What went wrong this year for Ole?

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Kept too many players in the squad over the summer. Told too many untruths to squad players about their chances this season.

Kept playing players badly out of form and rushed Maguire back from injury. . Maguire, AWB, Shaw, Fred, McTominay and Bruno all should have been dropped at some point. Alienated the squad players further as a result.

No idea how to use a player he chased for 2 windows and paid £73m for. Treated VdB with disdain for no apparent reason.

Having no tactical or coaching acumen himself or in his staff to implement the forward-thinking philosophy he tried to bring through.

Still no ability to properly prepare the players to start matches on the front foot. Something that's been the same throughout his time here.

Brought in a gormless, clueless set piece coach because he was mates with McKenna. Left the tactics and coaching to two people who belong coaching 15 year olds not Prem footballers.

Taking a week holiday in the middle of a crisis.
 
We haven't been able to do some of the basics in football like keep the ball or control the game consistently especially against the top teams and in the end the same old style of play has been found out (with a boost from Fernandes).

Everybody knows you can just run through our midfield and defence now.

Desperately needed midfielders that provides balance to the team and don't make consistent mistakes - the latter being the problem with Fred and Pogba.

He needed to be more ruthless with the existing squad and plug the gaps quickly, not over multiple transfer windows. Things that Ferguson was never afraid to do with any player and position.
 
Heardy said:
With this run of form, I honestly don’t think winning the Europa would have made one bit of difference to his fate.
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My point I suppose is that this run of form might never have happened if we'd won, because the players mentality may have been a bit stronger from it. That's admittedly me reaching really, really far because obviously that's impossible to know. I feel similarly about spurs and their champions League loss though:. Perhaps if that (super harsh) penalty is not given in Liverpool's favour, Poch becomes an unsackable manager for them, as a champions League winner, and remains there to this day.
 
GazTheLegend said:
My point I suppose is that this run of form might never have happened if we'd won, because the players mentality may have been a bit stronger from it. That's admittedly me reaching really, really far because obviously that's impossible to know. I feel similarly about spurs and their champions League loss though:. Perhaps if that (super harsh) penalty is not given in Liverpool's favour, Poch becomes an unsackable manager for them, as a champions League winner, and remains there to this day.
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Fair point mate!
 
Ole's complete lack of coaching/tactical acumen finally caught up to him badly this season and exposed him as an incredibly mediocre manager. But this was a long time coming and it was easy to see that this would happen (except for the clueless board obviously). I don't think it's anything sudden that happened in the short term that led to this. It had been clear for a long time that we weren't really well coached and tactically, we seemed well behind a lot of other teams. Ole outstayed his welcome here by two years at least and should have never lasted this long. I think we all got too caught up in the initial interim success. I had my hesitation back then (I wanted us to wait till summer to decide) but I was eventually convinced by our results, so I admit that I was fooled too. But it became clear to me quickly after that it was a mistake and we kept compounding the mistake by keeping him as long as we did.
 
The point when it was over was when he said something had to give and then just swapped Pogba for Rashford and nothing else. His refusal to deviate from a system that was leaving us exposed and incapable of stringing 5 passes together was a downfall of his own making. He had to sign a DM in the summer and it could have given us more options.

Also last season Liverpool's problems, Chelsea starting with Lampard, and empty away grounds meant we finished a little higher than we should. By the end of the season we were clearly behind City, Liverpool and Chelsea but the 2nd place masked it a little. Even our points total last year would 90% of the time not be enough for 2nd.
 
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It's not a sudden thing. It's 2 years of sub-par coaching and management coming home to roost. We reached a point where the players were either no longer able or willing to carry him anymore.
Think of all the times, last season, we had to scrape wins or draws against teams who had way less quality than us but who still largely outplayed us. We finished a distant 2nd with a points total that would normally get 3rd - 5th because teams like Chelsea had Lampard, Spurs had Jose and Liverpool had injury problems.
There were definitely other factors but the staff were never good enough.
 
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acnumber9 said:
The results caught up with the performances as they were always going to. A literally unparalleled run of penalties dried up and when you often win games by the odd goal that’s a problem.
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Yes this. Law of averages, the amount of times we went behind and scraped a win or draw, couldnt keep happening. Liverpool Chelsea Arsenal Spurs all turned to shit, for one reason or another last season as well.
 
