Was a good watch. The banter between them is always great… but thought he came across a bit vague. He’s obviously a decent man and didn’t want to name drop anyone and throw them under a bus…but from a club structure perspective I was hoping for more. Wonder if nda’s are in play. He talked a lot without really giving much away and struck me as a soft manager.
The Overlap - Ole Gunnar Solskjaer
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Because they wanted to move into a different style of football, and thought that Jadon was a generational talent? To be fair, if he performed anywhere near his Dortmund level, he would have easily kept Rashford out of the team.
Besides he played right wing plenty of times for Dortmund, too much is made about his "preferred side". He was at his best when he roamed and involved himself in all parts of play. Dortmund Sancho was not one-dimensional.
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Our approach to left inside fwds has been mental. We had Rashford (who at the time looked promising and even in the early days was never a striker)…but let’s sign Depay, Martial, Sanchez, Sancho all for crazy sums whose best career football has been in that same position…whilst completely neglecting the opposite side
Oh we also brought in a no 10 from Chelsea and force him to play RW. When he sucked at it, we made him play there for another 8 years.
We owe an apology. Ole's defend and counter was a much better tactics than the current shit.
ETH did exactly the opposite against City and has been slaughtered for it - the manager can't win!
Yep I agree. Either he wasn't in the weeds as much as you'd expect a manager to be or he's NDA'd and was deliberately very tight-lipped. My read was that it's a bit of both but, unfortunately, maybe more the former.
I mentioned this a bit earlier but I think the segment around minute 20 was most interesting: trying to be more aggressive with the players at his disposal was his ultimate undoing. EtH is falling into the exact same trap of trying to play more aggressively than the squad allows - we have a back line that can't press high enough (particularly without Martinez), a CDM without McFred's legs, and a forward three who don't work hard enough to press well (Rashy in particular).
Tactically it's playing out differently, but conceptually I think it's history repeating itself for Ole and EtH.
May I ask how someone who is ' completely out of his depth ' manages to get a second and third place in the best league in the world? And a Europa league final as well. Are the players that good? In that case, shouldn't Mourinho or ETH be even more out of their depth? How does this work?
People are making a big deal about who didn't way to play second half. It's pretty obvious from what he said players knew he was set to be sacked and a number were upset. I refuse to hold it against any of them, personally
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So he should have guaranteed a 17 year old a set amount of playing time, a player that had never played at a club the size and level of United?
Wait what? They refused to come out for 2nd half because they were grief stricken over his departure?
He was praising their attitude as much as anything else, and quite frankly, if we'd had Fred this season opposition teams wouldn't be running right thru our midfield all game, I'm pretty confident out losses column would be a lot less than it is
No, but he didn’t need to do that. I don’t think it was a slam dunk case of Bellingham saying “I must play every week”. He wasn’t even a guaranteed starter at Dortmund the first year he was there. Starting 19 league games and being a sub 10.
Don’t think it would have been too much to give him assurances of decent game time especially as we had woeful midfield options at the time. As manager he failed to get Bellingham over the line and he should take the L on that.
Got around to listening to this today. I found it quite enjoyable.
You know people can be upset without being grief stricken right?
Ole said there were tears at half time, showing some really are a bunch of wetwipes
Bellingham was very certain
n on the number of first team mintues he needed to develop his career further in a specific period of time. There is no way he was going to fall for bluffs and bluster. Basically the only chance Ole had of getting him was promising him those minutes he has calculated. No manager at a a club like United could do that.
Except he did it the previous summer with Dan James. Who’d not made anywhere near the mark in the championship as Jude had. He signed Dan James after a season of first team football and played him in many many games.
Bellingham was there. Our central midfield options were poor at the time. It was a noted weak spot in our team. The reason ole didn’t offer Bellingham the minutes to convince him is because Ole misidentified the abilities of Mctominay/ Pogba and Fred.
I mean did you hear him talking about Mcfred during the overlap? He held them in far too high regard. And that’s why he didn’t believe Bellingham would play a lot. Putting this on bullshit like no manager would play a player that age that much or that Bellingham was too demanding is a bullshit. Manchester United not giving young teenagers significant minutes ? Really? When was that a thing?
