Well we bought Ronaldo and the expectations went through the roof and unfortunately he couldn’t get Ronaldo to fit in the team with other attackers.
Ole Gunnar Solskjær | Managerial Watch
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Ole was great for a while at the start when he was piggybacking off Mourinhos work coupled with his "vibes". Trouble was, the more time went on and he imposed his will on the team the worse we got. Then, like all our teams/players we reached that inflection point where the players decided they didn't want to back the manager and it all fell apart. Rinse and repeat.
If the Ineso plan comes to fruition as speculated, then I’d welcome Ole back with open arms. Take out the last few months and a poor cup final, the football under him was the best since SAF. Always capable of scoring. We got frustrated in the end but it was with the players too as much as him. He will always be a club legend and when it was working under him it felt great.
We don't even see that anymore..
We were lethal in counter ..
That Ole team will spank the current team for sure ..
Ole was the most I've enjoyed football post Fergie.
As much as I dislike pretty much everything about Ronaldo's second stint, it really only scratches the surface.
Ole didn't sign a single central midfielder while in charge. And he had 3 summers to do so! Both Van Gaal and Mourinho at least attempted to solve the obvious midfield problem. They signed 3 central midfielders each I think. Now I don't know if this is entirely Ole's fault, but when you're stuck with McTominay and Fred as your most frequent midfield pair and don't sign any central midfielders then you are just looking for trouble. It worked for a while because our defense wasn't so bad and our attackers did really well. Once they weren't, you might as well have replaced our midfield with two cones. We were wide open every time we lost possession.
I also blame our English core to be honest. Maguire, Shaw and Rashford were absolute donkeys after the Euros. They were probably tired after not getting proper rest, but that does not excuse their sloppiness.
Reports now he told Sweden no thanks.
Not going to join Sweden.
Why blame the English lads? Bit odd...
Of course they don't get all the blame, but they must take some blame for how much their form dropped. Maguire, Shaw and Rashford were very important players in Ole's starting XI after all.
It's never only the managers fault and it's never only the players' fault.
You must have some strange dislike of the English to single out them in particular, and not foreign players like Bailly, Cavani etc who didn't do enough for us either. Why even bother supporting an English club with such an attitude?
I always judge core players more harshly if their form drops. They effects are more devestating. None of those you mentioned were core players.
No, you criticised them because they were English. A core player could be bruno, and he's not English.
We absolutely bossed teams in empty stadiums. Breathtaking, incredible…
Ole will never manage United again, thank goodness for that.
We also bossed teams in full stadiums.
Not really. We got dicked on about as many times.
The issue with the narrative of the video is it clearly doesn't define United under Solskjaer. When highlighting specific periods of games compared to assessing full 90 min performances it's easy to rewrite history.
Ole did however engineer a pragmatic counter attacking approach which suited most of the players in the team. However, when the emphasis was on the team to break the opposition down the players struggled. Erik Ten Hag being as poor as he is doesn't vindicate Solskjaer being omitted. It's no different to many justifying the decision for the club to retain De Gea over Onana. There's a case in point that both players are underwhelming as experienced with both managers underperforming. Solskjaer did however overachieve given his credentials as a manager but is that high enough of a standard for the ambition of a United manager? I won't even bother to start with Erik and how dysfunctional this team is.
Bruno was the only core player who isn't English and while his formed dropped, he wasn't nearly as bad as the other 3.
That's why I wrote "English core". There are no anti-English sentiments there. Just a useful shorthand. If just one of them had been good, then I wouldn't have used that description.
This this this
Look at all the space in behind our attackers have to run into. As soon as teams figured out sitting in a low block, we ran out of ideas and didn't know how to break them down, which is the exact same dilemma we have now.
Such a simple manager, to merely rely on different players to string together sequences of individual moments of brilliance.
It's outstanding you think this is a good video to advocate for Ole
I know what’s that ugly stuff with putting the ball in the opposition goal? There’s more of that in that one video than in this pristine season of football under our Supreme leader, Ten Blahg.
All of those passages of play where we had a clear strategy, and we're still talking about Moments FC apparently.
Such a simple manager, to merely rely on different players to string together sequences of individual moments of brilliance.
