A couple of sincere questions for Ole outers:
1) Have you lately seen progression in passing pace, attacking patterns, players attitude, team cohesion and overall squad quality?
Your answer is "No"? Don't bother to read the second question, we'd never see things the same way anyway.
2) Do you think all recent positives are just a fluke or purple patch from the back of signing Bruno Fernandes (and Odion Ighalo)?
Well, you may be right, but you really can't tell. It's about feelings and emotions on both sides in the debate. I prefer to be uplifted by good results and support what I see as progress. If you can't see the current progress, you really shouldn't be reading this (see above).
A lot of Ole outers claim to know some "truth" about Ole's managing capacity by looking at "hard facts" such as our league table position, portraying Ole ins as sentimental and deluded. If it is just a purple patch, the players will revert back to mediocre/inconsistent. On the other hand, if we finally are reaping benefits from overhauling the squad and good coaching (catalyzed by putting a proper player in the important no.10 position), we could be in for an even brighter future. I don't know. I just feel we are building something, and that we may easily set ourselves back by sacking and hiring (again).
Only time can tell. That's a fact. A real one. As some have said previously, passing judgement at present is pretty silly given that we've looked much better lately and we have everything to play for. Do you agree?
Yes. But the debate is not about feelings and emotions. Nobody can tell you how to feel. But there's a difference. I wasn't "feeling" that United were great team under Ferguson, i knew it because i could see it on the pitch. The situation is not as black & white as this thread presents them to be. I'll give you that.
Bruno has sweetened up our game in the attacking half of the pitch considerably. There's no doubt about that and we desperately needed a player of his ilk in the side. Not necessarily someone with great vision and exquisite passing skills (there's Pogba for that) but a player who will use his movement to create openings for our attacking players in the final third. It's clear as day that although we have attackers who can score goals, we struggle to create "easy chances". Not now, since 2013/14. Both Mourinho and Conte benefitted massively from Hazard's ability to draw defenders & get past them. City, pre-Guardiola, were lucky enough to have one of the best (if not the best) modern play-makers in the PL in Silva. Liverpool under Rodgers had Suarez in God-mode. Moyes got Mata, Louis signed Di Maria & Memphis, Mou spent big on Miki and then he traded him off for Sanchez (sorry for the reminder people). All these players failed to have an impact for several different reasons. The difference with Bruno is that the latter seems to fit right into the tactical plan we saw during the summer. Someone who will work his arse off to create openings for others and who will also score goals by attempting runs in behind when the forward drops deep. It's not like "oh look, we got Di Maria/Miki/Mata etc. who can create tonnes of chances" and then having threads about where to play them. Bruno came here and we knew his role and how he was going to be used before he even kicked a ball in the red shirt. That's a plus already. Is it just a purple patch with him? It will depend mainly on two things: Firstly, the RW conundrum and secondly (but most importantly at least until the end of the season), Martial (and Rashford). No team can survive at this level when its main man goes AWOL for half a game. And it's not just his laziness, he needs to be provided with options when he comes deep to receive the ball. If Solskjaer manages to create the right synergies between Bruno, Rashford and Martial, it will not just be another purple patch. And this is what separates the good managers from the great ones. Bruno helps but it's not just him. We have suffered a lot from both Martial/Rashford getting isolated on the ball with few options to choose from. Hope this covers the question about Bruno's contributions.
These mixed feelings are for almost every aspect of our game. Despite being an "Ole outer", as you say, i have defended his choice to let Smalling leave and pair Maguire with (someone like) Lindelof because it points toward the will to beat the opposition press via passing and open up spaces in behind for our pacey forwards and it also indicates a clear understanding of how important ball-playing centre-halves can be when you want to circulate the ball while moving bodies in advanced positions. And i'm more than willing to forgive brainfarts like the one De Gea had the other day because, if we get it right, we'll have achieved something all great modern sides do well. What i can't stand though is people telling me to be patient when after almost a year and a half and 130 million our defenders keep exchanging passes between them trying to decide what to do when the opposition has already camped in their third of the pitch. At some point and sooner rather than later, the intentions must be turned into the consistency of performances.
I also don't hate his 4231 as many others do. Again, the notion of the 6 outfield players who will set the platform for the other 4 to deliver the goods (can often become 5+5 with Pogba in the midfield) isn't a bad one. As long as the distances between the midfield and the defence, when we transition to our defensive shape, don't resemble the Mid-Atlantic Ridge as they often have. As long as the "two" in the midfield don't have to "hide" from the defenders because they don't want to receive the ball with their backs to goal and they don't have to dilly-dally or pass backwards when they're in possession because the rest of the team is as mobile as statues (I'm leaving McT out of it because he's brave enough to show up for the ball regardless of the situation, thus his less than impressive passing percentages). Just saying...
Finally, i don't believe that "learning on the job", as Fred put it, is something to beat Solskjaer with. At the time of his appointment, we were such a mess and it wasn't his brilliant CV that made us look at him. I'm not bringing sentimentality into the picture here so that i can later claim that you're deluded (as it appears you may believe). We turned to him to provide the stability Moyes had failed to achieve (or in his case and since he took over the champions, maintain) and do the rebuilding (by also focusing on the academy) job LvG failed to do. Now, i can't speak for everyone but i'm pretty confident that most of the Ole-out people will give him enough credit for his job in this area. What they (myself included here) won't say is that he's done "a brilliant job". Because... he hasn't. It's not a feeling, it's what the results are telling us more often than not. You see, stability isn't just about keeping everyone happy. It's also about finding the formula that will help you win three games in a row for just once in the league. And the rebuilding job isn't just about thinning the squad so that the youngsters can get playing time. That's the best way to throw away a season which i am definitely
not OK with. It's about creating a new side without letting all standards diminish to nothingness. That's why you have "outers" like
@Regulus Arcturus Black yelling about our winning percentages.
But he's learning. His decision to bring Matic back to the side instead of doing silly things like playing Pereira there is a good one even if he doesn't have Matic in his plans for next season. After the clusterfeck that followed Martial's injury (which moved away Marcus from his best role, forced James in a role where he had to cut inside and create and made Pereira/Lingard mainstays in the starting lineup), he did the right thing by getting a stop-gap solution for the role of the main forward. Even the in-game management is improving. Last night, he decided to use Lingard but he instructed him to stay wide and leave the rest to Shaw and Bruno instead of getting involved and fecking everything up. The diamond vs Everton was a nice idea. He's been quite successful in the big games too, no doubt about that. But we still haven't managed to win three league games in a row. So, there's still a lot to be desired.
As you say, only time will tell. In the meantime, you can feel however you like and the same goes for everybody else on here. And i'll keep repeating that i hope i'm wrong and you're right. Because no matter what some people believe on here, (almost) nobody hates the man and wishes the team to fail just to see him gone. Sorry for the long post and i hope i covered your questions.
your off your rocker. If you can’t make your mind up by May, clearly he’s not doing a good job.