We’ll win the Champions League this season

[smi11ie]

If another big club like PSG, Bayern, Real, Barcelona, etc got knocked out in the group stage 2 years running the manager would get canned. There are expectations at large clubs to be successful and every manager knows this. I think Ole will keep his job if this happens although I am not sure he should. He needs to get through the group stage and advance to the next round.

Ole has done well domestically to a point. He needs to prove himself in Europe. He also needs to keep it simple and stop messing the team up during the game. There was no reason to change formation against young boys, he could have stuck to a 423 and stayed compact with quick counters. I honestly don't know what he is doing at times.

I want Ole to succeed, I really do, but I have doubts about his intelligence.

 

[Swordsman]

I don’t give a shit about being proven right. I wanna see us win trophies & the last 3 years have made me believe Ole isn’t the man to do it. I’d be happy with a fecking Carling cup & 4th place at this point. Manchester United can’t be going 5 seasons without winning a trophy. He must win one this season or walk.

Mark my words. He won't walk/ sacked as long as United is getting top 4 every season. The Glazers love him to the death.

 

[Teja]

You’re extremely naive if you expect a manager with 7 losses in 11 CL games to get 3 wins & a draw against 2 teams miles better than the dross we lost to last night.

You seriously don't believe we'll qualify? I'm pretty confident we'll still top the group. 7L in 11 CL doesn't mean much, we're not playing the same caliber of teams we previously lost to. No PSGs (2W - 2L), RBLs (1W - 1L), Barcelonas (2L) etc.

We beat much better teams like Milan, Granada, Roma etc. in our EL last year.

 

[Sviken]

If another big club like PSG, Bayern, Real, Barcelona, etc got knocked out in the group stage 2 years running the manager would get canned. There are expectations at large clubs to be successful and every manager knows this. I think Ole will keep his job if this happens although I am not sure he should. He needs to get through the group stage and advance to the next round.

Ole has done well domestically to a point. He needs to prove himself in Europe. He also needs to keep it simple and stop messing the team up during the game. There was no reason to change formation against young boys, he could have stuck to a 423 and stayed compact with quick counters. I honestly don't know what he is doing at times.

I want Ole to succeed, I really do, but I have doubts about his intelligence.

This club is being run on the "happy to be here" ideology for a long time now, unfortunately. We don't have that mentality of a big club that would make us successful. Too much success under SAF has made us complacent. As well as owners who don't give the slightest feck about the club doesn't help much either. Unless things change, I can see us pulling a Liverpool and going on a very long and dry spell that would eventually be broken by some genius manager akin to Klopp that we lucked out on.

You seriously don't believe we'll qualify? I'm pretty confident we'll still top the group. 7L in 11 CL doesn't mean much, we're not playing the same caliber of teams we previously lost to. No PSGs (2W - 2L), RBLs (1W - 1L), Barcelonas (2L) etc.

With Ole? It's 50-50 on whether we'll qualify as it stands. Last year we had that group in the bag and we bottled it completely. You can never be too sure about CL, especially with a manager who is clearly out of his depth. And no, we shouldn't have lost to that Barcelona, nor to Leipzig.

 

[mu4c_20le]

Well SAF also had experienced getting crashed at group stage so I don't think it's fair to sack Ole just because that, especially if we're still at the top of EPL. That being said, to crash in group stage for consecutive year is definitely sackable offence, especially considering we are in relatively easy group this time around and with much better squads as well

Managers are expected to be perfect these days. Only an idiot would suggest sacking him right now.

 

[Teja]

With Ole? It's 50-50 on whether we'll qualify as it stands. Last year we had that group in the bag and we bottled it completely. You can never be too sure about CL, especially with a manager who is clearly out of his depth. And no, we shouldn't have lost to that Barcelona, nor to Leipzig.

Whether we should've lost or not is sort of irrelevant - It's clear that Barcelona and RBL are way better than Villareal, Atalanta and YB. Using the losses against Barca, PSG as a reason to say we won't qualify against Villareal and Atalanta is questionable logic.

