Eight games away from another disastrous season under Ole

[POF]

Agree with all this. Perhaps need a CDM too

In theory, Pogba, Matic, Fred and McTominay with Garner as depth is plenty for 2 midfield positions but recently it seems like Ole is only comfortable playing Pogba in the 2 with Matic next to him.

That makes it really difficult to rotate.

Will be intefesting to see what they do in the summer.

 

[Beachryan]

It's a funny one. At the start of the season if you said we'd finish 5th, he probably wouldn't survive. Now it looks certainly possible, and most think he'll be fine.

For me he still demonstrates quite a few major deficiencies, that need careful weighing against his obvious positives:
Good
- Many players are genuinely better than last year. Martial, Greenwood, Rashford, Pogba, Matic, McSauce etc
- At times are attack looks formidable, and there is something resembling strategy to it
- Signings are by and large good, not just as footballers but as teammates

Not good
- Despite being a major issue for 2 seasons, we still can't play through a press
- Our pressing worked for about 2 games, then went back to being awful
- His substitutions are garbage, comically bad. Generally too late and change nothing.
- Despite an excellent goals against, the back 4 frequently look disorganised, and make the same mistakes

I do feel like we could really use some better coaching tbh. Maybe that's not Ole's job, but it his job to pick the coaches and what they're working on. I think the first XI that he's put together and the squad mentality is great stuff, but from a tactics and coaching standpoint I don't think he's up there with top managers.

 

[The Red Thinker]

And why did we have no chance 10 games ago? Because of our poor poor form under Ole’s management.

And no I don’t want Jose- there are other managers in world football available

Wow. You're the type who'd have had Sir Alex fired back in the day. I'm sure you wouldn't know what I'm talking about.

Last 17 games - 1 loss. Improvement is enough of a sign to not sack for what happened before. Especially when the man in charge hasn't even been in charge for 2 years straight.

Teams improve. When given time for a manager to bring his players in and actually do a rebuild, it either goes tits up like it did with Jose or it goes really well, as it has for the most part in a season when you don't have your most talented and influential player (before Bruno) until a bloody pandemic hits.

I'm done with you. Senseless argument.

 

[Keefy18]

Not good
- Despite being a major issue for 2 seasons, we still can't play through a press
- Our pressing worked for about 2 games, then went back to being awful
- His substitutions are garbage, comically bad. Generally too late and change nothing.
- Despite an excellent goals against, the back 4 frequently look disorganised, and make the same mistakes

I do feel like we could really use some better coaching tbh. Maybe that's not Ole's job, but it his job to pick the coaches and what they're working on. I think the first XI that he's put together and the squad mentality is great stuff, but from a tactics and coaching standpoint I don't think he's up there with top managers.

Just to address some of your not good points from my own perspective, of course others will argue otherwise I'm sure

1&2 - Kinda the same point and I do believe we have played with a high press quite often throughout the season but for me I think lack of fitness has been a serious issue quite often. Our injury list and of course fitness was a huge, huge issue moving from the Jose tenure. We topped the injury list table for 17/18 and 18/19 I believe or at least 2nd behind Spurs.

To carry out a high press requires very, very high levels of stamina and avoiding injuries and the longer he is here the better our fitness is and injuries are decreasing.

There is one other area that fitness falls into then as well and that is squad depth. Logically speaking if the same 13/14 players are routinely playing fatigue becomes a serious issue and it is extremely difficult to be making substitutions when he is making such a dramatic decrease in player quality from a Pogba to Fred or Bruno to Lingard and that is currently the status quo.

3 - Basically touched on it above, when you lack real quality in your sub / squad options it isn't so much that the subs decisions are "garbage", more so the subs themselves are garbage as highlighted in the examples above.

Point 3 kind of reminds a year ago where so many Ole hating folks (not saying you), were adamant he saw Lingard & Jones as United level cause his hand was forced into playing them due to the aforementioned fitness / injury crisis he had at the back end of last season.

4 - At a guess I'd imagine there is little faith in De Gea currently and its making for a nervous back line but to add to that, Ole wants us to play out from the back and it is very difficult to do that when fatigue is setting in as we've seen in recent games.

