Time For Ole To Show His Mettle

Rado_N

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That second half was not a good performance and we were hanging on for the last 20 minutes. The Spurs game was not good either but that was a much better team at the end of a run of games.

I'm not necessarily saying the honeymoon is over, but I've felt (as have many others) that the fresh take on things and the smiles and positivity wouldn't do the job forever and there's going to come a time when he needs to get the hair dryer out, so to speak.

I think it might be that time; he needs to rid some bad habits from the squad and not allow us to go from cruising to being under the hammer.
 

Mindhunter

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That second half was not a good performance and we were hanging on for the last 20 minutes. The Spurs game was not good either but that was a much better team at the end of a run of games.

I'm not necessarily saying the honeymoon is over, but I've felt (as have many others) that the fresh take on things and the smiles and positivity wouldn't do the job forever and there's going to come a time when he needs to get the hair dryer out, so to speak.

I think it might be that time; he needs to rid some bad habits from the squad and not allow us to go from cruising to being under the hammer.
Let’s bash the team for winning a match and going 7 games unbeaten. Last manager used those tactics very effectively.

I don’t know why people believe that grown up adults need a rollicking to move their arse. There could be thousands of reasons why we didn’t do well in the second half but every one will assume that the players “didn’t try hard enough”.

Very surprised to see the reaction.
 

AR87

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Let’s bash the team for winning a match and going 7 games unbeaten. Last manager used those tactics very effectively.

I don’t know why people believe that grown up adults need a rollicking to move their arse. There could be thousands of reasons why we didn’t do well in the second half but every one will assume that the players “didn’t try hard enough”.

Very surprised to see the reaction.
Right and he can just do it privately if he feels the need to.
 

Rado_N

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Let’s bash the team for winning a match and going 7 games unbeaten. Last manager used those tactics very effectively.

I don’t know why people believe that grown up adults need a rollicking to move their arse. There could be thousands of reasons why we didn’t do well in the second half but every one will assume that the players “didn’t try hard enough”.

Very surprised to see the reaction.
What does any of that have to do with what I said?
 

The Stain

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Needed to make subs earlier to get more energy into our pressing. Was obvious.
 

Mindhunter

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What does any of that have to do with what I said?
You asked Ole to bring out the hairdryer - for a team that won 7 straight games after a disastrous run. The answer to everything is not the manager throwing a tantrum.
 

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I felt that he bottled the subs today, we should have made changes a lot earlier as our tempo was dropping significantly. I also felt that Rashford should have been taken off instead of Martial and Sanchez should have come on for Lingard. This would have enabled us to still press from the front and have fresh players on the counter.
 

BluesJr

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The team aren’t as fit as they should be that’s pretty clear and that’s on the previous clown we had.

That said, these players still need to learn to be a bit more ruthless in those 2-0 type situations. That must never slip, it could have today.
 

SwansonsTache

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I think this might be down to personnel, and their inabillity to keep any sort of defensive structure. We have a worse defence than any of the top 6, with the exception of Arsenal.

Lindelöf has come on leaps and bounds, but he is not a leader or organizer. We only need to look at Liverpool to see what having one of those can do.
 

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I thought the same thing about half way through the second half, but I'd actually go one further: I think the honeymoon period is over. The momentum from the early games has worn off now, and we're starting to look human again. Now it's time for Ole to showcase his tactical nous, and show us if he's really up to the task of taking this job on full-time.
 

bosnian_red

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Nobody is dominant every game. You go a run of games winning youre going to have slower performances or whatever. Today was excellent and fully dominant til their goal out of nothing, and then it got nervy to hold on in the last 20. Nothing too unexpected, nothing to overreact about. We arent a flawless team obviously and need to improve, but theres not all that much to draw from this game. Was still dominant for 3/4 of the game. Better finishing and we wouldve been out of sight.
 

LuisNaniencia

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That second half was not a good performance and we were hanging on for the last 20 minutes. The Spurs game was not good either but that was a much better team at the end of a run of games.

I'm not necessarily saying the honeymoon is over, but I've felt (as have many others) that the fresh take on things and the smiles and positivity wouldn't do the job forever and there's going to come a time when he needs to get the hair dryer out, so to speak.

I think it might be that time; he needs to rid some bad habits from the squad and not allow us to go from cruising to being under the hammer.
Don't you think it's a question of fitness rather than application? The Matić, Pogba, Herrera midfield has lots of quality on the ball but lacks energy come 70 mins. My biggest criticism of the team would be missing chances at 2-0 today.
 

