Ole Gunnar Solskjær | 2021/22 Discussion

[Rafaeldagold]

Poch was managing a team that made it to the CL final, whereas Ole took over a disillusioned club with a bloated squad, and has made a lot of cuts to the team and hasn’t been able to replace them yet.

This is the issue with a lot of people on here. Throw up a couple of facts, ignore all fecking context.

Thank fecking god you lot aren’t running the club.

Yes & which manager got Spurs to the level of a European Cup finalist? Oh yeh Poch.

We also don’t have as terrible a team or squad as you make out.
Ole isn’t good enough it’s clear as day. There’s much better managers out there but we seem to have settled. Big clubs are ruthless and have standards & are pro active setter than reactive. We’re not acting as a big club anymore which is a shame for such a historically big club.

 

[DomesticTadpole]

Adrian Durham has absolutely slaughtered Ole on Talksport for that sub. Couldn't understand why we didn't just carry doing what we we doing, scoring for fun. He said Sheffield United has gone and we let them back into the game.

 

[SteveJ]

Adrian Durham has absolutely slaughtered Ole on Talksport for that sub. Couldn't understand why we didn't just carry doing what we we doing, scoring for fun. He said Sheffield United has gone and we let them back into the game.

It's Adrian Durham though, chief.

 

[Zen86]

I think clearing out those whose heads aren’t in the right place is super important, and there’s some work still to be done before we can think of becoming more stable. Having to resort to Pereira and Fred in CM says a lot.

I remember people were bitching about us not going for certain talented players under Fergie. He’d tell us that one of the biggest factors for him is character. Ole clearly shares that value.

Yes, I’m still Ole in. He might not bring us glory, but I trust him to trim the squad and make sure we have the right characters in place.

People really don’t understand just how bad the situation was after Moyes, Van Gaal and Mourinho.

This was always going to be a tough season. It needed to happen. I’m at least satisfied that the team is actually starting to fight, put in effort, and give a shit now, which is more than can be said for the last 3 years.

We needed to flush the toxic culture before we bring in quality. I’m confident that this is happening. Too many people stuck in FM mode here.

 

[Adnan]

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You are just rewriting history by saying defence was fine. Our defense was a mess which needed some experience. Maguire was the right buy. He was not worth 80m but that is something we all know. Also, good luck taking periera from leicester. They would have asked insane amount for him too. Again I find it very strange of you to criticise AWB's singing considering he has been really good. I bet if he was signed by city then we fans would have been just bashing our manager and board.

Signing just 3 players with a net spend of less than 75m is unacceptable.

I never said the defence was fine. But our priorities should've been towards the midfield because we he had 6 CBs on our books who could've held the fort (until we sorted the midfield) with help from a mobile DM who should've been bought.

I also never mentioned buying Pereira from Leicester either. I mentioned Porto's Pereira in relation to value signings that could've been made and the former Porto fullback was used as one example. I never wanted us to sign a RB and made that pretty clear in the summer. But my personal first choice at RB would've been Lukas Klostermann from RB Leipzig who at 23 is a brilliant fullback going forward and defensively.

 

[Judas]

People really don’t understand just how bad the situation was after Moyes, Van Gaal and Mourinho.

This was always going to be a tough season. It needed to happen. I’m at least satisfied that the team is actually starting to fight, put in effort, and give a shit now, which is more than can be said for the last 3 years.

We needed to flush the toxic culture before we bring in quality. I’m confident that this is happening. Too many people stuck in FM mode here.

What is this toxic culture? Is it more important than proper coaching? What was so toxic about Herrera? Was Fellaini toxic? Or are you simply just talking about Pogba?

 

[Madzik_92]

Still can’t believe that Ole was smiling at full time yesterday, despite the fact that we conceded a last minute equaliser and were dominated for the majority of the game to a newly promoted side. The standards at this football club have dropped completely. Not good enough.

 

[Majima]

Maguire was not the right buy. Our defensive issues last season were due to fullback and lack of a CDM. If we’re talking experience what experience of competing at the top of top level football does Maguire actually have.

Yes we could have done with a CB but Maguire wasn't the right purchase one bit.

I doubt we would be much worse off if we had not bought him than we are now

It's all about opportunity cost. Maguire may turn out to be decent, but the cost he came with was enormous relative to his ability.

In my view, our problems would be creative mid > attacker > holding mid >> centre back in that order.

