Withnail
Full Member
Shocking thread, absolutely shocking. So disrespectful. And selfish.
What on earth was OP thinking?
I was only thinking that with this shitshow of a thread coming hot on the heels of that one he's having a bit of a mare
Shocking thread, absolutely shocking. So disrespectful. And selfish.
What on earth was OP thinking?
Dude just admit you want Ole out, almost everything you have posted recently has a clear agenda, I would respect it more if you just come out and said it.I mean, it's not true. At all. I have a strong opinion and voice it. But I admit when I'm wrong and change my opinion as things play out and evidence stacks up to convince me.
I did start a thread after we lost to Astana because I thought it was ridiculous to send a youth team out there without securing the group. I also didn't expect much from City and Spurs and wanted to build some winning momentum for the team prior to those games. But I also put my hands up and accepted that my reaction was a bit much after realizing that most of the squad was actually official first team members, albeit really young.
And as for seeing the Molde results and wanting to know more, I had first started wondering back before the Villa game I think. At that point I even posted about it in the other threads, feeling like it needed to be addressed considering the poor run. But it went mostly ignored. After the wins against City and Spurs you can see my posts about how I hoped this to be a turning point. That I want to be wrong about my doubts.
I ironically called Ole Smeagul earlier in response to a poster referring to Jose as Maureen. My point was that whether former or current, a bit more respect might be in order when debating about Manchester United managers. That was of course taken out of context and labeled as my true colors showing.
But then you go back to the summer and I was vehemently defending Ole for the lack of a replacement striker coming in. Kept reminding people that he had been openly asking for a replacement only to be let down by Woodward. At some point that turned to criticism because I'd have wanted the manager to put a little more pressure on his boss to get these deals done.
All said, I'm posting my opinions on things as they are in front of me. I genuinely have seen more detailed explanation from our Norway contingent now that I've questioned the actual seasons. Prior to this all I heard was sunshine and flowers about Ole at Molde, comparisons of breaking Rosenberg dominance with Sir Alex and the Old Firm. And I believed it without thought then. But now I'm revisiting and feeling it was not a complete picture.
With the momentum and positivity around the last two games, isn't this a better time to visit a testy issue? Because the point isn't to try and dig the nail deeper...if that were the case it could have been said weeks ago.
And all that aside, isn't the point to be able to freely express opinions and ask questions? Even if it's an unpopular opinion or an ill educated question. Why is it okay to be met with vitriol? Why is anyone questioning Ole met with such animosity? Isn't the end game to find the best manager for United? Is it fair to crucify someone for voicing their opinion on what they think is best for the club?
I'm embarrassed to see the type of responses on here. Opinions become agendas. Discordance makes you a bad fan. Wanting more information makes you ignorant. I'm not going to walk on eggshells because the mob can't handle it.
Fantastic post and tyvm for taking the time to write it up
Ole was clearly successful in Norway
Taking the Cardiff job was a mistake but I’m sure he learned a lot from that experience
Great post, thank you.1. What a completely dishonest OP. The Sun would be proud. Presenting it as an overview and summary, yet systematically selects facts and overlooks others in propagandic fashion. Claims to look at context (in alleged contrast to what the United board and followers of the Norwegian league did), yet has no context and instead speculates wildly. Claims to not want to pollute with personal opinions, yet is completely one-sided in all presentation, selection and speculation, and presents the discussion as between posters asking fair questions vs a blind mob stigmatizing their opponents. Bad results are spoken of as reality and seeing the whole, good results are connoted with blind optimism. It’s how Trump readsthe Bible, and so opinionated Vladimir Putin would be proud.
2. I wasn’t going to dignify it with an answer, but as a Norwegian follower, I actually have context, and seeing such good work put into misrepresentation, I fear even intelligent readers may get swayed by the facetious factitiousness of it all. Here is some actual context:
2009-2011: Molde were mostly an elevator team until 1998. They had two runners up positions and a cup win in all their history, the latter two feats acheived by now National coach for Denmark, Åge Hareide, who has since won the Double in both Norway (with Rosenborg) Sweden and Denmark. In 1998, billionaires Røkke and Gjelsten went in with a lot of money, with ambitions of winning the league. (This was the same duo that bought and wrecked Wimbledon FC). After that, Molde made four runner up spots and two relegations, the last one in 2006. Another big spree saw recent Swedish Double winner Kjell Jonevret take a strong squad back up in 2007, and after a ninth place in 08, reached 2nd in 09. After that they combusted, like most Norwegian teams do after a good season, and was in danger of relagation again when Jonevret was fired and Uwe Rösler stepped in to save the place. So Solskjær took over a good team with a shaky morale, and Røkke/Gjelsten boosted that with another spree. Solskjær implemented a possession style football inspired moatly by Guardiola/Barca, and fairly consistent with Jonevret. Jonevret and R/G must have some of the credit for that first title, while at the same time, R/B had pumped money into the team for 12 years without a league win, so Solskjær definitely breached a barrier.