I could go on with a long analysis but I'll let this extremely informative piece do it for me, it highlights the difficulties Ole faces when he does drop a Pogba / Matic to McTominay and also the tactical issues he faces in doing so in turn.

https://thebusbybabe.sbnation.com/2...5E2PdX4RzGOkXYDBNjQ-VXxt0DzcEPwyP7P3M8P_iQK1E

 

[gerdm07]

It's a funny one. At the start of the season if you said we'd finish 5th, he probably wouldn't survive. Now it looks certainly possible, and most think he'll be fine.

For me he still demonstrates quite a few major deficiencies, that need careful weighing against his obvious positives:
Good
- Many players are genuinely better than last year. Martial, Greenwood, Rashford, Pogba, Matic, McSauce etc
- At times are attack looks formidable, and there is something resembling strategy to it
- Signings are by and large good, not just as footballers but as teammates

Not good
- Despite being a major issue for 2 seasons, we still can't play through a press
- Our pressing worked for about 2 games, then went back to being awful
- His substitutions are garbage, comically bad. Generally too late and change nothing.
- Despite an excellent goals against, the back 4 frequently look disorganised, and make the same mistakes

I do feel like we could really use some better coaching tbh. Maybe that's not Ole's job, but it his job to pick the coaches and what they're working on. I think the first XI that he's put together and the squad mentality is great stuff, but from a tactics and coaching standpoint I don't think he's up there with top managers.

It's a good thing you are not in management in your workplace (I'm guessing). No one in their right mind would fire a manager (not just in football) if their department is putting out better numbers than a year ago, the product or service is getting better reviews, and the morale is higher. It's easy to think the grass is always greener on the other side, in reality, though, it usually is not. In other words, there is a real possibility that a new manager would take us back a step or two. An owner or boss would be crazy to change things now.

 

[alexthelion]

Getting bored and fed up of you ruining threads with your endless negativity and agenda posting. Keep it up and you're gone!

Hurray!

 

[Flexdegea]

Wow. You're the type who'd have had Sir Alex fired back in the day. I'm sure you wouldn't know what I'm talking about.

Last 17 games - 1 loss. Improvement is enough of a sign to not sack for what happened before. Especially when the man in charge hasn't even been in charge for 2 years straight.

Teams improve. When given time for a manager to bring his players in and actually do a rebuild, it either goes tits up like it did with Jose or it goes really well, as it has for the most part in a season when you don't have your most talented and influential player (before Bruno) until a bloody pandemic hits.

I'm done with you. Senseless argument.

It's actually Fergie fault for the way he and some other fans behave. That sense of entitlement and stroppy attitude expectant to be totally dominate and unrealistic, and plus win everything, so they be short sighted at times.

Not saying Ole is fergie, but at the moment it seems madness to me to want to change up managers right now after the shitshow we have had with managers previously and the state they've left us in.

Been clear improvements everywhere, but most important for me is the players are playing for him. We have went into massive games this season, with a Injured squad and got the wins, as well as plenty of come back from behind results. He got the team right behind him.

 

[Keefy18]

Wow. You're the type who'd have had Sir Alex fired back in the day. I'm sure you wouldn't know what I'm talking about.

Last 17 games - 1 loss. Improvement is enough of a sign to not sack for what happened before. Especially when the man in charge hasn't even been in charge for 2 years straight.

Teams improve. When given time for a manager to bring his players in and actually do a rebuild, it either goes tits up like it did with Jose or it goes really well, as it has for the most part in a season when you don't have your most talented and influential player (before Bruno) until a bloody pandemic hits.

I'm done with you. Senseless argument.

1 loss in 21!!!

And he's posting like its RIP MUFC!

That 21 game run has included City twice, Chelsea, Wolves and Spurs!!

We dropped points to a vastly improved Southampton who beat Man City a few days prior and West Ham on a nice run of form themselves and beat Chelsea a few days prior.

Perspective is the word that comes to my mind with people like Rafael.

 

[Foxbatt]

Or a successful one under Ole?