I thought so in the summer, I think the decision to sign a centre back instead of other positions first was a monumental mistake.

How many clean sheets have we had so far?

Replace Maguire with Smalling this season and I bet, we wouldn't see the difference at all.

 

[DomesticTadpole]

It's Adrian Durham though, chief.

I know. Think he said something about us being brought up in the VAR blunders later in the show, but I am not listening to the radio now.

 

[amolbhatia50k]

He inferred he was more than happy because last year we'd have lost by 3 or 4. He cited drawing the game as real progress compared to last year.

We did sporadic comebacks then and we did it on Sunday. There's no fecking progress if anything it's worse. His standards are terribly low.

Agree

 

[thejtrain]

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Alright, this is ridiculous, like beyond Moyes levels of stupidity. Mourinho's team came back from behind and won 3-2 weeks before he was sacked, so it obviously meant feck all in the grand scheme of things. I might actually celebrate more when this guy gets the sack than I did Moyes' departure.

 

[Zen86]

What is this toxic culture? Is it more important than proper coaching? What was so toxic about Herrera? Was Fellaini toxic? Or are you simply just talking about Pogba?

The culture of consistent failure, easy pay checks, big names, little effort, and a setup which generally led to the vast majority of our transfers flopping.

We’ve been a laughing stock, a joke of a club because we spent big, made flashy headlines and we’re shit as a result. Players clearly didn’t care. I’m sure there’s a lot of people to blame for it as well, unless you’re naive enough to think Woodward handles all aspects of football and commercial.

 

[amolbhatia50k]

This place is such a cesspool now. I don’t think anyone hates the club or manager more than some of so called.... people. Can’t even call them fans or supporters because they are obviously not, by definitions of the words.

When the going gets tough, I guess the true colours of many are shown. And boy, they are ugly.

Don't think many hate the manager. Most simply realize that he's out of his depth.

Also, so called people?

When the going gets tough, you make the right decisions. We aren't. Were sitting idly having made the wrong one.

 

[Kemizee]

The players are learning, the manager is learning. It's all part of the experience. The important things is that this game showed that that this team has it in it to come back even on one of the toughest grounds in the premier league. Would have been wonderful to get all 3 points but not today. We will learn from this.

Should a club the size of Manchester United be hiring a manager who is 'learning' on the job? Isn't that supposed to be for rookie managers? Should a rookie manager be our manager?

 

[Majima]

The culture of consistent failure, easy pay checks, big names, little effort, and a setup which generally led to the vast majority of our transfers flopping.

We’ve been a laughing stock, a joke of a club because we spent big, made flashy headlines and we’re shit as a result. Players clearly didn’t care. I’m sure there’s a lot of people to blame for it as well, unless you’re naive enough to think Woodward handles all aspects of football and commercial.

All fair and good but where's the evidence it is being changed?

Easy pay checks? Like the contracts for the boys being handed out like confetti for Jones & Young? I'm sure Lingard will get a shiny contract once he scores a goal too.

How do you explain this?

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How can you talk about the culture of consistent failure, when we see excuses by the manager every week?

Looks like we're still a laughing stock and joke of a club to me.

 

[Greck]

Should a club the size of Manchester United be hiring a manager who is 'learning' on the job? Isn't that supposed to be for rookie managers? Should a rookie manager be our manager?

People forget he's been managing for nearly a decade because he's been out of sight and memory. This isn't a rookie.

 

[el3mel]

The culture of consistent failure, easy pay checks, big names, little effort, and a setup which generally led to the vast majority of our transfers flopping.

We’ve been a laughing stock, a joke of a club because we spent big, made flashy headlines and we’re shit as a result. Players clearly didn’t care. I’m sure there’s a lot of people to blame for it as well, unless you’re naive enough to think Woodward handles all aspects of football and commercial.

Yeah that has changed isn't it ? Players are performing consistently and care more, we're up in the table and we didn't spend shit loads of money on a CB in summer who has been underperforming so far. We also didn't give big contracts to players like Lindelof recently, or Martial, Rashford, Young, Jones etc. Many things have changed.

 

[SamVimes]

Poch was managing a team that made it to the CL final, whereas Ole took over a disillusioned club with a bloated squad, and has made a lot of cuts to the team and hasn’t been able to replace them yet.

This is the issue with a lot of people on here. Throw up a couple of facts, ignore all fecking context.

Thank fecking god you lot aren’t running the club.