 

[Big Ben Foster]

If another big club like PSG, Bayern, Real, Barcelona, etc got knocked out in the group stage 2 years running the manager would get canned. There are expectations at large clubs to be successful and every manager knows this. I think Ole will keep his job if this happens although I am not sure he should. He needs to get through the group stage and advance to the next round.

Ole has done well domestically to a point. He needs to prove himself in Europe. He also needs to keep it simple and stop messing the team up during the game. There was no reason to change formation against young boys, he could have stuck to a 423 and stayed compact with quick counters. I honestly don't know what he is doing at times.

I want Ole to succeed, I really do, but I have doubts about his intelligence.

No manager at those clubs would even have the opportunity to get knocked out of the group stage twice. They'd be out on their ass after the first failure.

 

[MichaelRed]

Whether we should've lost or not is sort of irrelevant - It's clear that Barcelona and RBL are way better than Villareal, Atalanta and YB. Using the losses against Barca, PSG as a reason to say we won't qualify against Villareal and Atalanta is questionable logic.

By that same token is it not fair to say that if we don't qualify then he has no excuse not to be sacked?

 

[Teja]

By that same token is it not fair to say that if we don't qualify then he has no excuse not to be sacked?

Not the exact instant we fail to make it out of the group - don't think that'll achieve anything beyond just giving it to Carrick till the end of the season (which will be worse, might not even finish top four). But yeah if we're not in a title challenge until May, don't make it out of the CL group stages then yes he should be sacked at the end of the season.

 

[MichaelRed]

Not the exact instant we fail to make it out of the group - don't think that'll achieve anything beyond just giving it to Carrick till the end of the season (which will be worse, might not even finish top four). But yeah if we're not in a title challenge until May, don't make it out of the CL group stages then yes he should be sacked at the end of the season.

What if a manager such as Zidane would come? I'd rather save the season as we'd hopefully still be in FA cup, League cup, maybe Europa league and obviously Premier league. I think if Ole show that he's not capable of getting out of the group then that would really hammer it home that he's not going to win us any silverware.

 

[Teja]

What if a manager such as Zidane would come? I'd rather save the season as we'd hopefully still be in FA cup, League cup, maybe Europa league and obviously Premier league. I think if Ole show that he's not capable of getting out of the group then that would really hammer it home that he's not going to win us any silverware.

At the very least, given what he's done for us so far, I think Ole deserves to stay until the end of the season unless the league form goes catastrophically wrong.

It also gets into the who's available / better debate but I don't think Zidane would improve us massively immediately and Conte has too much baggage. The time to get on the managerial merry-go-round was last year when Nagelsmann, Poch, Tuchel all moved but we didn't (for good reason), so /shrugs.

 

[MichaelRed]

At the very least, given what he's done for us so far, I think Ole deserves to stay until the end of the season unless the league form goes catastrophically wrong.

It also gets into the who's available / better debate but I don't think Zidane would improve us massively immediately and Conte has too much baggage. The time to get on the managerial merry-go-round was last year when Nagelsmann, Poch, Tuchel all moved but we didn't (for good reason), so /shrugs.

Zidane won the CL 3 times in a row and won la liga without Ronaldo. Pretty impressive CV.

 

[VivaUnited21]

At the very least, given what he's done for us so far, I think Ole deserves to stay until the end of the season unless the league form goes catastrophically wrong.

It also gets into the who's available / better debate but I don't think Zidane would improve us massively immediately and Conte has too much baggage. The time to get on the managerial merry-go-round was last year when Nagelsmann, Poch, Tuchel all moved but we didn't (for good reason), so /shrugs.

Yeah, I agree, Stick with Ole. You're right in saying it would take something catastrophic to happen in the league, like lose 5 matches in a row, I can never see that happening. People need to relax a bit more, because it is tough managing our club, probably the toughest job in football, I'd say. I have full confidence Ole can do it, and I'll think we'll be close to the CL trophy this season, could snatch it, who knows.

 

[meamth]

Ffs, you're the most naive fan I've ever interacted with. You'd think we were doing well if we sat 17th in the table because at least we'd be comfortably outside of the relegation zone.
It was 1-0, that's literally the smallest possible lead you can have and they had created over twice as many chances as us even before AWB was sent off. That's literally the opposite of a "comfortable lead".