 

[Revan]

Jose Mourinho and Louis Van Gaal have failed here. 2 proven winners. There were/are bigger problems at the club than what we see on the field. Ole is the only one of the post Fergie managers that seems to be resolving some of that. Plus there's decent stuff on the pitch too. Thats why I'm happy for him to continue. The side is showing promise, which we haven't had in a long time.

It way well come to pass that he doesn't kick us on next year, in which case there's a stronger argument for moving him on. I think if that happens we're in a miles better place than we were pre Ole though, and a lot of that is down to Ole.

What problems that we don’t see in the pitch has been Ole fixing?

 

[Carl]

What problems that we don’t see in the pitch has been Ole fixing?

I think he's getting a lot of the disharmony in the dressing room sorted out by getting rid of overpaid mercenaries that don't want to play for the club. I also like the transfer strategy he seems to be going for since taking over. The introduction of a few academy players also seems to be building a bridge between the fans and playing staff that we haven't really felt for a while.

Obviously with all of the above there's no way of knowing how much is directly Ole's doing, but they're all things that changed from his arrival onwards.

It all just leads to a much better vibe about the club. There are problems with the side still (as this forum will not hesitate in pointing out) yet this is the most optimistic I've been as a United fan post Fergie. Not because I think this is the closest we've been to being able to win the league or anything like that, but for the first Time in a long time it looks to me to at least be heading in the right direction.

 

[Revan]

I think he's getting a lot of the disharmony in the dressing room sorted out by getting rid of overpaid mercenaries that don't want to play for the club. I also like the transfer strategy he seems to be going for since taking over. The introduction of a few academy players also seems to be building a bridge between the fans and playing staff that we haven't really felt for a while.

Obviously with all of the above there's no way of knowing how much is directly Ole's doing, but they're all things that changed from his arrival onwards.

It all just leads to a much better vibe about the club. There are problems with the side still (as this forum will not hesitate in pointing out) yet this is the most optimistic I've been as a United fan post Fergie. Not because I think this is the closest we've been to being able to win the league or anything like that, but for the first Time in a long time it looks to me to at least be heading in the right direction.

I don’t disagree to much with this (except when it comes to signings, in which case I think they have been decent at best and definitely highly overpaid). Removing some of the deadwood was definitely great to see as was playing young players.

At the same time, I remember that similar things were said for LVG too, the famous ‘he will build the team for the next manager’. Heck, even on Mourinho’s second season there was ‘the well drilled team’. So my point is that it is really hard to understand what is going on behind the scenes and really be able to say something about it without the benefit of hindsight (or without working at the club). Often, seems to me that phrase is used to mask the relative mediocrity on the pitch.

I still have no idea if since Bruno came there was another false dawn or finally being good again. The signs were that we were getting better, but we have been from bad to horrible on the last 4 matches. So dunno, let’s see.

 

[Ali Dia]

Whether he finishes 3rd or 5th, he'll definitely be in charge next season. It's been a great turnaround this season.

From the squad he inherited, it was 3 in, 6 out for the first half of the season. The outs were generally first team regulars or big money players. It left the squad criminally short of depth. The 2 in 2 out in January really got Ole a squad he could work with for the first time this season and his record since has been really good.

There's lots of work to be done and it's vital the club backs him in the market this summer. When your manager only has 14-15 players he's willing to play you have a real issue with depth.

They need at least 2 attacking players, a centre back and a full back to be genuinely competitive next season. 4 or 5 more could go, so lots of work to be done this window. Having an alternative to Bruno is crucial. He's played almost every minute since he's joined the club and he looks shattered.

not only that but Bruno also needs competition for when his form starts to slip All our attackers do.

 

[Carl]

I don’t disagree to much with this (except when it comes to signings, in which case I think they have been decent at best and definitely highly overpaid). Removing some of the deadwood was definitely great to see as was playing young players.

At the same time, I remember that similar things were said for LVG too, the famous ‘he will build the team for the next manager’. Heck, even on Mourinho’s second season there was ‘the well drilled team’. So my point is that it is really hard to understand what is going on behind the scenes and really be able to say something about it without the benefit of hindsight (or without working at the club). Often, seems to me that phrase is used to mask the relative mediocrity on the pitch.

