Right, some of our signings were hot prospects but our previous managers were fecking clueless on how to integrate them into the team. We signed 3 players last season and all three have been seamlessly integrated and providing instant impact. People downplay saying James was Giggs recommendation , be it a may, if he's not performing then he'd be branded a flop just like the ones on LVG's list. Goes to show transfers are not that easy and it takes a lot to get them right.
Would you sack or keep Ole? (Poll reopened)
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Right, some of our signings were hot prospects but our previous managers were fecking clueless on how to integrate them into the team. We signed 3 players last season and all three have been seamlessly integrated and providing instant impact. People downplay saying James was Giggs recommendation , be it a may, if he's not performing then he'd be branded a flop just like the ones on LVG's list. Goes to show transfers are not that easy and it takes a lot to get them right.
He should have signed a goal scorer, something we lacked big time in the second season with Rooney's decline, RVP's exit. Young players like Depay struggled to step up.
Yeah, he was the only manager who wanted to set his team to play dominant football. He wanted to sign Mane too, who would have been good player to open up defense.
Wasn't backed despite spending 130 million ? Lampard wasn't backed what's his excuse, you would only have to rewind the clock to late August this year and re read half the posts saying that Chelsea were destined for 6th due to a fringe squad.
How much did Rodgers spend ? Less than Ole I'm certain. Leicester finished 9th last season 14 points behind us and with barely anything spent and losing their most prolific center half are now 2nd in the league 11 points in front of our current league position. Did Rodgers need 3 transfer windows to turn Leicester around ?
Sick and tired of the romanticism from fans for a very average manager in Solskjaer. "No manager is getting top four with Fred and Pereira" your right other managers have already surpassed this level of achievement, Poch reaches the UCL final and got a top four finish with Winks / Sissoko. Klopp finished second in the league and reached a UCL final with Henderson / Milner instrumental in the midfield. Stick Milner, Henderson, Sissoko or Winks In a United midfield under Solskjaer and you get exactly the same results as Fred / Pereria. Excuses, excuses and more excuses.
Is the squad strong enough or not?
All those players you mention are comfortably better than Fred and Pereira. If you're going to be completely daft there's no point in trying to have a discussion with you.
"Our best player" who you have derided and spewed hatred towards is now being used to defend Ole, oh the irony..
That’s why i used brackets my friend, but we can go with most expensive if that sits better with your highness.
Well the next few league games will be the real test, let’s see how we come out of that. Lose em all badly and I may be for turning
My intention was the same from my first reply. Maybe i confused things by not making that clear in my original post. I can see how it seems mixed up.
I'm confused.
About the bold part, maybe i misinterpreted your intentions, reading the above, you can see how it might appear like you are saying we are trying to play dominant football can't you? Anyway, whatever i'm not trying to harp on about your words there.
For your below paragraph. Reason i feel that happens is because the In crowd are unwilling to admit to his faults and mistakes too. We never hear about our style of play at home vs big clubs in an objective fashion. It's held as a positive that he is ''managing effectively vs them''. We never hear about his failure to set us up in a progressive fashion at home vs the weaker teams sitting back.
The good he has done to me is, he has restored Martial back to CF, having him happy for the first time since LVG, restored Rashford to the wing, where he is now becoming more of a team player. Finally bought a rb in Wan-Bissaka and rw in James. Had Fred & McTominay in a somewhat promising partnership, albeit limited.
Negatives: Disastrous results, failure to set the team up properly vs weak clubs at home & to a lesser extent away, poor small-time style of play vs big clubs at home. Poor in-game management, had Pogba playing in a defensive midfield pivot before he got injured, suspect summer window with failure to replace experienced players properly, where we came out with a worse squad than we went into, whilst spending a record sum on Maguire.
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He gave you two examples of squads/teams that didn't reinforce more than us and that are 9 points or more better than us, what's the excuse?