Here are a couple of facts,

By October 3rd, Manchester United had failed to win any of their last 10 away matches across all competitions (D4 L6) – they last went on a longer winless run on the road between February and September 1989 (run of 11)

By October 3rd, Manchester United's form since the 3-1 away win against PSG would see them relegated in the Premier League in four of the last 24 seasons with nine 17th-place finishes.

By October 3rd, Manchester City had scored more goals in their last five matches than Manchester United have since Ole Gunnar Solskjaer took over as permanent manager.

By October 3rd, Man City had scored 76 competitive goals since United's last away win

By October 3rd, First 45 minutes - 15 points, 3rd place. Second 45 minutes - 5 points, 17th place

By October 3rd, Bury have won away from home more recently than Manchester United and they aren't a club anymore.

Six facts for you. Just let the last one sink in.

 

[Kemizee]

That first bit is particularly bewildering to me. On that basis Fergie should have been sacked after his first season? Why recruit a young manager if you don't intent to give him time to develop? Where is the benefit in continually chopping and changing your coaching staff? How long can you get away with that before you've exhausted every realistic managerial option there is? Why are people so adamant Ole isn't capable of growing into the role?

As to your second point, again where is the logic? This manager you refer to was sacked by his former club so they could replace him with the man we didn't want anymore.

Because being a young manager does not automatically translate to being tactically sound to lead one of the world's prominent clubs. Moyes, Bruce, Pardew etc were at one time all young managers. Did they get better enough with time to lead Bayern, Juve, Real etc?...

For as long as you get a suitable one that matches your ambition (Not that ours is high at the moment but we still deserve better than the ex manager of Molde)

Because I have seen enough to know that he is not a good manager. His actions and records tell me so. I never expected him to win the league but also didn't expect he would lose on a regular basis to teams we should be battering and besides Manchester United's managerial seat is not an experiment session where you are appointed to 'grow into the role'. Top clubs and top businesses all over the world don't appoint CEOs and expect them to grow into the role. They are usually the finished articles who have clear, strategic implementation blueprints. The only thing Ole has going for him is being a legend of the club. If we were to discard that sentiment, he deserved to have neen fired a long time ago.

 

[Judas]

It could be argued we're a bigger joke now than we were a year ago. There was some pity that we were being Mourinho'd, but we're bringing a lot of the current issues on ourselves.

 

[mu4c_20le]

It could be argued we're a bigger joke now than we were a year ago. There was some pity that we were being Mourinho'd, but we're bringing a lot of the current issues on ourselves.

Levy fired Poch and hired Mourinho in order to win trophies. Now our fans are desperate to hire Poch. We don't deserve pity.

 

[Judas]

Levy fired Poch and hired Mourinho in order to win trophies. Now our fans are desperate to hire Poch. We don't deserve pity.

I don't think thats exactly why he fired him, but sure go with that if you want.

I think more people are desperate for a change of manager than for Poch in particular.

 

[Zen86]

All fair and good but where's the evidence it is being changed?

Easy pay checks? Like the contracts for the boys being handed out like confetti for Jones & Young? I'm sure Lingard will get a shiny contract once he scores a goal too.

How do you explain this?

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How can you talk about the culture of consistent failure, when we see excuses by the manager every week?

Looks like we're still a laughing stock and joke of a club to me.

We’re a squad made up of young and inexperienced players, what do you expect. And if you want to point at joke contracts, see Sanchez. That transfer more than sums up this club over the last few years, in many ways.

 

[AneRu]

It's actually easier done than said depending on the person in charge of recruitment. Leicester signed a very good RB for around £20m who has performed brilliantly for them and is very good going forward. Bayern bought Kimmich from Leipzig for €7m. Leipzig bought Klostermann for €1m and at 23 he's displaying world class potential. I could go on and list more names at RB that have been signed for very reasonable fees which just highlights how smart alot of clubs operate in the transfer market.

We also didn't need to spend a world record £80m on a CB when there was a plethora of targets around Europe who could've been bought for far less and couldn't have done worse than Maguire. Clubs around Europe must be in shock to see how we're wasting vast sums of money with very little return.

This. Its easy for people to say well that's the market we are operating in but just taking a cursory glance at how other clubs are doing their business you notice it's not true at all. We spent £80m on Maguire because we lack vision, a player like Milenkovic for nearly half the price would have managed to give us what we are getting from Maguire.

