Forevergiggs1
Full Member
I cant and won't try to shoot down anybody that says they have some doubts about Ole. After all, he has yet to win a trophy here and we havent yet found that consistency. To have doubts is completely understandable.
What I dont agree with is that he should have had all of this necessarily figured out after two years. IMO that would be underestimating the size of the task that he has taken on.
For me he has already answered a lot of questions. He has spent well for the most part. He has held his own, and then some, against the elite coaches he's faced. He has a squad of players who look like they are willing to fight for him (most of them anyway). He's been a dignified manager. He doesnt make it about him like many of them do - its clear that he bleeds United and will do anything for this club. That might not mean much for some but it means something to me.
What he now needs to do is to find a way to get consistency out of this team. If he does that then he could end up lasting a decade here, and we will be successful.
I don't think I'm being overly critical in saying Ole should have most of the kinks worked out in the time frame. 2 years is still a long time in football especially at a massive club like United. I do agree it's a monumental task though and it is a process but for me that process is behind schedule.
For me one of the most important factors a manager has to instill in his players is a winning mentality. I'm not talking about winning games as such but that every player before he goes out on the pitch will be willing to run through brick walls for him. Pep and Klopp even though it took them a while to win anything had this hardwired into their players at a very early stage and it was clearly evident. With Ole we only have to go back a few weeks to see we're still struggling with this concept after 2 years.
On the playing side there's still big, big improvements needed. Ole is quite stubborn as a manager and while some will think it's a good trait to have in this case I don't agree. Continually playing out from the back has me baffled because we don't have the players for it and every game we're pressed in we get ourselves in trouble. It's taken Ole a year to finally catch on that Pogba should never be part of a double pivot and in saying that it wouldn't surprise me if he ends up back there a lot more games this season. I don't know what's going on in training so I won't be too crticial of Ole but for me VDB should be getting more game time.
Another big factor that definitely should of been sorted in 2 years is our passage of play. We still can't connect properly between the midfield and attacking positions and I don't know why it's not a worry for people who think Ole is the man to take us forward especially after spending more than 300m in 3 windows and even though I'm not in full agreement with it having 3 of the most talented forwards of almost any club.
Ole is not the disaster many think he is but he's far from a top echelon manager which a club like ours needs. I don't care if he bleeds red, green, blue or orange if he makes us a success. Maybe if we give Ole another 300m he could consolidate us in the top 4 because I haven't seen enough evidence from him that he's the one to win us titles.