Some of the best players past and present describe him as the best coach they've worked with tactically. The likes of Guardiola and many others have gone on record to say how amazing he was from a tactical/coaching stand point. His achievement with the mid 90s Ajax team was incredible considering the youth he promoted and the football they played. The patterns of play and triangles which that team created along with every outfield player having the ability to slot in various different roles in offensive/defensive transitions was quite simply jaw dropping when analysed. Sadly it didn't work for him here, but he was a legendary coach who was meticulous in his highly sophisticated approach due to being influenced by the famous Rinus Michels.
Ferguson did this consistently against the best teams. Mourinho too. Trophy winning managers.
Pep goes out and plays his own game. Genius of a coach, hasn't won a champions league outside of his all time great Barcelona team, and criticised for lack of a plan B. Klopp bucked the trend last season - but they were a wonder save away from going out against Napoli and lost 3-0 at Barcelona - who themselves would have been in the final if they had gone to Anfield with a more conservative approach. These are high-risk, high reward strategies. I'd love to see United go out and play that kind of football, but only in the right circumstances and only when we have a team that is good enough. With 3 good additions in January and/or the summer, next season we might just have that.
You'll argue back on this no doubt and find your own examples which are contrary, but the point is there are multiple ways to win football matches. With our current team we lose 9 out of 10 times that try to go toe to toe with the very best. Ole gets the criticism that the job entails when we dont beat Bournemouth and West Ham, but his results against the better sides are not warranting criticism in my view, and show that the 'tactically inept' arguments are not without some instances that contradict that.
Everyone knows the squad has some fairly serious problems that need to be addressed. Lets not let that get in the way of a good old fashioned witch-hunt though
I started to dislike football with LvG as a coach. I disliked some of the players and Mourinho and the toxicity around the club during his final year at the club. I've not reached any of those points with Ole as a coach and still look forward to games despite indifferent performances and results.
Yeah there is miscommunication, was asking and the topic was managers losing jobs for setting up to counter attack vs big clubs.
Just to avoid the confusion, this is what I said/meant. I don't like the way we set up as we should be playing a dominant football, we are one of the biggest football and our play should reflect that. I disagreed with your point where you made is sound it's easy to set up counter attacks and the way you described our play. We play on counters but those are not hit and hope, those are clearly worked on the training ground. Press high, win the ball and look for direct pass to the pacey player making the run. Or when we win the ball in defensive third, we pass the ball to Martial who then lays off to James or Rashford who makes the run. In most cases we keep the ball on the ground.
We should be playing dominant football where we are proactive and dominate the game, at least against most teams. Don't think we will do it for various reasons, one of them is Ole said in one of the interviews that he isn't a fan of passing for the sake of it, he wants his players to look for forward pass as soon as they win the ball. This will lead to lot of loose passes and we won't control the game with possession. This is more like Jose's football but instead of wingers playing as wingbacks they are positioned higher up the pitch to start counters.
One more reason is, we don''t have midfield to do this, even if we have we might not as Ole wants players to go for forward pass. With better midfielders, our forward passing will improve but still it won't be dominating game.
Like you said there are positives and negatives. I like how he has made Rashford, Martial as main attackers, James signing, made Greenwood as first team player by creating squad position for him, few young players are promoted to first team squad places, latest being Williams.
There are many negatives too, biggest of them all is results. No matter what the long term goal is, we shouldn't forget short term ones. If he fails to make top 4, he should go. I mean I want him to go now itself but don't think that's going to happen. We can't dream of better long term future if we are struggling now. Everything won't just click into places like in FM, it should be step by step. Our short term results will have bigger impact on our future, we will be low in pecking order for players, it would be hard to convince players of what we are trying to achieve, players lose confidence with low positions in the table. There is nothing that brings more confidence to the players than winning games.
Ferguson played deep on the counter at home did he? That's a new one to me. From Scholes, Keane, Veron to Carrick, he always made sure he had quality in midfield to compete with the very best. He also never left himself short up-front, or without experience. Whilst we were crying out for midfield replacements during his last rebuild, he went out and added RvP to Rooney instead.