2012-15: What is notable in Norwegian football, is that only a few teams in the league history has managed back to back league wins. It’s to do probably with the professionality level, the fine economical margins and the best players constantly being picked off by bigger leagues. But also the small societies influences the squads, where players level of motivation varies a lot and motivational factors play a bigger part than in bigger leagues. Winning the league back-to-back was really seen as something special in Norway. My team Vålerenga did it once, in the early eighties, and I still live off it. For Molde to do it was seen as a proof to most that Solskjær was too good for the Norwegian league.
2013: The normal backlash, players now older, more satisfied, suffered a backlash in the league, before they turned it around towards the end, and also won the cup (In a 30-game league, a spell of bad form is often enough to cement you in the relegation zone.) part of the background was also that Solskjær (and the players) were deemed to be affected by the approaches from bigger clubs (like Aston Villa), and was ready to move on to bigger challenges. Upon Solskjær leaving for Vincent Tan, Solskjær’s assistant Moe continued with coaching prodigy Skullerud, playing much the same way as Solskjær. A squad of yet again hungry ‘stars’ got one more great season out of them, for which Solskjær must have some of the credit. The subsequent season, the club dipped towards relegation again under Skullerud, who never since have acheived anything similar.
2014-2018: By the time Solskjær got back, Røkke/Gjelsten had adopted an Abramovich-like approach of letting the club finance itself, and there was a huge squad overhaul imminent. Solskjær had to build from scratch, having to build on mainly young players (though without an academy of the level of Chelsea’s or United’s). He now opted for a more direct football, having studied Klopp among others. This took time and was a hilly road, but the trajectory was squarely upwards. 6th, 2nd and 2nd, having made some very impressive resuluts against superior European teams along the way. Yet again Solskjær left his assistant Moe after him, now as head coach, and the now more matured team this season won the league comfortably. But note that already the second half of last season, they appeared invincible in the league games, and it seems reasonable to give Solskjær quite a lot of the credit for building yet another league winning team.
The whole picture? Solskjær’s stints in Norway has shown tactical capasity to take good team to be consistently best, and repeatedly to punch above their weight against better teams. He has also shown the strategical capasity to build a team based on young players to consistently improve over several seasons. In Norway, under our conditions, there are hardly any coaches bar a couple of legends who have produced this kind of consistency.
Is this transferable to the big leagues? Who knows, and that was of course not the question in this thread. Has Woodward done his due diligence? Well’ I am entirely sure he and his cronies have done more than finding a table at wikipedia and do the rest by guesswork. Their agenda was probably also different.
1. What a completely dishonest OP. The Sun would be proud. Presenting it as an overview and summary, yet systematically selects facts and overlooks others in propagandic fashion. Claims to look at context (in alleged contrast to what the United board and followers of the Norwegian league did), yet has no context and instead speculates wildly. Claims to not want to pollute with personal opinions, yet is completely one-sided in all presentation, selection and speculation, and presents the discussion as between posters asking fair questions vs a blind mob stigmatizing their opponents. Bad results are spoken of as reality and seeing the whole, good results are connoted with blind optimism. It’s how Trump readsthe Bible, and so opinionated Vladimir Putin would be proud.
2. I wasn’t going to dignify it with an answer, but as a Norwegian follower, I actually have context, and seeing such good work put into misrepresentation, I fear even intelligent readers may get swayed by the facetious factitiousness of it all. Here is some actual context:
2009-2011: Molde were mostly an elevator team until 1998. They had two runners up positions and a cup win in all their history, the latter two feats acheived by now National coach for Denmark, Åge Hareide, who has since won the Double in both Norway (with Rosenborg) Sweden and Denmark. In 1998, billionaires Røkke and Gjelsten went in with a lot of money, with ambitions of winning the league. (This was the same duo that bought and wrecked Wimbledon FC). After that, Molde made four runner up spots and two relegations, the last one in 2006. Another big spree saw recent Swedish Double winner Kjell Jonevret take a strong squad back up in 2007, and after a ninth place in 08, reached 2nd in 09. After that they combusted, like most Norwegian teams do after a good season, and was in danger of relagation again when Jonevret was fired and Uwe Rösler stepped in to save the place. So Solskjær took over a good team with a shaky morale, and Røkke/Gjelsten boosted that with another spree. Solskjær implemented a possession style football inspired moatly by Guardiola/Barca, and fairly consistent with Jonevret. Jonevret and R/G must have some of the credit for that first title, while at the same time, R/B had pumped money into the team for 12 years without a league win, so Solskjær definitely breached a barrier.