Yes I watched the game we were comfortable.

 

[meamth]

SAF deserved the leeway.

Ole does not. Also, SAF never crashed out 2 straight seasons.

There is simply no defense if we crashed out in the group stages 2 consecutive years. It would be a colossal disaster.

Neither did Ole. Did we fail to qualify to the next round already?

 

[Rajiztar]

I don't think ole did badly till now. He did very well from the appointment of his tenure. But now he alone spent 470 mn including the signing of Ronaldo.Now automatically pressure started to building.

Most genuinely think he has enough quality to challenge for trophies. Now of course he need to deliver. Whether he has in him will be judged at the end of the season with the trophies he won. Will see but he deserved and earned the right to lead the team in my opinion.

 

[Nep77]

Yeah we played crap football and there are things that can be and should be improved but the sack talk? We are top of the table.

 

[Norman Brownbutter]

I don't think ole did badly till now. He did very well from the appointment of his tenure. But now he alone spent 470 mn including the signing of Ronaldo.Now automatically pressure started to building.

Most genuinely think he has enough quality to challenge for trophies. Now of course he need to deliver. Whether he has in him will be judged at the end of the season with the trophies he won. Will see but he deserved and earned the right to lead the team in my opinion.

Is that including the 7 wins in 25 games run that he had after Paris?

 

[MichaelRed]

Yeah we played crap football and there are things that can be and should be improved but the sack talk? We are top of the table.

We've had the easiest run-in so far and we still were absolute crap against Saints, Wolves & we were pretty crap against Newcastle too, the late 3 goals flattered us. We won't be top after the next 4 fixtures & then I'd be willing to bet we won't get back to top spot for the rest of the season.

 

[Eddy_JukeZ]

Neither did Ole. Did we fail to qualify to the next round already?

No.

But if we somehow failed, I don't think he'd deserve the leeway.

 

[meamth]

No.

But if we somehow failed, I don't think he'd deserve the leeway.

Of course he shouldn't.

5 games to go in CL. Don't act like we already failed.

 

[Plant0x84]

No please don't use that plastic pitch as an excuse because City/Chelsea/scousers wouldn't do that I assure you

The pitch was a factor (not excuse) as it is something YB are used to and something a bit unusual for our boys. The ball will behave differently on this surface compared to a regular grass pitch. They even have to heavily water the playing surface before each half so the ball moves.

I have little to no interest in what City/Chelsea and the dippers do. We shouldn’t compare to them.

 

[Eddy_JukeZ]

Of course he shouldn't.

5 games to go in CL. Don't act like we already failed.

I did not and don't think we will either.

 

[Siorac]

We beat much better teams like Milan, Granada, Roma etc. in our EL last year.

Atalanta finished ahead of both Milan and Roma in Serie A in each of the last three seasons. They've been in poor form this season so far but there's no way last season's Milan or Roma were much better teams.

 

[NewGlory]

I feel there is a very real possibility we might finish third after a couple of promising wins at home as we fumble in the closing games to seal qualification.

Ole’s in game management has been left wanting time and time again. If he can somehow correct that in the next month, we might stand a chance of scraping through.

I’ve been a strong advocate for Ole but I’m starting to think that he might not have the ability to tactically adapt when the chips are down. I thought with Phelan, Ole’s tactical naïveté might be somewhat neutralised but I guess I was wrong.

yeah, I love him, he has done nice job with cleanup and he is a legend, but he is out of excuses. Doesn't matter what happened in the past years, he has the players now that there are no more slacks to cut. I am not to jump to conclusions, after one gamevwith red card. Maybe he gets jis shot together. But, either he advances from this group or he should be fired on the spot. Period

 

[lawliet354]

SAF deserved the leeway.

Ole does not. Also, SAF never crashed out 2 straight seasons.

There is simply no defense if we crashed out in the group stages 2 consecutive years. It would be a colossal disaster.

Yeah, that's exactly what I've said??

