Solskjaer's legacy and his future

Shark said:
I think Fellaini gets a bad rap, yes he represents that horrible era well because of his connection to Moyes, but we've had much worse players over the past decade and always felt he left his heart on the field.
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I agree. Granted, I don't see that much hate for him anymore, but I always thought he gave it his all.
Even though he was totally wrong for us, he was rarely the most frustrating player on the pitch for me.
 
pierrethesnack said:
I agree. Granted, I don't see that much hate for him anymore, but I always thought he gave it his all.
Even though he was totally wrong for us, he was rarely the most frustrating player on the pitch for me.
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He won us the EL. He didn't win the motm only because he is Fellaini. Ajax couldn't get near him. Moyes brought him and then didn't know how to use him. LVG came and played him. Jose came and played him. The problem with Jose was that Fellaini was the only plan. As a plan B he is great.
 
Shark said:
I think Fellaini gets a bad rap, yes he represents that horrible era well because of his connection to Moyes, but we've had much worse players over the past decade and always felt he left his heart on the field.
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Yeah, he was a symbolic albatross more than he was a physical one.
 
Foxbatt said:
He won us the EL. He didn't win the motm only because he is Fellaini. Ajax couldn't get near him. Moyes brought him and then didn't know how to use him. LVG came and played him. Jose came and played him. The problem with Jose was that Fellaini was the only plan. As a plan B he is great.
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I had forgotten how good he was in that final, cheers.
 
Two punts by the club. One lasted barely a year while the other lasted three years.
One had no time while the other had all the time in the world to cause as much damage as he liked.
 
Still a lot of hatred towards Ole on here it seems. Bizarre. The guy bleeds United more than almost anyone else I can think of
 
studs said:
Two punts by the club. One lasted barely a year while the other lasted three years.
One had no time while the other had all the time in the world to cause as much damage as he liked.
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Moyes chanced the best team in the leauge to a middle table team. That's an achievment!
 
Greck said:
This isn't how it would have happened. He had a special ability to keep the wheels of going nowhere turning. He'd probably somehow draw and beat Ajax then ETH would be called another flavour of the month, no doubt in another whoop whoop thread. I never saw plot armour quite the way Ole had it. Only a more beloved legend was able to break it.
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These threads were so cringe at the time. Even more cringe to look back on now. The delusion was something else.
 
Bastian said:
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168 matches - that’s 252 hours, or 10 and a half days of footage.

Do we reckon he binge watched them over a couple of weeks or watched them like a weekly show? If the latter and he was watching an hour a week then he would only be on episode 52, with 200 episodes, or nearly 4 more years of episodes to go. What is this, Ertugrul? So I’m calling bullshit on that one.
 
Bilbo said:
Still a lot of hatred towards Ole on here it seems. Bizarre. The guy bleeds United more than almost anyone else I can think of
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I think a lot of it is something of a pushback to the rabid way that a lot of the pro Ole people defended what was viewed as a lot of bad stuff during Ole's tenure
 
Bilbo said:
Still a lot of hatred towards Ole on here it seems. Bizarre. The guy bleeds United more than almost anyone else I can think of
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I think it was more apathy rather than hatred towards Ole. For many it was pretty obvious he wasn't the one to take us back to the very top. Or do you think given more time and money we'd be fighting for the major titles?
 
Forevergiggs1 said:
I think it was more apathy rather than hatred towards Ole. For many it was pretty obvious he wasn't the one to take us back to the very top. Or do you think given more time and money we'd be fighting for the major titles?
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I think everyone has their views on it, but for me it's done and dusted now.

What I don't get is how bitter so many still seem to be about it. Good enough / not good enough. Success / failure. What is left after it all is that he was and is a thoroughly decent bloke who loves this club, and gave it everything. He deserves more respect.
 
Cloud7 said:
I think a lot of it is something of a pushback to the rabid way that a lot of the pro Ole people defended what was viewed as a lot of bad stuff during Ole's tenure
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It's exactly this. I believe I'm on record in this thread saying the same thing.

The sheer levels of sanctimony around the forums during his tenure were at unbearable levels. Any criticisms were piled in with the extreme views and for a very long period anyone with doubts would be hounded and it killed all reasonable debate.

With the cringey Whoop Whoop threads I'm not surprised there's been a lot of "I told you so" posts.

The new angle seems to be that anyone who comments on his time here is a "hater". I'll never hate Ole, even if he had relegated us. But I'm not so delusional that I can't separate the two entities of Ole and critique his time as player and manager separately.

There was an awful lot supping on copium during his time. The cries we were playing swashbuckling, attacking football always felt disingenuous and the less said about his recruitment and "cultural reboot" the better.

Now we have a manager that has a clear vision and there's obvious green shoots of progression. Something we never truly had, or more accurately, sustainably had, under Ole.

Will always be a legend in my eyes but we don't need to eulogise his managerial stint to elevate him beyond that.
 
