Ole Gunnar Solskjær | 2021/22 Discussion

[ash_86]

Zero shots on target in the first half speak a different language. Or was that in Ole's brilliant tactical plan?

I posted this after the game. Manager's tactics can only get you inside the opposition box, thats what you call as tactics . He cannot however score for the team. Take a good look at the graphic that 's showing tthe many shots we have taken from within the D-box. We were let down by quality more than tactics.

 

[Withnail]

That's fair, although I would argue that changing the lineup isn't neccesarily changing how you want the team to play (tactical plan).
I kind of agree about the Pogba part, the only problem is which midfielder do we put in? Matic is finished, Fred has vanished, and Pereira probably wouldn't be trusted there.
The real issue with putting Pogba further forward would be if we then struggled to get the ball up the pitch to him. Maybe Maguire and Lindelof would have to step up into midfield more to get us up the pitch.
We really need Fred to have a big year, or bring someone in when January comes around.
I don't fully agree about James only being useful for counter attacks, I think he's a good player in general and given our lack of options id start him more often than not. I think he's going to end up being a bit better at linking up play than he's given credit for.

This is the problem with the team,as I see it. There are no trust-worthy mid-fielders to bring in to change things up and a CM really should have come in in the Summer. A lot of people are calling for Pogba to be moved further forward and I would have thought Fred would be the most likely candidate to come in, but he's apparently not even getting minutes in the behind-the-scenes practice games. I get that he came back late but he played a bit of pre-season and disappeared, as you say. I would have expected him to be on the bench at this stage.

Is there any word out of the club on him at all?

 

[Alabaster Codify7]

As far as briefings are concerned no world class or potentially world-class player wants to come here. So money won't do us any good. If current world class players we do have want to leave, it sends the message 'abandon the sinking ship'.
The back the manager argument is copy and paste argument since the last 3 managers.

This board managed to sell the joint best player on the planet, perhaps the best player this club has ever seen, for a world-record fee and replaced him with Michael Owen on a free and Wigan's RW for £18m. They managed to do this without fans refusing to renew their season tickets and somehow got away with it scott free. Do not think for one second that this same board would worry about selling Pogba for £120-150m and replacing him with some £50m young British player or similar. All they'd do is brief the media about Pogba being a bad influence and Ole pursuing 'young and British and the United way'.

One thing that is really irking me is the timing of his subs. Against Wolves he made subs in the 88th minute, and on Saturday he left it until the 82nd to introduce Mata. Just far too late that.

Its because he's indecisive. He's one of those people who looks at the situation like this:

'I am currently sitting on a '3'. If I roll the dice now, I might roll a 4 or a 5.....I might also roll a 2'.

This indecision is not a great indicator of success. Successful managers have the confidence to be decisive even if that means taking a risk.

I wonder if we'll also look for a British goalkeeper if De Gea leaves

We have one on loan at Sheff Utd.
The money wouldn't be reinvested, we'd recall Henderson, if DDG brings in a fee of course.

 

[Withnail]

I will continue!

If Ole wants to survive then he needs to stop using a 4231 formation with Pogba in midfield.

We will win some games her and there but against the bottom half there is better formations and a better way to use the qualities of our only creator and only world class player we have in our squad. Sorry David, atm you’re not there any longer.

1. Pogba best position is in a attacking role with TWO midfielders behind him. Make a change.

2. Lingard isn’t good enough as a number 10. How hard can it be to see that?

3. McTominay shouldn’t play behind Pogba as a dm when his best position is as a b2b midfielder. Bad planning.

4. Pereira is a squad player. Obvious observations since last season and this pre season. Baffling.

5. We must have more numbers in midfield to control a game over 90 minutes. Elementary.

As long as we don’t have players with enough quality then this 4231 formation will be our Achilles against teams who parks the bus and play on counter. We can’t continue to lose point so easy because of management mistakes.

Solskjær needs to wake up and hold himself and his players accountable when the team don’t deliver expected results. To many easy mistakes. Our players are sloppy, bad preparations is often behind such behaviors. Only one game plan and when results goes against us we don’t have any solutions. Slow in his reactions when the game change tempo and our opponents starts to press us in our on half. His substitutions is to late and they don’t have any impact of the results. All this is more or less bad management.

