The Overlap - Ole Gunnar Solskjaer

[lsd]

He basically did. He said he asked them if you want to come of raise your hand so he made changes based on that.

When you have to put basically into that statement you know it's a lie but you just want to push your agenda.

He has clearly said he subbed Rashford as he was injured and Mctominey for tactical reasons. They did not put their hands up and all to come off.

 

[Eriku]

I lose respect for Ole every time he speaks. All he does is throw others under the bus to save face, he's a pure snake. No wonder our dressing room had a lot of backstabbing while he was here. It starts from the leadership and trickles down.

Pure snake

Hard to believe some people on here really are United fans.

 

[Chesterlestreet]

I lose respect for Ole every time he speaks. All he does is throw others under the bus to save face, he's a pure snake. No wonder our dressing room had a lot of backstabbing while he was here. It starts from the leadership and trickles down.

What the feck are you on about?

 

[Dion]

What the feck are you on about?

It's mad that someone can watch an interview where his big takeaway was "I knew it was time to try and be more than we were and I wasn't good enough" and come out with shit like this.

 

[Chesterlestreet]

Pure snake

Hard to believe some people on here really are United fans.

Spoiler: Solid Snake

Spoiler: Liquid Snake

Spoiler: Old Snake

Spoiler: Actual Snake

Spoiler: Pure Snake

 

[DJ_21]

He literally didn't.
He said two things
1) Asked who wanted to come on
2) Asked players who didn't want to play to raise their hands

From those two things he said he made changes. Any combination of those 2 statements leads directly into the third making sense and that's why it was nonsense people jumping to conclusions (especially while trying to make excuses for McTominay) when the statement itself was so vague. Only your own personal biases against the players involved could make it seem a definitive statement.

Is that not the same thing though? The players who wanted to come on would have replaced the players who didn’t want to play anymore?

 

[DJ_21]

When you have to put basically into that statement you know it's a lie but you just want to push your agenda.

He has clearly said he subbed Rashford as he was injured and Mctominey for tactical reasons. They did not put their hands up and all to come off.

They all should have got took of anyway and none of them should still be at the club now. I remember when Ole said he’d outlast the players and a lot of them wouldn’t be there the year after…

 

[Dion]

Is that not the same thing though? The players who wanted to come on would have replaced the players who didn’t want to play anymore?

Or they replaced players who were 1) playing poorly, 2) injured...

 

[Chesterlestreet]

It's mad that someone can watch an interview where his big takeaway was "I knew it was time to try and be more than we were and I wasn't good enough" and come out with shit like this.

Yeah, bizarre.

You can say what you will about Ole's managerial qualities/abilities, but to accuse him of throwing people under the bus in order to protect his reputation is...just bizarre (again).

 

[DJ_21]

Or they replaced players who were 1) playing poorly, 2) injured...

They all played poorly Either way you look at it the players were cowards and let the manager down. He even said some was in tears at half time. We really want that mentality in our team?

 

[Eriku]

Spoiler: Solid Snake

Spoiler: Liquid Snake

Spoiler: Old Snake

Spoiler: Actual Snake

Spoiler: Pure Snake

I appreciate the effort that went into that!

 

[Gator Nate]

Spoiler: Solid Snake

Spoiler: Liquid Snake

Spoiler: Old Snake

Spoiler: Actual Snake

Spoiler: Pure Snake

 

[Ludens the Red]

And yet you posted that Mitten should "wind his neck in" when presented with evidence to the contrary.

The statement was ambiguous, which is the point. When presented with an ambiguous statement that can be interpreted one of three ways (either people asked to come off, or people wanted to come on, or a combination) it's nonsense to 1) jump to the worst conclusion, especially when there's evidence that Rashford was actually injured that game and 2) then tell people to "wind their neck in" when they clarify the situation, especially when you admit yourself you had no idea how close Mitten and Solskjaer were.

Except that’s not what happened is it. Because that was my initial response to the tweet without that knowledge.

 

[Dion]

Except that’s not what happened is it. Because that was my initial response to the tweet without that knowledge.

