Ole obviously expects the players to be on the front foot, press and string attacks together with pace but the squad has been put together by a combination of negative managers who were more about defensive shape than seeing skilful players express themselves and run.
Sure enough after a few weeks of watching us play with a higher intensity the injuries piled up and killed most of our momentum halfway through the Liverpool game.
Also I think fluking our way through the PSG game was probably asking for trouble when you have a dressing room sprinkled with weak mentality and players that seem to prefer looking cool to working hard.
Is Ole the best manager in the world? Probably not. Will we be contention for much next season? Probably not, but I expect to be watching a different kind of United come the end of next season. Hopefully one with some more likeable players who can at the very least match opponents effort every game.
It hasn't gone wrong for Ole as he hasn't really started yet, he's not even had a pre season to drill the players let alone a couple of transfer windows to start sorting the squad out. Give the guy a chance.
Players have downed tools again, but probably not because of Ole, but because they want to leave this summer and are no longer committed.
Maybe the mole at the club leaked to the players which one's of them Ole has decided aren't part of his plans going forward. Guess that's another possibility.
I think time is more likely to prove you right about Ole than wrong, but I don't think the drop in performances really comes down to him. He inherited a group of players who either aren't good enough or can't be bothered or both. I'd be surprised if he did turn out to be a long term success but I don't blame him for where we are right now
Complacency by manager mostly and players minimally.
Lack of Confidenceto Manager by players later on.
Influential supporting reasons --> Ole's bizarre decision makings and many players usual behaviors of downing tools when they have problems with the manager.
CL/ Manchester United 3-1 PSG
The match that started the complacent effect to the players and especially more imo to the managers.
EPL/ Manchester United 2-0 Arse
Matic back from injury, clearly not fit enough for big games.
Ole decided to go autoMatic, first sign of complacency by manager?
Midfield of Pogba-Matic-Fred never worked.
Finishing is so bad and I got the impression our players are just playing around not serious, first sign of complacency by players?
Manager only used 2 subs. I believe this has negative effect to the team, the first one that started it. We're losing and basically Ole is saying he don't trust the other players left on the bench and trusting the players playing in a messy way not even close to getting a comeback.
FAC/ Manchester United 1-2 Wolves
Herrera back from injury, clearly not match fit.
Ole decided to go with Pogba-Matic-Herrera... so bad, Matic still looking to have rough fitness.
Ole and the coaches just sit on their bums while letting the players be.
The starting tactic continues in the 2nd half and so far clearly not working with our players struggling against Wolves.
Wolves grow in the match and gaining momentum, getting closer and closer.
Manager still let things be.
Wolves open the lock, and only then... Tch embarassing.
Anyway Ole only made changes after Wolves score and more changes after Wolves scored another.
Ole clearly admired Matic for him to last until almost the 90th mins is just bizarre.
Rashford pulled one back late in the dying mins.
EPL/ Manchester United 2-1 Watford
Good response by the players.
Ole insist on Herrera and Matic starting, still not match fit enough, our midfield got ran over.
Thankfully we pulled two goals back.
EPL/ Manchester United 1-2 Wolves
Finally Ole learned. Herrera and Matic rested.
Pogba-Fred-McT worked early on.
Starting tactics also worked with 5 defenders now and WB system to combat Wolves.
But unfortunately Ole lose the tactical game later on as Wolves adapted to ours.
Fred is the only doing the defensive cover with McT instructed to attack up high.
Wolves exposed us and we lose to the better team tactically.
Players getting frustrated and likely losing trust to manager continues here.
CL/ Manchester United 0-1 Barcelona
Ole made the right spot-on tactical and players selections decisions, which I believe restored some players trust and confidence to him.
Rashford and Lukaku are just so bad here, are they even trying?
EPL/ Manchester United 2-1 West Ham
Fair game.
The easiest one we had around this tough schedule.
CL/ Manchester United 0-3 Barcelona
Suicide tactics.
Only Fred to cover defense, with McT instructed to be high up the pitch, with us only having other 4 defenders.. Ole being naive.
From this match and so on, many players I believe just lost trust in Ole and started willingly or not downing their tools. Many of 'em still tried of course.
Our Forwards clearly stopped trying.
Pogba is clearly frustrated.
EPL/ Manchester United 0-4 Everton
Pure ridiculous by Ole, didn't learned his mistakes.
Pogba-Matic-Fred again which time and time gain showed they're so bad together.