I still have no idea if since Bruno came there was another false dawn or finally being good again. The signs were that we were getting better, but we have been from bad to horrible on the last 4 matches. So dunno, let’s see.

Yeh, i get that. On signings though, I deliberately didn't really say about individual performances - because of course for 80mil Maguire has been disappointing. I like the strategy though, that being looking to sign players from a tier or 2 below and bring them on at the club. Rather that trying to go and sign "ready made" players who just seem to be looking to milk us.

 

[lysglimt]

Because it’s only me & a few others who can see we can do so so much better than Ole as manager.

You can all be sycophants to Ole if you want, go ahead.

Name three managers we realistically can hire - who would do better than OGS. And I don't mean - managers who might do better than OGS, I want managers who are so good that outperforming OGS is a no-brainer

And they are gonna get immediate results and play attacking football

 

[morbidsaint]

Another?

 

[Andycoleno9]

Name three managers we realistically can hire - who would do better than OGS. And I don't mean - managers who might do better than OGS, I want managers who are so good that outperforming OGS is a no-brainer

And they are gonna get immediate results and play attacking football

Poch, Bielsa, Tuchel, Rodgers, Nagelsman, ten Hag...
And many many others.

 

[roonster09]

Name three managers we realistically can hire - who would do better than OGS. And I don't mean - managers who might do better than OGS, I want managers who are so good that outperforming OGS is a no-brainer

And they are gonna get immediate results and play attacking football

He can't name any manager because he is banned

 

[Withnail]

Poch, Bielsa, Tuchel, Rodgers, Nagelsman, ten Hag...
And many many others.

Brendan Rodgers? Are you serious? Have you seen Leicester's form since Christmas?

Not sure about Bielsa. He absolutely runs his teams into the ground. I think he was lucky with the Covid break.

 

[Matriac]

He can't name any manager because he is banned

Christmas came early this year.

 

[crossy1686]

He can't name any manager because he is banned

Best thing that's happened to this forum in the last 18 months. I think the fact statistically not everyone on this place can be sycophants, or whatever his go-to insult was, was completely lost on him. If you believe everyone around you is a nobhead, guess who it's most likely the nobhead really is?

 

[roonster09]

Christmas came early this year.

Best thing that's happened to this forum in the last 18 months. I think the fact statistically not everyone on this place can be sycophants, or whatever his go-to insult was, was completely lost on him. If you believe everyone around you is a nobhead, guess who it's most likely the nobhead really is?

It's amazing how one poster ban brought so much joy, it's like Jose's sacking

There are atleast few more posts which said same thing, like @rotherham_red's and others.

 

[Rightnr]

It's a good thing you are not in management in your workplace (I'm guessing). No one in their right mind would fire a manager (not just in football) if their department is putting out better numbers than a year ago, the product or service is getting better reviews, and the morale is higher. It's easy to think the grass is always greener on the other side, in reality, though, it usually is not. In other words, there is a real possibility that a new manager would take us back a step or two. An owner or boss would be crazy to change things now.

Another trash post which is a thinly-veiled personal insult to the poster. It's a good thing you're not in a numerical profession because we're quite clearly not better than a year ago based on the numbers.

If we win on Sunday, we'd literally be on the same points as last year, so essentially the poor league would have made our season look better than it is.

All those that say last year we suffered due to Mourinho's start, OGS did not do much better than him.

All those saying he had injuries. Pogba's premature comeback in an irrelevant game is what had him out for so long. That was the manager's decision.

I could go on and on but the Trumpist attiude of some of these Ole lovers makes it pointless to argue factually because they always come back with some bullshit about morale and how we 'look better' and disregard the fact it's only in spells which is all quite similar to his initial spell as interim.

 

[roonster09]

All those that say last year we suffered due to Mounrinho's start, OGS did not do much better than him.

Last season or this season?

 

[Withnail]

Best thing that's happened to this forum in the last 18 months. I think the fact statistically not everyone on this place can be sycophants, or whatever his go-to insult was, was completely lost on him. If you believe everyone around you is a nobhead, guess who it's most likely the nobhead really is?