I think you've misread the meaning of that post. The "presented with evidence to the contrary" is referring to Mitten telling people it wasn't what they thought it was with regards to people asking to come off. When that happened you immediately suggested he should wind his neck in despite the fact you didn't know anything about Mitten. This alone should have been reason enough for you to reconsider your stance without lashing out because it challenged your preconceived ideas, as the old quote Ted Lasso lifted from someone who wasn't Walt Whitman goes; "Be curious, not judgemental". Knowing what you don't know is important. There's a lesson in being open minded in there.

 

[Ludens the Red]

I think you've misread the meaning of that post. The "presented with evidence to the contrary" is referring to Mitten telling people it wasn't what they thought it was with regards to people asking to come off. When that happened you immediately suggested he should wind his neck in despite the fact you didn't know anything about Mitten. This alone should have been reason enough for you to reconsider your stance without lashing out because it challenged your preconceived ideas, as the old quote Ted Lasso lifted from someone who wasn't Walt Whitman goes; "Be curious, not judgemental". Knowing what you don't know is important. There's a lesson in being open minded in there.

As I’ve said. It’s a view and reaction shared by many because that’s the normal reaction. The tweet read as a challenge to what Ole said.
It simply isn’t a remit of mine to have knowledge of every relationship between a journalist and manager especially as mitten made no mention of it in the tweet. So please, spare me the sanctimonious tripe.

 

[Dion]

As I’ve said. It’s a view and reaction shared by many because that’s the normal reaction. The tweet read as a challenge to what Ole said.

That's not the normal reaction though, it's your reaction and the reaction of some other reactionary people. You cannot wear ignorance like a badge of pride.

It simply isn’t a remit of mine to have knowledge of every relationship between a journalist and manager especially as mitten made no mention of it in the tweet. So please, spare me the sanctimonious tripe.

Nobody said it was, but by default that automatically makes it not your remit to out of hand dismiss what a journalist is saying. So please, next time, spare us all the uninformed, toxic, reactionary dismissiveness for subjects you admit you know nothing about.

 

[Plant0x84]

The fact we have two players who burst into tears and asked to come off during a game still here, is surely the biggest thing to emerge.

[@AndyMitten] And another thing. This suggestion that players put their hands up not to play the second half at Watford is not true. They all wanted to play. Scott McTominay and Marcus Rashford were subbed. Ole’s decision. Rashford had been injured. Scott wasn’t playing well. That’s it

 

[tombombadil]

Absolutely loved the interview. Lots of fun banter and lots of insider knowledge.

Good times.

 

[Malons]

[@AndyMitten] And another thing. This suggestion that players put their hands up not to play the second half at Watford is not true. They all wanted to play. Scott McTominay and Marcus Rashford were subbed. Ole’s decision. Rashford had been injured. Scott wasn’t playing well. That’s it

Who to believe, Ole himself or a journalist those who fear they were going to be identified as being the ones in the story that they've leaked the info to?

What reason would Ole have to lie like that? Moreover, who has most motivation to lie, Ole or the usual the usual PR obsessed merchants in our dressing room?

 

[Chesterlestreet]

Oh yeah.

"The name's Solskjær."

* Presses EMP thingy. All of City's oil money vanishes from their accounts, Pep is disintegrated and replaced by Stuart Pearce. *

"Welcome to the title race."

 

[Chesterlestreet]

I appreciate the effort that went into that!

Thanks, mate.

[I apparently used an "inappropriate meme image", though. Odd warning to get, but whatever.]

 

[Plant0x84]

Who to believe, Ole himself or a journalist those who fear they were going to be identified as being the ones in the story that they've leaked the info to?

What reason would Ole have to lie like that? Moreover, who has most motivation to lie, Ole or the usual the usual PR obsessed merchants in our dressing room?

Solskjaer didn’t actually say anybody put their hands up to not play. All he said was ‘I made a couple of changes’.
People believing what they want to believe here, engineering another excuse to shit on Rashford.

 

[Dion]

Who to believe, Ole himself or a journalist those who fear they were going to be identified as being the ones in the story that they've leaked the info to?

What reason would Ole have to lie like that? Moreover, who has most motivation to lie, Ole or the usual the usual PR obsessed merchants in our dressing room?

Are you aware of who Andy Mitten is and what his relationship to Solskjaer and Rashford is? I feel like you're missing some critical information.

 

[eire-red]

I think Ole's view on the Liverpool loss at OT highlights a lot of the challenges and issues of being Man United.

