This is an interesting thread. I see most of the Ole outters claiming that the Ole-inners say Ole can do no wrong. I don't believe this is the case. I think the inners just see some forms of progress, they see some things he's doing well, some things he's not doing well. And I don't think I've seen anyone say (maybe one or two have, but I haven't noticed, 2 huge Ole threads is hard to read everything) that he's definitely the answer. Just, that he deserves more time.
Whereas, those who want him out? No credit for anything. They'll give excuses as to why improvements in certain players have nothing to do with him "Fred is new. Rashford is young and bound to improve, like McTominay" etc. Results are terrible. There's no style. He's tactically inept - which is hilarious given that he's constantly tweaking tactics and team against different opposition. "He can only play one way" - more bollox, just watch the first half against City. That wasn't counter attacking. They went out and absolutely nailed City. Should have been out of sight by half time. There are no signs of progress etc, etc.
I saw someone break down the games Ole has had into sections of 10 a few pages ago (or maybe in the other thread). I've done that too, but only with league games. At the end of the day, we're in every cup we took part in this year, so we've progressed well in those. Since he took over as full time manager, we've had 32 games. So, ignoring the last 2 games, as they're the start of the next group of 10, he's had, 11 points, 10 points and 18 points from the 3 sets of 10 games. Small sample size, yes, but shows signs of progress. Can he keep it going? Dunno, seems unlikely, with the injuries and small squad. And Europa league starting up again, but we'll see.
The squad - it's thin. I think between he and Woodward, he has messed up here. But I see the doubters saying he focuses on 1 target in a position at a time. Is that him, or is that Woodward? I remember Jose saying he'd always give his boss a list of 3 players at each position. Remember when we fixated on Perisic, and never got him? And never went after anyone else? Despite Jose saying he'd always give a list of 3 players at each position? Through 4 managers now, since Fergie, we've seen repeated failures in the transfer market. What's the common denominator? Woodward. So I'd lay most of the blame at him to be honest. Same mistakes keep being made. But still Ole is culpable here too. So, while he's gotten rid of a lot of deadwood, leaving us without a replacement for Lukaku was a mistake. Again though, we seemed to fixate on Dybala and not look at anyone else. Ole, or Woodward? Woodward's done this in the past remember.
Other than Lukaku, losing Herrera was probably our other big mistake. This was NOT Ole's fault: "
Herrera had already made up his mind to move to PSG by the time United presented him with a contract offer in March following Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s appointment as permanent manager.
“I don’t like looking at the past but there were differences regarding the project and my importance within it,” Herrera said. “I was very happy, I have a lot to thank the club for, the fans and also Solskjaer. “He did a lot for me to stay but things didn’t happen. They [United] arrived late [with the contract offer] and, by then, I’d already made the decision to play in Paris.”
So, once again, good job Ed.
Now, should we have signed a few more players? Probably. Definitely - but at the same time, it's not Championship Manager. It takes time. It takes multiple windows to replace so much dross. The previous managers have wasted so much money. Ole's signings so far look shrewd, but again, sample size is small, I'll reserve judgement. There's more needed. We're very bare in midfield, and losing our only creative spark in there for the entire season has been a massive issue. The games we mostly struggle with are the tight games, having Pogba in there, as much as I personally don't like him, and want him sold, would have made a difference to our total of points I think.
Tactically, I've seen enough to see that Ole does have a good tactical brain. I think he's currently hamstrung by the limitations of his players / squad. We massively frustrated Liverpool over the course of 2 fixtures, which no-one else has done. Still the only team to take points off them. Why were others not able to follow his blueprint after the game at OT? We had a great chance to nick a draw with them at Anfield the other day, without arguably our 3 best players. Admittedly they should have been out of sight by half time mind you!
Overall, do I think Ole is the man for the job, long term? I don't know. I have serious reservations. But I don't think he's done anything to merit being sacked as of yet. He's taking the long term approach to building a team. I know people love Football Manager, and bringing in 12 players in a summer which instantly becomes an incredible team, but real life isn't like that. Ole is a big United man, he'll have seen the mercenaries come in and bleed the club, and that will have hurt him - Di Maria, Sanchez etc. He wants to bring in people who get it - young players through the ranks who know what it means to play for United, and others of the right character. Whatever else about Maguire, James & WB, they seem to have the right character.
Give him another year at least, unless things become catastrophic and he seems to have lost the dressing room. It's going to be hard in the next while, especially with Rashford out, so we'll see what he can do.