I actually agree in general that there's not one winning way, i'm not a purist at all. I am only purely interested in a winning mentality, bowing to no-one, never say die attitude added to dominant attacking football being instilled throughout the club. That is what i was brought up on with SAF.
Could you see SAF going into the summer window last, letting a raft of his experienced players to leave at once, along with his experienced striker too, whilst replacing them with a centre back, rb & kids? Because i for one cannot. Don't even try to compare the greatest manager in the history of the game to Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. He had a iron will winning mentality and wouldn't settle for 2nd best. I cannot say the same for Ole.
Not the guy you replied too, but im giving it a shot anyway.
Ole quite clearly has less PL experience than Poch, but that in itself should not qualify or disqualify anyone. If PL-experience is the main criteria we use to judge potential managers we are going to miss out on a lot of good ones from other leagues. Tactics its kinda hard to compare since they've managed different clubs with different players, but imo none of them are tactical geniuses and i think it would be really hard to prove which one is better or worse without being very subjective or diving into a big pile of conjecture
Its pretty well documented that Levy was the one who did the transfers at Spurs and Poch had more of a coaching role. Maybe Poch has a great eye for talent, but right now there is no proof one way or the other. The whole "He understands the club" and he will get us "Playing the United way" is a weak defense and mostly vague nonsense, but i still think there is a kernel of truth in there. He did play here most of is career and then went on to do a pretty decent job with the youth team. Its not so much knowing the club, but rather knowing the people who work at the club and that can be a big positive. Plenty of organizations promote from within their own ranks for obvious reasons
I cant say i watched him at Molde a great deal, but from what i know, he broke the hegemony of the undisputed big team (Rosenborg) and transformed the Molde side by promoting a lot of promising youth players and some really smart transfers. He also brought in and developed Haaland who pretty much every big team in Europe has their eye on now, and Haaland himself has been very vocal in his praise of Ole and gives him a lot of credit for helping him to where he is today. It also worth mentioning he had they punching way above their weight in the EL, winning a group that had Celtic and Ajax in it and then getting knocked out be Sevilla who then went on the win the tournament that year.
Clearing of deadwood was obvious and much needed and there is still some job left to do in that department. No one claims hes a genius because he got rid of Darmian and Sanchez, but it was a necessary step that might weaken us then and there, but who would benefit us in the future. More importantly though, none of the previous managers seemed as willing to take that step and instead seemed to add to the deadwood by buying players that were in the last years of their careers (Schweinsteiger, Matic, Sanchez etc). Under Ole we have seen 6 players go and only 3 to replace them, with a squad as thin as ours that is going to hurt then and there, but its necessary. Years and years of mismanagement and no direction from the top, combined with pressure on the managers to deliver right away have left the squad in a utterly dire state.
Jones, Rojo, Baily, Young, Shaw, Mata, Lindgaard, Pereira, Fred, Matic. All of these are either too old, simply not good enough, and/or so injury plagued they are lucky to get 15 games a season.
Everyone is sick to death of this whole rebuild project, but like or not thats where we are still. I am not saying results dont matter, and losing to the likes of Newcastle and West Ham while looking utterly clueless fecking hurts, but considering were we are i think the future of the squad and the rebuild takes precedence over league results. Ole seems to put his faith in youth, both regarding transfers and academy promotions and this is really fecking important in my eyes. These are players that can serve us well years and years from now and i would much rather prefer that strategy over a bunch of galacticos signings, where we get some apathetic mercenary who fecks off once a better offer comes along or a 28+ year old player that is going to struggle in 2-3 years if not sooner. Its like putting money in the bank. Sure its a lot more fun to blow it all on pints at the pub and good food, but when you want to buy a new house you will be really glad you had those money in he bank after all
Last season is largely a throwaway, since its pretty limited what a manager can do when taking over mid season. New tactics maybe and some encouraging words, but other than that there is not really a whole lot you can do. So far we are 13 games into the campaign, in my eyes thats not really a big enough sample to make a judgement yet, especially considering the main task here is not this years results, but rather where we are headed. Thats also why i am totally against sacking him now, because that will throw the next manager into a really difficult situation.
