Would you sack or keep Ole? (Poll reopened)

[Abhinav]

Sack him after 3 league games, really? Patience is really a virtue these days. After he finished 3rd with a strong finish to boot. There are things to criticise him for, definitely. But calling for his head after a shit show of a window and less than ideal pre-season seems childish to me.

The thing that really is grating is that its all so predictable. I defended Jose when he was here till he decided to self sabotage. Manager after manager is thrown under the bus and our fans lap it all up. Yearning for the next messiah and once he is appointed, the cycle starts again. A reboot needs to happen from top to bottom if we are to break the chain of failure:
- A world class footballing head (DoF or whatever name you want to give) needs to be appointed to bring structure to all aspects of footballing operations. A clear plan to turnaround our fortune needs to be in place. The footballing head needs to be given autonomy to put his own team in place. If it means some scouts/ negotiators/ fitness/ coaching staff need to be let go then so be it
- Investment support at the right time and on the right players. Transfers are at the best of times a gamble. There is no guarantee a 100m player is going to be a success. So either be willing to invest heavily and accept high profile failure like City/ PSG or identify players before they become 100m players
- Cultural reboot in the dressing room. Players need to know that there will be consequences for unprofessional conduct and poor performances. If it means selling star players who do not learn after being given enough chances then so be it. Commitment, application and responsibility should be the bare minimum.
- A competent manager (whether its Ole or someone else) needs to be given time, resources and clear objectives to execute the turnaround plan
The problem is that our CEO is all too happy to change the manager to deflect all responsibility and our fans seem to lap it up.

 

[Bojan11]

Haha...the cultists are running on fumes now

• Klopp lost today's game 7-2
• SAF lost some games conceding 5 or 6 goals in his legendary career
• No manager could do anything better with the squad
• It's Woodward and Glazers doing the tactics and coaching
• It's fecking Mourinho's fault
• No preseason
• Players are brain-dead
• Let's stick with this because next manager will not be backed.
• We need Sancho Koulibaly etc to be competitive.

I thought they labelled him as elite level hipster defender.

 

[FootyGirl88]

He has not implemented any definitive style of play, apart from sporadic counter-attacks. Apart from two purple patches, we consistently struggled to create goalscoring chanses and haven't shown ability to keep solid defensive shape. We can't press and have no idea how to beat opposition's organized press.

He doesn't utilize players properly. He insists on double pivot, while shoehorning Pogba and McTominay to DM roles. He supposedly wants his team to play from the back and tries high defensive line, but bought AWB and Maguire.

He has no ingame management or plan B, his formation changes from back 4 to back 3 usually leads to goals conceded, not scored.

He kept picking out of form De Gea, benched Romero in EL semi-final, kept playing Williams, who was constantly targeted and destroyed by oppositions wingers and fullbecks. Didn't give Gomes meaningfull chanses, while Lingard, Pereira and James have played around 20-30 games each.

He is very likeable, club legend and has right view on club's future development. He is just not very good manager and we should not use Board's incompetence to hide that fact and give him one excuse after another.

Perfect summary

 

[RedBanker]

I thought they labelled him as elite level hipster defender.

True ***!

 

[KekiZeki]

The good thing is Liverpool lost by conceding 7 goals at Villa, that will take the pressure off Ole with them being the champions and getting all the negative spotlight for today.

Bad results are gonna come and go, what is important is that we keep on our gradual improvement as it has already started. Once Pogba is out I feel we can seriously progress.

 

[hobbers]

A huge majority of the responses in here today are off the back of one game so let's keep it consistent, please. None of this previous achievement stuff thanks

No they're not. They're off the abysmal last 2 months of Ole's first season. Off the abysmal entire first half of last season. Off the three spineless semi final defeats. Off the absolutely dire first 4 games of this season. Off the back of us spending £130m on two defenders who haven't improved us at all.

So no, not just one game.

 

[Godfather]

He has not implemented any definitive style of play, apart from sporadic counter-attacks. Apart from two purple patches, we consistently struggled to create goalscoring chanses and haven't shown ability to keep solid defensive shape. We can't press and have no idea how to beat opposition's organized press.

He doesn't utilize players properly. He insists on double pivot, while shoehorning Pogba and McTominay to DM roles. He supposedly wants his team to play from the back and tries high defensive line, but bought AWB and Maguire.