Ole mentioned it in the video, but don't remember the minute mark
I can’t take Ole seriously as a manager. He wasn’t a failure and actually managed to stumble his way into a decent spell as manager but his ‘happy to be here’ demeanour as a manager just gives off a vibe of inferiority.
He goes on about not needing to rush to be in management after leaving United but what did he achieve here to have such a position. It makes perfect sense for someone like Zidane, he reached the absolute apex of club management and decided to take time out. Any other manager in Ole’s position is out there looking to get another job and doesn’t give a damn if it’s a level below the United job.
It shows that Ole thinks his United tenure is what ultimate success looks like to him. Managers love the thrill of coaching and being in the job, the good and bad that comes with it. Moyes and Mourinho have had some ultra lows but always come back looking to go again and be better. LVG too who coached at the World Cup at 70.
Ole is someone who knows he isn’t good enough which is why he went balls in on bringing the vibes back to the squad. It was a good strategy and worked for the period that it did but once that has been exhausted and more is needed, it’s no surprise he said he was unable to get them to believe. People will blame the players but as a squad when you see your rivals with better players and them being managed by Klopp and Pep then you look at your dressing room and see Ole spouting United way rhetoric, it’s easy to lose belief and be disheartened.
He had to go when he did, he took us as far as he could. Only thing I’d add is that the players who made up Oleball should have left with him as the ones that are still here have also proven they’ve gone as far as they can with us too.
He goes on about not needing to rush to be in management after leaving United but what did he achieve here to have such a position. It makes perfect sense for someone like Zidane, he reached the absolute apex of club management and decided to take time out. Any other manager in Ole’s position is out there looking to get another job and doesn’t give a damn if it’s a level below the United job.
It shows that Ole thinks his United tenure is what ultimate success looks like to him. Managers love the thrill of coaching and being in the job, the good and bad that comes with it. Moyes and Mourinho have had some ultra lows but always come back looking to go again and be better. LVG too who coached at the World Cup at 70.
Ole is someone who knows he isn’t good enough which is why he went balls in on bringing the vibes back to the squad. It was a good strategy and worked for the period that it did but once that has been exhausted and more is needed, it’s no surprise he said he was unable to get them to believe. People will blame the players but as a squad when you see your rivals with better players and them being managed by Klopp and Pep then you look at your dressing room and see Ole spouting United way rhetoric, it’s easy to lose belief and be disheartened.
He had to go when he did, he took us as far as he could. Only thing I’d add is that the players who made up Oleball should have left with him as the ones that are still here have also proven they’ve gone as far as they can with us too.
Some of the mental Gymnastics in this thread are making it a great read .
You can it’s an Olympic year!
You can it’s an Olympic year!
Guarantee if Fred had gone City & Maguire for that matter, they’d be thought of much more favourably. Especially Fred, considering we took an attacking mid & tried to make him a DM. Much like we did with Anderson.
This here. That was my take away, along with refusing interviews and captaincy. Those players don't have the mentally to play for united, no wonder we crumble under pressure.
He didn't say it was a problem though. So maybe he planned playing him left wing.
Ifs, buts and maybes, the guy spent £50m+ one summer on VdB, Amad and Pellistri instead of addressing the midfield issues.
That is quite an exaggeration. He didn't insinuate that Bellingham could not be guaranteed minutes because of McFred.
It seems that United are the only beneficiaries of lockdowns and the top teams underperforming.
May be reading too much into this but something that I thought was quite revealing was what he said at the very start. He knew he was done at half time of the Watford game, he said to the players who wants to give this a go.. who wants to go off, and the players that did raised their hands. Checked the game, and Rashford and McTominay were off at half time. Revealing to me.
That is harsh. Without the right structure in the club even Emery failed in Arsenal. I won't judge him as a manager only based on his experience in Man Utd. Hope he will get back to coaching soon.
Ooor maybe he doesn't necessarily want to be a manager, and won't take a job where his gut feeling tells him he doesn't 100% want to take it?
