That squad Ole took over was the 2nd best team in the PL the previous season beating Liverpool to the 2nd position.
Ole Gunnar Solskjær | 2021/22 Discussion
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That squad Ole took over was the 2nd best team in the PL the previous season beating Liverpool to the 2nd position.
Don’t guarantee it, you don’t even want to acknowledge that hard work is the basis of any top football team. I am not sure anything Ole does would have any merit for you based on thinking.
Our counter pressing is working, the mental collapses are what Ole needs now to fix but they players know what is asked of them and it’s a demanding tactics.
I guarantee you too that with our injured players back and a stable midfield that can control the game, the team will look like a different one. Because all the runs are there, the call for the balls are there, the ball is simply not going there because players can’t see it.
Just for fun have you seen how Mata is always free in offensive phases? But players don’t see him most of the time, etc... when we get an offensive player who can pick up the passes for all the runs of our forward line, we will look better.
I never said hard work is meaningless.
Just that if we win a title in a few years time, Ole definitely won't be our manager.
Two decent midfielders away from competing top 4. Two signings...get them right...get them quick.
We pretty much have lost Pogba, McT and Rashford for two months. When they come back the season will be almost over.
We two midfielders and a striker this window.
Wont hold my breath with the clown Woodward in charge.
We two midfielders and a striker this window.
Wont hold my breath with the clown Woodward in charge.
No-one's mocking that though mate - we're mocking the fecking ridiculous, bullshit, lip-service interviews that Ole gives, where cliché after cliché are spouted with no fecking meaning behind them.
Phrases about 'the Utd way', phrases designed to do nothing other than appease a fanbase that want more for this great club - a fanbase who've shown TOO MUCH patience over the last 6 / 7 years.
He's become a joke as a manager - just as the CEO above him is a fecking joke - and above him, the name of Manchester United is now a laughing stock also.
That's what we're critiquing, and that's what we've had enough of.
We've had enough of this wretched, pathetic regime, of this nothing manager and of these tired, politician clichés.
Enough's enough - we want good footy, we want owners who are capable, and believe me mate, we will get it soon enough.
Players play through knocks, pain and small niggling injuries ALL the time. Its not as black and white as fit/not fit. We were told Maguire would be out for weeks/months and he turned out fine.
The medical staff and the players themselves are the ones who have to ultimately decide if they are fit enough to join the matchday squad. In this case it was a player who had some trouble (as they tend to do at this stage in the season), but were fit enough to be a sub. Yes of course he never should have played as a precaution, and hindsight is a beautiful thing aint it, but if the coaching staff and Rashford himself knew just a slight knock would be enough to sideline him for weeks, then there is no way they would have played him.
Hell, if they knew it was that serious he would not even been training
Nothing whatsoever wrong with hard work per say. The issue most people have is that it is not merely enough alone and has to be coupled with top class management across the board, who is evidently not present under Ole. I really hope we win the league in a few years. But Ole won't be the one to drive us towards that destination. It'll take a much more capable individual.
I really don't understand all the shite which gets thrown at Ole, and if it is actually coming from actual Utd fans or not. Twitter is a minefield of plebs but this place should have some more sanity.
The squad as we know is a mess after years of poor investment and neglect to key areas. It is hugely unbalanced right now. There is nothing that Poch or anyone else would have done to fix that in a single window. Our defense the year previous leaked goals at an alarming rate, so we bought a new RB as our previous RB left the club, and a new CB to become the mainstay of the back line. People however turn this into a negative because they think we should have bought for different positions, but I'd bet these same people would be berating the fact we failed to address the defense if we had spent the money in midfield or attack.
From what I can see we are taking steps in the right direction. We are playing better football, we are attacking better, we are linking up play better, we can actually pass the ball out from the back too - something we couldn't do under Jose.
People claim Ole and the staff cannot coach players, but Fred has gone from a 50m flop into a very good CM. McTominay has kicked on again and improved further. Rashford is enjoying highest scoring season and we're only in January. Martial is playing very well as a 9. Williams and Greenwood have managed to breakthrough to the first team legitimately and not simply getting a few games because those ahead of them are injured. There are other players behind them soon to be knocking on the door. Dan James has been a very shrewd buy. Mata has found some form as has Matic recently. The team is improving.
