Ole Gunnar Solskjær | 2021/22 Discussion

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Clear as day we don't have the players forward of the defense to play the way Ole wants. Back him, hope our stars (and future stars, ie James) stay.

No reason to be pessimistic when we just destroyed Chelsea by 4.
 
There are always games that you feck up and have "those games where nothing goes quite right". Even with Fergie when we were the best team around. It happens. And I completely disagree, we are not 5th to 8th bracket, very clearly there is not much between the top 4 challengers outside of Liverpool and City but we'll see how the season turns out. I'm pretty confident we'll finish 4th. I mean, we did also just 2 weeks ago beat a fellow top 4 challenger 4-0. Though I guess people on here forget instantly.

And yes, we aren't a world class team. We have a very young team that is growing, developing and progressing, but we'll be inconsistent... Ultimately I think we'll be good enough to make it. Just have to wait and see though. Important to not overreact though and see things as they really are. Like if Pogba and Rashford put away their penalties, we're on 4 points more already. Individual mistakes that just need to stop happening, but sometimes you get a run like that and all we can do is push through.
How many times have you read this on the Caf for the last 6 years. If it keeps happening again and again then it is because the team and the coaching is not good enough.
 
Jose wasn't underachieving with this squad, he massively overachieved in 17/18 and made people actually believe we had the quality to be right behind City.

I don't think he 'massively overachieved' because l still think we had the 3rd or 4th best squad in the league but we had one the best mangers, now we have a weaker squad and the worst manager in the league.
 
It's going to take some turnaround now, considering the context of the summer and end of last season.

If Solskjaer fails, can we finally point the finger where it should go? Ed Woodward and the Glazers.

The guy is clearly operating with both hands tied behind his back,however I hate to say he does the tactical nous too.
 
Against a top team I would accept that but not against Palace at home. We had no idea how to play football.

It does not matter of the team is a top one or not, it can happen against any team. We are much better than we were last year, and there is progress in our game. The quality of the players leave a lot to be desired.
 
If he's going to use his substitutions like he did today, better not to use them at all. Especially Mata for McTominay turned us into a one-man midfield and subsequently gave CP breathing space to exploit in the midfield and precious seconds on the ball. In the end, it gave them all three points too. Greenwood for Lingard made more sense but then again, our main issue was the inability to be creative in between the lines and not the absence of forwards. We possess little quality in terms of creativity in the final third and it's going to hurt us a lot throughout the season but trying to basically bypass the problem by throwing forwards in the box isn't going to bear much fruit. Either Pereira (the only option) or Mata (in this role) would have been preferable IMHO.

I don't agree with the rest of the unfair criticism after these three weeks as i believe that the two missed penalties have cost us precious points and they have made things look worse than they actually are. Despite CP constantly time-wasting and parking the bus, we found the way in the second half to raise the tempo and force our rhythm to the game. This was a desideratum under the previous regimes, not a given.

We are indeed heavily dependent on Pogba to get us going. It's also true that we should not have gone into the season with Lingard, Mata and Pereira as our main orchestrators in the final third. It's also true that we're going to struggle the moment we'll face a major injury crisis. But i feel that this tells more about the club's organization and ambition than it does for the manager's choices.

Long story short, losing all three points can be blamed on Solskjaer. But it's not looking like we're a hopeless case. It's going to be a long struggle for the 4th spot between Arsenal, Chelsea and ourselves.
 
I'm very worried about the phases of play going forward, we attack with no purpose more often than not and our attackers look void of ideas then playing against a solid defensive team.

This will be Oles downfall.
 
Ole living and trying trying to die by the sword. His love in for Jlings will get him sacked.
 
Clear as day we don't have the players forward of the defense to play the way Ole wants. Back him, hope our stars (and future stars, ie James) stay.

No reason to be pessimistic when we just destroyed Chelsea by 4.

Are you serious? that wasn't a 4-0 game at all, nowhere close. Chelsea seem to be pushing on and scoring goals, we've just lost at home miserably to Hodgson' Palace, but let's remain positive.
 
I said it at the end of last season, I'm saying it again. He is out of his depth, and is nowhere near good enough to be a Manchester United manager. He couldn't hack it at Cardiff, his win rate is terrible, and I hope we can get someone that has actually coached at a high level to make us better, because he definitely won't.
 
Might as well back him because nobody else is out there to do a better job.

Woodward and the Glazers don't give a shit off the pitch about what goes on on the pitch so it's not like anyone else will sign any other players if they aren't given the money and January isn't a great time to buy anyway.

We need to change system though and sack off Lingard at the very least. Hope that him being hooked so early for Greenwood is a sign that Ole is learning.
 