Missed penalties isn’t his fault but bad defending and lack of creativity is on his desk to improve. Time to step up and show why your loyal supporters put faith in you. I’m skeptical.

I see a glaring problem with this. How would you solve 1, 3 and 5, given 4, with United's current midfield options? Matic shouldn't part of any solution as he's become a traffic cone.

 

[JustAGuest]

Ronaldo scores 40 goals a season, why would Troy Deeney not be able to aswell.

Evidently only a select few attackers in the world are able to reach those numbers.

Do you believe only a select few managers in the world are able to turn around a run of bad results?

 

[Enigma_87]

I see a glaring problem with this. How would you solve 1, 3 and 5, given 4, with United's current midfield options? Matic shouldn't part of any solution as he's become a traffic cone.

Option 1: Pereira as DLP. It's uncharacteristic role but he has the energy to not look like a traffic cone and also has the passing range. Negative is that he hasn't played in that position and generally isn't dependable.
Option 2: Fred as DM. Has the work rate and can be defensive player. Negative is that he can't pass under pressure and his positional sense and decision making is lacking.
Option 3: Traffic cone.

 

[JustAGuest]

I posted this after the game. Manager's tactics can only get you inside the opposition box, thats what you call as tactics . He cannot however score for the team. Take a good look at the graphic that 's showing tthe many shots we have taken from within the D-box. We were let down by quality more than tactics.

Let's also add that only looking at shots on target is very misleading. Why should a striker missing the target from inside the box count as less than a shot from distance taken straight at the keeper?

 

[ThierryHenry14]

Of course you need to back your manager. People has no patience anymore these days. He has a good window for getting the defensive players he wanted. Hopefully next window he can improve your midfield. It took Klopp 3 seasons to build his team.

 

[Withnail]

Option 1: Pereira as DLP. It's uncharacteristic role but he has the energy to not look like a traffic cone and also has the passing range. Negative is that he hasn't played in that position and generally isn't dependable.
Option 2: Fred as DM. Has the work rate and can be defensive player. Negative is that he can't pass under pressure and his positional sense and decision making is lacking.
Option 3: Traffic cone.

That's what I mean the alternatives aren't great and I don't seem Ole experimenting until he gets some easier games in the cups.

I think the current set up is enough for us to pick up results. The team are creating chances and have been unlucky. I'm reserving judgment and hoping results improve over the next 5 - 10 games.

 

[roonster09]

I posted this after the game. Manager's tactics can only get you inside the opposition box, thats what you call as tactics . He cannot however score for the team. Take a good look at the graphic that 's showing tthe many shots we have taken from within the D-box. We were let down by quality more than tactics.

Let's also add that only looking at shots on target is very misleading. Why should a striker missing the target from inside the box count as less than a shot from distance taken straight at the keeper?

Good posts.

 

[Leftback99]

Club and manager said before the window that we most likely will bring 5-6 new faces. We brought in 3(one inexperienced) so it's hardly surprising people put pikachu faces.

When was this?

 

[AshRK]

I posted this after the game. Manager's tactics can only get you inside the opposition box, thats what you call as tactics . He cannot however score for the team. Take a good look at the graphic that 's showing tthe many shots we have taken from within the D-box. We were let down by quality more than tactics.

Absolutely. There were many times when we were in good position but because of lack of quality we are not able to capitalize. Martial and Rashford are still not in that level to perform consistently and less said about lingard the better.

 

[Enigma_87]

When was this?

https://www.redcafe.net/threads/sol...rs-could-leave-bbc-telegraph-guardian.446294/

 

[RussellWilson]

Allegri is available and learning English. Can see it happening if this run of form from last season continues for the next few months.

 

[AshRK]

It took Klopp 4 & a half years to get them like that. They were still sh*t when VVD first signed as well. It took him from January through a full pre season to settle.

Let's just pretend they were awesome as soon as Klopp arrived eh?

Exactly. If it were up to some here they will just rewrite history or just make up things.