Take into account we have been missing key players at almost all times this season. We are 5 points off Chelsea right now, the gap isn't that big and they have been and will drop more points this season. We have a real chance to make top 4, and if that does happen and we secure CL football for next year, will people still be calling for a new manager then, despite top 4 being the most realistic target for this season?
For anyone clamoring for Poch to come in, please remember his transfer record is hardly flawless, players like Dier and Alli ended up actually regressing under him, he lost the Spurs dressing room and had them in relegation form before being sacked. Oh, and he's never won anything and bottled almost every big game he's got Spurs into - just look at his record in Finals and Semi Finals. Yes, he has been a good coach at Saints and Spurs, but is he really going to come in and do better with what we have right now? I just don't see him bringing any drastic improvement. It looks like more upheaval to me for little gain. He is not a generational coach like early Jose, Pep or Klopp.
The squad as we know is a mess after years of poor investment and neglect to key areas. It is hugely unbalanced right now. There is nothing that Poch or anyone else would have done to fix that in a single window. Our defense the year previous leaked goals at an alarming rate, so we bought a new RB as our previous RB left the club, and a new CB to become the mainstay of the back line. People however turn this into a negative because they think we should have bought for different positions, but I'd bet these same people would be berating the fact we failed to address the defense if we had spent the money in midfield or attack.
From what I can see we are taking steps in the right direction. We are playing better football, we are attacking better, we are linking up play better, we can actually pass the ball out from the back too - something we couldn't do under Jose.
People claim Ole and the staff cannot coach players, but Fred has gone from a 50m flop into a very good CM. McTominay has kicked on again and improved further. Rashford is enjoying highest scoring season and we're only in January. Martial is playing very well as a 9. Williams and Greenwood have managed to breakthrough to the first team legitimately and not simply getting a few games because those ahead of them are injured. There are other players behind them soon to be knocking on the door. Dan James has been a very shrewd buy. Mata has found some form as has Matic recently. The team is improving.
Take into account we have been missing key players at almost all times this season. We are 5 points off Chelsea right now, the gap isn't that big and they have been and will drop more points this season. We have a real chance to make top 4, and if that does happen and we secure CL football for next year, will people still be calling for a new manager then, despite top 4 being the most realistic target for this season?
For anyone clamoring for Poch to come in, please remember his transfer record is hardly flawless, players like Dier and Alli ended up actually regressing under him, he lost the Spurs dressing room and had them in relegation form before being sacked. Oh, and he's never won anything and bottled almost every big game he's got Spurs into - just look at his record in Finals and Semi Finals. Yes, he has been a good coach at Saints and Spurs, but is he really going to come in and do better with what we have right now? I just don't see him bringing any drastic improvement. It looks like more upheaval to me for little gain. He is not a generational coach like early Jose, Pep or Klopp.
I'm not mocking hard work, work rate is important. I'm mocking all the bullshit platitudes trotted out time and time again as excuses. No amount of hard work will turn shit to gold and same goes for all that 'passion, desire, United way' buzzwords that are utterly meaningless when the crux of the issue is quality of personnel.
That last sentence is the kind of stuff we used to laugh at RAWK for, the idea of the club going anywhere in the current state is laughable but keep bleating sentiments if it makes you feel better.
In that new Maradona documentary he also mentioned it took him a while to adjust to the Italian way of playing once he got to Napoli. I never understood writing off players so soon after coming from other countries
Not doubting several good points you make about Ole but this also misses the main point. Ole can coach individuals but there is no coherence to the play. Poch's players improved immeasurably under him and he has an eye for a good deal. He coached the feck out of several players including Dele Alli. Erik Dier regressed because his immune system is fecked.
Re: Ole's coaching
Modern football is defined by the ability to link defence and attack. But watch United play and the only time we have ever showed that was actually under Van Gaal. I am convinced that the situation would have improved if we had better players under Van Gaal instead of Schweinstiger and Schneiderlin in midfieldbut then again Van Gaal hates working with stars and prefers kids who may or may not be up to it.