2012-15: What is notable in Norwegian football, is that only a few teams in the league history has managed back to back league wins. It’s to do probably with the professionality level, the fine economical margins and the best players constantly being picked off by bigger leagues. But also the small societies influences the squads, where players level of motivation varies a lot and motivational factors play a bigger part than in bigger leagues. Winning the league back-to-back was really seen as something special in Norway. My team Vålerenga did it once, in the early eighties, and I still live off it. For Molde to do it was seen as a proof to most that Solskjær was too good for the Norwegian league.
2013: The normal backlash, players now older, more satisfied, suffered a backlash in the league, before they turned it around towards the end, and also won the cup (In a 30-game league, a spell of bad form is often enough to cement you in the relegation zone.) part of the background was also that Solskjær (and the players) were deemed to be affected by the approaches from bigger clubs (like Aston Villa), and was ready to move on to bigger challenges. Upon Solskjær leaving for Vincent Tan, Solskjær’s assistant Moe continued with coaching prodigy Skullerud, playing much the same way as Solskjær. A squad of yet again hungry ‘stars’ got one more great season out of them, for which Solskjær must have some of the credit. The subsequent season, the club dipped towards relegation again under Skullerud, who never since have acheived anything similar.
2014-2018: By the time Solskjær got back, Røkke/Gjelsten had adopted an Abramovich-like approach of letting the club finance itself, and there was a huge squad overhaul imminent. Solskjær had to build from scratch, having to build on mainly young players (though without an academy of the level of Chelsea’s or United’s). He now opted for a more direct football, having studied Klopp among others. This took time and was a hilly road, but the trajectory was squarely upwards. 6th, 2nd and 2nd, having made some very impressive resuluts against superior European teams along the way. Yet again Solskjær left his assistant Moe after him, now as head coach, and the now more matured team this season won the league comfortably. But note that already the second half of last season, they appeared invincible in the league games, and it seems reasonable to give Solskjær quite a lot of the credit for building yet another league winning team.
The whole picture? Solskjær’s stints in Norway has shown tactical capasity to take good team to be consistently best, and repeatedly to punch above their weight against better teams. He has also shown the strategical capasity to build a team based on young players to consistently improve over several seasons. In Norway, under our conditions, there are hardly any coaches bar a couple of legends who have produced this kind of consistency.
Is this transferable to the big leagues? Who knows, and that was of course not the question in this thread. Has Woodward done his due diligence? Well’ I am entirely sure he and his cronies have done more than finding a table at wikipedia and do the rest by guesswork. Their agenda was probably also different.
5 minutes on the transfermarked site makes the OP look like a fool. The player turnover at that club is insane. Ole built a winning team, twice! Good post mate!1. What a completely dishonest OP. The Sun would be proud. Presenting it as an overview and summary, yet systematically selects facts and overlooks others in propagandic fashion. Claims to look at context (in alleged contrast to what the United board and followers of the Norwegian league did), yet has no context and instead speculates wildly. Claims to not want to pollute with personal opinions, yet is completely one-sided in all presentation, selection and speculation, and presents the discussion as between posters asking fair questions vs a blind mob stigmatizing their opponents. Bad results are spoken of as reality and seeing the whole, good results are connoted with blind optimism. It’s how Trump readsthe Bible, and so opinionated Vladimir Putin would be proud.
2. I wasn’t going to dignify it with an answer, but as a Norwegian follower, I actually have context, and seeing such good work put into misrepresentation, I fear even intelligent readers may get swayed by the facetious factitiousness of it all. Here is some actual context:
2009-2011: Molde were mostly an elevator team until 1998. They had two runners up positions and a cup win in all their history, the latter two feats acheived by now National coach for Denmark, Åge Hareide, who has since won the Double in both Norway (with Rosenborg) Sweden and Denmark. In 1998, billionaires Røkke and Gjelsten went in with a lot of money, with ambitions of winning the league. (This was the same duo that bought and wrecked Wimbledon FC). After that, Molde made four runner up spots and two relegations, the last one in 2006. Another big spree saw recent Swedish Double winner Kjell Jonevret take a strong squad back up in 2007, and after a ninth place in 08, reached 2nd in 09. After that they combusted, like most Norwegian teams do after a good season, and was in danger of relagation again when Jonevret was fired and Uwe Rösler stepped in to save the place. So Solskjær took over a good team with a shaky morale, and Røkke/Gjelsten boosted that with another spree. Solskjær implemented a possession style football inspired moatly by Guardiola/Barca, and fairly consistent with Jonevret. Jonevret and R/G must have some of the credit for that first title, while at the same time, R/B had pumped money into the team for 12 years without a league win, so Solskjær definitely breached a barrier.