Andy_Cole

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I felt that he bottled the subs today, we should have made changes a lot earlier as our tempo was dropping significantly. I also felt that Rashford should have been taken off instead of Martial and Sanchez should have come on for Lingard. This would have enabled us to still press from the front and have fresh players on the counter.
Think there’s a reason Sanchez didn’t come on. Assuming still not fully fit.
 

Kush

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Let’s bash the team for winning a match and going 7 games unbeaten. Last manager used those tactics very effectively.

I don’t know why people believe that grown up adults need a rollicking to move their arse. There could be thousands of reasons why we didn’t do well in the second half but every one will assume that the players “didn’t try hard enough”.

Very surprised to see the reaction.
Have you even read what the OP said? He's raising some very valid points, we have a tendency to become complacent. It can be seen when we are up by 2 goals, players start trying fancy flicks/tricks, try to play cute passes and generally delay the play. One cock-up from Jones and it was an entirely different match in the end. What OP is saying we need to learn to manage the game better because we resort to old habits after an hour of play, we should've smashed Brighton today.
 

bondsname

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Needed to make subs earlier to get more energy into our pressing. Was obvious.
I bet Ole knows this and thought the exact same thing, but didn't have any options on the bench. We need reliable and class players from the bench which we currently don't have. Subbing Matic or Herrera off for Pereira would be a risky move for example.
 

noodlehair

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We played really well against spurs and just panicked in the last 25 minutes. Today wasn't so good but still an awful lot better than earlier in the season, and I thought we were comfortably the better team.

I don't think it's realistic to expect us to play teams off the park every week. Particularly not when we defend how we do. Nerves are always going to set in at certain times. Plus we're at a level where one player missing or having an off day can make a big difference.

Lingard could have come off a lot sooner. That's the only criticism is have of Ole.
 

Raees

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I’m not sure if a bollocking is what is in order but agree with the gist of your post @Rado_N.

I think the issue is a mixture of fitness and lack there of (we seem to have been running on adrenaline and now our fitness work under Jose is exposed once again) we don’t seem to be able to keep intensity up through entire game and tactically - the team needs to defend high up the pitch and as a team, we are far too easy to get through and IMO sitting off and being passive will only create more problems.
 

Hugh Jass

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We were not pressing today like we did against Cardiff and Newcastle. I can understand the second half against spurs.

Granted if we had taken our chances earlier on, the game would have been comfortable.

Felt as well some players were taking the mickey with some of the things they were doing we they should have been more professional.
 

Kag

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Another poster said this and they’re right. You wouldn’t be mistaken for thinking that today’s second half had been teleported from any time between 2010 and 2012. Very late-Ferguson performance. Which wasn’t good enough then either (performance-wise).

The second half wasn’t good enough and Ole will be aware of this. That said, better finishing and the game would have been over much earlier.
 

JohnnyKills

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Wouldn't be surprised if we change the entire front three for Arsenal. Sánchez and Lukaku should certainly start.
 

charlenefan

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Fecking hell this place, just won 7 games in a row and yet it's been poor for a few games now

Some fans deserved Mourinho, they just cannot stop moaning
 

AgentP

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Lingard could have killed the game with a tap-in. We just became a little complacent towards the end.
 

Andrew~

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That second half was not a good performance and we were hanging on for the last 20 minutes. The Spurs game was not good either but that was a much better team at the end of a run of games.

I'm not necessarily saying the honeymoon is over, but I've felt (as have many others) that the fresh take on things and the smiles and positivity wouldn't do the job forever and there's going to come a time when he needs to get the hair dryer out, so to speak.

I think it might be that time; he needs to rid some bad habits from the squad and not allow us to go from cruising to being under the hammer.
Not sure he needs to give the hairdryer as such, but he does need to make sure he gets the message across because the intensity of earlier games wasn't there today. Even and 2-0, I think Ole probably needed to be more proactive and make some tactical (and maybe personnel) changes in order to make the late second half less nervy.
 

Paxi

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I completely agree. We looked lacklustre today, some real sloppy play, laissez-faire attitude to losing the ball and winning it back. We switched off and allowed Albion back into the game. I hope Ole gives the players a bollocking, I hope he really has that in him.
 

Canagel

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It's not complacency or lack of effort. It's fitness. Before we would be starting games half asleep and having to come back and rescue points when it came to throwing caution to the wind and the original game plan had to go out of window. now we actually have a structure and game plan but the team is not stable enough in the defensive phase to carry out full 90 minutes . There's a clear difference. Partly because we aren't rotating much but mainly the team is still adapting to a new style of play. We have to remember were we came from, looking clueless in attack. It's a big step forward. The next step is to put 90 minutes together at same intensity and could be until next season after addressing some limitations in the market that it comes to fruition.
 