I think we all felt after that summer, where we got Sancho, Varance and Ronaldo, that this was the moment to step up and challenge. But did anyone really feel confident that was the case?

There's a constant pressure to simultaneously rebuild and also challenge. That's very hard to do. Ole admitted almost using that game as a litmus test of where we were, going toe to toe with Liverpool.

It horribly backfired, and it highlights an ultimately flawed view of what we've been doing for the past decade. It's the same thing this season, the obsession with getting Top 4. What does it even mean if we're still 20 points off the ultimate champions?

We played CL football this year and were nowhere near it after finishing 3rd. We've been in and out of the CL for the last 6/7 seasons, and getting Top 4 hasn't been anything we could point to in terms of success, other than the monetary windfall that we've ultimately wasted anyway on transfers.

It's like we suffer from this weird form of imposter syndrome, whereby any poor form exposes the players as the frauds when compared to the United greats of old, and these guys sink constantly under that pressure.

I'm not advocating for "oh, it's OK to be 6th in the table" or anything like that. But I fear that this "We are Manchester United, we should win every game" mentality needs to dial down at this moment in time.

I'm confident Ineos and 'marginal gains' Brailsford ultimately see the wood from the trees here and it's realise this is a 4/5 year project and no one season or period suddenly makes us "Manchester United" again. The club and us as fans have hung our hat on short term goals far too much in the last 10 years.

 

[Grande]

I think Ole's view on the Liverpool loss at OT highlights a lot of the challenges and issues of being Man United.

I think we all felt after that summer, where we got Sancho, Varance and Ronaldo, that this was the moment to step up and challenge. But did anyone really feel confident that was the case?

There's a constant pressure to simultaneously rebuild and also challenge. That's very hard to do. Ole admitted almost using that game as a litmus test of where we were, going toe to toe with Liverpool.

It horribly backfired, and it highlights an ultimately flawed view of what we've been doing for the past decade. It's the same thing this season, the obsession with getting Top 4. What does it even mean if we're still 20 points off the ultimate champions?

We played CL football this year and were nowhere near it after finishing 3rd. We've been in and out of the CL for the last 6/7 seasons, and getting Top 4 hasn't been anything we could point to in terms of success, other than the monetary windfall that we've ultimately wasted anyway on transfers.

It's like we suffer from this weird form of imposter syndrome, whereby any poor form exposes the players as the frauds when compared to the United greats of old, and these guys sink constantly under that pressure.

I'm not advocating for "oh, it's OK to be 6th in the table" or anything like that. But I fear that this "We are Manchester United, we should win every game" mentality needs to dial down at this moment in time.

I'm confident Ineos and 'marginal gains' Brailsford ultimately see the wood from the trees here and it's realise this is a 4/5 year project and no one season or period suddenly makes us "Manchester United" again. The club and us as fans have hung our hat on short term goals far too much in the last 10 years.

I think you are probably right that the outside expectations is a brake more than a help at this point. We should remember that a lot of the fan frustration came from the suspicion that Glazers were in fact content with 4th place to the extent that they would only strengthen the team when we were outside the CL spots. The last Ome season disproved that, they were simply completely inept at owning and running a football club.

What made me enjoy the Ole period and last season, was the fact that we started to feel more like football club again, more like the United I knew (even before 1993) and I enjoyed the small steps forward without expecting us to challenge for gold necessarily. When I was a kid, my dream was that United should at least one time be within reach of the league title, winning an FA Cup was extatic, and any European cup was a dream. It was much more enjoyable watching football then than under Moyes, Van Gaal and Mourinho. Expectations are for the dressing room really, in the stands it’s more a pest, and much inferior to plain hope

 

[mintyred]

Finally watched the whole interview and it’s much better that the Rooney one.

Something that’s obvious is that Ole doesn’t have a mentality of a manager. Same as the others in the room.

He doesn’t have a good tactical understanding of the game nor does he seem to understand in depth why certain things didn’t work. He chalks a lot up to “it just didn’t work out”

One thing that stood out was that he actually showed he had a good understanding of Sancho’s game, yet he never played in a way to utilise it.

Ole clearly does have a skillset it’s just not management.

 

[maybethisyear]

If any is in Ireland or knows any Irish.... Ole is doing an event in the Helix Dublin, tomorrow night (Thursday). Still some tickets available!

