skills, the stones to handle the pressure and a proper long term vision. Getting an interim would be utterly pointless since it does not solve anything really and if he turns out to be an unpopular character, things might actually get worse. Poch, Ten Haag, Marco Rose, Nagelsmann are all exciting young coaches, but honestly i dont think they have the gravitas and experience needed to turn this around (yet). Seeing Ole sacked, one of them hired and having them fail one or two years down the line would be absolutely heartbreaking, because that would turn us into a right graveyard for managers which would mean no one in their right mind would ever take the job. Also if we sack Ole now, the implication for the new manager is that you have to deliver RIGHT NOW and you will have the ghost of an immensely popular character hanging over you for the rest of the season. That does not sound like much fun to be honest. On the other hand, if we end the season on the lower half of the table (or something like that) with zero signs of progress, then everyone would be in agreement that Ole has failed to meet the minimum requirements and deserves to be sacked. The pressure on the next manager would also be much more reasonable, because then he will be told he will at least be shown some patience and it will be a much lower bar to clear in terms of improvements and progress

That's my thoughts anyway. 2 points from B'mouth, Newcastle, Palace and Soton is clearly far from good enough, but now more than ever do we need to keep a cool head.

 

[Adisa]

Let's be honest, we are wasting our time.

 

[el3mel]

There is a lot of talk going around that his success with Molde largely has been down to his excellent assistants, Mark Dempsey and Richard Hartis (who to be fair, both joined his staff in Man Utd as well ...). His second spell at Molde was for the most part without those two to help him, and he never managed to replicate the success of 2011-2014.

Their current head coach, Erling Moe, is a man of the people. Jokes with the press and doesn't publicly slate his players the way Ole had a tendency to do when things went badly.

Honestly, I'm not sure whether they would take him back or not. He still has close ties to the owner and the city of course, but I feel it would be disrespectful if they let Moe go to get Solskjær back after Moe leading them to their first league title in five years.

Thanks for the information and insight.

 

[DomesticTadpole]

Jose is probably top 3 in the world in terms of getting the most out of his players. Had he gotten here in 2013 instead of Moyes i am pretty confident we would have won another PL or two. Problem is that it always ends in disaster since he ends up in conflict with someone.

And i am not making excuses for Ole here, but on my last flight to Manchester i talked with a guy who claimed to be best mates with Daniel Berg Hæstad (was captain under Ole in Molde). He told me Ole trusted his coaches to conduct the training sessions and half the time he was not even there. He also mostly listened to his tactical coaches regarding team selections and in-game tactics. Now this was just some guy, but it seems like a strange thing to lie about and imo if this was how he did things at Molde i dont see why it is any different here. Regarding our coaches though, i seem to remember us getting significantly worse when Jose replaced Rui Faria with Carrick/McKenna and i also seem to remember Phelan was a big step down from Queiroz

Now Ole is the one who has picked the coaches so hes responsible in the end, but his coaching team are hardly pulling up trees either. Overall i think we look more solid in defense, but that might just be down to the fact that we actually have a competent RB now. Every single PL game this season we just seem to switch completely off and concede some cheap fecking goal. Like yesterday, granted it was well done by King, but why the feck do we allow him so much time? AWB could have done better, but its not his fecking job to look after their CF. The way Lindelof reacts is just bizarre. Get your body between him and goal, dont move in the opposite fecking direction, that is schoolyard stuff.

The lack of chances created is an even bigger problem and when we do get into decent positions we fail to make an impact because either the final ball is lacking or the finish is lacking. I dont know if this is mostly a player quality issue, a confidence issue or a coaching issue, probably a mix, but either way its fecking dire. Take yesterday again as an example. James get played through and squares it to Pereira who tries to to shoot first time despite having loads of time and space and then he misses the ball completely. Good chance that does not even result is an attempt. Fred gets a free shot a couple of minutes later and just blasts it into the stands. Corners for us is probably 0.1 xG since we have not scored from a corner in fecking ages

Another thing is the players mentality or lack there off. Remember when Ole first got here? Players who looked like they gave zero fecks in December suddenly looked like world beaters and played like men possessed and then they reverted back to playing like complete fecking fannies. The last couple of weeks has also been mirrored that albeit in a smaller scale. Liverpool, Norwich and Chelsea we actually looked like we gave a feck and most of the player delivered legit 7-8/10 performances and then we get served shite like yesterday were everyone bar maybe James and AWB looked like Championship players. Granted there were probably some tired legs out there, but so early in the season there is no excuses to turn off completely like that.