I think you can say there were some questionable decisions e.g. sticking with lingard, not bringing on Mata earlier but in reality today was the players mixed with the ref. You can't plan for missing a pen, being denied a pen, potentially being denied a red, gk error, general erratic passing etc. Some of it was a lack of experience/maturity by the players which OGS needs to factor in as he's backed youth but in general the players weren't up to it today. There was definitely enough talent to beat them today.

There is a worrying piece around how creative we are though, we struggle in open play and we don't seem to be working on set pieces. Again you can do all the drills you want but if on the day the players don't perform than that's one thing but I do think that it's hard to see what they've been seeing in training to make them think an established CAM/attacker wasn't needed or CM to push pogba forward.

You make your own luck though. A quality team creates too much for luck to go against you. A quality team creates a series of quality chances and takes them so that failure to give penalties or hitting the post on a penalty doesn’t matter, because we’re already 3 up.

We’re not a quality team. We’re in the 5th-8th bracket currently. That’s why we will draw and lose games we shouldn’t. It’s hard for some United fans to imagine having spent their whole lives watching United compete and win.
 
@Ace of Spades surely no one says Palace outplayed us?

You would think with how Ole is blamed that they did, as that is the time that he should be blamed. No matter who the manager is, the mistakes that happened today can happen to anyone, and the manager can't do much about these things.
 
The deflection I'm seeing is happening in this thread, and it is aimed at the manager.
I can't speak for others but like I said the problem lies through every facet of this club from the players, manager, board all of these are much more prominent than any refereeing display ever will be
 
You can coach players to move without the ball. You can blame the players not being good enough in their technical ability but it is entirely up to the coach to coach them to the best of their abilities. What is this way Ole wants us to play? All I see is trying to press and then try to counter attack. Teams like Palace would not give us the way we want to play. Now if we had managed to score first then they may attack us and give us the space but Ole has no clue how to play against teams like this.
 
It’s not oles fault for the transfer window. Our recruitment team, board and owners are the problem.
Now, I do think oles team selection and in game management has been poor. Shaw should have come off straight away because maguire had to shift out wider to cover him with the injury.
 
People seem to be in denial. We got to second place under Jose. Why in the world did we fail to build on the team that season and go aggressively for the title the following season? Don't tell me because Jose was a prick. Yes, he was..He has always a prick.

But for me we had two clear choices that made sense: 1. Fire Jose immediately after that season, hire another top manager and invest heavily in the team to push City for the title. 2. Leave Jose as we did but back him totally. No reservations.

We did neither.

Instead we worsened the situation. Players that should have been sold were not sold. Those who wanted out were not allowed to leave. We foot dragged over players we obviously needed. Who sells a Romelu Lukaku without replacing him? We may criticize him all we want but the fact remains he is one of the most prolific scorers in premier league history. I am not saying he fitted into United.
I am saying that when you sell a player like that, you replace him.

I refuse to blame Ole. The pattern has been formed. Woodward and the Board are clearly the ones to be blamed. What a shame seeing this great club in this condition.
 
And then look against who we played today. Would any Palace player be in our first 11 except Zaha? That excuse is really boring. We can be outplayed by Liverpool, City even in some away games but against Palace at OT we didn't create anything in first 45 minutes. In second half it was better but we didn't create much clear chances.
Anyway, as i am saying for months now, it is not result what is a problem. It is the way how we play. Tell me honestly, do you think that this is good enough after 9 months in charge?

We played Crystal Palace not Liverpool.

So what?
We played like a mid-table team against a lesser opponent at home, we dominated the match, they were well organized and defended well, we couldn’t really create all that much, because we don’t have enough quality, happens every week in every season.

Our squad is average, lots of talent but not enough real ability and consistency.
 
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You would think with how Ole is blamed that they did, as that is the time that he should be blamed. No matter who the manager is, the mistakes that happened today can happen to anyone, and the manager can't do much about these things.
Today felt like an uphill battle where almost nothing went with us. We should have won and Palace were lucky. We somehow have to manage to turn this around, to get the young players to consistently perform at a higher level or Solskjær will be out.
 
He's got the right idea but something is badly wrong when we try and put it into practice.
I keep hearing this but what is his idea? People here judge him too often based on what he says in public. Jose and LVG also said that they are playing attacking fast football and that the best players will play and that they play youth etc...
Based only on what we see on the pitch, what is Ole's idea? I am maybe wrong here and i know that people will say it, but i see style something like Jose's. All players behind ball and waiting for quick transition. We look absolutely clueless when we attack team that play defensive football.
We still look like we looked last season. So i guess it is Ole's plan. I am sorry but if you are big club and you want to fight for titles or at least for top4, your main gameplan can't be counter attacks. And after 9 months and pre-season i don't see what will change here. It is our style of play and it doesn't look good. It will win us some games but in most of games we will struggle.
 