He has no ingame management or plan B, his formation changes from back 4 to back 3 usually leads to goals conceded, not scored.

He kept picking out of form De Gea, benched Romero in EL semi-final, kept playing Williams, who was constantly targeted and destroyed by oppositions wingers and fullbecks. Didn't give Gomes meaningfull chanses, while Lingard, Pereira and James have played around 20-30 games each.

He is very likeable, club legend and has right view on club's future development. He is just not very good manager and we should not use Board's incompetence to hide that fact and give him one excuse after another.

Agree word for word

 

[NJM78]

He has not implemented any definitive style of play, apart from sporadic counter-attacks. Apart from two purple patches, we consistently struggled to create goalscoring chanses and haven't shown ability to keep solid defensive shape. We can't press and have no idea how to beat opposition's organized press.

He doesn't utilize players properly. He insists on double pivot, while shoehorning Pogba and McTominay to DM roles. He supposedly wants his team to play from the back and tries high defensive line, but bought AWB and Maguire.

He has no ingame management or plan B, his formation changes from back 4 to back 3 usually leads to goals conceded, not scored.

He kept picking out of form De Gea, benched Romero in EL semi-final, kept playing Williams, who was constantly targeted and destroyed by oppositions wingers and fullbecks. Didn't give Gomes meaningfull chanses, while Lingard, Pereira and James have played around 20-30 games each.

He is very likeable, club legend and has right view on club's future development. He is just not very good manager and we should not use Board's incompetence to hide that fact and give him one excuse after another.

Well put.

 

[RedBanker]

No they're not. They're off the abysmal last 2 months of Ole's first season. Off the abysmal entire first half of last season. Off the three spineless semi final defeats. Off the absolutely dire first 4 games of this season. Off the back of us spending £130m on two defenders who haven't improved us at all.

So no, not just one game.

Spot on. Also winning just 18 games out of 38 last year. Largely thanks to Bruno, penalties and the break.

 

[Regulus Arcturus Black]

He has not implemented any definitive style of play, apart from sporadic counter-attacks. Apart from two purple patches, we consistently struggled to create goalscoring chanses and haven't shown ability to keep solid defensive shape. We can't press and have no idea how to beat opposition's organized press.

He doesn't utilize players properly. He insists on double pivot, while shoehorning Pogba and McTominay to DM roles. He supposedly wants his team to play from the back and tries high defensive line, but bought AWB and Maguire.

He has no ingame management or plan B, his formation changes from back 4 to back 3 usually leads to goals conceded, not scored.

He kept picking out of form De Gea, benched Romero in EL semi-final, kept playing Williams, who was constantly targeted and destroyed by oppositions wingers and fullbecks. Didn't give Gomes meaningfull chanses, while Lingard, Pereira and James have played around 20-30 games each.

He is very likeable, club legend and has right view on club's future development. He is just not very good manager and we should not use Board's incompetence to hide that fact and give him one excuse after another.

Yup.

 

[CG1010]

The test for me will be whether he is able to sacrifice big names like Pogba in favour of better team balance. It is clear we are better off with Fred +Matic/ Mctominay in the midfield. If not, then sadly he is not fit to be the manager.

 

[Rightnr]

Haha...the cultists are running on fumes now

• Klopp lost today's game 7-2
• SAF lost some games conceding 5 or 6 goals in his legendary career
• No manager could do anything better with the squad
• It's Woodward and Glazers doing the tactics and coaching
• It's fecking Mourinho's fault
• No preseason
• Players are brain-dead
• Let's stick with this because next manager will not be backed.
• We need Sancho Koulibaly etc to be competitive.

It's genuinely shocking how far people will sink before admitting we're getting nowhere under him. Absolutely pathetic lack of standards.

I wonder if some of these people work for their parents or something because I haven't been allowed such leeway in normal job, ever.

 

[Irwin99]

It would be pretty typical if the club got Sancho and he then re-energized us to go on a ten match unbeaten run only for it to all go wrong yet again. Of course all teams have their patches but I just get the feeling we're going round in circles constantly. A huge problem is the structure of the club but regardless of the result today i'm not sold Ole's ability to turn us into champions eventually. The two issues aren't mutually exclusive.