I would also ask questions about our medical staff and fitness coaches. Why the feck are sustaining so many muscular injures? Is everyone here made from paper? Liverpool and City play with much higher intensity than us and they dont have half of our injury problems. I also wonder what the feck our scouting department have been doing these past years. I dont know if is they, Ed or the former managers who should take most of the blame, but the amount of money we have pissed away on shite players is just astonishing. We have spent the second most only below City since Fergie left and most of those transfers have been utter shite.

Ole does deserve credit for his transfers though. Buying an actual RB, a good CB instead of 3 mediocre ones and a cheap, young RW is more than can be said about his predecessors. The fact that James and AWB have been head and shoulders above the rest this season says a lot imo.

I think Ole has the right ideas regarding squad building, but his coaching or lack thereof is seriously holding us back, and if his manager style is the same as it was in Molde i think his choice of coaches has been detrimental. I perfectly understand those who wants Ole out, because despite us being in a rebuild, midtable is clearly not good enough

BUT! There is a couple of more things i would like to see before the plug is pulled on Ole

• Assuming Ole does as he did in Molde and this guy i met is not full of shit: Getting some new coaches and especially a new world class attacking coach could hopefully change things for the better
• Some kind of change in both medical/fitness and scouting. We should not be having so many injuries early in the season and besides James we have not unearthed a hidden gem in ages
• See what happens in the January window. As i said i think Ole has done really well in the market and if we do one or two key signings in January we might suddenly look a lot stronger. We have also been heavily linked with Haaland who looks like the real deal, 6 goals in three matches in the CL (Messi 17, Ronaldo: 32 to reach the same). And honestly the only realistic way we are going to secure his signature is if Ole is managing us, considering their history and close personal relationship. Also, regarding our transfers i think Woody has promised Ole x amount of time to build his squad. If he was told this summer that top 4 was a minimum requirement then i am pretty sure we would have bought more players, even if they were stop gap solutions
• If we are sacking him, the nest guy has to be the right one. No point in getting a new manager if we just are going to keep threading water and scramble for a top 4 finish. We need someone with the skills, the stones to handle the pressure and a proper long term vision. Getting an interim would be utterly pointless since it does not solve anything really and if he turns out to be an unpopular character, things might actually get worse. Poch, Ten Haag, Marco Rose, Nagelsmann are all exciting young coaches, but honestly i dont think they have the gravitas and experience needed to turn this around (yet). Seeing Ole sacked, one of them hired and having them fail one or two years down the line would be absolutely heartbreaking, because that would turn us into a right graveyard for managers which would mean no one in their right mind would ever take the job. Also if we sack Ole now, the implication for the new manager is that you have to deliver RIGHT NOW and you will have the ghost of an immensely popular character hanging over you for the rest of the season. That does not sound like much fun to be honest. On the other hand, if we end the season on the lower half of the table (or something like that) with zero signs of progress, then everyone would be in agreement that Ole has failed to meet the minimum requirements and deserves to be sacked. The pressure on the next manager would also be much more reasonable, because then he will be told he will at least be shown some patience and it will be a much lower bar to clear in terms of improvements and progress

That's my thoughts anyway. 2 points from B'mouth, Newcastle, Palace and Soton is clearly far from good enough, but now more than ever do we need to keep a cool head.

So if he doesn't conduct the training or tactics, what exactly does Ole do? He sounds more like the guy who signs player. So should we all be wanting Phelan and Co. out? I think a lot have had doubts about the coaching staff all along, so maybe our gut feelings are right.