Feel like teams were more fired up this season. Also having to come back every single time was bound to come to an end
 
Getting caught up in the "United DNA" BS.

He tried to emulate SAF but seemed to ignore what made his former boss so great. He was fecking ruthless and had very little sentimentality (until his later years). Ole stuck with certain players and formations regardless of form, opponent or tactics.
 
reddevilz007 said:
Ole’s been wrong since last season. Our 2nd place finish was just luck.
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He was bad in his first season. Just after getting his permanent contract we ended the 18/19 season with this form in the final 12 games: LLWLLWLLLDDL.

The narrative by many posters that things haven't been dire until this season is just baffling. He should never have been permanently hired.
 
He was never a top level manager so it was always doomed to fail. To be honest it’s amazing it went as well as it did for so long.

the reason it went down hill so fast was just becuase of our stupid transfer activity this summer. Leaving us with a million attackers that don’t fit togther and no midfield. So everything just fell apart.
 
The main problem was that he tried to have us playing on the front foot more, especially with Ronaldo coming in, when our personnel are much better suited to sitting back and counter attacking.
 
reddevilz007 said:
Ole’s been wrong since last season. Our 2nd place finish was just luck.
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The second place finish was a red herring. Liverpool were decimated by injuries, Chelsea had their own club hero turned terrible manager and if they had Tuchel the whole season they don’t finish below us. Tottenham didn’t buy into Mou and Arsenal are rebuilding for Arteta who is still not proven. Plus Covid and empty stadiums had an effect. Our form at the end was not good and he got massively exposed in the Final. Zero rotation and running players into the ground.
 
Quite simply, for me his best ability as a manager lay in setting a team up to play counter attacking football. Its why we always played better like that and always struggled against low blocks since he got here.

with the addition of Varane, plus Ronaldo and Sancho in particular, the onus was now on us to mount a title challenge, which would require us to own games, play the ball up through the thirds to create chances in the box.

Ole needed to evolve his coaching methods and failed. You can see this season he has tried to change something tactically and its a shit show. Huge regression on last season, poor shape off the ball, players look confused, McFred werent replaced and sabotage possession football. Theres other subplots but in my opinion thats the main catastrophe. He cant coach the football we need to play with the squad we now have.
 
hurricane thunderclap said:
Just bad luck really , he was close,very close. A few more things on the training ground and it would have been alright.
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Very close to what exactly.
Nothing to do with luck.
It was everything to do with his own limitations. Ultimately, he was found out. And found wanting.
 
It was never right in the first place. But since January 2020 he's had a get out of jail free card in his hand (Bruno Fernandez's), but he managed to completely nullify it by trying to fit him in with Ronaldo.
 
The constant McFred picking with that damn 424 formation…worked alright last year but found out badly this year! Picking constant out of form players among other things
 
Honestly, a lot of things went right last year. We were pretty lucky in some of the wins we had. Just some self-correction of that this year.
 
I think, as time progressed, he veered further and further away from the ideology he had when he first joined. He wanted us to press, be the fittest and hardest working team in the league- full of young hungry players. The signings of CR7, Bruno and Sancho to a certain extent meant we needed to play a totally different brand of football (possession based) which the rest of the squad isn’t set up to play and the coaches don’t seem to know how to coach!

I also think he found managing elite players difficult as it meant higher expectations and caused him to totally mess up squad rotation too
 
hobbers said:
Kept too many players in the squad over the summer. Told too many untruths to squad players about their chances this season.

Kept playing players badly out of form and rushed Maguire back from injury. . Maguire, AWB, Shaw, Fred, McTominay and Bruno all should have been dropped at some point. Alienated the squad players further as a result.

No idea how to use a player he chased for 2 windows and paid £73m for. Treated VdB with disdain for no apparent reason.

Having no tactical or coaching acumen himself or in his staff to implement the forward-thinking philosophy he tried to bring through.

Still no ability to properly prepare the players to start matches on the front foot. Something that's been the same throughout his time here.