It's impossible to have a meaningful conversation or debate with someone who holds a minority view and is so entrenched in that view that everyone who disagrees is characterised as a moronic fanboy.

 

[roonster09]

It's impossible to have a meaningful conversation or debate with someone who holds a minority view and is so entrenched in that view that everyone who disagrees is characterised as a moronic fanboy.

Well that's mistake number 1

 

[Withnail]

Another trash post which is a thinly-veiled personal insult to the poster. It's a good thing you're not in a numerical profession because we're quite clearly not better than a year ago based on the numbers.

If we win on Sunday, we'd literally be on the same points as last year, so essentially the poor league would have made our season look better than it is.

All those that say last year we suffered due to Mourinho's start, OGS did not do much better than him.

All those saying he had injuries. Pogba's premature comeback in an irrelevant game is what had him out for so long. That was the manager's decision.

I could go on and on but the Trumpist attiude of some of these Ole lovers makes it pointless to argue factually because they always come back with some bullshit about morale and how we 'look better' and disregard the fact it's only in spells which is all quite similar to his initial spell as interim.

How well you are doing in football is usually judged on league position rather than points totals.

No manager was ever fired over their number of points compared to the previous year so it's not a statistic anyone should care about.

 

[Stack]

Another trash post which is a thinly-veiled personal insult to the poster. It's a good thing you're not in a numerical profession because we're quite clearly not better than a year ago based on the numbers.

If we win on Sunday, we'd literally be on the same points as last year, so essentially the poor league would have made our season look better than it is.

All those that say last year we suffered due to Mourinho's start, OGS did not do much better than him.

All those saying he had injuries. Pogba's premature comeback in an irrelevant game is what had him out for so long. That was the manager's decision.

I could go on and on but the Trumpist attiude of some of these Ole lovers makes it pointless to argue factually because they always come back with some bullshit about morale and how we 'look better' and disregard the fact it's only in spells which is all quite similar to his initial spell as interim.

The general tone of your reply here is ironically very Trump like.....

 

[Andycoleno9]

Brendan Rodgers? Are you serious? Have you seen Leicester's form since Christmas?

Not sure about Bielsa. He absolutely runs his teams into the ground. I think he was lucky with the Covid break.

That is why i said that Rodgers would not be my pick. I am not his fan and i do think that he is only good manager and that is it. But i do think that he would be doing better job than Ole.
And Bielsa...man, he is top class. Look what other managers say about him. Pep adores him.
Last month i read interview with Slaven Bilic. Slaven said that after talking with Bielsa he realised how much he (Bilic) doesn't know about football.
Bielsa would be great in this club because we are a club who gives managers freedom. And that is something what Bielsa wants.

 

[Revan]

That is why i said that Rodgers would not be my pick. I am not his fan and i do think that he is only good manager and that is it. But i do think that he would be doing better job than Ole.
And Bielsa...man, he is top class. Look what other managers say about him. Pep adores him.
Last month i read interview with Slaven Bilic. Slaven said that after talking with Bielsa he realised how much he (Bilic) doesn't know about football.
Bielsa would be great in this club because we are a club who gives managers freedom. And that is something what Bielsa wants.

Bielsa is a bit Van Gaal like but more extreme. An excellent coach, but probably would be a disaster of a manager here. He is also 200 years old.

 

[Andycoleno9]

Bielsa is a bit Van Gaal like but more extreme. An excellent coach, but probably would be a disaster of a manager here. He is also 200 years old.

Revan is 300y and still kick ass.

Yeah, i am geek

 

[Maluco]

It's a funny one. At the start of the season if you said we'd finish 5th, he probably wouldn't survive. Now it looks certainly possible, and most think he'll be fine.

For me he still demonstrates quite a few major deficiencies, that need careful weighing against his obvious positives:
Good
- Many players are genuinely better than last year. Martial, Greenwood, Rashford, Pogba, Matic, McSauce etc
- At times are attack looks formidable, and there is something resembling strategy to it
- Signings are by and large good, not just as footballers but as teammates

Not good
- Despite being a major issue for 2 seasons, we still can't play through a press
- Our pressing worked for about 2 games, then went back to being awful
- His substitutions are garbage, comically bad. Generally too late and change nothing.
- Despite an excellent goals against, the back 4 frequently look disorganised, and make the same mistakes

I do feel like we could really use some better coaching tbh. Maybe that's not Ole's job, but it his job to pick the coaches and what they're working on. I think the first XI that he's put together and the squad mentality is great stuff, but from a tactics and coaching standpoint I don't think he's up there with top managers.