September/October was miserable but most of that time we had both Pogba and Martial out and it really, really hurt us. Pogba who is world class, gets replaced by Pereira who is not even PL standard and without Martial we did not really have anyone who can play that CF role. If you play with one CF, its is absolutely critical that he can hold up the ball or you have a top midfield who can feed the runners (Rashford and James in our case) with quality through balls. SInce we lacked both of those we looked utterly toothless in attack. Zero pnetration in midfield and our attackers gets left chasing shadows since they are not comfortable in dropping deep.
Martial back and BOOM. 5-1-1 the last 7 games, 16 goals scored, compared to a eye watering 4 goals scored in the 7 games before that. The fact that we are that reliant on a few players is scary as fecking shit, but that is the facts we have to live with (for now)
The reason i am still Ole in is because in my eyes, hes the first one since Fergie who has actually taken this whole rebuild upon himself and seems to have a vision for the future rather than just going all-in on instant success. Considering both LvG and Jose got two full seasons and Jose was only sacked after having a complete meltdown, isnt it a bit harsh to sack him 1/3 into his first full year?
Also, if Ole is such a mouth breathing simpleton that some posters on here would have you believe, dont you think the players or Ed or literally anyone at the club would have noticed by now and leaked it to the press? Players still back him despite our rotten form and that means a lot.
Why is it do you think, that you still look forward to games under Ole, when the results and performances are even worse now than under LVG & Mourinho?
Anyone who is seriously 'Ole In' should get their heads tested. Taking Martial off for that extra defender vs Sheff United was a criminal mistake.
I think it's the young squad. You can never dislike Ole. Obviously there are glaring weaknesses at the club, but it is what it is, and the club I think are trying to claw back losses and mistakes of the last 6 years with their investment, which is no fault of Ole and his coaching team.
The club is an absolute mess. Any manager would struggle here. Average squad, not fully backed by the board, Board having no clear path or plan for the club or grounds, Woodie dallys over deals (and still ends up paying the original asking price after all his negotiating).
Ole was set-up to fail. Sure he knows the club inside out, but it's a different planet getting handed the keys to the door and left to do it all.
With that said, Ole's lack of managerial experience at the very top level is very apparent. He talks a fantastic game, has the right attitude - but that doesn't mean he is able to convey what he wants to the team and have the ability to train it into them.
There is no hiding it - the worst PL start we've made. He's lucky to still have the job in all honesty.
But we know that sacking a manager will only give us a little boost, as I mentioned at the start - the owners and club are to distant from the footballing side, it's a marketing/money making business for them. We still are not a top 4 team, lucky to be in or around 6th.
TL/DR - Ole isn't good enough - but the club is ran so shit any manager would struggle here.
Ole was set-up to fail. Sure he knows the club inside out, but it's a different planet getting handed the keys to the door and left to do it all.
With that said, Ole's lack of managerial experience at the very top level is very apparent. He talks a fantastic game, has the right attitude - but that doesn't mean he is able to convey what he wants to the team and have the ability to train it into them.
There is no hiding it - the worst PL start we've made. He's lucky to still have the job in all honesty.
But we know that sacking a manager will only give us a little boost, as I mentioned at the start - the owners and club are to distant from the footballing side, it's a marketing/money making business for them. We still are not a top 4 team, lucky to be in or around 6th.
TL/DR - Ole isn't good enough - but the club is ran so shit any manager would struggle here.
Fair enough. After the way it's gone since SAF, i can't blame anyone for focusing on some of the positives. As you say, Ole is a nice guy, he makes everyone want to wish him to succeed. That is buying him a lot of leeway right now in my eyes, more than previous managers here have been afforded in the past.
I do think it's possible to wish him to succeed, but still hold the same standards as we have in the past. I think it's important to not lose track of that, as a fan base in general. For the remainder of this season, what expectations do you have for him to meet, which you will be happy to see him continue next season?
