Ole Gunnar Solskjær | Managerial Watch

MadDogg said:
Thanks mate.


I'm not giving Mourinho any credit at all. He was an absolute prick who sabotaged people and things around him so that they would take the blame for things not working and he could sit back and pretend it wasn't mostly his fault. He was worse for the young players than Ole was, publicly criticising them and looking to throw them under the bus whenever he could. Most of those players he either had nothing to do with bringing to the club and the ones he did he quickly decided he didn't like anyway. So trust me he's not getting any credit from me at all.

However the key thing is that we fecked him off early enough that those players were still in a good position to develop for the next manager who came in. That's not a credit for Mourinho, just a statement about the make-up of the squad at the time.

Ole came in and believed in them and gave them the freedom to express themselves, which is why almost all of them had a noticeable sudden improvement. The issue is that it was a short-term boost but he didn't seem to have any ability to develop them further, which is why they all just fell away and got worse as time wore on. Being 'better than Mourinho' was still nowhere near good enough, and unfortunately by the time we sacked him it was too late for most of those players to reach the level that they potentially could have. Six years of Mourinho followed by Solskjaer was just too much of a black hole at the absolute pivotal point of development.

It's a similar story with the mental issues I talked about. The original issues really started under Mourinho, but we got rid of him early enough that they were recoverable. Especially as the negativity was mostly focused (and rightfully so to be honest) at him specifically. A manager coming in at that point and building discipline throughout the squad and bringing in some players with leadership ability (something we basically had none of as seen by the options when Maguire got captaincy) could have turned it around. Ole did seem to try to do the latter to be fair with the likes of Bruno and arguably Varane and Ronaldo. Originally he bought a feel-good factor, but long-term it seemed he allowed negativity, laziness and lack of consequences to fester throughout the squad. Once again it wasn't necessarily him being worse than Mourinho in that regard, but more that six years of Mourinho followed by Ole ultimately did more damage than three years of Mourinho by himself.
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I think this really is the crux of the club's issues over the last decade, wasted time.

  • Moyes was rubbish but we were decisive with getting rid of him, there's a strong argument he never should have been hired but we were not well prepared and SAF also shoulder some responsibility as he seemed to really rate his fellow Scotsman.
  • LVG was the right kind of hire (someone to build a possession based philosophy on a short(ish) deal) and again we were relatively decisive getting rid of him when you think he got back into the CL, then won the FA cup.
  • Mou awful idea and I don't think anyone is surprised with hindsight. He did win things but he trashed the young players and club's image, why he was hired straight after LVG had been brought in to modernise our style will always be a mystery given his football. Should have been sacked the summer he broke ranks, the damage was really done whilst he waited to get sacked.
  • Ole, the second awful idea, caretaker fine, permanent manager no way. He just didn't have a plan and there's really no argument that proves he was ever qualified and was so passive the squad really went rotten.
  • Ragnick a bit pointless, isn't a coach, didn't get any support, players clearly thought he was crap.
  • ETH a glimmer of hope. If we'd gone from LVG to someone like him, I think the last 6 years would look a lot more positive. Has a clear idea and is a hands on coach, we don't know if it will work but so far, so good. If he doesn't work out the key is to then hire someone at least similar in style, not panic and go for someone who we think will simply deliver trophies at any cost.
 
OutOfTowner said:
I can't believe this was bumped on the back of a joke post and nothing else and immediately turned into six pages of continuous shit-slinging. Unbelievable. Absolutely incredible.
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Yeah I was hoping it was going to be some spicy news or something :lol:
 
Cascarino said:
Yeah I was hoping it was going to be some spicy news or something :lol:
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It's the same thing everytime. Something pops up in here, shit gets flung, this thread goes on for 20 pages over nothing and then dies off again only to reappear again 8 months down the line. Best thing to do is put this whole thing on ignore so I don't have to read it again which is what I intend to do.
 
tomaldinho1 said:
  • Mou awful idea and I don't think anyone is surprised with hindsight. He did win things but he trashed the young players and club's image, why he was hired straight after LVG had been brought in to modernise our style will always be a mystery given his football. Should have been sacked the summer he broke ranks, the damage was really done whilst he waited to get sacked.
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Because football men did not make the decision. They had no real idea of such matters.
 
Ole still getting battered here. Understandably so as he left the club in shambles, but it may be time to let the man rest in peace.
 
Recently turned down the women's national team in Norway. Such a sexist!
 
With all going on currently I read womens national team and immediately thought he is involved in a scandal.
 
We couldn’t buy the players I mentioned to the club.

Players like?
Erling Haaland, before he made his Salzburg debut. Declan Rice, who wouldn’t have cost what he did in the summer. We discussed Moises Caicedo, but we felt we needed players ready for there and then. Brighton are very good at letting players come from abroad and find their feet for a year and a half. At United, you don’t have that luxury and that has cost the club loads of players.

We wanted Jude Bellingham badly — he’s a Man United player, but I respect he chose Dortmund. That was probably sensible. But it’s why I respect Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Dan James and Jadon. Young players prepared to come into a team that wasn’t 100 per cent there like it was when I arrived.

I would have signed Kane every day of the week and my understanding was that he wanted to come. But the club didn’t have the budget with the financial constraints from Covid-19, there was no bottomless pit.
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You lost five league games from seven that autumn. Did you feel you were going to lose your job?
Nobody told me, but I knew at half-time against Watford (a 4-1 defeat in November 2021). We didn’t look like a Man United team; the players weren’t running for each other. At half-time, I told the players it was probably going to be the last time we worked together and to play with pride. We almost turned it around, until Harry Maguire got sent off.
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He sounds a bit like Wenger.