We may have tactically been shite at times, especially towards the end, but at least we had tactics and a style play back then. Nowadays it feels like we make it up as we go along.
It's almost like the video is cherry picked to show the best moments.
Oh look - I can do it too:
Point is, its bollocks to hang your hat on without context and looking at the full picture.
What's wrong with it?It's outstanding you think this is a good video to advocate for Ole
I've already explained in the post above.
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No we definitely did not. Let’s not redefine history because the club is at a low point at the moment. Ole’s teams were consistent bottlers and only showed signs of progress during the Covid season when the games were glorified training sessions in empty stadiums. They showed their true colours the next season when they bottled under the pressure and Ole had no game plan.
We’re a pressing side that has done well at winning back possession in the opposition’s half. All the metrics support that. Ten Hag wants to play out from the back but has missed Martinez all season who is key to making it work. I find it incredible that many fail to grasp that it’s difficult to establish a teams style of play or identity when there have been injuries to many key players brought in to play in ten Hag’s system. We have had 19 different back 4s alone this season along with attackers who can’t finish their chances. That’s not on ten Hag. The next few months will show whether it’s on the manager or the injuries that derailed our season.
We had no tactics then, it was counter attack and rely on individual brilliance. We had no press triggers and no system per say. We sat deep and tried to hit back quickly, that's it.
And under Ten Hag it might be shite, but there is certainly intent to carry out a plan and its very obvious what that plan is. It's also reflected in some of the stats.
A move to Sweden would massively scupper his chance of a return to OT 
Very few men have the minerals to manage Victor Lindelof twice.
Jose finished 6th, 2nd, then imploded (on course for 6th) when Ole took over. Ole finished 6th, then 3rd, then 2nd, then imploded (on course for 8th). Ole very clearly improved the team over 2.5 years, quite a long time. Is Ange piggybacking off Jose now? Did Nuno do it wrong earlier?
Why do you think players just decide this? Just, we will work with Jose for 2 seasons, with Ole for 2.5, with ETH for one, and then do nothing. When do they make this collective decision?
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Ole's time here was far, far from perfect but personally I appreciated plenty of things in that time:
-After LVG boring possession and Mourinho's bus (added to his toxic, miserably attitude) Ole was a breath of fresh air. He allowed the team more room to attack and score. I felt connected with the team the most I've been since SAF.
-Our average position after SAF (removing Ole's time) is around 5th. We were the 3rd best team in his first season as interim/full time manager (from December to May). 3rd in his first full season, and 2nd the following one. He got results above our average level under the Glazers for 2'5 years. Even if nothing extraordinary it could have been worse.
-125 goals in his second full season, the most in 15 years. Some freaks like 9-0 against Soton (even with 10 men), 9 goals against Roma in the EL, 5 against Leipzig (CL semifinalist the previous season) etc.
-At this point (January in his second full season) we were leading the Premier League, not 9th and 3 points away from 11th and on negative GD.
-Plenty of comebacks and ability to change a game from the bench.
-We were competitive away from home. The unbeaten record lasted a year and a half. If it was easy because of Covid and no fans, where is this record for the rest of the teams?
-The only manager who has beaten Pep more times than he was beaten by him (Ancelotti too maybe?). It doesn't mean he's better, obviously. But he's no fool either.
-Got Mourinho sacked after beating him in London which made me laugh a lot.
-Team spirit. He made these bastards likeable at some point.
-Went deep in many tournaments, but he lacked something to capitalize. A top manager would have won something once we reached those positions, but overall he wasn't the catastrophic manager many pretend.
Nobody can't tell me beating City 3 times in a season with these players, winning twice at Paris, the first win at Stamford Bridge in 5 years (in the cup during his interim period, playing with a diamond formation that nobody expected) the goals, the records, 3rd-3rd-2nd etc. it's just luck and vibes.
Ole, Carrick and McKenna are smart guys, and they were a good team despite the lack of expertise at that level. With the right structure maybe we could have signed some of the good players we chased as Haaland, Rice, Grealish, or Bellingham.
We would have avoided Ronaldo under serious directors and reinforced midfield instead, while not renewing players 'to protect value' getting the dressing room stacked with people aiming for playing time, and getting angry when it wasn't the case.