He's a multi-millionaire, I'm pretty sure he can enjoy his life if he wants, instead of potentially wasting away years in a job that he wasn't fully sure about anyways, just so people like you won't make mean comments on the internet about how he believes failure is success, etc. Some of you read anything into a few words these days.
Btw, funnily enough his name came up at Bayern when they were considering sacking Tuchel immediately a few weeks ago, so just maybe they know better than you do?
Aye, that's what I said, if he had at least tried to build a decent midfield he could have gone to that stage. He didn't, so trying to take that leap without having a midfield that was capable of controlling the game was a waste of time.
Hmm but he also named Scott as one of the players who gave him 7/10 every week
Dan James was promised game-time or Dan James was given game-time because the other option was Jesse Lingard?
There's a big difference between asking a 22-year-old to play as a wide-forward (when he can be dropped at any time) and promising a guy who's just turned 17 that he's going to get significant minutes in the heart of your midfield.
It's very disappointing that we missed out on Bellingham, but I can see why any manager would have been wary of promising him significant game time (given that he also only had a single season in the Championship under his belt).
Ole is a great guy obviously and a United legend, hard not to like him. He even did that exit interview with MUTV after Watford loss and the sack, just proved how much he cares for the club.
On his time as the manager: December 2018-March 2019 (Paris) was great time to be United fan, it's true we had many easy games in that period but it was refreshing period in terms of positive vibes around the team after Mourinho got sacked. However, already in March results and performances started to look worse (Arsenal, Wolves x2, Watford win). In late March club decided to offer Ole a contract to become permanent manager and I thought back then that they should've waited another 15-30 days as it looked like that honey moon period was ending. Felt like they rushed and thought it was easiest decision they could make to please the fans (Rio Ferdinand was also bit of a clown with that "United are back" comments after PSG), instead of getting a new manager.
2019/20 was basically a poor season until Bruno came in and turned it around, yes our results improved to an extent in December/January even before Bruno but he was the drive behind our 3rd place finish (we also finished 3rd with only 66 points, that amount of points will very rarely get you 3rd place. Also Chelsea had Lampard and Leicester fecked up). So that was a good season only in 2nd part of it and we had easy opposition in top 4 race.
2020/21 was actually strong league season, though again none of the rivals were good, even City who won the league weren't great until January/February. Our undefeated run away from home was impressive, though I don't think it was sustainable making those comebacks all the time as we did and that was always to end at some point. Team basically only played well in 2nd halves (if I remember correctly). For me tactical problems showed in that season. I was pissed off with how we played against Roma in EL semis, both in Manchester and then in Rome. Yeah it was a fun comeback but you just knew that a team looking to be top side can't play that way. Then EL final. If we won that, Ole then deserved another half a year that he got. But when we lost, that's when we could've parted ways. Just like Mourinho stayed 6 months longer than he should've after it was clear in July 2018 that his relationship with board is really bad. You could say perhaps same thing about LvG and his tenure ending 6 months too late.
2021/22 summer we failed to sign a midfielder and that cost him. Wolves outplayed us as we only had Fred as defensive midfielder and it was obvious we'd struggle if we don't sign anyone in that area until the end of August. We turned to Ronaldo as we panicked he'd go to City and I won't deny his return looked dreamy, especially vs Newcastle. Also don't think it was Ronaldo's arrival that cost Ole his job, problems where there. Maybe it accelerated things and made us look worse and lose heavily to Leicester, City, Liverpool, Watford etc. but seems to me like an excuse.
I will watch this Overlap episode as soon as I find time and I appreciate what Ole did both as a player and manager for us, but seems like people are now making his whole tenure look better than it was because of our current problems.
Ole's situation is similar to De Gea's imo. Both still out of job after leaving United. You could say we haven't replaced them properly but that doesn't mean that they should've stayed.
On his time as the manager: December 2018-March 2019 (Paris) was great time to be United fan, it's true we had many easy games in that period but it was refreshing period in terms of positive vibes around the team after Mourinho got sacked. However, already in March results and performances started to look worse (Arsenal, Wolves x2, Watford win). In late March club decided to offer Ole a contract to become permanent manager and I thought back then that they should've waited another 15-30 days as it looked like that honey moon period was ending. Felt like they rushed and thought it was easiest decision they could make to please the fans (Rio Ferdinand was also bit of a clown with that "United are back" comments after PSG), instead of getting a new manager.
