Whilst I'm starting to dislike Solskjaer more by the week, I'm not entirely sure he is a hypocrite or a liar purposely. I genuinely believe he's just a really bad manager who is completely out of his depth, and as a result he panics and makes it up as he goes. That leads to inconsistencies, and lack of conviction in what he says. I think it's what causes him to smile so much aswell; it's a nervous thing he uses as a defence mechanism to handle the pressure. It's another sign he's not cut out for such a big job.
Ole has been following EPL football since he was a boy. He joined United at age 23, he spent 11 years here and he even coached the youth team. I think that we can all agree that he knows what the club, the players and the fans want inside out, possibly more then the average fan himself. That means attacking football, giving kids a fair shot and having a core of local players at first team. Hence why Ole is constantly spot on in interviews and was able to keep the dressing room at his side till probably a month ago (some say he still has control over it but that's out of the scope of debate). Its so easy to give assurances to the likes of Bailly, Lingard and VDB that they will get first team chances.
Unfortunately there's a gulf between what fans/players want and what Ole can provide. The more bodies you commit upfront the more space you leave at the back. Not only that, some teams rely on physicality, others rely on pace, some play tika taka while others play counter attack football. That requires hundreds of 'what if this or what if that happen' scenarios that only top coaching and tactics can counter. Add the squad players in the mix then tactics and coaching will need to be tweaked to accommodate these players strengths/weaknesses. If kids are to play as well then someone has to monitor them as they will be targeted and their inexperience can prove costly. That requires more tactics tweaking, more coaching, more headaches.
Thus the temptation to play a simple football built around 5-6 players in defense, quick counters and individual brilliance is high. A small pool of players would keep things pretty straight forward and since we've got a huge squad, if injury strike there's always an experienced international to replace like for like. Unfortunately there are 3 problems with that.
A- It will not win you a lot of trophies. That's because so many teams are just happy to defend against us and get a draw/go to penalties
B- Other clubs tend to have top managers and coaches whose very job is to spot weaknesses and drill the team to a level that they can exploit them. Sooner or later a one trick pony manager will be fount out especially in a league which has the best managers in football (Pep, Klopp, Tuchel and Conte) under 1 roof with league title winners managing the likes of Watford and Everton.
C- Eventually players sitting on the bench will lose it
That lead to Ole trying to tweak his proven but dated tactic to disastrous effects.
I don't think that Ole is an evil person who walks in the office thinking of how he's going to make Ole inners look silly, how he will dent his legacy with us and which football career's he's going to ruin. He's doing that because he and his coaching staff is simply not good enough. However there's no denying that what he says and what he does are completely opposite to one another. This lead to a polarization between those fans who believe him and those who see through his lies and see him as a hypocrite.