Forwards are also embarassing, doubt they're even trying.
Ole dropped Herrera out completely likely because of the PSG rumour and contract issue <-- I believe this has negative effects on the team, manager will drop even the hardworking Herrera for asking better contract and likely agent using PSG to seal the deal. Pogba's probably the one that gets affected the most by this subtle statement by the manager.
Players continue losing their confidence and trust to manager.
EPL/ Manchester United 0-2 City
Skip, clearly the better team win.
Ole decided to dropped McTominay out completely, not even on bench for this is game is bizarre and I don't buy his "McT is not fit" story.
Fair to set-up 5 defenders system.
Fine 1st half but in the 2nd half especially after City score, many players just stopped trying. Subs are also rubbish.
EPL/ Manchester United 1-1 Chelsea
Ole call back Herrera and we see the improvements.
Not enough though, many players just stopped trying at this point. Martial didn't hide his frustrations in this pre-game.
EPL/ Manchester United 1-1 Huddersfield
We're on a long run of bad form.
Many players also clearly downing their tools here.
Overconfidence and well Ole are still giving chances to deadwood players eg. Sanchez is just pure amazing. Trustworthy manager
Yeah so I did a review on the games watching match reports and highlights, trying to find out where it all started...
1. So it's not the players that are being mainly complacency and all. Ole started to make bizarre decisions after the PSG comeback winning, sign of him being complacent.
2. Ole made the midfield mess decisions leading to a drop of services to the forwards. Defense eventually gets affected. Lossof confidence and form.
3. Downing tools. Many Players started to drop their games later on likely because they can't trust this rookie manager continue making those bizarre decisions.
4. And Ole actually did learned some of his mistakes, evidence from his later decisions. But still making many unreasonable decisions.
5. We actually have a clear system under Ole at first, then he changed it multiple times still trying to find one best system considering the circumstances of his fav players getting injuries, Herrera's contract problems, his favorite attacking force drop of forms and the bad forms later on.
Formation
Main favourite: 4-3-3/diamond formation with Pogba-Matic-Herrera and Martial-Lingard-Rashford (this is his favourites, and he tried to get this back but immaturely too rush eg. Matic and Herrera back from injury being rushed clearly not fit. He also stopped this when the Herrera' contract issue started and repalced Herrera with Fred, which spectacularly failed yet Ole insist on Pogba-Matic-Fred to works... should've switch Herrera with Mctominay, better choice. Also he stopped this when Lingard and Martial were injured and had bad forms afterwards.) He continue to rely with formation this later on with different forward combinations but failed.
Vs some teams 5-3-2 or 4-5-1 or 3-5-2 (the formation evolves in different phases atttacking/defending) eg. PSG, Barca, Wolves, City, he'll change it to a more secured/defensive formation for better chance head-to-head.
Vs weaker teams: 4-4-2 which only works once vs West Ham.
That may sounds simple, but Ole actually changes his system a lot in games. From the very start when he took over as caretaker manager, he consistently change it in games.
First clear system, Ole the Caretaker
4-3-3 is his default tactics with false RW, but it'll change when he sub out the front three. Also vs top team eg. Liverpool or Spurs, it'll be diamond with Lingard at #10.
So don't expect Ole to stick with one formation and one system the full 90 mins.
Teamplay
Usually attacking posession but can be sudden counter attacking in big games.
Still actually High Press but later on players downed their tools so you've got a messy team pressing.
Supposed to be short passing but Ole's player selections just are not helping, so later on Young and Shaw are given license to play more long balls.
Maintain fluidity with the front two or three interchange their positions.
Pogba early on focus more on attacking, but later on started to play more holding deep-passer role.
Some players will also be given special roles eg. Dalot and McTominay.
6. When did the mess started?
Popular opinion is the PSG comeback win game that started it all.
I agree but not the players being complacent, it's the rookie manager in a big club --> Ole being complacent, started to make this many naive decisions. Not all of his decisions are bad of course.
For me it's the Barca suicide game (2nd leg) that started it where most players downing their tools intentionally and not intentionally, based from their trust and confidence to the manager's capabilities. Look, I also criticized the players a lot as they deserved it, but let's not ignore they're still human beings. If your driver is driving the squad to the storm or iceberg and if your boss is just clearly lacking in the skills with no signs of learning, how can your players trust you. Naturally or intentionally, that lack of confidence and trust will affects team morale and then resulting in team performance dropping. Some players naturally but unwillingly will dropped their game, and the others intentionally dropped their efforts.