Managers are expected to be perfect these days. Only an idiot would suggest sacking him right now.

No they are not, they are expected not to crash in group stage for 2 consecutive seasons with relatively easy group. Sacking him right now would be idiotic for sure, there are 5 games left, lots of teams lost their opening match in group stage in the past and still managed to go through comfortably at the end

 

[lawliet354]

Enough with this argument. SAF was a manager for 30 years with far less resources than Ole currently has. Of course from time to time he would experience failure. Nobody is perfect. In those 30 years how many times did he crash out of the group stages? Twice? Ole is on path of accomplishing that in the space of not 30 but 3 years. It's an insult of the highest order to compare the GOAT manager to Ole. I don't know why you people keep doing it. It's an absolute disgrace. And your arguments are always wack and nonsensical. If you like Ole so much, just say it. It'd be more respectable rather than trying to look for similarities between him and Sir Alex.

Maybe read the latter part of my sentences and process it first before going into argument with yourself, or is it too hard to do?

 

[Schmeichel's Cartwheel]

You seriously don't believe we'll qualify? I'm pretty confident we'll still top the group. 7L in 11 CL doesn't mean much, we're not playing the same caliber of teams we previously lost to. No PSGs (2W - 2L), RBLs (1W - 1L), Barcelonas (2L) etc.

We beat much better teams like Milan, Granada, Roma etc. in our EL last year.

Like I said, I can see us beating Atalanta & YB at OT. That’s 6 points. Atalanta away, the crowd will be wild, they will be up for it & will press us to death, it’s got 3-2 defeat written all over it. We have never beaten Villarreal. It’s perfectly plausible we play out two 0-0s with them. If that happens we finish on 8 points. Is that enough?

We also have very tricky league fixtures in between the CL games. If it goes to the wire & we go to Villarreal on match day 6 needing a result, history under Ole tells me we won’t get it. I’d actually rather go into that game needing a win, because if we only need a draw Ole will invite pressure & we’ll end up losing. If you give OGS any excuse to be negative, he’ll take it. We need to attack teams. We are terribly organised at the back, hence why we never keep clean sheets. “You score 3 we’ll score 4” is honestly the best approach under this manager. Just give the best players freedom & score as many as possible, because it’s basically a given we are going to concede.

 

[Schmeichel's Cartwheel]

If another big club like PSG, Bayern, Real, Barcelona, etc got knocked out in the group stage 2 years running the manager would get canned. There are expectations at large clubs to be successful and every manager knows this. I think Ole will keep his job if this happens although I am not sure he should. He needs to get through the group stage and advance to the next round.

Ole has done well domestically to a point. He needs to prove himself in Europe. He also needs to keep it simple and stop messing the team up during the game. There was no reason to change formation against young boys, he could have stuck to a 423 and stayed compact with quick counters. I honestly don't know what he is doing at times.

I want Ole to succeed, I really do, but I have doubts about his intelligence.

They’d get sacked the moment it happened the first time.

Our fans have the most patience & lowest expectations out of any of the elite clubs in Europe. It’s a dream for Ole & the Glazers.

 

[Teja]

Zidane won the CL 3 times in a row and won la liga without Ronaldo. Pretty impressive CV.

Yep, the results speak for themselves but he took on a team that was basically world class in every single position on the pitch and had also had Ronaldo in his prime playing for him. He managed all the egos well and got them playing together as a team but I'm still not convinced he can replicate it elsewhere.

I'd much rather take a punt on someone of the Tuchel or Nagelsmann mould than legendary ex players at this point.

Atalanta finished ahead of both Milan and Roma in Serie A in each of the last three seasons. They've been in poor form this season so far but there's no way last season's Milan or Roma were much better teams.

Yup that's fair actually, I just remembered AC Milan, Inter doing well last year, didn't realize Atalanta have been up there as well. I've probably been too dismissive of Villareal and Atalanta.

 

[SirAnderson]

Yes we will. Champions of Europe and Champions of England. It will be so.

 

[Jaae]

Can you feel it?

 

[NextSeason]

There'll be people on here saying they can't enjoy the CL final win cause it's still just papering over the cracks and means Ole will stay for longer.