 

[Forevergiggs1]

Exactly, he needs all the stars to align to have any run of decent form. We're not a mid table team so that shit isn't good enough.

His stars certainly aligned last season to get us 3rd. And here we are today.

 

[RedBanker]

It's genuinely shocking how far people will sink before admitting we're getting nowhere under him. Absolutely pathetic lack of standards.

I wonder if some of these people work for their parents or something because I haven't been allowed such leeway in normal job, ever.

This. No one usually is given such leeway nowadays. But on here it seems that some people are so obsessed with SAF 2.0 that they have forgotten the value of winning things. For them how we get there is more important than getting there. Baseless romanticism which has no place in modern day football. Mediocrity has become a habit.

 

[Eddy_JukeZ]

This. No one usually is given such leeway nowadays. But on here it seems that some people are so obsessed with SAF 2.0 that they have forgotten the value of winning things. For them how we get there is more important than getting there. Baseless romanticism which has no place in modern day football. Mediocrity has become a habit.

This is the biggest problem with our fans. We all hope for another SAF. Someone to manage the club for 20+ years.

It's nonsensical. SAF was once in a lifetime. We aren't getting another.

 

[Regulus Arcturus Black]

The test for me will be whether he is able to sacrifice big names like Pogba in favour of better team balance. It is clear we are better off with Fred +Matic/ Mctominay in the midfield. If not, then sadly he is not fit to be the manager.

He has no real system so he simply picks his best players without any thought as to how it’ll work, that’s been clear since day one.

 

[RedorDead21]

This. No one usually is given such leeway nowadays. But on here it seems that some people are so obsessed with SAF 2.0 that they have forgotten the value of winning things. For them how we get there is more important than getting there. Baseless romanticism which has no place in modern day football. Mediocrity has become a habit.

We came third last season? We've had a terrible window and we started this season later as a result of a late finish to the season. We are still not where we need to be as a team yet this season compared to how we finished last season for a variety of reasons. Get Ole a quality CB to go with Telles and give the team to the 10 games mark before we start making sack Ole statements.

 

[Eddy_JukeZ]

We came third last season? We've had a terrible window and we started this season later as a result of a late finish to the season. We are still not where we need to be as a team yet this season compared to how we finished last season for a variety of reasons. Get Ole a quality CB to go with Telles and give the team to the 10 games mark before we start making sack Ole statements.

You would trust Ole with getting another CB after he sanctioned 80 mil for Maguire?

 

[sewey89]

Klopp comes out after the game and points out where it went wrong. Speaks somewhat coherently about why it happened.

Compare that to Ole’s interview where he just appeared lost for words.

He just doesn’t come across as a top class manager. I would love nothing more than Ole to succeed. But I don’t think it’s ever going to happen

 

[JG3001]

If he wasn’t an ex United player, pretty much 90% of the responses would be get him sacked.

This obsession with nostalgia and the United way is a contributing factor of why we’re crap.

until we get a manager who a) knows how to coach a team to actually play football & b) has the balls to straight up call out the board, instead of a passive aggressive yes man, we ain’t winning anything major for the next decade.

 

[RedBanker]

We came third last season? We've had a terrible window and we started this season later as a result of a late finish to the season. We are still not where we need to be as a team yet this season compared to how we finished last season for a variety of reasons. Get Ole a quality CB to go with Telles and give the team to the 10 games mark before we start making sack Ole statements.

We fluked third last season. We won only 18 effin games. We were down in the dumps until December. Then came Bruno and the Corona break. We won some games and played ok football before tapering off again and losing a glut of important games towards the end when Bruno effect wore off. We got 60 something points. And how was the end of OGS first season? And now this?
Give him five new players, the fact that he is not suited for the job won't change for me. If mediocrity is your choice, suit yourself.

 

[MattofManchester]

We came third last season? We've had a terrible window and we started this season later as a result of a late finish to the season. We are still not where we need to be as a team yet this season compared to how we finished last season for a variety of reasons. Get Ole a quality CB to go with Telles and give the team to the 10 games mark before we start making sack Ole statements.

This is nonsensical. A quality CB is not needed to beat Palace, or to beat Brighton comfortably.
Nor is it needed to not ship 6 goals against Spurs. That team is worth over 450m ffs. How much do you expect us to spend before the manager actually starts getting the best out of the players he has?!