 

[dove]

So if he doesn't conduct the training or tactics, what exactly does Ole do? He sounds more like the guy who signs player. So should we all be wanting Phelan and Co. out? I think a lot have had doubts about the coaching staff all along, so maybe our gut feelings are right.

Smiles, talks about United DNA, how unlucky we are, youth. Basically does all the things not related to actual coaching.

 

[DomesticTadpole]

Smiles, talks about United DNA, how unlucky we are, youth. Basically does all the things not related to actual coaching.

It's beginning to look that way. I know SAF designated a lot as he got older but he took training etc when he was Ole's age. I also bet he took all the big decisions on team selection and tactics. Ole appears to be just the 'Face of Manchester United' and that is actually a bit scary.

 

[Greck]

So if he doesn't conduct the training or tactics, what exactly does Ole do? He sounds more like the guy who signs player. So should we all be wanting Phelan and Co. out? I think a lot have had doubts about the coaching staff all along, so maybe our gut feelings are right.

I think that's how Fergie also did it. He delegated some of those things to the ones who new better. Whether Ole's coaches know better than him is another matter. I do suspect blindly trying to imitate SAF is probably why our ex-players fail at management. Perhaps he wasn't the best person to learn from considering he was an anomaly

 

[DomesticTadpole]

I think that's how Fergie also did it. He delegated some of those things to the ones who new better. Whether Ole's coaches know better than him is another matter. I do suspect blindly trying to imitate SAF is probably why our ex-players fail at management. Perhaps he wasn't the best person to learn from considering he was an anomaly

Ole appears to be literally the manager. Which is fine if you have top notch coaches.

 

[sdb4884]

Arsenal, Bayern could be on the lookout for a new manager very soon, Allegri could easily end up at Bayern. If we don't move fast well who else is available?

 

[Nikelesh Reddy]

We had decent/good performances sporadically even when Moyes was manager.So let’s not please not get carried away the next time we win 3 games on the bounce....The bottom line is that this manager is simply not good enough for this club...As simple as that.

 

[led_scholes]

Worst scenario: he is going to get sacked around March, after spending another 150 million, and us being twelve and out of Europa League. Then make another panic appointment. Rinse and repeat.
That is the problem with us: we dont react. Moyes, LVG and now Ole were fired too late. We threw away 3 seasons just because we didn't take any rational decisions. Because waiting to be out of top 4 mathematically so you can pay less in compensation, is not rational if you throw away your chance to salvage anything from the season. Take LVG: it was not working at all and by December we were out of CL. Did they fire him so we can take most of the chances for a top 4 position and maybe an EL win? Noooo we waited till we had lost EVERYTHING bar the FA Cup. It is happening again. Even if Mourinho (or Allegri now) was not the best appointment in the end, why not give him the time to evaluate the squad and identify the players he wants?? Why wait till the summer??

 

[Judas]

I can't believe how carried away people got about an average performance against bloody Norwich.

 

[el3mel]

It's beginning to look that way. I know SAF designated a lot as he got older but he took training etc when he was Ole's age. I also bet he took all the big decisions on team selection and tactics. Ole appears to be just the 'Face of Manchester United' and that is actually a bit scary.

Most managers leave organizing training sessions to their assistants while they supervise over it and give instructions to players. I criticized Carrick and McKenna for that here previously for how awful our movement and link between players on the pitch. That's on them.

That's hardly the problem with Ole. The problem with him is his tactic itself is crap and he's useless on touch line with his terrible and late subs and inability to influence the game when it starts running out of hand. Just look at him pre and post Bournemouth saying how it's important to get the first goal. He knows himself he's absolutely clueless in breaking down parked busses when we go down and his over defensive counter attacking style only works when we go up first.

Our results prove that. Whenever we go up in the game we enter the second half over defensive and parked at the back, we either win with that goal or concede the equalizer eventually as what happened against Wolves, Southampton, Arsenal and Liverpool. When we go down, well, we didn't even get a single point whenever we conceded first. Palace, WHU, Newcastle and Bournemouth, which is a terrible stat.

 

[DomesticTadpole]

I can't believe how carried away people got about an average performance against bloody Norwich.