For me it would be: get results, compete for top 4, show development in our game vs big clubs at home, not just sitting back and countering, develop a structure to systematically break down weaker teams at home, develop players. In that order.
So far poll is almost same result as Brexit referendum... is that an omen?
I can only speak for myself but i did not want Jose sacked for the way we played. That first season he was here and we had Zlatan and Pogba in the team was the first time since Fergie i really felt like something big was going to happen
There probably were people on here who moaned non stop about Joseball, but if they did they must have been living under a rock, because he has always been like that so expecting him to start playing tiki-taka would have been utterly foolish. Jose did not get sacked because he played "bad football", he got sacked because he had a mental breakdown and had completely alienated the players
Us playing possession football now would be a complete disaster, because its a complete mismatch with the player profiles we got. To do that properly you need:
1) Excellent ball playing CM's who are comfortable in possession and extremely good at short passing (Xavi and Iniesta are prime examples)
2) Attackers who are experts at dribbling in tight spaces and can create pockets of space for themselves and others
3) Excellent ball playing defenders who have no problem passing it around, even when put under pressure
Honestly i cant think of a single player in our team that would be a good fit for a possession based system. Martial? Maybe? What we do have though is pace in abundance up front and what happens to be one of the best long range passers in the world (Pogba) so it would be foolish not to play to their strengths imo
I agree, there has been some progression in our attacks once we get the ball, over the course of the season so far. It's not completely clueless like under Mourinho. That's a positive i guess. I still do not like to see us defending so deep and giving up the ball so willingly though.
I question whether this style can be sustainable to compete at the top like we aspire to. It's okay if you are an underdog trying to land a lucky knockout punch, but in the long term, you're not going to get very far if you can't control the matches with possession and limit your opponents opportunities against you. As a big club with big expectations, i expect more progression over time.
That is the be all and end all of it to me. You cannot call it a work in progress and look forward to the future if you're not achieving short term results right now in reality. That is what i have been arguing as the basis of my argument from the very beginning. We saw it happen to us last summer with Sancho & to a lesser extent Dybala now rejecting us based on our under achievement for years. We aren't an attractive proposition for anyone if we're aren't producing exciting, attacking performances, let alone getting into top 4. Then you risk your current better players leaving also, like Pogba, De Gea, Rashford, Martial etc... then what kind of rebuild is actually going on if that starts happening?
Ferguson would very regularly shut up shop in big matches against the best teams - yes. Even at home on occasion, and this was with a far superior team. Obviously bringing the great mans name into this thread will suggest that I am in some small way comparing like for like - which is definitely not the intention here. That would be moronic.
Its interesting reading your last point though - because a not completely different scenario occurred when he brought in the class of 92. Experienced players left to be replaced by kids. We all know how that turned out - it was a huge gamble and its looked back on fondly because it worked beautifully, but at the time it was scorned widely. He did it because the squad needed an overhaul and he had the balls to do it because he knew we had talent there. This time out the decision has been taken for different reasons, but we might still see a few of these kids emerge into United players (McTominay, Greenwood & Williams look like they have it - maybe Tuanzebe). Scoff all you want (and you will) but there are some similarities there. The difference now to then is that our domestic league is much stronger and Ole is unproven and thus given less slack from our fanbase, and managers generally get less time to succeed.
For me its still very clear what the club are trying to do - build a team that will start to peak in 2-3 years time. It will mean we won't challenge and be inconsistent this season. Patience will be tested for everyone, but the plan is good and we need to let it play out. I'd love to be able to find these posts in 2 years and give a huge I told you so, otherwise you can all rip them apart.
The team is being built to peak in 2-3 years time, but I'd be beyond shocked if Ole was in charge then. If he can start the groundwork and give way to someone more qualified, then I think everyone wins.
I remember it definitely being part of the narrative when he was here. You don't remember? Why do you think it was regarded that Mourinho wasn't the right fit for the club? Class of 92 ready to stick the boot into him on tv at any opportunity they got? Because of the certain style of play he favored, especially at home vs the big clubs.