 

[Handsome Devil]

My heart says back him.
My head says...three wins in fifteen is piss poor. If there is a similar ratio come Christmas, I fear his head is on the block. Woodward would sack him with relish. If you believe some of the more extreme theories in these forums that the bottom line is a working profit and trophy glory is secondary, then Ed could shrug his shoulders, say that this particular gamble didn't pay off and we can wallow in mediocrity for another few years while the cash registers still go ker-ching. Tread water, count the dosh.
I just can't buy into this theory.
I just wish Ole wasn't so nice though. How many successful managers out there are, you know, really really nice? They all have to have a streak of dirty ol' bastardness.

 

[rotherham_red]

Crisis, apparently...

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The media are playing you lot like a fiddle.

 

[Leftback99]

https://www.redcafe.net/threads/sol...rs-could-leave-bbc-telegraph-guardian.446294/

That's not a quote from the manager or the club saying we would likely bring in 5 or 6.

 

[Amir]

It took Klopp 4 & a half years to get them like that. They were still sh*t when VVD first signed as well. It took him from January through a full pre season to settle.

Let's just pretend they were awesome as soon as Klopp arrived eh?

Awesome, no, but they improved quite clearly and were playing very good football far before VVD joined them.

 

[FletcherCarrick]

I guess it is fairly unfair to judge Ole badly after a bad results, as it is also overly optimistic to praise Ole after a win (like Chelsea the other day). The reason I back Ole is not because of short-term results or quick wins. I believe the man when he says he is in for the long-run. I am convinced that it is the only way forward for the club, build for the future, think ahead a few years. I has been sorely missing since Ferguson retired and we have to pay the consequences now. Of course, it is unfortunate that this coincides by our two rivals having the best time of the last two decades. However, we can and should only focus on ourselves.

What I like about Ole is how he is fielding young, talented teams. I have seen people here saying Ole has not been ruthless as the likes of Darman, Rojo etc are still hear. I have to disagree with that strongly, it is the job of Woodward and Matt Judge to ship the deadwood out. Ole is only responsible for the team and the management of the first team and by shutting Smalling, Jones, Rojo, Darmian, Sanchez and Lukaku out of the squad entirely and giving Matic and Young only a place on the bench, I think Ole has been as ruthless as he could be.

He has effectively told the older and less talented players that he doesn't fancy them over the long term. It is now up to Woody and co to actually sell them. The fact that Matic and Mata are on the bench instead of Gomes and, to a lesser extent, Garner is that you cannot have a bench full of kids. You need experience, especially if the first eleven is already quite young themselves.

I think Ole is doing an amazing job progressing this team towards the modern game, including pressing and building up from the back. I am not sure if he is the long-term solution but if he can, let's say, progress us further in a few years and then appoint a successor to elevate us to the next level I am completely fined with that. It is called succession planning and all successful teams do it. Liverpool first had Rodgers, on which Klopp could build upon. Man City had Pellegrini who is also an attacking manager, before Guardiola came in to take them to the next level too. Hell, even Chelsea has done this season.

I do not believe for a second Lampard had implemented their style of play completely on such short notice. They are reaping the benefits of having appointed a manager with broadly the same ideas as Sarri and by doing so, Lampard can benefit from the foundations laid by Sarri. For all its weaknesses, Chelsea were already able to play nicely in possession last year, to play in triangles and to move the ball up towards the final third with clear patterns. Lampard is just building further on that by implementing slight tweaks and introducing new players.

I just hope, and I am quietly confident, that Ole can do the same. No more expensive stars. No more short-term thinking. Create a club identity. With Moyes, no one knew what our tactics where other than crossing an awful lot. LVG was obsessed with possession and patient build-up play from the back. Mourinho successes him and is almost the polar opposite who hates possession and wants to counterattack. And now, Ole, has again almost polar ideas to Mourinho and want to combine pressing with fast attacks and possession oriented play. I believe that is the way forward, but it will take time as we have a unbalanced squad who have been subject of so many different tactics.

We have already made a lot of improvement, and a lot more improvements are still too be gained. But in the end, I am confident that Ole is taking us into the right direction and if we give him some time can transition us in a modern force. If he is the one to reap the benefits, or some other manager will built upon his work is actually irrelevant to me (and I think to some extent also to him, I think he is sincere when he says he just wants this club back at its best).