We saw more than one goal. People are bound to get a bit giddy.

 

[Enigma_87]

I can't believe how carried away people got about an average performance against bloody Norwich.

As always we will delay the decision until there is a really small pool of available managers left and make another wrong appointment.

Appointing Ole and keeping him in the job still is probably Woodward's/board worst decision yet.

Some fans ask who to appoint if not Ole? Well if we wait more we might really have zero options, considering Arsenal, Bayern, even Spurs would most likely get the top ones available.

 

[Fracture90]

Those bloody wizards and their stupid magic!

 

[90 + 5min]

Jose is probably top 3 in the world in terms of getting the most out of his players. Had he gotten here in 2013 instead of Moyes i am pretty confident we would have won another PL or two. Problem is that it always ends in disaster since he ends up in conflict with someone.

And i am not making excuses for Ole here, but on my last flight to Manchester i talked with a guy who claimed to be best mates with Daniel Berg Hæstad (was captain under Ole in Molde). He told me Ole trusted his coaches to conduct the training sessions and half the time he was not even there. He also mostly listened to his tactical coaches regarding team selections and in-game tactics. Now this was just some guy, but it seems like a strange thing to lie about and imo if this was how he did things at Molde i dont see why it is any different here. Regarding our coaches though, i seem to remember us getting significantly worse when Jose replaced Rui Faria with Carrick/McKenna and i also seem to remember Phelan was a big step down from Queiroz

Now Ole is the one who has picked the coaches so hes responsible in the end, but his coaching team are hardly pulling up trees either. Overall i think we look more solid in defense, but that might just be down to the fact that we actually have a competent RB now. Every single PL game this season we just seem to switch completely off and concede some cheap fecking goal. Like yesterday, granted it was well done by King, but why the feck do we allow him so much time? AWB could have done better, but its not his fecking job to look after their CF. The way Lindelof reacts is just bizarre. Get your body between him and goal, dont move in the opposite fecking direction, that is schoolyard stuff.

The lack of chances created is an even bigger problem and when we do get into decent positions we fail to make an impact because either the final ball is lacking or the finish is lacking. I dont know if this is mostly a player quality issue, a confidence issue or a coaching issue, probably a mix, but either way its fecking dire. Take yesterday again as an example. James get played through and squares it to Pereira who tries to to shoot first time despite having loads of time and space and then he misses the ball completely. Good chance that does not even result is an attempt. Fred gets a free shot a couple of minutes later and just blasts it into the stands. Corners for us is probably 0.1 xG since we have not scored from a corner in fecking ages

Another thing is the players mentality or lack there off. Remember when Ole first got here? Players who looked like they gave zero fecks in December suddenly looked like world beaters and played like men possessed and then they reverted back to playing like complete fecking fannies. The last couple of weeks has also been mirrored that albeit in a smaller scale. Liverpool, Norwich and Chelsea we actually looked like we gave a feck and most of the player delivered legit 7-8/10 performances and then we get served shite like yesterday were everyone bar maybe James and AWB looked like Championship players. Granted there were probably some tired legs out there, but so early in the season there is no excuses to turn off completely like that.

I would also ask questions about our medical staff and fitness coaches. Why the feck are sustaining so many muscular injures? Is everyone here made from paper? Liverpool and City play with much higher intensity than us and they dont have half of our injury problems. I also wonder what the feck our scouting department have been doing these past years. I dont know if is they, Ed or the former managers who should take most of the blame, but the amount of money we have pissed away on shite players is just astonishing. We have spent the second most only below City since Fergie left and most of those transfers have been utter shite.

Ole does deserve credit for his transfers though. Buying an actual RB, a good CB instead of 3 mediocre ones and a cheap, young RW is more than can be said about his predecessors. The fact that James and AWB have been head and shoulders above the rest this season says a lot imo.