Which ironically, the same football at home under Ole now, is championed as him ''knowing how to manage effectively''. I wonder why that is? Complete hypocrisy.
The squad is unsuited for possession football because Ole has no interest in it. He has shaped the squad to reflect this. If he wanted to play that way, he would have got the necessary profiles in the summer. Like all managers do in their first windows at the club.
What i am doing is questioning the current style's effectiveness at the top level, which we strive to be at soon don't we? Being unable to keep possession and maintain pressure in the opponents final third are questionable traits to encourage to me.
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Spot on. Leicester paid 64 for the Turkish CB and Tielemans. Both are playing better than anyone we have. If we had got two quality midfield players even without buying any strikers, we would be doing a lot better. Yes with the caveat, if we were being coached properly.
I've absolutely no doubt that Duncan Castles claim yesterday that half the squad don't rate Ole, is simply Jose's childish sneaky way at attempting to destabalize the club.
If Ole can land Erling in January, due to the fact they've been mates and worked together before, then that simply is enough of a positive for Ole to be given at least until the summer.
The reality is that if you throw Kalvin Phillips and Erling Haaland into this team, then we're a top 4 team again.
If Ole can land Erling in January, due to the fact they've been mates and worked together before, then that simply is enough of a positive for Ole to be given at least until the summer.
The reality is that if you throw Kalvin Phillips and Erling Haaland into this team, then we're a top 4 team again.
Do people still listen to that clown? I stopped following him when Jose was sacked, he was good source of news when Jose was here.
You are living in a dream world if you think managers won’t want the Utd job, for a big club Utd are more patient than virtually anyone else.
Fans will be on any managers case straight away I don’t know why you place so much emphasis on that. The point you simply can not grasp about Ole is he isn’t a very good manager, he never has been and if he turns into one it will be a shock.
At the weekend Sheffield Utd didn’t have better players but they had a better manager. It’s not just about players, obviously we need more and better players but we’ll still have a manager who is amongst the worst in the league. His peers are Steve Bruce not Pep and Klopp and that’s not a criticism just accepting reality.
I don’t see any sense in entrusting a rebuild to someone who is not a good manager, especially one who has a counter attacking and defensive mindset. Stick with the rebuild but employ someone of the required ability to carry it out.
Is he making up crap because he has a personal problem with Ole or is it something else? Don't know much nut read on here before he sometimes talk sh!te
Yes, ''on occasion''. i.e. rare unique situations. Not every single match under the sun at home vs big clubs like we see under Ole right now.
I was born in 92. So i am not 100% familiar with the ins and out of the makeup of the squad back then, to argue otherwise. What i can remember though is his handling and development of Rooney and Ronaldo back in 2006/07.
SAF never put himself in a position where he solely relied on kids. That season in 2006/07, he brought in 33 year old Solskjaer & 36 year old Larsson. We also still had 28 year old Saha & 25 year old Smith. Look at the rest of that squad; 36 VDS, 33 Giggs, 32 Scholes, 31 Neville, 28 Heinze & Ferdinand, 25 year old Park, Carrick & Evra. Absolute ton's of experience still.
To me, that's how you develop young talents whilst not dropping your standards.
The way Ole is trying to do it, who would actively choose to develop youth inside a poor environment? It makes no sense. You don't add youth to a team already devoid of any experience or leadership. With the pressure & responsibility immediately placed upon them, that's setting them up to fail. Like we have seen this season already.
You add youth to an already experienced setup so they can be free to naturally develop. It's the way all the top teams around the world do it. SAF used to do it this way. His youngsters were never laid bare like how Ole is attempting to do it.
Mourinho in the Sky studio a month ago:
We lost a raft of experienced players in the summer, and wasn't fussed about replacing them. The youth can replace them Ole said.
By Ole leaving the squad so short of experience in the summer, he's essentially saying results right now don't matter. Which is a definite suspect mentality to have in my opinion.
Feel free to find my posts in 2 years time. They will be here, i'm sure.