In every other season we have looked an incoherent mess for the most part. We have no set patterns or typical goals. Watch city or barca and they have some sort of 'typical' goal they score. The ball is pushed across the box and then sent across goal for a tap in etc. United used to do something like this under Fergie. Now it's gone. If you watch all the goals under Mourinho you'll note the absolute absence of an attacking plan. Defensively very coherent but going forward it depended on the player's invention.
That's because Mourinho is a reactionary coach who leaves it to his players to create. That's why he buys settled players in their mid 20s not youth who are prone to errors. A mourinho game invariably involves only a few chances that a seasoned pro puts away. It ends 1-0. It does not end 5-3.
Under Ole we don't have a reactionary coach per se but it is very hard to see what is happening. Sometimes we can't create a chance to save our lives. Part of it is coaching as there is seemingly no awareness of where someone has to run into space, or where they have to be for corners (Fred marking Van Dijk...) And some of it is a personnel issue.
Yes we spend plenty of money but that doesn't mean we buy quality. Instead we pay through the nose for dross or players who don't suit the team. I happen to think very highly of Juan Mata but he never suited the team. Fergie bought Veron and he was great but he didn't suit us so out he went.
Under Woodward, we'd have bought Riquelme just because he was on the market. It wouldn't matter that he would be utterly unsuited.
When we do buy quality they happen to be players who don't want to be at United either because they can't hack the pressure - Lukaku or other reasons - Angel Di Maria and Pogba. The only one who actually worked was Zlatan who is a champion.
Another reason we aren't fourth at least is the absence of depth. Now that's on Woodward but also Ole. He let Fellaini, Herrera and Lukaku go and drafted no one in as a replacement. He never agitated for it. Why? Look at our games. Our strikers score plenty but our midfield does nought. Fellani gave us 7 a season and who replaces that now? No one.
Poch did an exceptional job with Spurs. No he didn't win trophies but Spurs as a club have no serious history of winning. Is he 'generational' - whatever that is - ? Probably not. But he'd be a hell of a lot better than Ole. He's one of the most tactically astute managers in the game at a time when top coaches are a heck of a lot rarer than top clubs. He understands the basis of modern football far far better than Jose who right now looks like yesterday's man.
He didn't 'lose' his dressing room. They came to the end of their natural cycle and Levy refused to spend on alternatives to Kane. He began this season with 17 year old Tony Parrott as Llorente's replacement and Kane's backup. Arsenal bought Nicholas Pepe for £72m.
His defence was made up of Alderwireld (injury prone) and Vertonghen (32) and a want away left back. A goalie (lloris) who looks like he needs a new start and Dier and Wanyama who need replacing. Poch understood that. He got Ndombele which was great but he got injured.
No he's not perfect in the transfer market but who is? It's not a science.
As for making 4th place: We don't have a realistic chance. The league table is what Mourinho liked to call a 'false position'. We have Europa league games coming up. That will rip our season for good considering our current squad depth. The only reason Chelsea aren't out of sight is because Lampard is probably the only coach in the division worse than Ole but has better players.
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Must be cowardice. DDG is well known for his dominance in the air. Our perfect delivery from corners and his posture in the air would guarante us a last minute goal.
James is a young talent with good potential. But since joining there is no improvement in his game. Do Ole and his coaches ever spend time with him or greenwood? Do they themselves have capabilities to convert a good talent into world class? I highly doubt.
What are you on about? Ofcourse the coaches spend time with players. Fred is the best example he has been spending a lot of time with Carrick in improving his game in midfield.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.sq...-michael-carrick-expert-coaching-man-utd/?amp
Ole has mentioned on many occasions how he is working with the forwards. He is asking Rashford to score more tap ins and improve his positioning. Mason, Marcus and Martial have as many goals as Liverpool majestic trio this season.
https://bleacherreport.com/articles...nt-credit-for-manchester-united-strikers-form
When it comes to James its quite ok for his form to be hot and cold. Its his first season in the premier league and his numbers before joining were not that great. 7 assists in 33 games in championship. He already has 6 assists this season.