I think Ole has the right ideas regarding squad building, but his coaching or lack thereof is seriously holding us back, and if his manager style is the same as it was in Molde i think his choice of coaches has been detrimental. I perfectly understand those who wants Ole out, because despite us being in a rebuild, midtable is clearly not good enough

BUT! There is a couple of more things i would like to see before the plug is pulled on Ole

• Assuming Ole does as he did in Molde and this guy i met is not full of shit: Getting some new coaches and especially a new world class attacking coach could hopefully change things for the better
• Some kind of change in both medical/fitness and scouting. We should not be having so many injuries early in the season and besides James we have not unearthed a hidden gem in ages
• See what happens in the January window. As i said i think Ole has done really well in the market and if we do one or two key signings in January we might suddenly look a lot stronger. We have also been heavily linked with Haaland who looks like the real deal, 6 goals in three matches in the CL (Messi 17, Ronaldo: 32 to reach the same). And honestly the only realistic way we are going to secure his signature is if Ole is managing us, considering their history and close personal relationship. Also, regarding our transfers i think Woody has promised Ole x amount of time to build his squad. If he was told this summer that top 4 was a minimum requirement then i am pretty sure we would have bought more players, even if they were stop gap solutions
• If we are sacking him, the nest guy has to be the right one. No point in getting a new manager if we just are going to keep threading water and scramble for a top 4 finish. We need someone with the skills, the stones to handle the pressure and a proper long term vision. Getting an interim would be utterly pointless since it does not solve anything really and if he turns out to be an unpopular character, things might actually get worse. Poch, Ten Haag, Marco Rose, Nagelsmann are all exciting young coaches, but honestly i dont think they have the gravitas and experience needed to turn this around (yet). Seeing Ole sacked, one of them hired and having them fail one or two years down the line would be absolutely heartbreaking, because that would turn us into a right graveyard for managers which would mean no one in their right mind would ever take the job. Also if we sack Ole now, the implication for the new manager is that you have to deliver RIGHT NOW and you will have the ghost of an immensely popular character hanging over you for the rest of the season. That does not sound like much fun to be honest. On the other hand, if we end the season on the lower half of the table (or something like that) with zero signs of progress, then everyone would be in agreement that Ole has failed to meet the minimum requirements and deserves to be sacked. The pressure on the next manager would also be much more reasonable, because then he will be told he will at least be shown some patience and it will be a much lower bar to clear in terms of improvements and progress

That's my thoughts anyway. 2 points from B'mouth, Newcastle, Palace and Soton is clearly far from good enough, but now more than ever do we need to keep a cool head.

While I disagree with some things I think this is top post in terms of quality.

I’m still on Ole side because things take time and as you said we have to keep cool heads. I still see progress as whole and while things go up and down it is not time to make drastic changes. Gettind rid of Ole without any sort of plan would just put us back.

 

[Di Maria's angel]

Jose is probably top 3 in the world in terms of getting the most out of his players. Had he gotten here in 2013 instead of Moyes i am pretty confident we would have won another PL or two. Problem is that it always ends in disaster since he ends up in conflict with someone.

And i am not making excuses for Ole here, but on my last flight to Manchester i talked with a guy who claimed to be best mates with Daniel Berg Hæstad (was captain under Ole in Molde). He told me Ole trusted his coaches to conduct the training sessions and half the time he was not even there. He also mostly listened to his tactical coaches regarding team selections and in-game tactics. Now this was just some guy, but it seems like a strange thing to lie about and imo if this was how he did things at Molde i dont see why it is any different here. Regarding our coaches though, i seem to remember us getting significantly worse when Jose replaced Rui Faria with Carrick/McKenna and i also seem to remember Phelan was a big step down from Queiroz

Now Ole is the one who has picked the coaches so hes responsible in the end, but his coaching team are hardly pulling up trees either. Overall i think we look more solid in defense, but that might just be down to the fact that we actually have a competent RB now. Every single PL game this season we just seem to switch completely off and concede some cheap fecking goal. Like yesterday, granted it was well done by King, but why the feck do we allow him so much time? AWB could have done better, but its not his fecking job to look after their CF. The way Lindelof reacts is just bizarre. Get your body between him and goal, dont move in the opposite fecking direction, that is schoolyard stuff.