2019/20 was basically a poor season until Bruno came in and turned it around, yes our results improved to an extent in December/January even before Bruno but he was the drive behind our 3rd place finish (we also finished 3rd with only 66 points, that amount of points will very rarely get you 3rd place. Also Chelsea had Lampard and Leicester fecked up). So that was a good season only in 2nd part of it and we had easy opposition in top 4 race.
2020/21 was actually strong league season, though again none of the rivals were good, even City who won the league weren't great until January/February. Our undefeated run away from home was impressive, though I don't think it was sustainable making those comebacks all the time as we did and that was always to end at some point. Team basically only played well in 2nd halves (if I remember correctly). For me tactical problems showed in that season. I was pissed off with how we played against Roma in EL semis, both in Manchester and then in Rome. Yeah it was a fun comeback but you just knew that a team looking to be top side can't play that way. Then EL final. If we won that, Ole then deserved another half a year that he got. But when we lost, that's when we could've parted ways. Just like Mourinho stayed 6 months longer than he should've after it was clear in July 2018 that his relationship with board is really bad. You could say perhaps same thing about LvG and his tenure ending 6 months too late.
2021/22 summer we failed to sign a midfielder and that cost him. Wolves outplayed us as we only had Fred as defensive midfielder and it was obvious we'd struggle if we don't sign anyone in that area until the end of August. We turned to Ronaldo as we panicked he'd go to City and I won't deny his return looked dreamy, especially vs Newcastle. Also don't think it was Ronaldo's arrival that cost Ole his job, problems where there. Maybe it accelerated things and made us look worse and lose heavily to Leicester, City, Liverpool, Watford etc. but seems to me like an excuse.
I will watch this Overlap episode as soon as I find time and I appreciate what Ole did both as a player and manager for us, but seems like people are now making his whole tenure look better than it was because of our current problems.
Ole's situation is similar to De Gea's imo. Both still out of job after leaving United. You could say we haven't replaced them properly but that doesn't mean that they should've stayed.
Yeah, absolute pisser that. Would have been incredible.
Do we take every random story that pops in the press as gospel? Cmon. Ole to Bayern was never, ever going to happen. Same as Southgate to us. Football journalists will literally write anything.
That is quite an exaggeration. He didn't insinuate that Bellingham could not be guaranteed minutes because of McFred.
Didn’t need to insinuate it. It’s the obvious conclusion to come to. As a previous poster said. He described Mctominay and Fred as 7/10 performers every week. If he believed that, it stands to reason he didn’t think that was an area that needed improving and it makes perfect sense because in his three years here he didn’t sign a central midfield player.
Yeah Jesse lingard wasn’t a right winger and didn’t play right wing for United so not sure what relevance that has.
As I’ve said our midfield options were poor during Ole’s reign so you could easily say Bellingham should have been given a chance “because the other option is mcfred”.
Age is negligible in this comparison to be frank. Dan James was 21 but that was his first full year as a first team player. He wasn’t getting the rave reviews Bellingham was getting in the championship yet ole signed him and played him regularly. Ole also openly stated on overlap Bellingham was more mature than any player his age he’d ever encountered in his career. So he obviously felt Bellingham was above his years so again why not trust him in your squad.
Old said in his 3rd season he wanted to transition United from counter attack to a dominant team but How were United ever going to be a possession based team with Fred, MC Tominnay and Bruno as the midfield and Dan James and Rashford on the wings? 
It's the same problem ten Hag is facing due to buying Casemiro, who doesn't have the legs to play as an 8. Add Bruno in the 8/10 role and its severely unbalanced.
Hopefully one of the issues fixed this summer.
It's like fans have dementia or something. Teams ran through us regularly with Fred.
We simply couldn't have Fred and Bruno in the same team, they both pressed like dogs but it left gaps down the side and behind them, which teams exploited and it cost us.
We also struggled retaining possession as Fred just wasn't that good on the ball.