Shut up with your utter moronic posting @fergiesarmy1
I want Ole to prove me wrong, I don’t think we should fire Ole right now, I want United to win every single game. The difference with me is that I can be critical and am honestly worried that with 34 points in 23 games, that Ole is leading us down the gutter, whereas you are blinded by some Ole love.
Gold ST holder here, so don’t try telling me that I want us to fecking lose, what an absolute clusterfeck of posting from yourself currently.
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Absolutely they do Steve.
But the thing is, if we only try to see the positives, then we’ll see many, doesn’t matter if it’s LVG, Jose or Ole in charge.
The crazy thing here is that many that only wanted to see negatives with LVG or especially Mourinho (Twiggy/Wummy) for example, now ONLY allow themselves to see the positives with Ole despite him statistically being the shittest manager since SAF by far.
At the end of the day, we’re on 34 points from 23 games, it’s absolutely horrific.
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I like how people claim that yesterday's gameplan was spot on despite losing a goal from a corner due to zonal marking and letting their best header of the ball have it against a 170 cm player.
Something I don't understand, is why managers get so attacked/criticised for singling out players in post match interviews/press conferences. I don't see a problem with it. Maybe it needs to happen more often. Players' mentalities are so wrapped up in cotton wool it's ridiculous. Old smiley Ole should come out guns blazing and rip into the dross players in his squad. Are they afraid of someone laughing at them on Instagram?
God I'm 32 going on 70 aren't I?
God I'm 32 going on 70 aren't I?
One of my biggest issues and continues to me is his lack of ability to change things when we can painfully see something isn't working, and the shocking lack of improvement in certain areas, little things like defending from corners, we've been awful at it all season, and yet we still are? I just want to see what we do in training.
You can do that when you have competition for places. You can tell someone "Not good enough", give them a rest and a chance to come back better for it. We dont have that, and are desperate for positive energy in the group. They need to keep going. Also, it is not the way to go about youngters.Something I don't understand, is why managers get so attacked/criticised for singling out players in post match interviews/press conferences. I don't see a problem with it. Maybe it needs to happen more often. Players' mentalities are so wrapped up in cotton wool it's ridiculous. Old smiley Ole should come out guns blazing and rip into the dross players in his squad. Are they afraid of someone laughing at them on Instagram?
God I'm 32 going on 70 aren't I?
Agree with youngsters, they are still developing. But to be honest, the youngsters are the ones showing actual fight.
I think the situations are different. Both Jose and LVG were immediately backed with vast sums of money. And they wasted it. That's my gripe with them. Their crap recruitment has set us back years. You simply can't make 15 bad signings and expect to get away with it. We are suffering now as a direct consequence of those signings. Winning a Europe League or an FA cup is no consolation when you waste nearly a billion and are left with a playing staff like ours. I'd list the signings but it honestly just fecking upsets my to go back through them. It's ruined us.
I'd take what Ole's done a hundred times over before go through LVG and Jose's reigns again. We've got rid of several of the bad characters and shit footballers, brought some kids through and signed 3 good players. If they'd just get the cheque book out and back Ole once like they did with the last two we might actually have something looking like a functional squad again within a couple of windows. But it doesn't seem to be happening.
The set pieces are an absolute joke. This is a perfectly valid criticism of Ole and the coaching staff.
There was plenty of good things in the game plan and tactics though. TAA and Robertson being taken out of the game for one thing.
In January after their first Summers you wouldn’t have said that though, everyone loved Bailly, Miki had shown glimpses of settling in like Spurs at home. Pogba looked superb.
Same goes for LVG, everyone wanted Morgan, Shaw too, Blind looked an astute signing & Herrera.
Yet both were doing plenty better.
As I say, if you only want to see positives, that’s all you’ll see.
Cause there has never been a knobjockey of a united fan with a season ticket at old Trafford in all eternity
You seem desperate for him to fail.