Bilbo said:
I think everyone has their views on it, but for me it's done and dusted now.

What I don't get is how bitter so many still seem to be about it. Good enough / not good enough. Success / failure. What is left after it all is that he was and is a thoroughly decent bloke who loves this club, and gave it everything. He deserves more respect.
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Yep echoes my thoughts.

Thought he should have been sacked 7-8 times over before he actually was, but I don't see what there is to hold against him at this point. Still a great player during the most successful period in our history, had some memorable moments as manager, and has shown the club and its fans a great amount of loyalty and respect. I can't think of a single thing he's done or said that would justify criticism of him as a person of the regard in which he holds the club.

One of the reasons I was annoyed we kept him on until we did (after the players had effectively given up), is that it damaged his reputation and hopes of landing another job by making him look worse than he actually was.
 
Volumiza said:
I don;t think a different league would make any difference to his shortcomings. I just don't think he's cut out to be a successful manager at any club. He could be a good pundit.
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Agree.
He doesn't have the right personality to be a top-level manager.
He'd be better off as a coach I think. He's clearly very dedicated and knowledgeable about the game but he'll never have that aura that Ferguson, Wenger, Mourinho, Klopp or Guardiola has to make it at the very top level. Compare the way Ten Hag has dealt with Ronaldo too vs Ole.

It still baffles me how he ever got the job in the first place.
His managerial career reads, United Reserves, Molde, Cardiff, Molde, United.

Whatever you think of Moyes, Rangnick, LVG or Mourinho, all of them had a managerial CV that gives you some basis as to why they got the job. Twenty years from now Solskjaer will have had the worst managerial career out of all of them.
 
MegadrivePerson said:
Agree.
He doesn't have the right personality to be a top-level manager.
He'd be better off as a coach I think. He's clearly very dedicated and knowledgeable about the game but he'll never have that aura that Ferguson, Wenger, Mourinho, Klopp or Guardiola has to make it at the very top level. Compare the way Ten Hag has dealt with Ronaldo too vs Ole.

It still baffles me how he ever got the job in the first place.
His managerial career reads, United Reserves, Molde, Cardiff, Molde, United.

Whatever you think of Moyes, Rangnick, LVG or Mourinho, all of them had a managerial CV that gives you some basis as to why they got the job. Twenty years from now Solskjaer will have had the worst managerial career out of all of them.
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I think Ten Hag is great so don't take this the wrong way, but your comment in bold makes no sense. The guy made Ronaldo captain mere weeks after he walked off before the end of a game. Its the only time he's put a foot wrong IMO, but that one was a doozy
 
Bilbo said:
Still a lot of hatred towards Ole on here it seems. Bizarre. The guy bleeds United more than almost anyone else I can think of
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It’s always illuminating the lines people draw & with whom. Literal mancunians getting hatred on this site daily & you’re upset about someone that bleeds United [whatever that means].

Did the criticism go too far at points? Probably but so does most criticism on here.
 
AFC NimbleThumb said:
It’s always illuminating the lines people draw & with whom. Literal mancunians getting hatred on this site daily & you’re upset about someone that bleeds United [whatever that means].

Did the criticism go too far at points? Probably but so does most criticism on here.
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What does being Mancunian have to do with it?

I ask as one myself.
 
Escobar said:
So you dont see a difference between the 2?
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Well early days. We are better defensively now but much worse in attack. I believe in ETH but so many games are just so boring similiar to when LVG was here!
 
Asger said:
Well early days. We are better defensively now but much worse in attack. I believe in ETH but so many games are just so boring similiar to when LVG was here!
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ETHs defensive numbers are actually worse, with quite a big margin. But still early days.
Goals against ETHs United 1,19 per game. Under Solskjær it was 0,98 per game.

You are right about the attack, though. Solskjærs United avareaged 1,92 goals per game (best since Busby), ETH is at 1,69 goals per game.
 
onetwo3oclock4oclockrock said:
ETHs defensive numbers are actually worse, with quite a big margin. But still early days.
Goals against ETHs United 1,19 per game. Under Solskjær it was 0,98 per game.

You are right about the attack, though. Solskjærs United avareaged 1,92 goals per game (best since Busby), ETH is at 1,69 goals per game.
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The defense under ETH looks bad because of 3 outlier games.
 
JohnnyKills said:
What does being Mancunian have to do with it?

I ask as one myself.
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About as much as bleeding United has to do with it I’d say. Again, it’s illuminating which lines and with whom.

The poster says it’s weird the hate OgS gets because he bleeds United whilst this forum hate mancunians who support United & play for United. It doesn’t really get much closer to the club than that so I don’t see why OgS is so precious to some.

His tenure didn’t work out, he got over the top criticism in areas, as do most players & managers.
 
Hopefully he finds a job somewhere if that’s what he wants. I think he showed he was better than his CV suggested, never should have been anywhere near the Utd job of course but had more to offer than staying at Molde.