I think if Ronaldo hadn't signed he might have gone a bit longer as manager but he was probably doomed considering:
  • Maguire was rubbish and a liability
  • Sancho has been a busted flush
  • Greenwood would've been suspended from January
  • Martial is a permacrock
  • Pogba too
 
That was a good interview and hope he lands a good job somewhere in one of the big 6 leagues in the continent.
 
horsechoker said:
He sounds a bit like Wenger.

I think if Ronaldo hadn't signed he might have gone a bit longer as manager but he was probably doomed considering:
  • Maguire was rubbish and a liability
  • Sancho has been a busted flush
  • Greenwood would've been suspended from January
  • Martial is a permacrock
  • Pogba too
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I think he should have quit after the Europa league final and said "I've taken you as far as I could, now go find someone to takeover while the club is not in mortal danger of wallowing in its own collective misery for once". McKenna and Carrick needed a nudge to find their own way around that time as well.
 
Samid said:

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He had to choose now?

Can't we have some quiet for a bit.

Cynical timing from him, he didn't do the interview after we won a cup last year.

He was a serial failure, completely out of his depth who signed Maguire (made him insta captain) and Sancho.
 
horsechoker said:
He sounds a bit like Wenger.

I think if Ronaldo hadn't signed he might have gone a bit longer as manager but he was probably doomed considering:
  • Maguire was rubbish and a liability
  • Sancho has been a busted flush
  • Greenwood would've been suspended from January
  • Martial is a permacrock
  • Pogba too
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The Maguire stuff is a bit of revisionism. He was good for us until Ronaldo came in and upset the apple cart. He was really missed in the EL final.
 
Fluctuation0161 said:
He had to choose now?

Can't we have some quiet for a bit.

Cynical timing from him, he didn't do the interview after we won a cup last year.

He was a serial failure, completely out of his depth who signed Maguire (made him insta captain) and Sancho.
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More like the media went looking for him now. Can't really blame him for Maguire and Sancho. Nearly the entire forum were mad after Sancho and were impressed by Maguire early on. Easy now to go back and blame someone when it'd gone wrong.
 
Berbaclass said:
The Maguire stuff is a bit of revisionism. He was good for us until Ronaldo came in and upset the apple cart. He was really missed in the EL final.
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He was showing signs of being clumsy. We missed him because our back ups were Bailly and Phil Jones.
 
Fluctuation0161 said:
He had to choose now?

Can't we have some quiet for a bit.

Cynical timing from him, he didn't do the interview after we won a cup last year.

He was a serial failure, completely out of his depth who signed Maguire (made him insta captain) and Sancho.
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The out of depthness in regard to Sancho is more for the way he played him rather than signing him. Aside from Haaland and Mbappe who are the outstanding talents of the generation, Sancho was right up at the top of the tier below in terms of talent and goal contributions.
 
Berbaclass said:
The Maguire stuff is a bit of revisionism. He was good for us until Ronaldo came in and upset the apple cart. He was really missed in the EL final.
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The defence was the least of our problems in the EL final.
 
Chris-Red said:
More like the media went looking for him now. Can't really blame him for Maguire and Sancho. Nearly the entire forum were mad after Sancho and were impressed by Maguire early on. Easy now to go back and blame someone when it'd gone wrong.
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If were comparing his qualities to those on a football forum then we are setting a low bar.

Criticism for making Maguire captain and then not removing it after the Mykonos incident is not looking back. It was bloody obvious at the time.
 
SilentWitness said:
The out of depthness in regard to Sancho is more for the way he played him rather than signing him. Aside from Haaland and Mbappe who are the outstanding talents of the generation, Sancho was right up at the top of the tier below in terms of talent and goal contributions.
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But he played into Oles weakness, which is also our scouting teams weakness, not checking personality / professionalism traits and disciplinary history of his signings.

Ole was always a "make the players feel good" kind of manager. His lack of sports psychology knowledge and attention to detail beyond that was poor. As is our scouting team, so it's not 100% on Ole.

This doesn't tarnish his reputation as an absolute legend player for us by the way. Still love the guy. But he had glaring and obvious weaknesses as a manager and should've never been put in the position by another man out of his depth, Ed Woodward.

We need to set the bar higher than looking back at Ole with rose tinted glasses.
 
I think the main problem was the expectation for Ole to transition the team from one that counter-attacks into one that dominates the ball. He wasn't tactically astute enough to coach a team to play in that way and he thought by adding 'better' players like Ronnie and Sancho, it would just happen. Ronaldo just added to that burden because he demanded an attacking team that would regularly create chances for him but it wasn't capable and some of those players (Rashford and MG) were more concerned with creating chances for themselves. Maguire suffered because he can't play in a team that plays high up the pitch, and we haven't played in a style that suits him since that EL final.
 
Fluctuation0161 said:
But he played into Oles weakness, which is also our scouting teams weakness, not checking personality / professionalism traits and disciplinary history of his signings.

Ole was always a "make the players feel good" kind of manager. His lack of sports psychology knowledge and attention to detail beyond that was poor. As is our scouting team, so it's not 100% on Ole.

This doesn't tarnish his reputation as an absolute legend player for us by the way. Still love the guy. But he had glaring and obvious weaknesses as a manager and should've never been put in the position by another man out of his depth, Ed Woodward.

We need to set the bar higher than looking back at Ole with rose tinted glasses.
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I agree with that.
 
Greyfog said:
Seen no difference between him and Ten Hag on the pitch.
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That’s extremely harsh. We used to trash teams regularly and had a knack of winning at the bigger away venues. Not like now where every top half away ground is an automatic loss and the only question is how many our opponents will score.

 
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