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ArmchairCritic

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All today showed was we still have players in positions that are not up to scratch. Better full-backs and centre-back not called Phil Jones will help us a lot.
 

Shark

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Been a bit poor for a few games now. Disappointing.
Disappointing, get out of here :lol:

Beat Spurs on their own patch and now beat a team that's caused us problems since being promoted. Not to mention we leapfrogged Arsenal, a team we looked hopeless in catching at the time Jose was sacked. To be disappointed is ridiculous, sorry.
 

Flexdegea

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It's as if people can't remember United during even the Fergie years.........many a home game every season where at the end they just did enough.

It's nothing new or any sort of indictment of ole.


Only issue I see is clearly the team no at the right level to play the full 90 at high intensity, pre season can prob only sort this out for this.


Incredible form at the moment all things considered looking at the team he took over and were they where mentally and on the pitch.
 

breakout67

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This has been obvious for over a season. This team shits itself when put under pressure, due to a lack of organisation and calmness at the back. This leads to us being camped in our own half because we flood numbers back to try to make up.

I don't think Ole can do anything about it though. Baldy has been buying £50m defenders galore to get it sorted, the Gorilla from Anfield broke the world record fee to sort his defensive problems out.
 

worldinmotion66

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Behave!

We looked so dangerous at the start of the second half, and should have put the game to bed. We always look under huge pressure when teams play direct and pen us in, we don't have the aerial domination of other top sides at the back and that's a separate issue. We also had a number of decent breaks where the decision making was awful. We'd have scored more on another day.
 

Kag

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Nobody is dominant every game. You go a run of games winning youre going to have slower performances or whatever. Today was excellent and fully dominant til their goal out of nothing, and then it got nervy to hold on in the last 20. Nothing too unexpected, nothing to overreact about. We arent a flawless team obviously and need to improve, but theres not all that much to draw from this game. Was still dominant for 3/4 of the game. Better finishing and we wouldve been out of sight.
Pretty much. The bar has been set quite high given our first few games. We’re going to encounter problems and have sticky moments in matches. That said, today was still a largely solid performance against a side that has caused other top teams problems.

I think some people are waiting for us to drop points so they can say ‘see, we still need to improve’. Well bloody never...
 

JPRouve

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Why would the hair dryer be an option? It's not a question of effort or attitude, Tottenham are a better team and like Scholes mentioned before Ole's first game, the team hasn't been prepared for that type of football, the fitness and built of the team doesn't match with Ole's football, so we will have to first build that fitness and secondly try to do with a squad that isn't ideal.
 

Pughnichi

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Needed to make subs earlier to get more energy into our pressing. Was obvious.
Only frustration for me so far. Seems to wait a touch too long for subs. It was as clear as day at 60 mins that either complacency was setting in. Or perhaps they were reverting to type under Mourinho and still getting heads around change. Or playing the press under Ole they were tiring. Either way, Changes should have been made sooner. Sanchez if fully fit. Thought Pogba was looking particulry tired.
 

Mindhunter

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Have you even read what the OP said? He's raising some very valid points, we have a tendency to become complacent. It can be seen when we are up by 2 goals, players start trying fancy flicks/tricks, try to play cute passes and generally delay the play. One cock-up from Jones and it was an entirely different match in the end. What OP is saying we need to learn to manage the game better because we resort to old habits after an hour of play, we should've smashed Brighton today.
Yes, I have read the OP. It raises a problem, that is genuine but immediately assumes that the reason this is happening is because the players may not be trying hard enough after 70 mins.

Then proposes a solution that Solskjær should show his mettle and give the team a rollicking which would magically improve the performance.

It is a facile approach and you know it. It didn’t work for the last manager and the environment became toxic. Instead of passing judgement, Solksjaer should talk to the team, analyse what he is seeing and hearing and come to the bottom of the issue.

The immediate assumption that grown up professionals always need a hair-dryer when they aren’t performing is archaic.
 

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You asked Ole to bring out the hairdryer - for a team that won 7 straight games after a disastrous run. The answer to everything is not the manager throwing a tantrum.
I don't think that's what he was saying at all. I think his point was more the fact that the fairy dust has settled, and the results from here on out will be a more accurate reflection of Ole's true managerial ability. Basically, the honeymoon period is over, and this is where we find out whether or not he's worth his salt.