2012-15: What is notable in Norwegian football, is that only a few teams in the league history has managed back to back league wins. It’s to do probably with the professionality level, the fine economical margins and the best players constantly being picked off by bigger leagues. But also the small societies influences the squads, where players level of motivation varies a lot and motivational factors play a bigger part than in bigger leagues. Winning the league back-to-back was really seen as something special in Norway. My team Vålerenga did it once, in the early eighties, and I still live off it. For Molde to do it was seen as a proof to most that Solskjær was too good for the Norwegian league.
2013: The normal backlash, players now older, more satisfied, suffered a backlash in the league, before they turned it around towards the end, and also won the cup (In a 30-game league, a spell of bad form is often enough to cement you in the relegation zone.) part of the background was also that Solskjær (and the players) were deemed to be affected by the approaches from bigger clubs (like Aston Villa), and was ready to move on to bigger challenges. Upon Solskjær leaving for Vincent Tan, Solskjær’s assistant Moe continued with coaching prodigy Skullerud, playing much the same way as Solskjær. A squad of yet again hungry ‘stars’ got one more great season out of them, for which Solskjær must have some of the credit. The subsequent season, the club dipped towards relegation again under Skullerud, who never since have acheived anything similar.
2014-2018: By the time Solskjær got back, Røkke/Gjelsten had adopted an Abramovich-like approach of letting the club finance itself, and there was a huge squad overhaul imminent. Solskjær had to build from scratch, having to build on mainly young players (though without an academy of the level of Chelsea’s or United’s). He now opted for a more direct football, having studied Klopp among others. This took time and was a hilly road, but the trajectory was squarely upwards. 6th, 2nd and 2nd, having made some very impressive resuluts against superior European teams along the way. Yet again Solskjær left his assistant Moe after him, now as head coach, and the now more matured team this season won the league comfortably. But note that already the second half of last season, they appeared invincible in the league games, and it seems reasonable to give Solskjær quite a lot of the credit for building yet another league winning team.
The whole picture? Solskjær’s stints in Norway has shown tactical capasity to take good team to be consistently best, and repeatedly to punch above their weight against better teams. He has also shown the strategical capasity to build a team based on young players to consistently improve over several seasons. In Norway, under our conditions, there are hardly any coaches bar a couple of legends who have produced this kind of consistency.
Is this transferable to the big leagues? Who knows, and that was of course not the question in this thread. Has Woodward done his due diligence? Well’ I am entirely sure he and his cronies have done more than finding a table at wikipedia and do the rest by guesswork. Their agenda was probably also different.
he was probably hired because he won 15 games on the spin or whatever ridiculous record he had vs whatever record molde had in norwayThe first full season with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer as manager of Manchester United has been a roller coaster of highs and lows. After what many of us felt was a disastrous summer of under recruitment, the season opening win was exhilarating and filled with optimism. Reality came crashing down hard and United found themselves near the relegation pack in the ensuing months, before another win against Chelsea to lift the mood, and then drop back down. The on-the-field decisions, results and performances have had many fans on the cafe and beyond very fairly questioning Ole's ability to lead this team. In response, there's an equally vociferous mob with only hope in their eyes criticizing doubters as bad football fans and even going so far as to accuse them of supporting other teams. It's a bit much and wreaks of intolerance for opposing views.
The boiling point was a tough set of games that might have led to Ole's sacking. However, we've now got two excellent wins against Tottenham and away to Manchester City that hit enough of a high again to momentarily lose sight of the season as a whole. But instead of looking forward, I want to go the other way and examine in more detail Ole's time as a manager before United. In a way, it's the due diligence that should have been a given before Ole went from interim manager to permanent manager.
MOLDE FK (2009-Present)
Below is a table of the last ten years of Molde FK's exploits in the Norwegian League. Keep in mind, the Norwegian League is 30 matches that run from March thru November.
SUMMARY
Season Manager Position Points Goals Scored Goals Allowed 2009 some dude 2nd 56 62 35 2010 another dude 11th 40 42 45 2011 Ole 1st 58 54 38 2012 Ole 1st 62 51 31 2013 Ole 6th 44 47 38 2014 a different Ole
(Skullerud)1st 71 62 24 2015 both Oles 6th 52 62 31 2016 Ole 5th 45 48 42 2017 Ole 2nd 54 50 35 2018 Ole 2nd 59 63 36 2019 New dude (Moe) 1st 68 72 31
Below are some notes to give a bit more context to each of the seasons.
The years in Blue are when Ole Solskjaer was manager.
2009 - 2nd place. Some dude that got Molde promoted a few years back had them finish runner's up.
2010 - 11th place. The season started under the lead of some dude, but after 20 points from the opening 22 matches he was replaced by another dude. Molde collected another 20 points in the remaining 8 matches and brought them from relegation territory in 14th place to finish 11th.
2011 - League Title. Molde's first top division title after being serial second place finishers, led by Molde and Manchester United legend, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. They had a record low points for a champion. League was won by five points.
2012 - League Title. Title successfully defended by Ole. League was won by four points.