The lack of chances created is an even bigger problem and when we do get into decent positions we fail to make an impact because either the final ball is lacking or the finish is lacking. I dont know if this is mostly a player quality issue, a confidence issue or a coaching issue, probably a mix, but either way its fecking dire. Take yesterday again as an example. James get played through and squares it to Pereira who tries to to shoot first time despite having loads of time and space and then he misses the ball completely. Good chance that does not even result is an attempt. Fred gets a free shot a couple of minutes later and just blasts it into the stands. Corners for us is probably 0.1 xG since we have not scored from a corner in fecking ages

Another thing is the players mentality or lack there off. Remember when Ole first got here? Players who looked like they gave zero fecks in December suddenly looked like world beaters and played like men possessed and then they reverted back to playing like complete fecking fannies. The last couple of weeks has also been mirrored that albeit in a smaller scale. Liverpool, Norwich and Chelsea we actually looked like we gave a feck and most of the player delivered legit 7-8/10 performances and then we get served shite like yesterday were everyone bar maybe James and AWB looked like Championship players. Granted there were probably some tired legs out there, but so early in the season there is no excuses to turn off completely like that.

I would also ask questions about our medical staff and fitness coaches. Why the feck are sustaining so many muscular injures? Is everyone here made from paper? Liverpool and City play with much higher intensity than us and they dont have half of our injury problems. I also wonder what the feck our scouting department have been doing these past years. I dont know if is they, Ed or the former managers who should take most of the blame, but the amount of money we have pissed away on shite players is just astonishing. We have spent the second most only below City since Fergie left and most of those transfers have been utter shite.

Ole does deserve credit for his transfers though. Buying an actual RB, a good CB instead of 3 mediocre ones and a cheap, young RW is more than can be said about his predecessors. The fact that James and AWB have been head and shoulders above the rest this season says a lot imo.

I think Ole has the right ideas regarding squad building, but his coaching or lack thereof is seriously holding us back, and if his manager style is the same as it was in Molde i think his choice of coaches has been detrimental. I perfectly understand those who wants Ole out, because despite us being in a rebuild, midtable is clearly not good enough

BUT! There is a couple of more things i would like to see before the plug is pulled on Ole

• Assuming Ole does as he did in Molde and this guy i met is not full of shit: Getting some new coaches and especially a new world class attacking coach could hopefully change things for the better
• Some kind of change in both medical/fitness and scouting. We should not be having so many injuries early in the season and besides James we have not unearthed a hidden gem in ages
• See what happens in the January window. As i said i think Ole has done really well in the market and if we do one or two key signings in January we might suddenly look a lot stronger. We have also been heavily linked with Haaland who looks like the real deal, 6 goals in three matches in the CL (Messi 17, Ronaldo: 32 to reach the same). And honestly the only realistic way we are going to secure his signature is if Ole is managing us, considering their history and close personal relationship. Also, regarding our transfers i think Woody has promised Ole x amount of time to build his squad. If he was told this summer that top 4 was a minimum requirement then i am pretty sure we would have bought more players, even if they were stop gap solutions
• If we are sacking him, the nest guy has to be the right one. No point in getting a new manager if we just are going to keep threading water and scramble for a top 4 finish. We need someone with the skills, the stones to handle the pressure and a proper long term vision. Getting an interim would be utterly pointless since it does not solve anything really and if he turns out to be an unpopular character, things might actually get worse. Poch, Ten Haag, Marco Rose, Nagelsmann are all exciting young coaches, but honestly i dont think they have the gravitas and experience needed to turn this around (yet). Seeing Ole sacked, one of them hired and having them fail one or two years down the line would be absolutely heartbreaking, because that would turn us into a right graveyard for managers which would mean no one in their right mind would ever take the job. Also if we sack Ole now, the implication for the new manager is that you have to deliver RIGHT NOW and you will have the ghost of an immensely popular character hanging over you for the rest of the season. That does not sound like much fun to be honest. On the other hand, if we end the season on the lower half of the table (or something like that) with zero signs of progress, then everyone would be in agreement that Ole has failed to meet the minimum requirements and deserves to be sacked. The pressure on the next manager would also be much more reasonable, because then he will be told he will at least be shown some patience and it will be a much lower bar to clear in terms of improvements and progress

That's my thoughts anyway. 2 points from B'mouth, Newcastle, Palace and Soton is clearly far from good enough, but now more than ever do we need to keep a cool head.

