I don't care about formations, that's dictated by availability of players. I look at the approach to the game, the movement of players and the positions they occupy. All these things give a far more clear view of the intention of the tactics. Beating big teams in one off games means nothing. By your logic, dropping points to "poorer" managers makes him a poor manager, no? At the end of the day he didn't even bring us within the same stratosphere as City and Liverpool in terms of points, the comparison is just not there between Ole and the top managers. There's no proof at all that he is or could be at their level.
I agree, James probably is a LW. He's still been poor there whenever he plays and anybody with eyes can see he's currently nowhere near the standard we expect. Not only that, but technically he is really far behind in aspects that are required of a winger for us. The problem for me is that he's so far away that I don't think he can be coached to the required level. I could find 18 year olds with better technique than him. Greenwood for a start. If you think differently then good for you, we'll see who is right.
Whilst on paper our defensive record looked good last season, we played a very negative way for the most part. The drop back and counter was relied on heavily, with Fred and McTominay shielding the defence in a lot of games. So yes, statistically we did look good, but we had to play a certain way to achieve that. Jose did something similar with a worse defence only a couple of years earlier for us.
Of course I enjoy the way we create goals if they're good. Every team scores good goals, but that doesn't mean they play great football. My overriding opinion is that, more often than not, we look laboured and one dimensional in attack. There are many aspects to our attacking play which don't work for me and you can obviously say we aren't a well drilled team in comparison with other teams in our league. Even teams lower down the table, who play a more aggressive and expansive style of football. Let's not forget, this is what many fans and people around the club were telling us we would get by sacking Jose and hiring Ole. Whilst I agree that we do need more depth on the right, Ole still has Greenwood to play there. Even though he is young, he is a top level talent that performs way beyond his years. So to make out he is completely hamstrung there is daft. Plus he has decided to play James there too. I don't know where you are getting the idea that I don't watch games from, especially when I'm not alone in my opinions. I'm certainly not following what others are saying, I said most of this before a lot of them did anyway as I could see the issues straight away under Ole. But perhaps you instead need to ask whether me and all these other people are right and you are not? For what it's worth, I have a season ticket and go home and away watching United. Do you? Don't come out with idiotic statements about whether I watch games, just because I don't share your beliefs, when not many others do either.
I heard the players say they were happy under Moyes, LVG and Jose. I don't buy into everything they say but judge them based on what I see on the pitch. For somebody that questions how much football I watch, you sure do base most of your opinions on statistics and soundbites. I don't buy into these constant fitness excuses from Solskjaer. This has been going on for a long time now and there is more to it than fitness. The players walk around the pitch half of the time or just look completely lost. Either A) Solskjaer is terrible at ensuring his players are fit, or B) He isn't motivating them to fight on the pitch. I read quotes from our players saying that they gave up when we got a player sent off vs Spurs. What is that all about? Did you ever see that happen under Ferguson, a true motivator? Something is 100% off in this aspect. Unless the players have just lowered their standards like some of our fans seemingly have and think this is acceptable. Whichever way you look at it, Solskjaer is responsible.
In game management is obviously a problem too. The late substitutions (Ighalo on for 2 minutes vs Sevilla) when clearly nothing is working, or watching a team continuously exploit an issue over and over and over before they finally score or nearly score. Case in point, against Brighton, they attacked a lot through central areas and down our left at times, pulling our defence across the pitch. Their left back was jogging into our area completely free on numerous occasions and they should have scored from the opportunities. Eventually he hit the post, after being picked out completely unopposed. A good manager would spot this and prevent it from happening. Another example from recently is how Spurs did the same again. Shaw had obviously been told to stick to Lamela and Jose saw this. He asked Lamela to drag Shaw inside and have runners exploit our left hand side. Carnage ensued. Where was the in game management there? The problem got solved eventually...when the ref blew for full time. So you might try and swerve this point, without any statistics to lean on, but the problem is clear and obvious. You need to start actually watching games.
Your point about his CV is absolutely laughable. By this stage I'm thinking you are a failed politician or Solskjaer's mum. I made that point as another example as to why he hasn't proven himself that he can be good enough to take us to winning trophies. It wasn't a point made in isolation, but it is a factual statement. You can't point to anything on his CV and make a case for him being good enough to beat Klopp, Guardiola etc to the PL trophy. The same in the CL. He has managed at such a low level it isn't even comparable. Winning a one off game doesn't mean he can compete with the best, tactically. It means his tactics, sit back and counter, work better against teams that attack ie City, Liverpool etc. That is exactly what that tactic is designed for. If he could compete with them tactically, then he would have the diversity to overcome more teams and finish with more than 66 points, closer to these teams at the end of the season. By your logic, Aston Villa have proven that they can compete to win the PL and CL because they smashed Liverpool, which is obviously a complete fantasy.