Give the good man some time and credit, he has a very difficult job at hands and in the end, we could have won easily against Wolves and CP if we would have gotten a bit more luck. In that case, the narrative would be a lot different, it is fine margins in football.

 

[7even]

We started our pre season games with using a 4231 formation, that tells me that we probably didn’t have any intentions to replace Fellaini and Herrera in midfield. Also. We could already see in the beginning of August that Matic has lost his legs, at that point we had two weeks left before the transfer window was closed. Nothing happened.

The person in charge to let both Fellaini and Herrera leave without buying any replacements don’t have the capacity to manage a football club of our size. Ole Gunnar or Ed? Take your pick. On top of this then the mistake to not replacing and over the hill Matic. Short term option, loan, whatever. Just do it.

I call this miss management and it’s inexcusable at this level.

If the manager thinks that Fred and Matic isn’t good enough then he’s stacked with McTominay and Pogba as our only quality midfield options. Once again. Miss management at highest level. How do we end up in such a bad situation? One injury and that’s it.

So her we are using a 4231 formation and surprisingly we’re also short of quality in the number 10 role, another mistake who in the long run will cost us points. Two big mistakes. Should I go on?

Either we start to trust Fred and Matic as partners to McTominay or we continue with a formation that don’t suit our best player, have glaring holes regarding qualities in several positions. You tell me. What’s best?

 

[AshRK]

Crisis, apparently...

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The media are playing you lot like a fiddle.

Our fans are the kings of overreaction. Apparently many have concluded Lampard is doing a better job.

 

[Mr.Plow]

I can't believe people mentioning his record from last season until now. I mean why? Propaganda at its best.

New season, new slate, new optimism. Give him time, please.

EDIT:
What's worse is that people neglecting the friendlies results. What is that? Even Fergie took friendly wins seriously.

In what bizarre world is referring to matches from a few months ago propaganda? Especially as our form has picked up exactly as it left off.

 

[TheRedDevil'sAdvocate]

I posted this after the game. Manager's tactics can only get you inside the opposition box, thats what you call as tactics . He cannot however score for the team. Take a good look at the graphic that 's showing tthe many shots we have taken from within the D-box. We were let down by quality more than tactics.

How many of these shots were the end-product of organized attacks though, which are essential for the creation of really good chances? I don't remember any clear-cut chances besides the penalty. A weak header that ends up straight in the hands of the keeper after a blind cross counts as an attempt from inside the box. And so does a scruffy shot from a near-impossible angle or a blind shot with a wall of bodies in front of you. According to Understat, we should have scored 2.24 goals from our 22 shots. Now, if you take away the penalty (xG 0.76), we are left with xG 1.48 for the rest of our 21 shots. Which is what we got in the end for our efforts, one goal from James. Funnily enough, his goal (xG 0.08) was a moment of individual brilliance more than anything else. Our next three best chances had xGs of 0.35, 0.13 & 0.11 respectively. That's a 35% probability of success at best. The rest of our 16 shots (bar the three best chances, the penalty and the goal) have a combined xG of 0.81 (varying from xG 0.10 to xG 0.01). Food for thought.

Don't get me wrong, i believe that Solskjaer doesn't deserve the stick he gets for our last two games. The intent is obvious and it's there for all to see. The intent to press high and keep many bodies in the attacking half by forcing the opposition to hoof the ball back to us is quite discernible as is the intent to create overloads in the wide areas in order to open up pockets of space in between the lines. In this sense, there are very few reasons for one to abandon his "let's wait and see" stance and go into full panic mode just yet. The execution is problematic but it's still early days. It's a new season and everybody starts with a clean slate. This applies to Ole as well as to Poch and everybody else.

I'm saying this because, on one hand, the two missed penalties skewed the opinions of many people who focus solely on the results. We could have easily had 9 points from these three games, even the stats agree on that. On the other hand, we're still far away from being described as a well-drilled machine to just wave away any concerns about the manager and blame it all on the players' incompetence.

 

[AneRu]

The problem clearly is the manager hirings, but yes it’s two fold because Woodward is the one that’s appointed them. We haven’t signed one single top of his game manager since SAF has retired, difference is City and Liverpool have. Moyes, LVG, Jose and now Ole are not top level managers. LVG was aiready semi retired when we hired him and Jose was already past his sell by date.