I was just always baffled by why people thought he had any chance of being a success or any hope of laying foundations for success. Whoever succeeded him was always going to have to rip it up and start again.
 
AFC NimbleThumb said:
It’s always illuminating the lines people draw & with whom. Literal mancunians getting hatred on this site daily & you’re upset about someone that bleeds United [whatever that means].

Did the criticism go too far at points? Probably but so does most criticism on here.
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I agree, but this thread is about Ole
 
Asger said:
Well early days. We are better defensively now but much worse in attack. I believe in ETH but so many games are just so boring similiar to when LVG was here!
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We are so much better in attack, it is day and night! If we could take our chances, we would have scored tons of goals already
 
Asger said:
Well early days. We are better defensively now but much worse in attack. I believe in ETH but so many games are just so boring similiar to when LVG was here!
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Come on. We've just played half the season with a starting striker headed to Saudi arabia. It's not the attack that's defective. Meanwhile ETH successfully navigated the same waters that saw Ole sacked. Judging by eye test it's not even a contest attacking wise. We had no attack under Ole, it was all improvisational. Something disgusting that's even still visible in our 19-21 highlights is the amount of "attacks" starting with a whopping 2-3 United players in the opponent's half. We never really wrestled for control of games like we attempt now.
 
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Irrational. said:
168 matches - that’s 252 hours, or 10 and a half days of footage.

Do we reckon he binge watched them over a couple of weeks or watched them like a weekly show? If the latter and he was watching an hour a week then he would only be on episode 52, with 200 episodes, or nearly 4 more years of episodes to go. What is this, Ertugrul? So I’m calling bullshit on that one.
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He probably only watched the highlights. All 27 mins of it.
 
Bilbo said:
I think everyone has their views on it, but for me it's done and dusted now.

What I don't get is how bitter so many still seem to be about it. Good enough / not good enough. Success / failure. What is left after it all is that he was and is a thoroughly decent bloke who loves this club, and gave it everything. He deserves more respect.
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If you pay a surgeon £2m and he operates on the wrong body part no matter how decent a bloke he is you’ll think negatively of him as surgeon at least.
 
Asger said:
Well early days. We are better defensively now but much worse in attack. I believe in ETH but so many games are just so boring similiar to when LVG was here!
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Not with a full strength team, which is half his own. We were boring under LVG no question, but we became an underdog team under Ole, and it showed when teams stood off us. It was the same laboured passing game we saw under LVG. I'm not sure Ole knew what he wanted. He said some things he contradicted with his decision making for sure.
 
I love Ole, and I think he could've made a good manager, but like many top players he didn't earn managing a top club, and ended up paying the price. Whether it's Ole, Gerrard or Lampard, I don't understand what stopped them from getting a coaching gig with top managers to learn and develop first.

One thing we know for sure, he loved the club, he tried his best, and he doesn't deserve any disrespect. He was given a chance of a lifetime and most of us would've taken it too. The blame lies with those who hired him.
 
Bilbo said:
Still a lot of hatred towards Ole on here it seems. Bizarre. The guy bleeds United more than almost anyone else I can think of
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No hatred, seems an absolutely lovely bloke who adores Manchester United.
I will speak out though when some try to spin his time as manager as anything other than a massive waste of time & money.
 
b82REZ said:
It's exactly this. I believe I'm on record in this thread saying the same thing.

The sheer levels of sanctimony around the forums during his tenure were at unbearable levels. Any criticisms were piled in with the extreme views and for a very long period anyone with doubts would be hounded and it killed all reasonable debate.

With the cringey Whoop Whoop threads I'm not surprised there's been a lot of "I told you so" posts.

The new angle seems to be that anyone who comments on his time here is a "hater". I'll never hate Ole, even if he had relegated us. But I'm not so delusional that I can't separate the two entities of Ole and critique his time as player and manager separately.

There was an awful lot supping on copium during his time. The cries we were playing swashbuckling, attacking football always felt disingenuous and the less said about his recruitment and "cultural reboot" the better.

Now we have a manager that has a clear vision and there's obvious green shoots of progression. Something we never truly had, or more accurately, sustainably had, under Ole.

Will always be a legend in my eyes but we don't need to eulogise his managerial stint to elevate him beyond that.
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Spot on.

It's never been about Ole; just a handful of his weirdo, insufferable fans. Ultimately, Ole the player is an absolute legend in my eyes. Ole the manager was a bluffer, who I never enjoyed listening to.
 
Robbie Boy said:
Spot on.
It's never been about Ole; just a handful of his weirdo, insufferable fans. Ultimately, Ole the player is an absolute legend in my eyes. Ole the manager was a bluffer, who I never enjoyed listening to.
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Exactly. He took Glazer money to run a commercial first football club. He did a great deal of harm, though not necessarily on purpose.
 
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