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Good on you for writing all of that. I hope some people read it properly and don't just dismiss what you are saying here.
He's a garbage source for transfer rumours unless it's a player Jose is interested in.
We've seen Jose using him time and time again to attack anyone he has an issue with. A couple of weeks ago Castles had a go at Gary Neville, over the summer there were endless thinly veiled attacks at Pogba and Woodward.
Just last week Rashford spoke to the media saying Ole absolutely is the best man to take Utd forward. I don't ever recall Rashford saying the same thing about Jose when Jose was in charge.
If Rashford says Ole is the man, then I'd obviously go with that as opposed to garbage from Castles about how the squad laugh at Ole's methods.
I feel the same. At points i didn't even watch some games knowing how bad and without direction the team looked under LVG and Mourinho. At least now i do look forward to watching some of the young players develop and for all the bad, for me it is under Ole that we've seen some of the best performances since SAF; when it works, it looks good, attacking football and players looking like they are giving their all. Some bad games to though.
We're easily a top 4 side right now if McTominay and Pogba were fit. The defense is generally pretty decent. Rashford Martial and James have all settled really well into their new attacking roles. We've scored 15 goals in 6 games. No point in trying to pretend the attack isn't getting better. All those "patterns of play" that Ole supposedly couldn't coach are starting to happen. We're improving.
Sadly the midfield basically empty right now so it's very hard to see us putting any sort of a decent run together. I can't blame that on coaching because I don't believe there's a coach on this earth that will bring Pereira, Fred, Matic, Mata, Lingard up to the level required.
I count 16 out of 29 bad games in his permanent tenureship so far.
''Some bad games'' is a massive understatement.
I'm looking mostly at this season.
There are always those who need to moan about something, people moaned under Fergie as well. I dont really take those too seriously
Ole only had 1 window and if he wanted to play possession he would have needed about 5 summers to get all the players he needed. We were utterly horrific to watch under LvG who wanted to play possession because it was square pegs in round holes pretty much all over the pitch. IIRC the only ones who looked comfortable then was Mata, Herrera and Lindgaard (for some reason) and i seem to remember our best attacks came when those three were involved
Counter attacking is still effective. I would say Liverpool for example are much more a counter attacking side than a possession side. They press high and then dive straight into attack. Of course being able to break down sides who sit deep is nice, but i honestly dont think possesion football is superior to counter attacking football
That is not the full story though.
We knew in advance to the summer, we were losing Herrera, already lost Fellaini in January, knew Matic was finished... Who decided to not replace his experienced players and decide to depend on the likes of ''Pereira, Fred, Matic, Mata, Lingard'' this season?
Who decided to spend £80m on Maguire to replace Smalling, whilst ignoring midfield or attack?
Who decided to let Lukaku leave at the last minute?
All questions that should be answered thoroughly before you decide that there's not a coach on Earth who wouldn't have taken the same decisions he has.
All of these comments about squad depth and make-up would be completely valid in my opinion, and I would agree with you entirely, IF we were 2 or 3 years into this project. This isn't Ole's squad yet. This is the leftovers of a really crappy inheritance that he has had one window to address without a blank chequebook.
The part of your quote that I underlined I did because results don't really matter that much right now. Its an argument I've posted on here 20 times in recent weeks. We can't improve the squad until January or maybe the summer, so these squad issues aren't going to vanish overnight. Our first XI looks pretty great - anything past that and we struggle badly with any injury, especially with certain players (unfortunately for us most of whom have missed periods of the season).
We aren't going to win the title this season. We are unlikely to make the top 4. We might win a cup and qualify through the Europa. Results don't really matter that much because the project doesn't change just because we drew with Sheffield United any more that it would if we pump Spurs 5-0 next week.
Its not unlike that scene in moneyball. Players are being sold and the team are losing and Billy Beane is being questioned about his decisions by his assistant.
"Do you believe in what we are doing here?"
"Yes"
"Then what are we talking about?"
Pretty much exactly how I feel about what's happening at United right now.
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