I just don’t get some of the fans on here. For clarity I’m ‘Ole in’ for the time being although I believe my vote is currently on “Sack”. I get people on the ‘Ole out’ brigade but all of it seems to be so hypocritical:
- We wanted rid of the likes of Sanchez, Matic, and other deadwood - Ole is doing this. First thing was selling Fellaini, then got rid of Sanchez, Lukaku, Darmian, Valencia. Granted Herrera went but that was out of his hands and we all agreed Andre was not worth 300+kpw.
- Matic is nowhere to be seen which most have been crying out for and looks like could be going in January
- Ashley Young looks to be starting to be fazed out and with his contract out this summer I’d expect him to leave.
- Youngsters have been given a chance - Williams is a break-out star so far, Axel was given a chance til he got hurt, Greenwood is getting more chances. We all know Gomes should be getting more mins but there has to be BTS stuff going on with that.
- You can’t argue McT is far more of an influence on the team than when Jose had him purely as a shackled DM.
- His signings have made a difference (those looking only at today’s performance, look who they had in front of them, absolutely zero protection)
The issue that has derailed all of this is injuries. No, we weren’t playing great before there started but for a big chunk of the season so far we have been missing:
- Our most creative player by far
- Our most natural finisher
- Our 1st choice LB
- Now we’re missing McT for a few weeks
The spine of a team consists of 6 players; GK, CBs, CMs, and ST and for the majority of this season we’ve had two of those 6 missing. Now this would be difficult for most teams but with a thread-bare squad as it is it has only exacerbated the situation. I mean c’mon, who would get a coherent tune out of Fred and Pereira as starting CMs?
We add a couple on loan til the summer (unless true targets become available) add 3-5 players in the summer (last year concentrated on defence, this summer midfield & RW - I would say we need a DM to replace Matic, a CM to add depth and a #10 to ease the burden from (or replace if worst case) Pogba.
We do this, next season will be better - or we can just get Poch and hit the reset button again.