Brought in a gormless, clueless set piece coach because he was mates with McKenna. Left the tactics and coaching to two people who belong coaching 15 year olds not Prem footballers.

Taking a week holiday in the middle of a crisis.
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All good points. You missed this one:

izec said:
Two words for me: Declan Rice
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Well, sorta, I don't really watch West Ham. But not buying a DM was a huge mistake. He should have had the balls to say no to Sancho or VDB or shipped off some players to make funds available for a DM. Or maybe he thought McT was a world class #6, who really knows?
 
I think it’s a probable case that if Ronaldo/Mendes wouldnt have made the move towards City, Ole would still be the Man Utd manager
 
I think he was very comfortable championing vague progression toward an unspecific target, then shat the bed a bit when chances came to turn that into tangible success, and then shat the bed again when Ronaldo changed expectations
 
Skills said:
It was never right in the first place. But since January 2020 he's had a get out of jail free card in his hand (Bruno Fernandez's), but he managed to completely nullify it by trying to fit him in with Ronaldo.
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The bottom line is Manchester United shit the bed when they thought Ronaldo was going to join Man City.

They prevented that - but at what price?*

Now, there are people on here who won't agree, there are people on here who follow Ronaldo with a sort of religious fervor because of the player he became and because of where he started out (I know he came from Sporting Lisbon in 2003 - but you know what I mean). But the fact is - my son was born in 2003 & he isn't a boy now, he's a man - that is how much time has past. Ronaldo is too old, too expensive and too fecking arrogant and he never should have been re-signed.

I sometimes wonder if City never really wanted him in the summer, but they just started a rumour to see what would happen and Man Utd. fell for it hook, line and sinker. The noisy neighbours must be laughing their heads off.

And don't get me started on what has happened today - an interim manager until they get an interim manager, what a joke.

*(and I don't just mean £2 million a month).
 
besides greenwood, who was already up and coming under mourinho, feel like he was just so phony about giving youth a chance. Easy to talk the talk than actually back it up.
 
The defence. The attack has been firing on all cylinders, but we lacked a spine, and McFred's performances became diabolical.

His inability to correct the defensive shape was his downfall, as we couldn't control a single match.

I've no idea as to why or what the cause of that as.
It really is perplexing how we defensively fell to the floor.
 
Honestly I think we were close. On paper we should be much better this season. Varane next to Maguire. Sancho and Ronaldo in addition to Greenwood, Rashford and Cavani. What happened was Maguire turned to shits alongside Varane. The picture of Ronaldo behind Ole on the sidelines wasn't a good one. Sancho being a nothing player so far. Cavani turned into a "super sub".
 
Bruno losing form.

We’ve been rubbish for a long time, he was papering over the cracks.
 
1. Tactically inept. It has been obvious during his time here and one of the largest complaints about him.

2. Cannot put together a team. Gaping hole in midfield but let’s buy more strikers and wingers.
 
Can’t be a front foot team and not press at all, or at the very least you’d at least need a true dm who can act as a back 3. I think Maguire is still injured, he rushed back for the Euros and hasn’t been the same, hence the massive drop in form. Shaw can’t be dropped really because Telles is not really a defender, and we’re already having issues with stability. McFred arent good enough to run a 2 by themselves with no cover from the front 4. I think if you moved Bruno to an 8, harnessed his attacking a little bit, it would bring a little more compactness that we desperately needed.
 
It looks a lot like the problem came down to coaching and team selection. It's impossible to know for sure, we simply don't have that information, but what we've seen on the pitch suggests that the team just hasn't been coached well this season. The manager's insistence on sticking with lineups that clearly haven't worked is another problem, and it seems a lot like Ole works from the heart instead of the head, so I can see him being the type of manager to pick the players he finds most likeable. Maybe McFred have shown the most enthusiasm in training, been the first to arrive in the morning, been in a good mood in the dressing room, etc. But since they just didn't deliver on the pitch, changes should have been made, and Ole didn't do that. As far as the whole team goes, it simply looks as if those in charge of drilling them in preparation for games have not done it well enough. They go out there looking clueless in the first half every week, and then after half-time they're apparently told what to do and usually perform much better. That tells me it's a coaching issue.
 
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