 

[horsechoker]

If any is in Ireland or knows any Irish.... Ole is doing an event in the Helix Dublin, tomorrow night (Thursday). Still some tickets available!

Are they doing it in Gaeilge then?

 

[MancunianAngels]

Finally watched the whole interview and it’s much better that the Rooney one.

Something that’s obvious is that Ole doesn’t have a mentality of a manager. Same as the others in the room.

He doesn’t have a good tactical understanding of the game nor does he seem to understand in depth why certain things didn’t work. He chalks a lot up to “it just didn’t work out”

One thing that stood out was that he actually showed he had a good understanding of Sancho’s game, yet he never played in a way to utilise it.

Ole clearly does have a skillset it’s just not management.

He clearly has a good understanding of the game, he's just found himself with almost impossible jobs in England. Cardiff City were in the middle of a massive civil war when he took over because of the owners previous decision to change kit colour.

I'd maintain that January 2020 - May 2021, we were actually pretty good for the majority of games and we weren't a million miles from challenging. Given the issues post Fergie, two successive top 4 finishes was decent going. We were regularly beating the "bigger" teams in that time.

There was three games that probably cost him cumulatively in the end though.
The 2020 FA Cup semi final against Chelsea
The 2021 League Cup semi final against City
The 2021 Europa League final against Villareal

Had he won at least one of those and gone onto win at least one trophy, I genuinely think the wider narrative about him would have changed. Everytime, it looked like he/we was moving in a positive direction, something went wrong. All the three games mentioned above were winnable (even City, we'd proven we could beat them on a fairly regular basis) and the fact we didn't, proved he probably wasn't up to the job more than the Liverpool/Watford games did.

The other issue was Ronaldo. His introduction was a massive mistake. Whether he had any direct say on that would be interesting to find our one day.

 

[golden_blunder]

If any is in Ireland or knows any Irish.... Ole is doing an event in the Helix Dublin, tomorrow night (Thursday). Still some tickets available!

I’m going to the Cantona one at the Helix

 

[mintyred]

He clearly has a good understanding of the game, he's just found himself with almost impossible jobs in England. Cardiff City were in the middle of a massive civil war when he took over because of the owners previous decision to change kit colour.

I'd maintain that January 2020 - May 2021, we were actually pretty good for the majority of games and we weren't a million miles from challenging. Given the issues post Fergie, two successive top 4 finishes was decent going. We were regularly beating the "bigger" teams in that time.

There was three games that probably cost him cumulatively in the end though.
The 2020 FA Cup semi final against Chelsea
The 2021 League Cup semi final against City
The 2021 Europa League final against Villareal

Had he won at least one of those and gone onto win at least one trophy, I genuinely think the wider narrative about him would have changed. Everytime, it looked like he/we was moving in a positive direction, something went wrong. All the three games mentioned above were winnable (even City, we'd proven we could beat them on a fairly regular basis) and the fact we didn't, proved he probably wasn't up to the job more than the Liverpool/Watford games did.

The other issue was Ronaldo. His introduction was a massive mistake. Whether he had any direct say on that would be interesting to find our one day.

Sounds like you are just scraping the bottom of the barrel for excuses. “If” but he didn’t. If a non league manager won more games he could be a prem manager, but he doesn’t that why he’s non league.

He doesn’t have any understanding of management and played counter attacking football as it’s the safest thing to do. Sit back and defend and hope talented players bail you out.

Once you get sacked… blame those players and take no accountability.

People only defend him because he’s a legend and they keep trying to deflect onto Ronaldo who actually carried him ironically. Without him we’d never have made it out the group or won so many games in that season.

Terrible manager and a weak self serving man. Don’t reply to me anymore about this clown. He brought our club to its knees and is still seen as a good guy.

It’s crazy the lack of self awareness this fanbase has at times. You’re lying about something we all suffered through to protect a grown man who has shown he has no interest in protecting others.

Edit: I said don’t reply and people keep replying. They’re as good at reading as ole is at management.

 

[Grande]

Sounds like you are just scraping the bottom of the barrel for excuses. “If” but he didn’t. If a non league manager won more games he could be a prem manager, but he doesn’t that why he’s non league.

He doesn’t have any understanding of management and played counter attacking football as it’s the safest thing to do.

