I don't think that's true at all. I think it's because he's not looked like he's a tactically progressive manager who can read games as they go and react quickly and proactively. And people are waiting to see if he has that within him, to show courage and transmit that to his team and elevate it beyond the sum of its parts (which is what great managers do, even before they get their big breaks in management). He still seems to me to be conservative and reactive, despite the talk by him and the club. The man management side has been great, the atmosphere has been majorly improved, but the football is still not at a level and I keep thinking about how much of a difference Bruno has made through his extraordinary stats.
Sticking with him for the season made sense given the incremental progress (points on the board, goals scored and conceded, home record, cup runs, etc) we've been making along with the improvement in feeling around the club. And it would have been a strange thing to go into the season with him without him getting a new contract, as it would undermine him and the manager needs to always be the most important person in any dressing room, not least now with player power skyrocketing.
But this season is still one where he needs to properly convince.
If that is the case, then what does that say for the 18 other managers in the league last season, or the 17 other managers the season before? Even if it is true, and tbh I don't believe it is to the extent that you hold it to be, does it actually matter? At the top level, man management goes a heck of a long way further towards having sustained success than tactical acumen does. Just look at Pep's CL record, and compare it to Zidane's: which one would you rather have? If the likes of Sancho and Varane are tempted and persuaded by the project we have (of which Ole is absolutely the sole visionary of, btw) then quite frankly who the feck are we to poo poo it? Even the very best tactical managers need the tools to ensure their systems work. Klopp's Liverpool were going nowhere and were reaching their plateau of 4th until fate intervened and Barca gave them £150m for Coutinho, which was reinvested into Alisson, VVD, and Fabinho, to add to their clever purchase of Salah, and to a lesser extent Mane (I say lesser extent, because to me, he was an obvious player to get, and I couldn't believe how many on here were turning their noses up at him when we were linked the season before). Yet, for all the good that Klopp has done, when just one or two of those important cogs were missing, his team went to absolute shit without them in circumstances that were much less trying for his team than they were for others (of which we are the best example of).
The fact of the matter is, before Ole came in to the role, we finished outside of the top 4 more often than we did in it. Our record since SAF left in the league was: 7th, 4th, 5th, 6th, 2nd. Those teams were much better than the one Ole had up until this summer. I don't think anyone can argue otherwise on that, surely? They also had managers who had much better track records than Ole. LvG was fresh off guiding Holland to the World Cup semi final in 2014, and Jose had won the title at Chelsea just one year before he joined. There was little sign of both being past it, yet the basket case that we are, we excentuated their faults and they were both gone at the point Ole is now. And Ole is the only manager who has sustained a respectable league position, despite arguably having the weakest squad of the post-SAF era at the time he started his first full season (that they are now seen as a respectable Utd side, is down to him and his coaching staff improving the like of Shaw, Rashford, McFred, and Martial).
Now, let's consider Ole. First summer he had in the job, he took a sledgehammer to the squad selling or letting go of Sanchez, Lukaku, Smalling, Herrera, Valencia, Darmian, Fellaini (6 months earlier). In return, he brought in 3 players: AWB, Maguire, James (followed by Bruno in January) and brought through Greenwood and Williams. It was a massive risk to go into that season without strengthening the midfield and attack when our most expensive striker and arguably best midfielder left without being replaced. When Ole came in Fred and Shaw were borderline joke figures on here. Rashford and Martial were squad players. The likes of DDG and Pogba wanted to leave. And because we didn't get replacements for the players who left, we had to put our faith in the likes of Williams and Greenwood who had the sum total of 2 appearances in the first team at the time. The fact that, that squad, which was arguably the weakest Utd squad in the PL era, was able to eke out Top 4 was a credit to the management team (no doubt helped by Bruno - but then, you have to consider, if Ole didn't already have his system in place, then no matter how good Bruno was, he wouldn't have had the influence he had from day one without it). That squad was not considered Top 4 quality at the time, and it was borne out in the BBC's pundits predictions that year, where I think it was only 3 out 24 pundits who had us in the Top 4 that season. It was horribly imbalanced, and it still was the season after. With the same 4-5 glaring holes still not filled until 2 seasons after they were first highlighted.
Let's consider that second season. We had a) the most number of games during project restart and the resumption of European football; b) we had the shortest break between the seasons starting; c) we had the least amount of rest between games out of every team in the league (and within Europe); d) we had the least rest period during the Xmas break; & e) we had a shockingly shit window. a) to b) ensured that we also had a poor start to the season, where we had to catch up to everyone else, while the poor window was one where we didn't improve our starting XI (other than Cavani - who didn't join up with the team until October/November and was then MIA due to injury/suspension for 2 months). If someone told you that we would be 2nd when the season started, you wouldn't have believed them, but we did, And it was under this manager during the most challenging of circumstances. Better managers, with a better recent track record than Ole, who also had better squads, didn't do as well as we did last year.
He's also improved the likes of Martial, Shaw, Rashford, McTominay - all of whom have had their career-best seasons under him. He got a tune out of Fred when so many had written him off. He also got Pogba onside despite all his issues (and he also had his career-best performances under Ole). A poor manager doesn't do that, and I'd wager that he has in fact got us performing to more than sum of our parts for large portions of his reign. The issue is that as it is a young squad, it is prone to peaks and troughs in form.
We badly needed a window like the one we're looking to have now, where our starting XI was improved, rather than just adding more squad filler. Especially after Chelsea blew everyone away with Havertz, Werner, Silva, et al. People complain about Ole's use of subs, but when you look at the bench, where are the options? When he does try and rotate, he still has to bring them on because the players who have come in have tended to shit the bed. If we get Varane, Sancho and a DM this summer, you will see a marked change in our use of subs, I'm sure. Sancho coming in means one of Martial or Greenwood will be on the bench more often than not. Varane coming in means Lindelof is a bench and squad player. And a DM means Fred or McTominay are similarly, squad players. Ole trusts those players I've named. He doesn't trust many of the others who have tended to be on the bench. Either because they are unreliable (Bailly) or too green (Williams) or a bit of both (Axel).
We'll see where we end up this season, but considering his track record of the past two years with an inferior set of players, and an imbalanced squad, I'd back him to do better than what a lot of people on this forum are expecting. The expectations will rise, and understandably so, but the means of achieving that success will be much more readily available to him when previously, they simply hadn't been.