This sums it up very well in my opinion. Enough to have a measured approach to his tenure. There are some definite positives and some areas of concern.

The post below critiquing you and hoping you’re not in management is bizarre, because there has been no improvement in numbers whatsoever.

I prefer a more measured approach like this one. Positives being praised, constructive criticism and suggestions on how to improve things without being drastic. Sounds like you could be alright in management to me!

Agree 100%

 

[ReddBalls]

It says something about Solskjær's good work so far that people on here, after criticizing fitness regime, transfers, tactical ability, coaching, demeanor in press conferences, table position and so forth, now are resorting to criticize the amount of points gathered over the season. Which is irrelevant. Weird though, that people claiming they are fans of the club really can't enjoy watching one of the club's own making progress with the team as a manager.

 

[Revan]

Revan is 300y and still kick ass.

Yeah, i am geek

Yeah, but he was in hibernation for 300 years, while Bielsa spent only 3 years as a hermit.

 

[LJJT]

It says something about Solskjær's good work so far that people on here, after criticizing fitness regime, transfers, tactical ability, coaching, demeanor in press conferences, table position and so forth, now are resorting to criticize the amount of points gathered over the season. Which is irrelevant. Weird though, that people claiming they are fans of the club really can't enjoy watching one of the club's own making progress with the team as a manager.

Agree totally. I find the criticism utterly bizarre, this had been the most enjoyable season post Fergie and he’s done one hell of a job to stop the ship sinking in such a short space of time. How no one can get enjoyment and optimism from one of our own coming in and resetting the culture and halting the death spiral and getting us back on the right track is beyond me

 

[Gasolin]

Just to address some of your not good points from my own perspective, of course others will argue otherwise I'm sure

1&2 - Kinda the same point and I do believe we have played with a high press quite often throughout the season but for me I think lack of fitness has been a serious issue quite often. Our injury list and of course fitness was a huge, huge issue moving from the Jose tenure. We topped the injury list table for 17/18 and 18/19 I believe or at least 2nd behind Spurs.

To carry out a high press requires very, very high levels of stamina and avoiding injuries and the longer he is here the better our fitness is and injuries are decreasing.

There is one other area that fitness falls into then as well and that is squad depth. Logically speaking if the same 13/14 players are routinely playing fatigue becomes a serious issue and it is extremely difficult to be making substitutions when he is making such a dramatic decrease in player quality from a Pogba to Fred or Bruno to Lingard and that is currently the status quo.

3 - Basically touched on it above, when you lack real quality in your sub / squad options it isn't so much that the subs decisions are "garbage", more so the subs themselves are garbage as highlighted in the examples above.

Point 3 kind of reminds a year ago where so many Ole hating folks (not saying you), were adamant he saw Lingard & Jones as United level cause his hand was forced into playing them due to the aforementioned fitness / injury crisis he had at the back end of last season.

4 - At a guess I'd imagine there is little faith in De Gea currently and its making for a nervous back line but to add to that, Ole wants us to play out from the back and it is very difficult to do that when fatigue is setting in as we've seen in recent games.

I could go on with a long analysis but I'll let this extremely informative piece do it for me, it highlights the difficulties Ole faces when he does drop a Pogba / Matic to McTominay and also the tactical issues he faces in doing so in turn.

https://thebusbybabe.sbnation.com/2...5E2PdX4RzGOkXYDBNjQ-VXxt0DzcEPwyP7P3M8P_iQK1E

I’m a fan of Paul’s analysis and indeed Scott is having a learning problem when the other players seem to improve. We are 100% playing with Matic or Fred to progress the ball fast on Sunday.