People only defend him because he’s a legend and they keep trying to deflect onto Ronaldo who actually carried him ironically. Without him we’d never have made it out the group or won so many games in that season.

Terrible manager and a weak self serving man. Don’t reply to me anymore about this clown. He brought our club to its knees and is still seen as a good guy.

Your analysis is shallow, superficial and black/white. Very emotional too it seems on the contemptuous side, based on the last paragraph.

Sying that 2nd, 3rd place and reaching Europa league finals, semifinals and CL QF is ‘bringing the club to it’s knees’ looking at the last decade’s results, and throwing in non league football for comparison, makes it all read like scraping a smear campaign barrell. It’s three years back, time to get over the worst emotional turmoil of it?

 

[Rojofiam]

Sounds like you are just scraping the bottom of the barrel for excuses. “If” but he didn’t. If a non league manager won more games he could be a prem manager, but he doesn’t that why he’s non league.

He doesn’t have any understanding of management and played counter attacking football as it’s the safest thing to do.

People only defend him because he’s a legend and they keep trying to deflect onto Ronaldo who actually carried him ironically. Without him we’d never have made it out the group or won so many games in that season.

Terrible manager and a weak self serving man. Don’t reply to me anymore about this clown. He brought our club to its knees and is still seen as a good guy.

It's you that doesn't know anything about tactics or management, not Ole.

 

[tenpoless]

What he did was literally what Ten Hag is doing now. All managers abandoned whatever pholisophy they had and went end to end football, whatever that means.

 

[Highfather_24]

One thing that stood out was that he actually showed he had a good understanding of Sancho’s game, yet he never played in a way to utilise it.

What did he say about Sancho? Must have missed it.

 

[Zlatan 7]

Sounds like you are just scraping the bottom of the barrel for excuses. “If” but he didn’t. If a non league manager won more games he could be a prem manager, but he doesn’t that why he’s non league.

He doesn’t have any understanding of management and played counter attacking football as it’s the safest thing to do.

People only defend him because he’s a legend and they keep trying to deflect onto Ronaldo who actually carried him ironically. Without him we’d never have made it out the group or won so many games in that season.

Terrible manager and a weak self serving man. Don’t reply to me anymore about this clown. He brought our club to its knees and is still seen as a good guy.

 

[Sir Marcus]

He clearly has a good understanding of the game, he's just found himself with almost impossible jobs in England. Cardiff City were in the middle of a massive civil war when he took over because of the owners previous decision to change kit colour.

I'd maintain that January 2020 - May 2021, we were actually pretty good for the majority of games and we weren't a million miles from challenging. Given the issues post Fergie, two successive top 4 finishes was decent going. We were regularly beating the "bigger" teams in that time.

There was three games that probably cost him cumulatively in the end though.
The 2020 FA Cup semi final against Chelsea
The 2021 League Cup semi final against City
The 2021 Europa League final against Villareal

Had he won at least one of those and gone onto win at least one trophy, I genuinely think the wider narrative about him would have changed. Everytime, it looked like he/we was moving in a positive direction, something went wrong. All the three games mentioned above were winnable (even City, we'd proven we could beat them on a fairly regular basis) and the fact we didn't, proved he probably wasn't up to the job more than the Liverpool/Watford games did.

The other issue was Ronaldo. His introduction was a massive mistake. Whether he had any direct say on that would be interesting to find our one day.

DDG was terrible in those games too, except the final.

 

[Livvie]

I'll reply via you instead, seeing as he's demanded no-one should reply - not sure he has grasped the concept of a forum

Things kind of fell apart at the end, but no-one can tell me that things haven't been as bad, or worse, over the past couple of years. At least under Ole we had some semblance of the Fergie era, with football that was entertaining and not the defensive, drab dross we've been served up since.

 

[Blood Mage]

I wish I could take back some of the unkind things I said about him at the time, the Ten Hag era has given me a new appreciation for the football Ole served up.

 

[DJ_21]

I wish I could take back some of the unkind things I said about him at the time, the Ten Hag era has given me a new appreciation for the football Ole served up.

We definitely played the most entertaining football under Ole since fergie. The only thing missing from Ole time managing us was the trophies. But he always got us to the final or close. I think he finishes top 4 with the team ETH now has though.