2013 - Finished 6th. Based on points, closer to relegation than the title. Ole declares after the first four games that Molde can't win the title. They had lost all four, the first time a defending champion had lost their opening four matches. After seven games, Molde had collected two points.
2014 - League Title with record wins and points for Ole Skullerud. Molde's first League and Cup Double. It is before the beginning of this season (March) that Ole takes over at Cardiff City (January), who were relegated soon thereafter.
2015 - Skullerud sacked in August (around matchday 18) with Molde in 7th place. There was some noise about family problems that had him considering leaving at the season end. In the remaining matches under Ole, he was able to take them back up the table, all the way to 6th place.
2016 - Uninspired 5th place finish. Ole had Molde finish 24 points off the champions but only 14 points away from relegation.
2017 - An improvement, but runners-up is a familiar place for Molde. They never had a chance as Rosenberg's title came with a record low twenty goals conceded. They were first almost completely from matchday one through the end of the season. There were only two matchdays on which they weren't in first place, interestingly it was Sarpsborg and Brann who briefly took over top spot, not Molde.
2018 - Despite finishing second, the season was mostly a race between Rosenberg and Brann. Molde nipped in at the end to finish above Brann by a point but five off the leaders.
2019 - With Ole at the wheel of Manchester United, some new dude named Moe led Molde to a very impressive finish to the season winning the league by 14 points and Molde's best scoring record of the last decade.
I don't want to pollute this overview with too much of my opinions. However, I have to say that actually looking through the history of each season paints a very different picture to the one that some of our resident Norwegians/Molde followers presented us when Ole was hired. Indeed it's commendable that he won Molde's first league titles, but in a way they appear as much to do with rivals having poor seasons than brilliance of the manager. In fact some of our deepest concerns have history here, as Molde often seems to improve significantly when Ole leaves and then dip upon his return.
Even in a simple review of the seasons there's plenty of information that could have been used by Manchester United in their managerial search. That they elected to hire Ole permanently suggests they didn't actually go through his resume with any sort of diligence. Based on what's here alone, Ole is nowhere near the caliber of appointment I would expect to take Manchester United back to its glory days. But hey, it's all a moot point now.
So from the extensive details from some of our Norwegian contingent that you can find in this thread, I actually am starting to feel very much the opposite. Hiring based on the interim perido was stupid and reactionary. Hiring based on the way folks like grande (see above) have better explained the time frame I'm questioning make it seem that maybe there's some real team building in there afterall.he was probably hired because he won 15 games on the spin or whatever ridiculous record he had vs whatever record molde had in norway
to think he was hired for his 'cv' just embarrasses you tbh
The on-the-field decisions, results and performances have had many fans on the cafe and beyond very fairly questioning Ole's ability to lead this team. In response, there's an equally vociferous mob with only hope in their eyes criticizing doubters as bad football fans and even going so far as to accuse them of supporting other team.It's a bit much and wreaks of intolerance for opposing views.
The other responses here? Bunch of cry babies throwing a tantrum at the timing of the post. But did any of them have the depth of knowledge to back up their instinctive 'no that's a lie,' response? Outside of hurling personal attacks, even less substance than the accused. Pathetic, presumptive and divisive in nature.
That's not just here. That's me in general, on the cafe anyway. But I do apologise and mean it when I've crossed a line.I'd say it was mostly the arrogant, self-righteous tone and characterising of yourself as fair and those who are your opposed to your view as a "mob" that invited the criticism.
In that light the final bit about intolerance seems a bit hypocritical.
I was very much Ole out for a good chunk of the season. I wasn't convinced. Spurs and City were a very promising moment for me. Not for being tactical masterclasses. I considered them a sign the players were behind the manager when there was immense outside pressure on sacking. But I still have reservations about how things pan out moving forward. But I've softened from Ole out to give him the season.You've also been strongly pushing the Ole out message for so long that people are reasonably sceptical of your motives when initiating a discussion about the manager.
That's not just here. That's me in general, on the cafe anyway. But I do apologise and mean it when I've crossed a line.
I was very much Ole out for a good chunk of the season. I wasn't convinced. Spurs and City were a very promising moment for me. Not for being tactical masterclasses. I considered them a sign the players were behind the manager when there was immense outside pressure on sacking. But I still have reservations about how things pan out moving forward. But I've softened from Ole out to give him the season.
Funnily enough, the replies here that didn't linger on my person and focused on the actual information about Ole's work at Molde were quite informative. Theyve softened my view and actually started to fill me with a bit more optimism. Genuinely look at that timeline in the first post. You can't look at that (maybe I could have found more details if I could speak Norwegian mother tongue) and just say oh Ole was great at Molde. You have to at least question it. I actually previewed the post with the last line as "don't want to pollute this with my opinion" before then going back and adding my thoughts. I did genuinely want to know more with the context I've given. And my phrasing really wasn't pointed enough to warrant some of what's been said here.