Sadly this is true, we have half arsed our way in our managerial appointments and for a club with our structure that's suicidal since we depend on the manager for our football direction. At least with Ole I am reasonably confident that, if he is supported by both the club and the fanbase, he will leave the club the club in a better state than he found it because he genuinely loves the club and will do right by it wrt decision making.

 

[elnorte]

Crisis, apparently...

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The media are playing you lot like a fiddle.

The crisis is the incompetent clown who is currently our manager.

 

[fergiesarmy1]

In what bizarre world is referring to matches from a few months ago propaganda? Especially as our form has picked up exactly as it left off.

Do you not see any optimism from these first 3 games? Should have beat Wolves if martial had a bit more luck just before half time against wolves or if we could score a penalty. The palace performance had issues but we got done by the referee more in that game than any I can remember for a long time.

The issues I have isn’t with ole its with some of the players not performing as well as they should be doing and that we have weakened the midfield and attack (apparently we aren’t going to let Sanchez go until we know how bad martial injury is like no one can see any other injury issues this season)

Bizarre behaviour from the owners and ceo.

 

[dev1l]

It took Klopp 4 & a half years to get them like that. They were still sh*t when VVD first signed as well. It took him from January through a full pre season to settle.

Let's just pretend they were awesome as soon as Klopp arrived eh?

Some sense at last.

 

[fergiesarmy1]

The crisis is the incompetent clown who is currently our manager.

Show him some respect whether you agree or not with being our manager, apart from scoring the winning goal in a champions league final he was the ultimate professional for united during his playing days. Could have left us many times, hell the club was happy for him to go to spurs but he stuck it out and helped complete the greatest season this club will probably have.

 

[amidnorthern]

The crisis is the incompetent clown who is currently our manager.

Honestly, do you watch football? It's not party politics you know.

 

[Andycoleno9]

Show him some respect whether you agree or not with being our manager, apart from scoring the winning goal in a champions league final he was the ultimate professional for united during his playing days. Could have left us many times, hell the club was happy for him to go to spurs but he stuck it out and helped complete the greatest season this club will probably have.

You see this is our main problem when we are talking about Ole. Ole as a player is one thing and Ole as a manager is another. We are talking now about Solskjaer, Manchester United manager. His career, his goals, him as a nice person and our legend shouldn't have anything with assessment of his work as a manager.

 

[Cantona in disguise]

A lot of the issues we have stem from the fact the fans cannot and will not accept that this could take 2/3 years to get right.

I'm not suggesting ole is the messiah or anything daft like that but given time and a few decent windows (board allowing) we could be back in the top 2/3.

Some of the stuff I have read on social media etc is laughable. The fans are so impatient. The way I see it we wanted rid of rojo smalling Jones etc they arent all gone but they certainly are not starting. Young will be phased out and so will lingard. However you couldn't plug all of our holes in 1 window. We could have plugged a couple more but in the next 2 windows if we bring in some quality we will nearly be there.

 

[NJM78]

Well the next window is January, which has always been a difficult window to do anything in and our season could be all but over by then anyway. Unless you mean next summer window. We didn't do enough this one and I've got no faith we'll do anything of note next one.

Next summer window as I don't think we will do anything in January. Yeah people thinking Sancho will be signing etc, I highly doubt it.
This was the summer to do the work and make sure we cement top 4. Quite frankly we buggered it up and now Ole will be the one who becomes the fall guy when we struggle.

 

[fergiesarmy1]

You see this is our main problem when we are talking about Ole. Ole as a player is one thing and Ole as a manager is another. We are talking now about Solskjaer, Manchester United manager. His career, his goals, him as a nice person and our legend shouldn't have anything with assessment of his work as a manager.

To call him an incompetent clown should be beneath fans of this club regardless.

 

[ScarleyUtd]

I think people are ignoring that he inherited an unfit and unhappy squad from Mourinho, who had given up the ghost and was waiting to be fired.

He's signed well where he's been allowed to. James is all him. As is AWB. We're playing better football – we've dominated our opposition since half time against Chelsea. And we're looking to play up the pitch instead of sitting back all the time. We could have 9 points by now. And this thread would be languishing somewhere on page 4.