 

[Judas]

This. Its easy for people to say well that's the market we are operating in but just taking a cursory glance at how other clubs are doing their business you notice it's not true at all. We spent £80m on Maguire because we lack vision, a player like Milenkovic for nearly half the price would have managed to give us what we are getting from Maguire.

I know its only an example, but for one I don't think we'd have got Milenkovic for half the price, and all the noise was he had zero interest in joining us.

 

[zenith]

I'd love to see ole get a run of games with his first choice 11 playing. Not sure that has happened this season.

This constant chopping and changing of managers and going with the flavor of the season has cost us immensely in terms of lost years and damaged finances.

 

[Moved To Differently]

Because being a young manager does not automatically translate to being tactically sound to lead one of the world's prominent clubs. Moyes, Bruce, Pardew etc were at one time all young managers. Did they get better enough with time to lead Bayern, Juve, Real etc?...

For as long as you get a suitable one that matches your ambition (Not that ours is high at the moment but we still deserve better than the ex manager of Molde)

Because I have seen enough to know that he is not a good manager. His actions and records tell me so. I never expected him to win the league but also didn't expect he would lose on a regular basis to teams we should be battering and besides Manchester United's managerial seat is not an experiment session where you are appointed to 'grow into the role'. Top clubs and top businesses all over the world don't appoint CEOs and expect them to grow into the role. They are usually the finished articles who have clear, strategic implementation blueprints. The only thing Ole has going for him is being a legend of the club. If we were to discard that sentiment, he deserved to have neen fired a long time ago.

Are things drastically worse than you were expecting at the start of the season given the squad we have? What were you expecting for this season, what do you see as realistic for this team particularly given the glaring midfield shortage and the injuries we've had to key players thus far?

 

[GlasgowCeltic]

I'd love to see ole get a run of games with his first choice 11 playing. Not sure that has happened this season.

This constant chopping and changing of managers and going with the flavor of the season has cost us immensely in terms of lost years and damaged finances.

Giving him the job during the bounce was literally going with the flavour of the season rather than making a logical decision

 

[AneRu]

We are 10th because of many reasons and not just because of AWB and Maguire. Your criticism of AWB hardly makes sense. What makes you think Periera would have made us better , considering it has been the midfield and creativity that has been our major issue. The whole argument that we could have spent less money on defence to spend more on midfield shouldn't be even made and the question should be asked to the owners and the board as why is that the case.

You are just excusing a poor decision and trying to lay it on the owners. If the owners say you have so much to spend no one in the world is going to change that and it becomes incumbent on the manager and the recruitment side to try and get more for less and you don't do that by spending world record fees on a couple of flawed defenders.

Maguire was never an £80m player and he will never be. We definitely should have signed cheaper options and squeezed in one more midfielder to get the balance of the squad right. It's only at United where the club gets to consistently spend outrageous sums of money on players who are a few levels below the top tier.

 

[zenith]

Giving him the job during the bounce was literally going with the flavour of the season rather than making a logical decision

Yeah, it was probably not the best decision but we must absolutely make sure that the next appointment is the right one and the right timing.

Not sure myself if poch is in the best frame of mind to take over possibly his highest profile appointment till date.

 

[Andycoleno9]

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Moyes is little baby for this guy

 

[Majima]

We’re a squad made up of young and inexperienced players, what do you expect. And if you want to point at joke contracts, see Sanchez. That transfer more than sums up this club over the last few years, in many ways.

You really challenged my points there.

You originally described improvements we have apparently made in the past year.

You have shown zero evidence to support your claims.

I have shown that the very same things are still going on.

Are you sure these improvements we've apparently made are not just in your head?

 

[Zen86]

You really challenged my points there.

You originally described improvements we have apparently made in the past year.

You have shown zero evidence to support your claims.

I have shown that the very same things are still going on.

Are you sure these improvements we've apparently made are not just in your head?

You’ve not really shown anything have you, rather just moaned about Jones and Young getting a new contract and posted a quote from Twitter.

Me personally, I think the club is progressing. We’re hard working, we’re focusing on youth, we’re fighting. We’re also lacking quality, but I’m more confident that we’ll bring in that quality and they will actually perform.

Ole might not be the right man in the long term, time will tell. I’m confident we’re doing the right thing right now though. So I’ll continue to be optimistic for the future, you can carry on with your whining pity party. Toodles.

 

[AshRK]

You are just excusing a poor decision and trying to lay it on the owners. If the owners say you have so much to spend no one in the world is going to change that and it becomes incumbent on the manager and the recruitment side to try and get more for less and you don't do that by spending world record fees on a couple of flawed defenders.