I am sitting on the fence with Ole but I really cannot disagree with your points. There has been change, ups and downs, swings and roundabouts, but visible change.Coming off the back of two great results you choose now to create this pointless thread, that says it all really. Clear agenda against Ole.
Even worse your over inflated opinion of your own thread has you hoping the press pick up on it and heap more pressure on our manager. Feck me, pathetic really.
Nothing in your post about Ole’s previous record holds any baring on his current role as United boss. If it did real journalists would be using it as a stick to beat him with, but no just ‘fans’ on United forums do that.
The Ole you describe has:-
*14 points from 18 against the top sides this season.
*Currently 5th position with a real chance of top four, especially if he is backed in January.
*He has done the above with an overall exceptionally average and threadbare United squad (when you compare past squads under previous management.). All while missing our best player.
*Played youth consistently to great effect against the big sides, reinforcements needed with technical ability to break down defensive sides.
*He has improved almost all of the players in the core of this young side.
*Fred is a completely different player (it’s not just a feckin run of games, he’s being coached like every other player.)
*McTominay consistently improving.
*Rashford is having his best ever season.
*Ole has been the first manager to play Martial as a number 9 consistently, something the Caf has been crying out for.
*Martial and Rashfords linkup has improved as a result.
*Dan James has hit the ground running and has been instrumental in our counterattacking current setup.
I can understand people being on the fence, it a huge job and there is a tendency for people to worry that Ole is in the job for the wrong reasons (ie being a club legend, rose tinted glasses and all that.)I am sitting on the fence with Ole but I really cannot disagree with your points. There has been change, ups and downs, swings and roundabouts, but visible change.
Couldn't you have stuck this in one of the other million threads where people bash his CV?
Has anyone figured out what qualified Guardiola or Zidane for the Barcelona and Real Madrid jobs?
Pellegrini got extremely lucky due to Slippy G and Liverpool's collapse at 3-0 up against Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park!All these are missing context, unless someone who watched Norway league can shed some light, all this "team x finished 2nd, then they finished 3rd" is just meaningless.
Mancini won the league, Pellegrini also won the league but Mancini's win was better as he laid the foundations, by the time Pellegrini took over, they were already top dogs. But for someone who never watches PL and just goes by Wiki, there isn't any difference.
That's a very mean thing to say.5 minutes on the transfermarked site makes the OP look like a fool. The player turnover at that club is insane. Ole built a winning team, twice! Good post mate!
That's a ridiculous argument that completely overlooks the point. You were better off not responding.When Ole wins a CL or league, we can make comparisons with ZZ and Pep.
As of now, Ole is not anywhere near winning a trophy for us.
Under Ole, we have endured the worst start to an EPL campaign ever! And that includes the dreaded Moyes and the final season of Jose (which was a car crash....Ole is worse).
For Ole to be mentioned in the same sentence as Pep and/or ZZ, Ole would probably need to win every remaining match of the remainder of the season.
I think to your point, hiring Ole as soon as he finished in the academy would have made sense. Or right after his first two titles with Molde.That's a ridiculous argument that completely overlooks the point. You were better off not responding.
That's a very mean thing to say.
Out of curiosity, did you only look at Molde's transfers and ignore every other club in the league? Fact is, departures and arrivals were a merry-go-round for much of the league. That's a very shortsighted comment on your part.
And to make the point more meaningful note that in 2013, when Ole finished 6th with Molde, another team won their first title in five decades: Strømsgodset. Its no mean feat for them either. Like many in the league, plenty of ins and outs. And you know who that manager is? Rony Deila. Big proponent of attacking football, studied the game from the likes of City and Dortmund to incorporate into his own. Had a series of second place finishes as well as that title. Impressive really for a club of that stature. Considering it wasn't a record low points tally like 2011, even more impressive in my mind. Know what happened to him? He went to Celtic and won two titles including a cup and league double. Did he land the next big job after that? Nope, back at a Norwegian club. You could very well argue he's more successful as a manager than Ole...
It's not as cut and dry that winning the Norwegian league, even as an underdog, makes you a suitable manager for Manchester United.
Hiring based on the interim perido was stupid and reactionary. Hiring based on the way folks like grande (see above) have better explained the time frame I'm questioning make it seem that maybe there's some real team building in there afterall.
Twice league champions and twice runners up in six seasons is a pretty good record.
Doesn’t prove that Ole is suitable for Premier League level but seems like a pretty weak argument to say that he isn’t suitable based on that record.
This is precious considering we have comments in post match reactions to the tune of, "I didn't watch the match but it sounds like this and that".For the love of Sir Alex, stop talking about a league you've never watched.
I don't have that much time to respond so I'll bullet point the responses to the bolded:I think to your point, hiring Ole as soon as he finished in the academy would have made sense. Or right after his first two titles with Molde.