 

[Sp00ks11]

While we are not in a crisis yet this season, the fact remains that we have won 3 in 15 since that night in Paris. That is horrendous form for us whichever way you dress it up.

Not strengthening the midfield will be costly as Pogba is pretty much our only creative player. Maddison would have been perfect, Tielemens was an easy to get.. Fernandes had brilliant stats and was surely worth a punt.

 

[ash_86]

How many of these shots were the end-product of organized attacks though, which are essential for the creation of really good chances? I don't remember any clear-cut chances besides the penalty. A weak header that ends up straight in the hands of the keeper after a blind cross counts as an attempt from inside the box. And so does a scruffy shot from a near-impossible angle or a blind shot with a wall of bodies in front of you. According to Understat, we should have scored 2.24 goals from our 22 shots. Now, if you take away the penalty (xG 0.76), we are left with xG 1.48 for the rest of our 21 shots. Which is what we got in the end for our efforts, one goal from James. Funnily enough, his goal (xG 0.08) was a moment of individual brilliance more than anything else. Our next three best chances had xGs of 0.35, 0.13 & 0.11 respectively. That's a 35% probability of success at best. The rest of our 16 shots (bar the three best chances, the penalty and the goal) have a combined xG of 0.81 (varying from xG 0.10 to xG 0.01). Food for thought.

Don't get me wrong, i believe that Solskjaer doesn't deserve the stick he gets for our last two games. The intent is obvious and it's there for all to see. The intent to press high and keep many bodies in the attacking half by forcing the opposition to hoof the ball back to us is quite discernible as is the intent to create overloads in the wide areas in order to open up pockets of space in between the lines. In this sense, there are very few reasons for one to abandon his "let's wait and see" stance and go into full panic mode just yet. The execution is problematic but it's still early days. It's a new season and everybody starts with a clean slate. This applies to Ole as well as to Poch and everybody else.

I'm saying this because, on one hand, the two missed penalties skewed the opinions of many people who focus solely on the results. We could have easily had 9 points from these three games, even the stats agree on that. On the other hand, we're still far away from being described as a well-drilled machine to just wave away any concerns about the manager and blame it all on the players' incompetence.

We did NOT play hoof ball and we DID have so many shots from inside the box. This tells me that we have managed to pass our way around into the box and found ourselves in interesting positions. This is where having a Aguero or salah helps as they can create an extra yard of space for themselves and have a good shot. Our players instead tried to shoot the moment they received the ball and it just bounced against the myriad of people in front of them. This pic was one of the shots James took from few yards out

This is a clear cut chance as any would come but we fail to capitalize. No offense to James who i think played really well but little bit more quality and we're coming away with 3-4 goals. Watching Agurero's goals against Bournemouth, its in similar spots to where we found ourselves(lots of bodies around , packed box) . The difference was the quality that city had to dispatch it into the back of the net. I do agree with rest of your points. We aren't a well oiled machines but we are playing some good football and as you mentioned we were unlucky to come away with all 3 points from previous 2 encounters. I think we are sailing in the right direction though. This project needs time and support.

 

[DomesticTadpole]

We did NOT play hoof ball and we DID have so many shots from inside the box. This tells me that we have managed to pass our way around into the box and found ourselves in interesting positions. This is where having a Aguero or salah helps as they can create an extra yard of space for themselves and have a good shot. Our players instead tried to shoot the moment they received the ball and it just bounced against the myriad of people in front of them. This pic was one of the shots James took from few yards out

This is a clear cut chance as any would come but we fail to capitalize. No offense to James who i think played really well but little bit more quality and we're coming away with 3-4 goals. Watching Agurero's goals against Bournemouth, its in similar spots to where we found ourselves(lots of bodies around , packed box) . The difference was the quality that city had to dispatch it into the back of the net. I do agree with rest of your points. We aren't a well oiled machines but we are playing some good football and as you mentioned we were unlucky to come away with all 3 points from previous 2 encounters. I think we are sailing in the right direction though. This project needs time and support.

LvG always said you should control the ball before you take a shot.