It wouldn't have made Ole successful, as our play never evolved enough to beat City in a 38 games run. But we could have got another decent season doing at least the bare minimum, he would have left in a positive manner in the coming summer and not the way it happened, and I think his time would be remembered in a better way.
I hope one day Ole reunites with Haaland in the NT, as there would be some poetry about it after their time at Molde. I have the feeling that he'd do well there.
-After LVG boring possession and Mourinho's bus (added to his toxic, miserably attitude) Ole was a breath of fresh air. He allowed the team more room to attack and score. I felt connected with the team the most I've been since SAF.
-Our average position after SAF (removing Ole's time) is around 5th. We were the 3rd best team in his first season as interim/full time manager (from December to May). 3rd in his first full season, and 2nd the following one. He got results above our average level under the Glazers for 2'5 years. Even if nothing extraordinary it could have been worse.
-125 goals in his second full season, the most in 15 years. Some freaks like 9-0 against Soton (even with 10 men), 9 goals against Roma in the EL, 5 against Leipzig (CL semifinalist the previous season) etc.
-At this point (January in his second full season) we were leading the Premier League, not 9th and 3 points away from 11th and on negative GD.
-Plenty of comebacks and ability to change a game from the bench.
-We were competitive away from home. The unbeaten record lasted a year and a half. If it was easy because of Covid and no fans, where is this record for the rest of the teams?
-The only manager who has beaten Pep more times than he was beaten by him (Ancelotti too maybe?). It doesn't mean he's better, obviously. But he's no fool either.
-Got Mourinho sacked after beating him in London which made me laugh a lot.
-Team spirit. He made these bastards likeable at some point.
-Went deep in many tournaments, but he lacked something to capitalize. A top manager would have won something once we reached those positions, but overall he wasn't the catastrophic manager many pretend.
Nobody can't tell me beating City 3 times in a season with these players, winning twice at Paris, the first win at Stamford Bridge in 5 years (in the cup during his interim period, playing with a diamond formation that nobody expected) the goals, the records, 3rd-3rd-2nd etc. it's just luck and vibes.
Ole, Carrick and McKenna are smart guys, and they were a good team despite the lack of expertise at that level. With the right structure maybe we could have signed some of the good players we chased as Haaland, Rice, Grealish, or Bellingham.
We would have avoided Ronaldo under serious directors and reinforced midfield instead, while not renewing players 'to protect value' getting the dressing room stacked with people aiming for playing time, and getting angry when it wasn't the case.
It wouldn't have made Ole successful, as our play never evolved enough to beat City in a 38 games run. But we could have got another decent season doing at least the bare minimum, he would have left in a positive manner in the coming summer and not the way it happened, and I think his time would be remembered in a better way.
I hope one day Ole reunites with Haaland in the NT, as there would be some poetry about it after their time at Molde. I have the feeling that he'd do well there.
Reckon national team manager would suit him, never rated him as a top club manager but would be delighted with him here.
But he got results with the “dire midfield” of fred and Mctominay and got us to 3rd and 2nd. And eth the tactical mastermind couldn’t get them firing. Who is the better manager here then, one who can get mediocre players to up their game or one who can make world class players look shite(Casemiro)
This is absolute bull imo. Mourinho was playing peak allardyce football with the players he had. You can say he piggybacked on mourinho’s work in the half season that he managed after mourinho was sacked. After that he had two seasons where we finished 3rd and 2nd consecutively while playing champagne football with players who are deemed to be not fit for the job under the current tactical mastermind.
What use is press triggers and statistical dominance when we concede 7 goals without reply against our bitter rivals. At least Ole’s team was never spanked so badly by any of our main rivals. What about our statistics against top 6 teams under eth?? We haven’t won against one of our top 6 rivsls in ages. What use is tactics when you turn up against your rivals and its a given that you will not win.
I know I am apparently supposed to despise Ole and wish him the worst, and hope that he never enjoys life and only bad things happen to him, but I honestly perceive his time here as pretty much the only post Fergie era where I actually enjoyed watching us play.
His final months were a disaster but the two seasons prior to that were quite OK with some great moments.