The concern is in the years after, how significantly has Ole improved as a manager and why didn't he land another job and show success there..in the post right above I'm talking about Rony Deila whose couple years and league title with Strømsgodset is just as impressive to me. I'm sure Norway folks can correct me with more insight there. But he went on and was successful in Scotland. There's a good precedent for success there translating to the premier league...even more recently with Rodgers.
The concern for me is, hiring Ole back then would have been an easier gamble than now after an even longer period of mismanagement. It's hindsight for sure but if you were given a five year plan a year into it after Moyes, would you take it then? Might have been easier to consider then versus now on the eve of Liverpool's impending title. It's a bigger gamble now but in my opinion, even with the insight from folks like Grande, it's not a sound one. If Ole had one more season at Molde and took those two second place finishes to win the league again I'd be more convinced. Laying foundations is one thing. Serial winner is another. Isn't that Pochs biggest thing - laying brick everywhere. But he never did win. Ole has won before, but that's so long ago. Is he up to it now. Is he really better now? Maybe. But Manchester United is his testing ground now and looking at Ed, that's a hail Mary choice. Not a sound management decision on his part. And that's what I'm most critical of. In many ways this is all about Ed.
I think I may have touched on that a bit more in the post above.I don't know what your game is, mate, but let me tell you this: there's very little chance that Woodward based the decision (to hire Ole on a permanent basis) on his achievements with Molde.
I am sure when Zidane or Pep took over Real or Barcelona in year 1, they had won nothing. Absolutely nothing. At best? They coached the reserve, which Ole did too. I don't even think Zidane had good results with the reserve, they went up and then down fast in the standing, and there was some controversies about his credentials as a coach even (he did not have them when he started coaching the reserves).When Ole wins a CL or league, we can make comparisons with ZZ and Pep.
As of now, Ole is not anywhere near winning a trophy for us.
Under Ole, we have endured the worst start to an EPL campaign ever! And that includes the dreaded Moyes and the final season of Jose (which was a car crash....Ole is worse).
For Ole to be mentioned in the same sentence as Pep and/or ZZ, Ole would probably need to win every remaining match of the remainder of the season.
The first full season with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer as manager of Manchester United has been a roller coaster of highs and lows. After what many of us felt was a disastrous summer of under recruitment, the season opening win was exhilarating and filled with optimism. Reality came crashing down hard and United found themselves near the relegation pack in the ensuing months, before another win against Chelsea to lift the mood, and then drop back down. The on-the-field decisions, results and performances have had many fans on the cafe and beyond very fairly questioning Ole's ability to lead this team. In response, there's an equally vociferous mob with only hope in their eyes criticizing doubters as bad football fans and even going so far as to accuse them of supporting other teams. It's a bit much and wreaks of intolerance for opposing views.
The boiling point was a tough set of games that might have led to Ole's sacking. However, we've now got two excellent wins against Tottenham and away to Manchester City that hit enough of a high again to momentarily lose sight of the season as a whole. But instead of looking forward, I want to go the other way and examine in more detail Ole's time as a manager before United. In a way, it's the due diligence that should have been a given before Ole went from interim manager to permanent manager.
MOLDE FK (2009-Present)
Below is a table of the last ten years of Molde FK's exploits in the Norwegian League. Keep in mind, the Norwegian League is 30 matches that run from March thru November.
SUMMARY
Season Manager Position Points Goals Scored Goals Allowed 2009 some dude 2nd 56 62 35 2010 another dude 11th 40 42 45 2011 Ole 1st 58 54 38 2012 Ole 1st 62 51 31 2013 Ole 6th 44 47 38 2014 a different Ole
(Skullerud)1st 71 62 24 2015 both Oles 6th 52 62 31 2016 Ole 5th 45 48 42 2017 Ole 2nd 54 50 35 2018 Ole 2nd 59 63 36 2019 New dude (Moe) 1st 68 72 31
Below are some notes to give a bit more context to each of the seasons.
The years in Blue are when Ole Solskjaer was manager.
2009 - 2nd place. Some dude that got Molde promoted a few years back had them finish runner's up.
2010 - 11th place. The season started under the lead of some dude, but after 20 points from the opening 22 matches he was replaced by another dude. Molde collected another 20 points in the remaining 8 matches and brought them from relegation territory in 14th place to finish 11th.
2011 - League Title. Molde's first top division title after being serial second place finishers, led by Molde and Manchester United legend, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. They had a record low points for a champion. League was won by five points.
2012 - League Title. Title successfully defended by Ole. League was won by four points.
2013 - Finished 6th. Based on points, closer to relegation than the title. Ole declares after the first four games that Molde can't win the title. They had lost all four, the first time a defending champion had lost their opening four matches. After seven games, Molde had collected two points.