Cause there has never been a knobjockey of a united fan with a season ticket at old Trafford in all eternity
You seem desperate for him to fail.
You seem desperate to turn any criticism of Ole into 'if you're against Ole, you're against the club' tripe. I'd be very cautious with those tactics because it's very easy to flip them around.
Ole knows how to prepare and settle his team for the fixture against top side, but the problem for many fans obsessed with attacking and possesion style is that Ole probably will never deliver it. He looks like a manager who adapts to opponent, not the one who makes others to adapt to his style. I'm quite ok with that and I don't care as soon as it gives us 3 points, although fans with romantic mindset are gonna be dissapointed. I guess OGS will keep playing like that against top opponents even when he gets all the players he needs.
Not at all, Im against Woodward and the Glazers so that doesn’t fit that narrative.
"We are rebuilding" is a good reason to explain our current results and performances but are we actually doing it well? I can't help but think this could have been handled much better than what Ole and Woodward have done. 130m on defense and the defense still looks shaky as hell, we bought James, a left winger when we are lacking a right winger, our squad has become so thin (is this what happens in a rebuild), we are playing youngsters but sometimes it's out of necessity.
I'm asking myself now "Is this rebuild being done well?" The rebuild is being done by people who don't know how to do it - Ole and Woodward. We have the ideas of blooding youth and getting young players and the right fit and clearing out deadwood. Which is basically how it should be carried out but you can sense the naivety and incompetence when doing all this. Clearing deadwood without replacements, blooding youth products by making them second choice or first choice Eg Greenwood and Williams, targeting only one player without alternatives because that player is the only one that's the right fit which is impossible.
I feel like fans are praising the rebuild but they are not actually looking at if it's done well. They just look at how we've cleared deadwood and how we're playing Greenwood and only looking for the right fit and think if given time everything will come together, short term pain for longterm joy. But tell me, does it make sense to clear deadwood without replacements, to promote players coming straight from the academy and start relying on them as first and second choice, to wait for the right fit with the right fit being only one target without any alternatives - we were rinsed by Leceister because of this, we haven't even attempted to sign a striker when we lost out on Haaland.
This rebuild is done by someone who is clearly naive and very optimistic which is how I will describe Ole. There's no backup plan because he's naive and optimistic to think that we can cope with Greenwood as a backup striker, to think we can cope with clearing deadwood without replacements. He's naive and optimistic enough to think we will always get our number one targets or people we see as the right fit and we are now being rinsed because of this (Maguire and now Bruno) or we don't even have alternatives (who did we target after Haaland). This rebuild is not being handled well by both Ole and Woodward because they are too hopeful and naive.
I'm asking myself now "Is this rebuild being done well?" The rebuild is being done by people who don't know how to do it - Ole and Woodward. We have the ideas of blooding youth and getting young players and the right fit and clearing out deadwood. Which is basically how it should be carried out but you can sense the naivety and incompetence when doing all this. Clearing deadwood without replacements, blooding youth products by making them second choice or first choice Eg Greenwood and Williams, targeting only one player without alternatives because that player is the only one that's the right fit which is impossible.
I feel like fans are praising the rebuild but they are not actually looking at if it's done well. They just look at how we've cleared deadwood and how we're playing Greenwood and only looking for the right fit and think if given time everything will come together, short term pain for longterm joy. But tell me, does it make sense to clear deadwood without replacements, to promote players coming straight from the academy and start relying on them as first and second choice, to wait for the right fit with the right fit being only one target without any alternatives - we were rinsed by Leceister because of this, we haven't even attempted to sign a striker when we lost out on Haaland.
This rebuild is done by someone who is clearly naive and very optimistic which is how I will describe Ole. There's no backup plan because he's naive and optimistic to think that we can cope with Greenwood as a backup striker, to think we can cope with clearing deadwood without replacements. He's naive and optimistic enough to think we will always get our number one targets or people we see as the right fit and we are now being rinsed because of this (Maguire and now Bruno) or we don't even have alternatives (who did we target after Haaland). This rebuild is not being handled well by both Ole and Woodward because they are too hopeful and naive.