That said, I'm not forgiving most of the players for clearly stopped trying in the latter games since there are still players who still gave it their all despite that, and I think these players are those who are not affected by the whatever the driver/manager's decision makings are and will continue focusing on giving it their all (at least for this season) -- McTominay, Herrera, Lindelof, Fred, Andreas Pereira, Matic, Smalling, Bailly and Jones. I see these players were still playing to how they normally play and of course we know the latter 6 players have limitations and problems.
7. Tough Schedule.
Let's not forget those fixtures, we have..
6 games vs Top Teams
4 games vs decent mid-table teams.
2 games vs weak teams.
You’re spot on about the lack of service to the forwards which is no doubt frustrating them immensely especially as they get a lot of the blame from fans who don’t realize how difficult goals are under such circumstances. I noticed it especially in the city game, as even counter attacks were undermanned and lacking in proper midfield or defensive support/follow up. Pretty obvious too, even not watching the games when you consider the amount of goals or shots on target just recently.
I'm sure this has been discussed but I didn't see a thread for it, so forgive me if one already exists.
Before I start I just want to say I am not bashing Ole, I adore the man, I just cannot wrap my head around how things could go from so good to so bad in the blink of an eye. Up until after the PSG game we were absolutely flying, we were playing attacking football, scoring goals and our top players were on song. However ever since that famous night in Paris we have fallen back into a state of misery that has followed us since Sir Alex retired, the football is rubbish, the results are bad and the future that looked so bright only a few months ago now looks as bleak as ever. How is this possible? I didn't expect us to be brilliant all season under Ole, but I certainly didn't expect this collapse either. Have the players stopped playing for Ole? Why play for him in the first place then. Have teams quickly started to figure out how to play against us? Has everyone just stopped caring? My mind is going crazy trying to figure out a reason for this madness.
I'm starting to think the players performed initially due to Mourinho mountain of misery being lifted from the club. But since then, have realize that they are being managed by a guy who belongs in the Norweigen league managing players who are divide their day jobs as fishermen, with being part time footballers, despite Ole being the loveliest guy ever.
But last time we gave a guy a massive contract based on being the loveliest guy ever, all we got each week was a really nice weekly blog, and endless invisible performances.
I've honestly lost faith in Ole if he can't get at least a draw home to Cardiff with the players he's got today.
I really feel badly for Ole. He was put into a position that was untenable. He was not ready for this. Woodward should be fired simply for jumping the gun with the permanent appointment.
The players are bottle merchants and very average footballers at best
We beat some cannon fodder during the new manager bounce and we got some extraordinary luck in games against Spurs, Chelsea, PSG and Arsenal
I would say our squad is probably the 6th-8th best in the league in terms of talent. I would say in terms of application and attitude we are one of the worst
Can't possibly say our team is worse than a relegated team. We have no mid-week distraction no international duty, both clubs want to close the office.
Even under Mourinho we played like a mid-table team like Watford.
It ‘went wrong’ way before he joined. This is the same collection of individuals (not a team) that were piss poor under a far more experienced manager.
Plus, for DDG and few others it’s been a long 2 seasons with the WC in the middle.
Whilst I’m not trying to give them all an excuse, a few do need a break.
OGS needs to be very clear from today however, on what he expects from them when they come back ready for a season that they need to perform better in.
I’m not that optimistic about next season yet. Not even about the summer! I have very little faith in anything changing for a few years yet.
This team is not very good but I am more worried that it will be even worse next year. Our better players are looking for a way out and we will find it difficult to attract decent players in the close season. Like it or not Utd do not have that magic about them anymore and are looked on by the owners as " a source of income " We are now on a long and difficult journey before we get anywhere near our former position, if we ever do! However long it takes I am sure I will not be around to see it at my age.
All I can say it has been a very interesting journey for me to watch Utd from the late 1950s to the present day but the last six to seven years have been far and away the worst I have ever seen and what has happened this season is no great surprise. I will always support Utd. it is part of my life but I don't see me ever getting the enjoyment I once got from this once magnificent club.
I was a big Solskjaer fan, and still is. I believe Ole's past has experiences from the successful period that can be harvested from.
And I believe he can create it with a little time and the right set of players.
So why did Ole initially succeed and then failed?
First Ole experienced record breaking good performance, then record breaking bad performance.
I believe it has to do at least 50% with the squad psychology/morale. Then other 50% is a mix of opponents being tactical aware of the new playing style, player physical fatigue, expected goals statistics evening out etc.
