Not a top club
The Overlap - Ole Gunnar Solskjaer
- Thread starter UnitedSofa
- Start date
Is that seriously your question
Yes. According to Ronaldo at least.
Well the story goes that Sir Alex didn't get to spend much time with Bellingham thanks to Murtough...
That was the rumour. It always seemed like it was more a created rumour to help ronaldo get a deal and/or maybe make it look like there was competition for his signing to make United look good.
But if you look beyond that, I can’t see how Ronaldo would fit into a Pep team that is about the team , not the individual.
Ronaldo seems completely the opposite kind of character to the type Pep goes for, especially nearing the end of their career.
Pep did apparently try to sign him though, which would contradict what you're saying.
A fair portion of the fanbase was against the signing, and for obvious reasons, and we were proved right (although I did get caught up in the sentimentality of it).
Ole is perfectly entitled in saying 'at the time I thought it was the right decision, but in hindsight it wasn't' and I'd agree with him. The way he's put some unnecessary spin on it "For me, it was the right decision, but it didn't turn out to be the right decision." doesn't make any sense. Because it didn't turn out to be the right decision for him given it cost him his job.
No I didn't watch it, I'm reacting to the tweet (also I'm a pro-Ole guy, and this isn't a subreddit).
Agree, see above.
Disagree, see above.
If he'd have signed Rice instead of Ronaldo (which I said at the time) he'd probably still be here.
Ole what a guy.
what a guy.Yeah but... you're not Pep
Nah, I seriously doubt he would.
That scouse clown has a lot to answer for
If you look at just Premier League Games then you get the following:
Manager | Win % | Loss % | CS | Games | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Pts Per Game |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Jose | 53.76% | 18.28% | 38 | 93 | 50 | 26 | 17 | 151 | 86 | +65 | 176 | 1.9 |
Ten Hag | 56.92% | 30.77% | 24 | 65 | 37 | 8 | 20 | 95 | 82 | +13 | 119 | 1.8 |
LVG | 51.32% | 23.68% | 29 | 76 | 39 | 19 | 18 | 111 | 72 | +39 | 136 | 1.8 |
Ole | 52.58% | 19.59% | 31 | 97 | 51 | 27 | 19 | 175 | 105 | +70 | 180 | 1.9 |
It's actually pretty close between Jose and Ole. The big difference is that we scored more often under Ole but also conceded more. It's also interesting to see how similar all four of our Managers have been with Points per Game.
He mentioned some of the guys were in tears, (knowing Ole was getting sacked?) so probably not in the state of mind to continue playing. Was honestly surprised that it was McTominay, but Ole was the one that made him a starter I guess.
No. You simply can't afford to have two outfield players in the starting line-up doing zero defensive work, pulling away from (all) challenges and offering feck all until the ball reaches the final third. It's a "shoot myself in the foot" situation you force on yourself, and it can turn hilariously bad (it did, actually) if there aren't enough nuances already embedded in your game plan to at least help you in your efforts to make something out of it. Since the club had already been championing Rashford to assume a similar role, going after Ronaldo's signature was an excessive Hollywood signing. Did Solskjaer, Woodward etc. even wonder why Juventus were glad to see the back of him? At that stage of his career, the quotient of his end product divided by the tactical sacrifices his game demands would never give you a better team. Not at the already dominant Juventus, most certainly not at the struggling United. Sancho was another bad mistake, but what you ask is basically another fruitless who should we sign to "unlock" x, y, z player question. No one, it's bad in its design.
The PPG is definitely interesting, and I'm surprised they're so close in all honesty (albeit over different sample sizes).
Ole could certainly get us scoring at times, and at least could provide some form of entertainment.
How do we know this?
Are you not dubious of anything said publicly? Maybe it’s just me but I take most things said as possibly true or possibly said for a reason that’s nothing to do with clarity.
There’s nothing in Peps managerial career that suggests a character and player that old would be one he wants. I mean he got rid of Yaya, it’s not like Ronaldo is low maintenance.