This is all on our parasitic owners and woodward. The common denominator in every managers failure. No excuses for not replacing herrera and lukaku.
 
Ole seems happy with our limited quality 1st team and the even worse subs bench. You live and die by your mistakes!

Its seemed quite obvious for Most fans that we needed a defensive midfielder to replace Matic. A creative midfielder to help Pogba. And at the very least to replace Lukaku. That's without the fact that we only have Rashford and Martial as senior forwards. Greenwood and James should be fighting for their spot.

We have easily spent on these positions but for whatever reason we didnt. Instead we have Young coming on for Shaw (even though Young did well i thought). And kids or shit players on the bench. Would rather have seen a hungry Gomes come on.

We have to be matching or beating Chelsea and Arsenals points/performances this season or risk another season of no CL.

No 'knee jerk reactions' here so dont even say it. Just what most have said all summer. Reap what you sow. Simple really
 
He has the same record as rookie Lampard despite being 'backed' in the transfer window and being 'happy' with the squad. Not good enough.
 
I keep hearing this but what is his idea? People here judge him too often based on what he says in public. Jose and LVG also said that they are playing attacking fast football and that the best players will play and that they play youth etc...
Based only on what we see on the pitch, what is Ole's idea? I am maybe wrong here and i know that people will say it, but i see style something like Jose's. All players behind ball and waiting for quick transition. We look absolutely clueless when we attack team that play defensive football.
We still look like we looked last season. So i guess it is Ole's plan. I am sorry but if you are big club and you want to fight for titles or at least for top4, your main gameplan can't be counter attacks. And after 9 months and pre-season i don't see what will change here. It is our style of play and it doesn't look good. It will win us some games but in most of games we will struggle.

I don't get how can anyone think otherwise all honestly. It doesn't need a master in rocket science to know what's Ole's style. He's a counter attacking manager and likes his players to press more often. That's about it. People seem to think since the manager wants to press forward he's an offensive manager. Well no he's not. Almost any manager can tell his players to press vigorously the opposition defense. It's not really something to wow about. Our movement and coherence while having the ball is what shows if we're offensive team or not.

So Ole's success with us or not will depend on him managing to get his counter attacking system -that favors pace and pressing- working or not. So far it can work in big games but we still look totally clueless when we're the team in possession.
 
The board never backed him. It was clear this season we was a few players short in midfield. We all knew that, so why the surprise?

Who told you this? All the interviews Ole gave after the transfer window closed suggest he was happy with the squad and team morale is high and the boys will surprise us this season...or am I missing something here?
 
Pressure is on, will be in big trouble if he cannot get the team to not play through stoked defences. I've always said Solskjaer to be sacked by Christmas, but he's made many positive changes especially in the identity (individuals) of the team.
 
I thought the job was too big for Ole in the first place, the people who really need to go are Woodward and the Glaziers, but Ole should never have been given the job in the first place.
 
Today felt like an uphill battle where almost nothing went with us. We should have won and Palace were lucky. We somehow have to manage to turn this around, to get the young players to consistently perform at a higher level or Solskjær will be out.

It came from mistakes though. Palace's entire gameplan was to play for a draw, and until the goal they were barely getting out of their half. Our squad is currently filled with talented but untested young players, and older, experienced players that are shit. There will be problems like today till we get our squad sorted.
 
He isn’t good enough but in truth the team isn’t good enough. He hasn’t been backed, there is no way he would have been happy with that front 4 going into the new season.

Fans need to wake up to the absolute mess Woodward has created. He has done nothing to benefit this club from a football aspect. Wrong decision after wrong decision. I for one am fed up with it, I barely look forward to games anymore. I genuinely expect us to finish 10th this season. We can’t break down teams. Relying on counter attacking football.

The only thing I can blame Solskjaer for is his persistence with Pogba in the midfield two. It has never worked and it’s 3 seasons later and we are still trying it. He loses the ball too often which costs us goals. He should play as a number 10 and feck off Lingard out of the team at the same time.

But he said he was in all the post transfer interviews.
 
Sack him the moment a decent alternative is available. This is shit. We should bide our time but I doubt he does anything significant for us.
 
Jose wasn't underachieving with this squad, he massively overachieved in 17/18 and made people actually believe we had the quality to be right behind City.
People ridiculed him for saying it was the biggest achievement of his career. Perhaps a bit hyperbolic given that he's a treble winner, but the gist of what he was saying was very sensible.
 
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