So let's talk about player morale.
The big dramatic change in performances with the currect squad, has proven that this is mostly a psychological defect.
The squad have displayed a manic/depressive/narcissistic/snowflake mind set when the tide turned. And Solskjaer is partly to bless and blame:
Because Ole's praise of the squad lifted their self belief above their abilities for a while. So why did they fall down so hard?
The part of the success is also a big part of the problem:
Ole lifted the squad with a lot of positive (partly delusional) mantras:
Eg.
1) wearing a United shirt on the pitch means you have abundant talent
2) the club has traditions of good results, and therefore should naturally be a contender for winning whatever again. (Like magic)
3) United always bouce back after a loss
4) United always finish the season strong
Ole made the public statements about the club and player traditions in a way that the players themselves could mistakenly believe that this could magically happen without putting in 100% of their own effort.
Solskjaer's praise made initially everyone perform, narcissists or not, they all started believing in Ole's pep talk (when the results were good);
The squad believed that they were good because they were United players, not the other way around.
The initial praise (and luck according to Xgoals statistics) created a false sense of security and belief which created better self belief and better performance.
When (expected goals) statistics finally corrected/evened out, as statistics always will, Ole's positive mantras from the press conferences started falling flat:
Big players are often big egoes. Big egoes are often big narcissists. Narcissists like nothing more than someone praising them. They will not hear about reality check. That's a complete insult to a narcissist.
(I will not put labels on spesific players, but clearly many squad players carry the narcissistic traits if you know the signs.)
Any squad can only take so many narcisist before it get toxic. And they are the worst poision when things are not good. Because they never fault themselves, but will blame other team members or managers tactics.
So the toxic player/players group which are narcisists have lost respect/trust in Ole:
- They can fault his pep-talk statements for not being true (even if they are the one supposed to work for the results, but again narcissists don't follow that train of thoughts)
- They have been told to take a reality check. Worst thing to say to a narcissist.
- Ole is concidered having a weak persona by a narcissist, which only respect other big-ego narcissists, or persons praising them.
The fact that Ole is a sympath, not a narcisist, which many big managers are, is at this stage working against him.
Because narcissists work the mind games far better than normal people. And they can't be changed. They only thrive under success, but they have to be a part of producing that success themselves.
At the moment the narcissistic force of the player group has proven to be to strong, and has to be reduced.
Normal talents will only take so much from narcissists before they want to move on. It's like this for all workers in all areas.
Ole has talked a lot about getting the players with the right personality. So he is aware of it.
I believe that narcissistic managers, maybe like our two previous ones, don't have the same antennas for avoiding narcissistic colleagues and employees. Simply because they don't see anything wrong about people having abundance of self confidence.
Well, the problem is now straight in our faces. Because when the going gets tough, narcissists will always be the ones to feck up and blaming everyone else, creating the toxic atmosphere. Most people have experienced it and know what I talk about.
Ole need to sort it out, getting a healthy core of intelligent hard working non-narcissistic players with the skill set matching his tactics.
And never accept narcissism to root and rot the core of the club again.
Then we will have a squad again, that will fight for the shirt, the club, and all the rest of us. Not primarily for their own ambitions sake.
For what it's worth I feel that the one thing we achieved this season is to get to see the core of the problem, which now can finally be adressed properly.
Restore core values with a team respecting the club above anything. Put together a team that is fighting every minute in all games. Then I can start enjoy watching again and feel proud to support this club.
Obviously Poch looks like a no brainer in hindsight, but we should remember the reasons that everyone was ademant Ole got the job.
Now he needs to demand that he is backed to sign the players he and his staff want, if the Glazers/Woodward arent willing to do that, he should walk away immediately.
Surely someone has to mention the individual errors by De Gea here.
It was all going perfectly until that Granit Xhaka shot.
Then followed error after error.
In a game of such fine margins, I don't think it's an exaggeration to say those errors cost us a top 4 place.
If we had of got top 4, from where we were when Jose left, then people would now be calling Ole a genius, as I say, fine margins.
BTW, I am not for one second saying that the recent terrible run of form is solely down to De Gea but I would say he was massively culpable in it.
Yet, which is why I feel the need to say it, if you read the many many articles and posts written about what went wrong for Ole, you barely see De Geas name mentioned, in fact most people seem to feel sorry for him because he's not currently getting paid enough (literally the first I've ever heard that excuse being made for any footballer).