 

[20le_Solskjaer]

There'll be people on here saying they can't enjoy the CL final win cause it's still just papering over the cracks and means Ole will stay for longer.

Cant wait for the scenes

 

[Kaos]

There'll be people on here saying they can't enjoy the CL final win cause it's still just papering over the cracks and means Ole will stay for longer.

If we make it to the Champions League final then I will personally tattoo "Ole at the wheel" across both my nads - and I'm as Ole out as they come.

Unfortunately, its as likely as the Glazers putting their own money into the club.

 

[FatTails]

Anyone think that with a bit more attention to our tactics, we could do well in the UCL this season? It’s a knockout tournament and we don’t have to feel like we need to dominate games. Even under SAF, we were often happy to defend deep and play on the counter in the UCL, which I think suits our current players.

Something about having Ronaldo + the way we’ve come back against Villarreal and Atlanta is making the narrative about us winning the whole thing too attractive not to daydream about.

 

[amolbhatia50k]

Anyone think that with a bit more attention to our tactics, we could do well in the UCL this season? It’s a knockout tournament and we don’t have to feel like we need to dominate games. Even under SAF, we were often happy to defend deep and play on the counter in the UCL, which I think suits our current players.

Something about having Ronaldo + the way we’ve come back against Villarreal and Atlanta is making the narrative about us winning the whole thing too attractive not to daydream about.

What is doing well?

I don't think we need a bit more attention attention tactics. Rather our lack of a strong tactical foundation will be exposed by other teams who have spent years honing theirs while we've done so keeping things simple.

 

[Volumiza]

Can you feel it?

No

 

[ti vu]

Anyone think that with a bit more attention to our tactics, we could do well in the UCL this season? It’s a knockout tournament and we don’t have to feel like we need to dominate games. Even under SAF, we were often happy to defend deep and play on the counter in the UCL, which I think suits our current players.

Something about having Ronaldo + the way we’ve come back against Villarreal and Atlanta is making the narrative about us winning the whole thing too attractive not to daydream about.

Anything can happen in KO tournament, but unlike past seasons, with away goal rule abolished it's gonna difficult to play for positive result away from home, .

Also to do a Di Matteo, it would require an identity in the team so the team can auto pilot with minimal input from current under qualified manager. Chelsea was aware of it that they didn't dare to gamble further with Lampard.

With CL format nowadays, the scenario where big teams completely eliminating each other early is slim. So even with luck of draw we would tend to come up against some big teams in later rounds. Our big game record has been getting worse, so if Ole's still at the wheel then, our chance to go all the way would be extremely low.

Our first half performance was bad that made those comeback against Villarreal and Atalanta feel awesome. However, this Villarreal and Atalanta are nothing in comparison to CL regular contenders. Comeback like this is unsustainable, as seen by Liverpool game, a contender to win the CL. They are much more clinical to put away our hope for comeback; and their game controlling ability would only ensure us embarrassing ourselves further with our puny attempt to turn the tide on them.

 

[USREDEVIL]

Anything can happen in KO tournament, but unlike past seasons, with away goal rule abolished it's gonna difficult to play for draw away from home, and away goal advantage.

Also to do a Di Matteo, it would require an identity in the team so the team can auto pilot with current minimal manager input. Chelsea was aware of it that they didn't dare to gamble with Lampard.

With CL format nowadays, the scenario where big teams completely eliminating each other early is slim. So even with luck of draw we would tend to come up against some big teams in later rounds. Our big game record has been getting worse, so if Ole's still at the wheel then, our chance to go all the way would be extremely low.

Our first half performance was bad that made those comeback against Villarreal and Atalanta feel awesome. However, this Villarreal and Atalanta are nothing in comparison to CL regulars. Comeback like this is unsustainable, as seen by Liverpool game, a contender to win the CL, they are much more clinical to put away our hope for comeback; and their game controlling ability would only ensure us embarrassing ourselves further with our puny attempt to turn the tide on them.

Good post. It’s foolhardy to think we can do this with the quality of teams in play.