Yes, players play through injuries all the time. However, it is not without the knowledge that there is a high risk of aggravating such injuries. It is usually a risk benefit ratio sort of thing.
You can play your best player in a knockout competition if you absolutely need his services to win. Our coaching staff must have believed the benefits of playing Rashford or Pogba (as it happened to him earlier) outweighed the risk of not playing them till they're fit. To suggest otherwise is so wrong.
Everyone knows - at the very least I expect our coaching staff to know - that playing when not fully fit could lead to a more serious injury. It doesn't speak well of them if they didn't know this as you seem to imply.
Smiling in defeat again.
I struggle to see how players who have failed here can be spun as positives. The money, opportunity cost, time wasted. They should have done so much more.
Cause there has never been a knobjockey of a united fan with a season ticket at old Trafford in all eternity
You seem desperate for him to fail.
To be fair to @Regulus Arcturus Black you have to admire the dedication travelling from New York for every home game.
Did the same with Pogba too
It's not being done well because the Glazers don't want to spend money.
Mate Ole has said several times that he has the backing and support. If the Glazers are not backing him then Ole is lying and protecting the Glazers which makes him a yes man. I'm not saying he should come out and say he's not getting support from the Glazers like Mourinho but there's no need to say he has full backing if such is not the case which will make him a yes man
Of course they know, but stress fractures are particularly nasty to diagnose properly. As they said, they knew he was sore and they knew playing him was a risk, but at the time they must have thought the risk was so small that he could pull through.
Even after the game Ole said "He could be ready for Sunday", which means they had no idea the severity of the injury.
He's out of his depth and it shows on the pitch.
Can't argue that he's done some good things like getting rid of Lukaku and Sanchez, now Young, gave chances to prove themselves to Williams and Greenwood which both of them did, etc. but what he didn't to it's what makes me want him out.
It's not about thin squad or not replacing outgoing players, but his failing to gave our team some sort of structure play. Yesterday we had 2 chances for a counter with Fred leading the charge, both times he ended those chances with shooting from 16y box and can't blame him for that since other players didn't even gave him chance to try to pass the ball. There's no idea in our play what to do with ball at our feet, without Rashford we don't have any creativity up-front and there's no clear game plan for our players to follow. Lesser managers with lesser players can do that, but Ole with United can't- that reaks of incompetence.
He's done good things, helped United to recover from Mourinho, but he has to go, Ole is not a manager who'll takes us forward. Like him to death for what he's done as a player, but as a manger he shouldn't be anywhere near United and hope we replace him sooner the better.
Can't argue that he's done some good things like getting rid of Lukaku and Sanchez, now Young, gave chances to prove themselves to Williams and Greenwood which both of them did, etc. but what he didn't to it's what makes me want him out.
It's not about thin squad or not replacing outgoing players, but his failing to gave our team some sort of structure play. Yesterday we had 2 chances for a counter with Fred leading the charge, both times he ended those chances with shooting from 16y box and can't blame him for that since other players didn't even gave him chance to try to pass the ball. There's no idea in our play what to do with ball at our feet, without Rashford we don't have any creativity up-front and there's no clear game plan for our players to follow. Lesser managers with lesser players can do that, but Ole with United can't- that reaks of incompetence.
He's done good things, helped United to recover from Mourinho, but he has to go, Ole is not a manager who'll takes us forward. Like him to death for what he's done as a player, but as a manger he shouldn't be anywhere near United and hope we replace him sooner the better.
In January after their first Summers you wouldn’t have said that though, everyone loved Bailly, Miki had shown glimpses of settling in like Spurs at home. Pogba looked superb.
Same goes for LVG, everyone wanted Morgan, Shaw too, Blind looked an astute signing & Herrera.
Yet both were doing plenty better.
As I say, if you only want to see positives, that’s all you’ll see.
Cause there has never been a knobjockey of a united fan with a season ticket at old Trafford in all eternity
You seem desperate for him to fail.
Explain please how someone who has stated dozens of times that he wouldn’t sack Ole right now is desperate for him to fail.
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