Whilst we had a bit of luck during Ole's first few games, more notably against Spurs, we won some really challenging games, against top opponents, and all in all, put in some really good performances, in my opinion.
Whilst I don't condone our transfer strategy, in that I feel we have yet again left it too late to sort things out, is our squad really as poor as people point out?
Is Ole not going all out on transfers because he actually trusts our squads ability? Did we only fall off because we got tired, complacent or lacked confidence, having lost a couple on the bounce?
I personally don't believe a team can go on the kind of run we did, beating the type of teams we beat, without having ability.
If, and its a big if our players take to Ole's training methods and up their fitness to the required levels to press more or less or game i.e. Liverpool, Spurs, City, then can we compete?
Don't get me wrong, as I said, I do still think we need more players in of better quality, but we've put up good performances against top teams and that doesn't go overnight.
You're only as good as you're last game, and because we finished the season losing to the likes of Everton, Cardiff and drawing to Huddersfield, of course people are going to really question our team, but that is exactly the same team that beat the likes of Spurs, Chelsea and Arsenal away.
Whilst we had a bit of luck during Ole's first few games, more notably against Spurs, we won some really challenging games, against top opponents, and all in all, put in some really good performances, in my opinion.
Whilst I don't condone our transfer strategy, in that I feel we have yet again left it too late to sort things out, is our squad really as poor as people point out?
Is Ole not going all out on transfers because he actually trusts our squads ability? Did we only fall off because we got tired, complacent or lacked confidence, having lost a couple on the bounce?
I personally don't believe a team can go on the kind of run we did, beating the type of teams we beat, without having ability.
If, and its a big if our players take to Ole's training methods and up their fitness to the required levels to press more or less or game i.e. Liverpool, Spurs, City, then can we compete?
Don't get me wrong, as I said, I do still think we need more players in of better quality, but we've put up good performances against top teams and that doesn't go overnight.
You're only as good as you're last game, and because we finished the season losing to the likes of Everton, Cardiff and drawing to Huddersfield, of course people are going to really question our team, but that is exactly the same team that beat the likes of Spurs, Chelsea and Arsenal away.
Both views are very convincing. Your view that the players tired, injuries, and contract situations played a role. But the other view that Ole is inexperienced, and the good games were just the "new manager effect", is difficult to ignore.
I think most fans are probably hoping for the best, rather than expecting it right now and that is rather depressing for a club of our financial clout.
It was never going right to begin with. It worked brilliantly when he was doing what he was brought in for: being nice to the players, building them up a bit, just being a familiar face, good relationship with the fans etc. He didn't have to worry about player contracts or signings or long term philosophies.
But, as expected, the fans and the media deluded themselves and hyped him up and gave Woodward/the board a fecking get out of jail free card for them to install as manager what (should have been obvious to all) would just be a total patsy, a fall guy, a 'Moyes with more goodwill'. An easy vehicle for them to lower expectations by sleight of hand using a the "club legend becomes hero manager" narrative who promotes young domestic talents, who would literally bleed and die for the club, rather than those nasty continental players who don't work as hard or something.
And football players may generally be a suit or two short of a full deck of cards, but they're not total morons. They can see that United under Ole with this new transfer ethos is a doomed enterprise and the smarter ones/better ones/ones with smarter agents are no doubt ensuring they keep well clear of it.
It was never going right to begin with. It worked brilliantly when he was doing what he was brought in for: being nice to the players, building them up a bit, just being a familiar face, good relationship with the fans etc. He didn't have to worry about player contracts or signings or long term philosophies.
But, as expected, the fans and the media deluded themselves and hyped him up and gave Woodward/the board a fecking get out of jail free card for them to install as manager what (should have been obvious to all) would just be a total patsy, a fall guy, a 'Moyes with more goodwill'. An easy vehicle for them to lower expectations by sleight of hand using a the "club legend becomes hero manager" narrative who promotes young domestic talents, who would literally bleed and die for the club, rather than those nasty continental players who don't work as hard or something.
And football players may generally be a suit or two short of a full deck of cards, but they're not total morons. They can see that United under Ole with this new transfer ethos is a doomed enterprise and the smarter ones/better ones/ones with smarter agents are no doubt ensuring they keep well clear of it.
It was never going right to begin with. It worked brilliantly when he was doing what he was brought in for: being nice to the players, building them up a bit, just being a familiar face, good relationship with the fans etc. He didn't have to worry about player contracts or signings or long term philosophies.