Looking at this, Ole is the best PL manager overall. There's practically no difference between him and Mourinho, but I find scoring goals more important/impressive than defending well so Ole edges it for me. Mourinho (and Van Gaal) were also seriously helped by De Gea, who was past his best when Ole took over.
And Ten Hag is arguably the worst!
Last edited:
This program would be so much better if Neville was not allowed to laugh.
Maybe I am but I was just f**king with United fans when I said I wanted Ronaldo, like when I said I wanted Sanchez. Mad how both them turned out, they don’t call me Pep “Trojan horse” Guardiola for no reason
No, I'm not dubious of things both CR7 and Pep have said on public record. Its as close as one can get to what transpired. Unless you think both are lying of course.
The main takeaway for me is the confirmation from Ole that this pattern many fans have noticed whereby we tear down any half-decent platform we build is basically due to pride, vanity and an unhealthy obsession with Manchester City amongst our executive leadership team.
If we had just continued to slowly build under OGS, playing relatively basic football and buying "best of British" and a smattering of young talents from overseas, I am convinced we would have been in a much, much better position that we are right now.
As usual, we tried to run before we could walk. Ole talks about "taking it" to Liverpool and City for no other reason that "we're Man Utd". We need to get over that mindset and fast. Look inward and focus on our own club and not what everybody else is doing all the time.
If we had just continued to slowly build under OGS, playing relatively basic football and buying "best of British" and a smattering of young talents from overseas, I am convinced we would have been in a much, much better position that we are right now.
As usual, we tried to run before we could walk. Ole talks about "taking it" to Liverpool and City for no other reason that "we're Man Utd". We need to get over that mindset and fast. Look inward and focus on our own club and not what everybody else is doing all the time.
The thing with Ole is that we actually went on fairly long and decent runs of form in the League. The problem was we'd then go through a sticky period of form that would result in us dropping away from a potential title challenge. But we were at least entertaining. The sample size can't really be helped. The other stats that you were referring too shared the same sample size (The first 65 PL Games of each Manager), those stats showed Jose in a better light.
Think the Haaland thing is overblown personally. Like Bellingham, he seems like someone who's had his career mapped out from day one. No guarantees he would have joined.
Still gutted we couldn't get over the line against Villarreal. Think Ole deserved at least one trophy. Even the year before, both the FA Cup and Europa League were very winnable. That period from Project Restart to the EL final is the most consistent we've been since Fergie imo. Felt like we were genuinely making progress as a club.
Still gutted we couldn't get over the line against Villarreal. Think Ole deserved at least one trophy. Even the year before, both the FA Cup and Europa League were very winnable. That period from Project Restart to the EL final is the most consistent we've been since Fergie imo. Felt like we were genuinely making progress as a club.
Looking at this, Ole is the best PL manager overall. There's practically no difference between the him and Mourinho, but I find scoring goals more important/impressive than defending well so Ole edges it for me. Mourinho (and Van Gaal) were also seriously helped by De Gea, who was past his best when Ole took over.
And Ten Hag is arguably the worst!
Something I hadn't noticed before until just now is how under Jose we conceded 86 goals, Ten Hag is already on 82 goals conceded and he's managed 28 games less. Which is even more bizarre given Ten Hag's had 24 clean sheets. But that's what you get for having a 30% loss rate I guess.
It’s more I look at motive and reason. I don’t see ronaldo being a pep player , just doesn’t fit the kind of player he signs in any measure, particularly on a downward trajectory.
We know why Ronaldo would say it, he doesn’t need an invitation to big himself up and we’ve seen how his ego plays out when he’s told he maybe not as important as he thinks.
Does Pep confirm all players city didn’t sign ? Maybe, I don’t know. In terms of suggesting city might have been in for him , well I don’t see any downside to him saying it. No blowback on him and if Ronaldo does really well he can say “we tried”.