Maguire was never an £80m player and he will never be. We definitely should have signed cheaper options and squeezed in one more midfielder to get the balance of the squad right. It's only at United where the club gets to consistently spend outrageous sums of money on players who are a few levels below the top tier.

How is AWB a flawed defender? I think he has been a solid purchase. I can fault Ole for many things and do not think he is the right manager to manage us but I will never blame him for the 3 signings he has made.

 

[AshRK]

Adrian Durham has absolutely slaughtered Ole on Talksport for that sub. Couldn't understand why we didn't just carry doing what we we doing, scoring for fun. He said Sheffield United has gone and we let them back into the game.

My biggest complain yesterday. It was a stupid sub that cannot be defended.

 

[Majima]

You’ve not really shown anything have you, rather just moaned about Jones and Young getting a new contract and posted a quote from Twitter.

Me personally, I think the club is progressing. We’re hard working, we’re focusing on youth, we’re fighting. We’re also lacking quality, but I’m more confident that we’ll bring in that quality and they will actually perform.

Ole might not be the right man in the long term, time will tell. I’m confident we’re doing the right thing right now though. So I’ll continue to be optimistic for the future, you can carry on with your whining pity party. Toodles.

You referred to the period before Solskjaer as:

The culture of consistent failure, easy pay checks, big names, little effort, and a setup which generally led to the vast majority of our transfers flopping.

Have you followed his period since permanent manager at all? He has 25 points from 21 games in the league so far.

That equals 45 points overall. That gets you 13th place in 3/5 past seasons.

If these performances are the team giving maximum effort, everyone needs to be sacked on the spot then.

Jones, Young, Mata, Lingard next in line i expect, are not easy pay checks?

a setup which generally led to the vast majority of our transfers flopping.

We have brought in a dof have we? Am i missing something or have we still got the same setup that was present under the previous managers?

We’ve been a laughing stock, a joke of a club because we spent big, made flashy headlines and we’re shit as a result.

We spent big on the defence with Maguire. We have had 2 clean sheets in 13 pl matches.

Look at the nonsense our manager is making after games: ''The difference is huge, last year we would have gone 4 or 5 down''.

Oh yeah we never came back from 0-2 and won 3-2 vs Newcastle a few weeks before Mourinho's sacking did we?

So i would ask you again, what has actually changed?

What evidence do you have to point to, that makes you ''confident we're doing the right thing''?

I have asked you and it seems you can't give me a proper answer, so the only explanation is, it must be a fantasy that is in your head.

 

[Adnan]

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Gary Neville saying on Sky get fears Solskjaer won’t get the time to see the fruits of his work unless he spends @ManUtd money in January. “Has to protect himself.”

 

[AshRK]

.
I never said the defence was fine. But our priorities should've been towards the midfield because we he had 6 CBs on our books who could've held the fort (until we sorted the midfield) with help from a mobile DM who should've been bought.

I also never mentioned buying Pereira from Leicester either. I mentioned Porto's Pereira in relation to value signings that could've been made and the former Porto fullback was used as one example. I never wanted us to sign a RB and made that pretty clear in the summer. But my personal first choice at RB would've been Lukas Klostermann from RB Leipzig who at 23 is a brilliant fullback going forward and defensively.

So you were happy having Ashley freaking young as our first choice RB.

 

[Bobcat]

The right characters in place, united way, youth etc only matters when results is favorable.

All the right characters, the united way, youth etc doesnt matter if we ended up bottom table.

What good is characters, united way etc if you can't challenge with that? Saf wont be saf if he does all that without winning any trophies. Forget trophies, we're 10th. Where is the fabled characters and hunger? I see worse player than last year, more lazy, more clueless, more inclined to not track back. What's the real concrete character you're implying?

Players that wants to play for us? Which player personates that? Other than james i dont see anyone else breaking sweats and extra effort and i dont see passion and pride at all.

Maguire, McTomminay, James, Rashford are the right type of characters. And fighting back after going down 0-2 shows character and hunger. We have looked clueless at times, but never lazy

 

[Samid]

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Gary Neville saying on Sky get fears Solskjaer won’t get the time to see the fruits of his work unless he spends @ManUtd money in January. “Has to protect himself.”

How did this bloke become a journalist? Never ever seen him formulate a half decent tweet.