 

[TheRedDevil'sAdvocate]

We did NOT play hoof ball and we DID have so many shots from inside the box. This tells me that we have managed to pass our way around into the box and found ourselves in interesting positions. This is where having a Aguero or salah helps as they can create an extra yard of space for themselves and have a good shot. Our players instead tried to shoot the moment they received the ball and it just bounced against the myriad of people in front of them. This pic was one of the shots James took from few yards out

This is a clear cut chance as any would come but we fail to capitalize. No offense to James who i think played really well but little bit more quality and we're coming away with 3-4 goals. Watching Agurero's goals against Bournemouth, its in similar spots to where we found ourselves(lots of bodies around , packed box) . The difference was the quality that city had to dispatch it into the back of the net. I do agree with rest of your points. We aren't a well oiled machines but we are playing some good football and as you mentioned we were unlucky to come away with all 3 points from previous 2 encounters. I think we are sailing in the right direction though. This project needs time and support.

This particular chance was the best we had besides the penalty. It's not exactly where James attempted the shot (the ball bounced to the right), thus the xG 0.35 (35% probability). But that's not the point i was trying to make. I never suggested that we play hoofball. As i mentioned we definitely put more pressure on our opponents and we've been unlucky at times because we forced them into mistakes that would have been enough to win us all 9 points if it hadn't been for a great goal vs Wolves and an incompetent ref vs Palace. This is where we agree, thus my comment about the over the top criticism of the manager in these 3 games.

But it's not only about the quality of the players. Arguably, City didn't have one of their best games yesterday.Still the xG for their goals was 0.52, 0.50, 0,45. Sterling and Aguero are great players who can finish well but City's tactics create opportunities where they have a 50/50 chance of scoring a goal from open play more often than not. That's a recurring theme in their games under Guardiola's tenure. We don't do that very often and some people have mentioned, correctly, we still look at our best when we are afforded space to exploit and not when we have to create it by ourselves. That's still a valid criticism in my book although we definitely need a bigger sample of games under Ole now that he's been afforded a whole preseason to work on his tactics. After all, a total of 16 shots, no matter where you took them from, with a combined xG 0.81 indicates that we only managed to get our players to shot with very little chance of success. And that's a problem as long as it persists and becomes the norm.

Let's hope this won't be the case and that things will improve.

 

[AshRK]

This particular chance was the best we had besides the penalty. It's not exactly where James attempted the shot (the ball bounced to the right), thus the xG 0.35 (35% probability). But that's not the point i was trying to make. I never suggested that we play hoofball. As i mentioned we definitely put more pressure on our opponents and we've been unlucky at times because we forced them into mistakes that would have been enough to win us all 9 points if it hadn't been for a great goal vs Wolves and an incompetent ref vs Palace. This is where we agree, thus my comment about the over the top criticism of the manager in these 3 games.

But it's not only about the quality of the players. Arguably, City didn't have one of their best games yesterday.Still the xG for their goals was 0.52, 0.50, 0,45. Sterling and Aguero are great players who can finish well but City's tactics create opportunities where they have a 50/50 chance of scoring a goal from open play more often than not. That's a recurring theme in their games under Guardiola's tenure. We don't do that very often and some people have mentioned, correctly, we still look at our best when we are afforded space to exploit and not when we have to create it by ourselves. That's still a valid criticism in my book although we definitely need a bigger sample of games under Ole now that he's been afforded a whole preseason to work on his tactics. After all, a total of 16 shots, no matter where you took them from, with a combined xG 0.81 indicates that we only managed to get our players to shot with very little chance of success. And that's a problem as long as it persists and becomes the norm.

Let's hope this won't be the case and that things will improve.

Palace were always comfortable when the game was 0-0 and became even more comfortable when leading by a goal. Granted I have not seen Palace enough but one thing I have observed them under Hodgson is they don't lose big. This is where it is important to get that early goal and take those half chances because once you score the early goal you can put more pressure and create more goal scoring chances. This is where we lack quality. Too much is expected from Rashford and Martial that people forget that they are still 21 and 23. Not everyone can be Rooney/Ronaldo and even they had senior pros like Scholes, Giggs to bail them out. One thing Ole should have done is play Mata ahead of Lingard but then it's not like Mata is so better quality wise. Truth is we were fecked the moment we did not add a quality attacker. We will win some games but we also witness games like these because of lack of quality.