 

[Beachryan]

Just to address some of your not good points from my own perspective, of course others will argue otherwise I'm sure

1&2 - Kinda the same point and I do believe we have played with a high press quite often throughout the season but for me I think lack of fitness has been a serious issue quite often. Our injury list and of course fitness was a huge, huge issue moving from the Jose tenure. We topped the injury list table for 17/18 and 18/19 I believe or at least 2nd behind Spurs.

To carry out a high press requires very, very high levels of stamina and avoiding injuries and the longer he is here the better our fitness is and injuries are decreasing.

There is one other area that fitness falls into then as well and that is squad depth. Logically speaking if the same 13/14 players are routinely playing fatigue becomes a serious issue and it is extremely difficult to be making substitutions when he is making such a dramatic decrease in player quality from a Pogba to Fred or Bruno to Lingard and that is currently the status quo.

3 - Basically touched on it above, when you lack real quality in your sub / squad options it isn't so much that the subs decisions are "garbage", more so the subs themselves are garbage as highlighted in the examples above.

Point 3 kind of reminds a year ago where so many Ole hating folks (not saying you), were adamant he saw Lingard & Jones as United level cause his hand was forced into playing them due to the aforementioned fitness / injury crisis he had at the back end of last season.

4 - At a guess I'd imagine there is little faith in De Gea currently and its making for a nervous back line but to add to that, Ole wants us to play out from the back and it is very difficult to do that when fatigue is setting in as we've seen in recent games.

I could go on with a long analysis but I'll let this extremely informative piece do it for me, it highlights the difficulties Ole faces when he does drop a Pogba / Matic to McTominay and also the tactical issues he faces in doing so in turn.

https://thebusbybabe.sbnation.com/2...5E2PdX4RzGOkXYDBNjQ-VXxt0DzcEPwyP7P3M8P_iQK1E

Thanks for the detailed response - I'm definitely with you on most of these reasons when I'm feeling glass half full. And obviously this period is not useful in evaluating fitness as we'll never again have this many matches every 3.3 days. Personnel are obviously important.

That said, earlier in the season we were very much hoping that some of the 'squad' players could step up and they've more or less been abandoned. Thinking James, Williams, McSauce in particular, but also someone like Mata could have a role. It baffles me that we're not seeing any of them, even as subs. Even Chong feels like a potentially useful 'last 10 minutes' sub for mixing things up, but he's been totally awol.

Sadly Ole is never going to get more than 3 signings in this summer imo. So a lot of this squad is still going to be important. I'd like us to adapt a style that allows some interchange, we can't just be a great first XI that is good enough to kind of exist outside of a system.

 

[Beachryan]

It's a good thing you are not in management in your workplace (I'm guessing). No one in their right mind would fire a manager (not just in football) if their department is putting out better numbers than a year ago, the product or service is getting better reviews, and the morale is higher. It's easy to think the grass is always greener on the other side, in reality, though, it usually is not. In other words, there is a real possibility that a new manager would take us back a step or two. An owner or boss would be crazy to change things now.

Erm, not that it really matters but I am in management, thanks. Funnily enough I also analyse numbers all day. Last season we were widely accepted as diabolical until Ole came in, so must have been an awful year and he could only get better with those number things. Let me check...ah yes 66 points. So this year we must be crushing that for my naive, management-spectacles to have missed it. Let me see, looking right here, oh with one match left we can at best get to...66 points.

So half a season of Mourinho ball before Ole joined and we got to a point total that we literally cannot exceed this year.

Now listen, I'm as pleased as pie that Pogba and even Martial are smiling again. As per my post. But let me go ahead and offer you some career advice: don't dive into a pool until you check if there's water in it.

 

[spontaneus1]

Can't believe you all have fallen for Oles fraud, we would be midtable if it weren't for Bruno, Martial and Rashford.

 

[Rightnr]

The general tone of your reply here is ironically very Trump like.....

Of course. Look at the litany of facts, figures and logic you've provided.

The personal sensitivities of some of the Ole acolytes is quite astounding.

Last season or this season?

It was meant to be a rebuttal to people who might wrongfully claim Mourinho's start impeded us last season. Point is, we've done about the same this season with this manager in charge beginning to end.