Nope, now more than ever we need to sack him.

 

[Samid]

What did Molde get for him? £8m? They must be kicking themselves, should have played hardball and Woodward would happily have paid the double.

 

[FrankDrebin]

What did Molde get for him? £8m? They must be kicking themselves, should have played hardball and Woodward would happily have paid the double.

I thought Molde did play hardball,no?
I initially thought it was 4 million to bring Ole on permanently. I could be wrong.

 

[Ancient Of Days]

Today there are No big dramatic headlines in the press piling pressure on Ole or criticizing form after another embarassing defeat

No Rio, Scholes or Neville coming out and damning the performances or the manager.

Last season any draw or lose and there were pages of article criticising Mourinho boardering on harrassment.

Scholes and Neville couldn't keep their gobs shut when LVG wasn't playing pretty football, and where jumping down his throat for any sub standard result.

Ole can sink us down to the bottom half of the table and there is silence.

Absolute disgusting double standards

 

[DomesticTadpole]

Today there are No big dramatic headlines in the press piling pressure on Ole or criticizing form after another embarassing defeat

No Rio, Scholes or Neville coming out and damning the performances or the manager.

Last season any draw or lose and there were pages of article criticising Mourinho boardering on harrassment.

Scholes and Neville couldn't keep their gobs shut when LVG wasn't playing pretty football, and where jumping down his throat for any sub standard result.

Ole can sink us down to the bottom half of the table and there is silence.

Absolute disgusting double standards

Yep. Maybe it is just we don't matter too much any more. They are totally focused on City and Liverpool so we barely get mentioned at times. As you say it is only when rent-a-gobs want there say that anything is printed.

 

[Enigma_87]

What did Molde get for him? £8m? They must be kicking themselves, should have played hardball and Woodward would happily have paid the double.

Next week they can become champions with 2 games to spare.

I don't think they would even entertain taking him back.

League One is probably the highest level he might go at. Not many Championship sides will be interested either.

 

[dove]

Today there are No big dramatic headlines in the press piling pressure on Ole or criticizing form after another embarassing defeat

No Rio, Scholes or Neville coming out and damning the performances or the manager.

Last season any draw or lose and there were pages of article criticising Mourinho boardering on harrassment.

Scholes and Neville couldn't keep their gobs shut when LVG wasn't playing pretty football, and where jumping down his throat for any sub standard result.

Ole can sink us down to the bottom half of the table and there is silence.

Absolute disgusting double standards

I was hoping to see at least some rumours of him getting sacked when I woke up today but as I suspected it was a wishful thinking.

 

[roonster09]

What did Molde get for him? £8m? They must be kicking themselves, should have played hardball and Woodward would happily have paid the double.

I think simon stone said it was around half a million.

 

[DomesticTadpole]

I think simon stone said it was around half a million.

They ripped us off.

 

[Ancient Of Days]

Yep. Maybe it is just we don't matter too much any more. They are totally focused on City and Liverpool so we barely get mentioned at times. As you say it is only when rent-a-gobs want there say that anything is printed.

We're the biggest and most talked about club in England.

We don't have to be top of the table or competing to sell papers. Manchester United and doom sells, period.

We haven't competed with City or Liverpool for years. Only once have we come 2nd since SAF left and we were not really close to overtake City in that season. Despite this, you can't tell me we haven't dominated headlines consistently in major tabloid papers through those last barren years.

Wenger at Arsenal didn't challenge for titles either, yet when he was going through shit periods and fecking up, the press didn't hestitate to make headline articles as if the sky was falling.

 

[Wolf8312]

I can't believe how carried away people got about an average performance against bloody Norwich.