But, as expected, the fans and the media deluded themselves and hyped him up and gave Woodward/the board a fecking get out of jail free card for them to install as manager what (should have been obvious to all) would just be a total patsy, a fall guy, a 'Moyes with more goodwill'. An easy vehicle for them to lower expectations by sleight of hand using a the "club legend becomes hero manager" narrative who promotes young domestic talents, who would literally bleed and die for the club, rather than those nasty continental players who don't work as hard or something.
And football players may generally be a suit or two short of a full deck of cards, but they're not total morons. They can see that United under Ole with this new transfer ethos is a doomed enterprise and the smarter ones/better ones/ones with smarter agents are no doubt ensuring they keep well clear of it.
Yeah this opinion makes a lot of sense. However, in my opinion, I feel some are being too harsh on Ole. While I can understand those who are cautious as to how much of an effect he actually had on the footballing side of our early rejuvenation, his smile and being a familiar face was surely not enough to get the results we did early on.
I feel we got very lucky (Spurs game stands out in particular), but you make your own luck. We were very disciplined until the last half hour or so in the game and could easily have been 3 up going into those anxious last few minutes. The Liverpool game was another which showed his good in game management - Ole simply ran out of luck in that game. How often do you see as many injuries at the start of a game as we did that day? It completely ruined his game plan and to get a point that day was great. The Arsenal game was the first where we lost a game we should have won - Lukaku puts away any of his chances and we're winning that game easily. If my memory serves me right that was also the start of De Gea's howler show towards the end of the season, another extremely unlucky point.
To cut this short, I feel we've got to give him a chance - and by a chance I mean stand behind Ole more than we did with Moyes, Van Gaal and Mourinho. Yes he doesn't have the experience, but how did experience help his three predecessors? Ironically, their experience turned into stubbornness which meant once the going went tough and a few players or fans revolted, they never changed their 'philosophy' and left us in a worse position than when they took over. Obiously Van Gaal is an exception, but anyone coming after Moyes was going to seem successful - an FA Cup and Champions League football should not be seen as success at Manchester United, simple as that.
So in answer to @Walters_19_MuFc yes I definitely think we'll do much better next season, if only living off the hope that fitness levels, injuries and contractual issues played a massive role in Ole 'running out of luck.' We need to sort out the situation with Pogba and De Gea. We need world class players like Pogba, but we need them dedicated 100% to the cause. There's no use having world class players who are going to sulk when things aren't going there way - not necessarily a criticism of Pogba but in general; players like Hazard last season come to mind. Basically players who decide when they want to be world class and when they can't really be bothered.
I'd also love to see us take disciplinary action against any players we feel are stirring up any trouble. I disagree with those who think we need to move on from Sir Alex; he may not be the manager but his presence is still there and Ole will be getting as much advice as he wants from him. He also has a great coaching team to work with. I'm cautiously optimistic that we'll at least qualify for the Champions League next season and, depending on who we sign and who leaves, I feel we can go as far as coming close to a title challenge next season.
My optimism may be seen as blind optimism (it is!) but I prefer to be positive and hope for the best. Get behind the team. When it gets tough, support with constructive criticism. We finally have a man at the helm who doesn't seem stubborn or stuck in his ways and so, rather than complain about how much he lacks experience and how poor his tactical approach might be, I look at games like the PSG one and remember that football includes an element of luck. Again, it's luck which you make for yourself. We did it in '99 against Munich. Hopefully we can do it in 2020 on as many fronts as possible.
Both views are very convincing. Your view that the players tired, injuries, and contract situations played a role. But the other view that Ole is inexperienced, and the good games were just the "new manager effect", is difficult to ignore.
I think most fans are probably hoping for the best, rather than expecting it right now and that is rather depressing for a club of our financial clout.
Is that even a thing, though, and if it is, it still means the players need the ability to not only raise their physical game, but also be technically and tactically good enough to carry out orders of the manager.
For example, a team in the lower half of the table might appoint a new manager, but lose to a team in the top half, who has had the same manager all season, because they're simply not good enough, despite putting in maximum effort.
I also don't believe that the 'new manager effect' would have lasted for 2/3 months. It's normally just a few games.
Either way, as I said, the players have shown what level they play at if/when they put their mind to it, and I think it's a case of Ole not only getting them to the required fitness level, but also keeping the squad motivated.
Yeah so I did a review on the games watching match reports and highlights, trying to find out where it all started...