I never take what’s said at face value if it doesn’t correlate with what looks more probable. I can’t understand why city would go for ronaldo for any reason other then trolling United (like Tevez). But they are so far ahead of us theyd be doing themselves a danger to taking on such a character as ronaldo.
I’d be shocked if it’s true cause it’s completely against how city has been run while Pep is there
Wild that we've scored fewer with Ten Hag than with Van Gaal
Doubt Rice would've joined us
And I don't care if Ole wanted Ronaldo, that was disaster signing. none of our front 3 wanted to defend at all.
And I don't care if Ole wanted Ronaldo, that was disaster signing. none of our front 3 wanted to defend at all.
We’ve not had a fit decent striker for most of ETH reign.
Like, let’s park ETH for a moment. But we still have Martial, Weghorst (or another cheap alternative) and/or Hoijland. Our best striker had a tantrum when asked to work harder and made a show of himself in an interview. Ronaldo reminded me of my sister, she’s a knightmare!!!
And our our most consistent goal scorer from last season is having some sort of personal episode where his form has collapsed.
Whether another manager could compensate for this is debatable and even if you think they could, there isn’t alot of goals in the attacking players fit, available or not having some sort of breakdown with us or in their relationship or heading back to Germany.
My favourite episode. Ole gets it, what a man. Shame how it worked out. I would have him back as interim if they do decide to pull the trigger, but I assume Ten Hag will survive until the end of the season.
My bigger worry, when he was a manager was the fact that every time when we had something to fight for, and this is in his second and third year, we seemed to crumble under the pressure, and the team looked nowhere near good enough on the tactical side of things. It just did not look right on the pitch.
I hope that his time in United has helped him and that he won't be making some of the mistakes he did at United. It's clear he wants back into management.
We went on decent runs, but tbh, I just never felt like it looked remotely sustainable. Those stats though don't paint ETH in a good light whatsoever.
The massive difference of course being its Ronaldo, and Pep, despite being seen as a "sum is greater than the parts" type manager, is also aware of the calibre of player Ronaldo was. Remember, this is immediately after Aguero left and before Haaland was on the radar, so he needed a goal scorer. CR7 managed 24 goals for us that year, and its not outside the realm of possibility he would've gotten 30 with the quality he would've been surrounded by at City, especially when you consider De Bruyne was their leading scorer the year before.
Great session, I still feel bad for Ole and like he says it was not like Ragnick improved, but he is a top legend and always will be
Ole is such a gentleman. When someone has done good or well, he names names. When someone is doing poorly, he describes the category or group. They know who they are, he knows who they are, and he only wants us to know that someone in there was like that. Yeah, we'd love the names, but Ole isn't going to do that.
Not sure I agree with that. EtH only needs to win 1 in 2 games up until he has the same number of games as Ole and Mou to record the same number of wins as them. That's a pretty impressive (in that select group) win ratio, and over the course of the season, that's what's going to give you the highest tally of points.Looking at this, Ole is the best PL manager overall. There's practically no difference between him and Mourinho, but I find scoring goals more important/impressive than defending well so Ole edges it for me. Mourinho (and Van Gaal) were also seriously helped by De Gea, who was past his best when Ole took over.
And Ten Hag is arguably the worst!
I won't mention anything about the goals scored or goals conceded, however...
You mean that part where Ole goes on to say, he wanted a minutes guarantee?
Some of you get so defensive it’d be cute if it wasn’t so peculiar. Now calm down & have a cuppa.
Even Keane was laughing at the guys weird infatuation with Fred.
Similar to above bar the cuppa, seeing as you addressed the post instead of going for the poster.
When he mentioned not promising him minutes then went on to eulogise about Fred that pretty much sums the situation up for me.
The post from me was more flippant, I actually enjoyed the preamble part where they ate & the interview overall but basically admitting not promising Bellingham minutes then talk up Fred’s ‘legs’ is exactly why as nice as he is, he’ll never be the guy for a club like United.
I’m not some late adopter of this stance on Bellingham either, I’ve been saying this since going this forum & long before. I get some wrong though [see the Antony announcement thread
].