2014 - League Title with record wins and points for Ole Skullerud. Molde's first League and Cup Double. It is before the beginning of this season (March) that Ole takes over at Cardiff City (January), who were relegated soon thereafter.
2015 - Skullerud sacked in August (around matchday 18) with Molde in 7th place. There was some noise about family problems that had him considering leaving at the season end. In the remaining matches under Ole, he was able to take them back up the table, all the way to 6th place.
2016 - Uninspired 5th place finish. Ole had Molde finish 24 points off the champions but only 14 points away from relegation.
2017 - An improvement, but runners-up is a familiar place for Molde. They never had a chance as Rosenberg's title came with a record low twenty goals conceded. They were first almost completely from matchday one through the end of the season. There were only two matchdays on which they weren't in first place, interestingly it was Sarpsborg and Brann who briefly took over top spot, not Molde.
2018 - Despite finishing second, the season was mostly a race between Rosenberg and Brann. Molde nipped in at the end to finish above Brann by a point but five off the leaders.
2019 - With Ole at the wheel of Manchester United, some new dude named Moe led Molde to a very impressive finish to the season winning the league by 14 points and Molde's best scoring record of the last decade.
I don't want to pollute this overview with too much of my opinions. However, I have to say that actually looking through the history of each season paints a very different picture to the one that some of our resident Norwegians/Molde followers presented us when Ole was hired. Indeed it's commendable that he won Molde's first league titles, but in a way they appear as much to do with rivals having poor seasons than brilliance of the manager. In fact some of our deepest concerns have history here, as Molde often seems to improve significantly when Ole leaves and then dip upon his return.
Even in a simple review of the seasons there's plenty of information that could have been used by Manchester United in their managerial search. That they elected to hire Ole permanently suggests they didn't actually go through his resume with any sort of diligence. Based on what's here alone, Ole is nowhere near the caliber of appointment I would expect to take Manchester United back to its glory days. But hey, it's all a moot point now.
The spark that seems to have set people off is suggesting Ole's time at Molde wasn't good enough in my opinion.
If I want to discredit Ole I would just lay out what's happened since he became full time manager of Manchester United. I have posted plenty about that in previous months. I'm hoping continued good results mean I can support the manager more than just deal with the situation.Alright - as I suggested above, based on your responses in this thread it's possible to interpret your original intention as, let's say, legit. I'll take it as such, being an amicable sort of fecker (mostly).
But the spark that set people off was clearly not the suggestion that Ole's time at Molde wasn't good enough - because nobody with any sense would argue that what he achieved at Molde is in any way sufficient evidence to make him a plausible candidate for the United job. Nobody - not even his most ardent adherents - has claimed this.
The actual spark was the - reasonable, based on your posting history - assumption that you had dug up some numbers (without context) in order to discredit Ole.
If I want to discredit Ole I would just lay out what's happened since he became full time manager of Manchester United. I have posted plenty about that in previous months.
I can see it's a very thin line I'm treading on here. Maybe the best way to characterize the difference is:
who the heck hired this guy? As opposed to how awful is this guy at the job?
@DSG it's not an analysis. Meant to be a quick summary, overview of the domestic campaigns. (1) is in there. Looks like you missed it. (5) that's kind of the question I was asking. People made it seem like the Norwegian league wins were yesterday. It was before Sir Alex retired. Since then, Ole has not won a league.
100% on me for sure.To be fair the assumption would have been that you would have at least taken a cursory glance at Ole's wikipedia page prior to yesterday.
If you assumed the wins were more recent as you didn't bother looking into that has to be on you.
Actually very much agree. When going through the Norwegian League to better understand what went on - admittedly only as deep as my resources allowed - I was pretty intrigued by Ronny Deila. He won the Tippeligaen with Stromsgodset, their first in like fifty years. Also finished second a few times with them. Then he went on to win two Scottish Premier Leagues with Celtic. His signature was this progressive attacking play. He stepped down from Celtic and went back to Norway where he's been probably over perferoming with what used to be a relegation candidate. Curious he didn't land a bigger job after Celtic.Forgetting about Solskjaer for a minute. Why should we dismiss the possibility of lower leagues hiding a top level management talent any different to a player? It's just harder to see.
There's talk of Everton bringing Moyes back. Anyone in the world and the best they come up with is bringing back Moyes.
Getting an opportunity as a manager is massive, once you have a high profile spell of good form behind you are set for life with hirings and sackings, like Marco Silva.
I was pretty intrigued by Ronny Deila. He won the Tippeligaen with Stromsgodset, their first in like fifty years. Also finished second a few times with them. Then he went on to win two Scottish Premier Leagues with Celtic. His signature was this progressive attacking play. He stepped down from Celtic and went back to Norway where he's been probably over perferoming with what used to be a relegation candidate. Curious he didn't land a bigger job after Celtic.