They actually made the same mistake that got Ole the job in the first place, and judged the team on a string of good results. Should have been obvious to anyone watching those 3 wins that the same old problems were all still there.

 

[90 + 5min]

Next week they can become champions with 2 games to spare.

I don't think they would even entertain taking him back.

League One is probably the highest level he might go at. Not many Championship sides will be interested either.

While I accept different opinions about things people should check the facts before talking about some stuff.

Would Molde take back Ole? No, because they are well placed. But nobody with knowledge can deny that Ole was very big influence on Molde and without him Molde would never be this good. He changed whole mentality in the club.

 

[izec]

Pochettino, Rose, Nagelsmann. We should be in their ears right now to take over next season

they will be hot in the spring/summer, with Arsenal, Spurs, Bayern and probably Real/Barca looking for a manager. Maybe another one or two unexpected clubs as well. If we wait, they could be off the market quite soon

then people will moan again and say the manager is not the issue once we appoint a wrong one again

 

[DomesticTadpole]

Do actually think they will let him have the January window. It will be interesting to see if they back him and if he brings the right players in. Then it will be down to Ole. If things do not improve he will be on seriously dodgy ground. My worry is the club and club legends saying it will take time for the January signings to bed in and he will need another summer window. It could actually go on and on.

 

[el3mel]

Pochettino, Rose, Nagelsmann. We should be in their ears right now to take over next season

With Zidane situation at Madrid we should be all over Poch from now on because there's a big chance they will approach him if they decided to sack him. We should start negotiating with him from now and try to get a verbal agreement.

 

[Judas]

I did think he'd be gone before chistmas, but I think we'll get enough one off wins in-between loses and drab draws to keep him in the job probably for the rest of the season. I think he'll be backed in January though, so that'll be interesting.

 

[el3mel]

Do actually think they will let him have the January window. It will be interesting to see if they back him and if he brings the right players in. Then it will be down to Ole. If things do not improve he will be on seriously dodgy ground. My worry is the club and club legends saying it will take time for the January signings to bed in and he will need another summer window. It could actually go on and on.

Hanging everything on the Jan is illogical. First because it's actually a tough and short window and second because we take ages in negotiating for a price for any player (then we end up overpaying for him anyway). We will be lucky to get one player which isn't going to solve much.

 

[DomesticTadpole]

Hanging everything on the Jan is illogical. First because it's actually a tough and short window and second because we take ages to bring negotiating for a price for any player (then we end up overpaying for him anyway). We will be lucky one player which isn't going to solve much.

I'm not disagreeing with you. I just think that is what they will do unless it gets even worse before then. That was why I mentioned if they back him, not that we couldn't afford to but they are not as you said great negotiators. I can see them being stop gap signings, not long term signings.

 

[JustAGuest]

Pochettino, Rose, Nagelsmann. We should be in their ears right now to take over next season

they will be hot in the spring/summer, with Arsenal, Spurs, Bayern and probably Real/Barca looking for a manager. Maybe another one or two unexpected clubs as well. If we wait, they could be off the market quite soon

then people will moan again and say the manager is not the issue once we appoint a wrong one again

The biggest issue is the people we have in charge of making these decisions. I have absolutely no confidence in us finding the right manager.

 

[Enigma_87]

While I accept different opinions about things people should check the facts before talking about some stuff.

Would Molde take back Ole? No, because they are well placed. But nobody with knowledge can deny that Ole was very big influence on Molde and without him Molde would never be this good. He changed whole mentality in the club.

No one is denying that but we aren’t 2012 anymore.

My post was in relation to where he will go next not his overall Molde contribution.

 

[izec]

With Zidane situation at Madrid we should be all over Poch from now on because there's a big chance they will approach him if they decided to sack him. We should start negotiating with him from now and try to get a verbal agreement.

there were also rumours that they approached Nagelsmann, but he declined and took the Leipzig job (thinking the Real job is too soon for him).

Zidane is lucky Valverde is doing a shit job as well (Atletico having issues as well). Knowing us though, we will wait until July when the good ones are gone and then appoint Giggsy