 

[CG1010]

He has no real system so he simply picks his best players without any thought as to how it’ll work, that’s been clear since day one.

I don't know.. Bruno and VDB seem to be such thoughtfully signings, looking at exactly what we need in the team. But his rate if adjustment to obvious problems is excruciatingly slow, whether during the match or across matches.

 

[Gehrman]

Give him till Jan or end of the season. We might not now if football is shut down again by Co-vid again.

 

[RedorDead21]

You would trust Ole with getting another CB after he sanctioned 80 mil for Maguire?

Maguire isn't long out of the cells and has that hanging over him. Form wise he's rock bottom which is related. Maguire was defo our best defender before all that. He looks a shadow of himself. He's not a class CB by any stretch but he's at least usually steady eddy. The sums are not really for Ole.

 

[Giggsyking]

If he has some self respect left in him should come out and resign. I dout it.

 

[Eddy_JukeZ]

If he has some self respect left in him should come out and resign. I dout it.

He's not going to forfeit millions of dollars.

It's silly to expect that.

 

[bonothom]

If your an Ole in, you have to ask yourself this question. Would he ever be considered for the managers job at any other club in the Premier league? The answer would have to be no. So why is he considered good enough to manage one of the biggest clubs in the world. The only reason is sentiment. His coaching credentials are non existant for this job.

 

[Giggsyking]

He's not going to forfeit millions of dollars.

It's silly to expect that.

Then he is no different from the toxic one Jose, everybody trashed the toxic one cause he was stinking the place to get his money when sacked. How is it ok a united legend to do that? first thing in the morning he should do go to Ed and discus a departure plan (mutual termination of the contract) and get some compensation.

 

[Forevergiggs1]

Klopp is losing 7-2 it can happen to anyone

And I'm sure if Ole gets us to a couple of CL finals, winning 1 and a PL title in the last couple of seasons he wouldn't be getting criticised as much as he is. Unfortunately he hasn't, so he is.

 

[Jazmodo]

In Ole I Trust.

In Woodward & the Glazers - I want to separate their limbs from their torsos

 

[Zlatan 7]

And I'm sure if Ole gets us to a couple of CL finals, winning 1 and a PL title in the last couple of seasons he wouldn't be getting criticised as much as he is. Unfortunately he hasn't, so he is.

It was in jest to a post above mine. As I’ve said already though, football is in a place we’ve never seen before and lots of teams are shipping lots of goals

 

[anant]

Let's take a moment and actually break the game down from the very start.

Starting XI - I don't think anyone disagreed with that. Every one wanted Bailly to come in, and add to that his pace was going to be useful vs Son.

Tactics - Just the regular tactics, nothing special. During the time Martial was on the field, I noticed that we were focussing our attacks on our left, their right, as Aurier was identified as the weak link in the defence, and rightly so. I don't think there was much that you can point out that there as wrong. I did notice that Aurier had a lot of space, and Shaw was quite narrow when defending, which seemed odd. But I don't see Ole having given an instruction that if Aurier comes from that side, stay narrow only instead of closing him down. That's defending 101. And surely, someone from the backroom staff or even the players would have pointed it out.

Goals -
1st goal - Maguire makes 3 errors in a matter of 5 seconds. Was there an issue with how we were set up for the throw-in that was the issue? No. It was a regular throw--in that we made a meal of.
2nd goal - Again, defending 101, something that's taught to the defenders in the school in pretty much their 1st football lesson. It was simply a case of switching off rather than it being a tactical issue
3rd goal - I agree we like to play from the back, but we have in cases launched the ball forward. Add to that, there's no way the instruction in such cases would be to pass to centrally. That was literally the worst decision Bailly could have made, and brainfarts like those are exactly why many people here, including me, haven't been fully convinced by him
4th goal - I've no idea why Shaw was at the position where he was, his movement should have been to occupy Maguire's position when Maguire moved towards the ball, but he moved towards Kane - not the worst decision mind you, but then you'd notice that Bailly didn't come forward to the near post, which was another poor decision. And after this, another poor defending by Maguire, who let a cross through between his legs. Is there any tactical issue here? No, as Bailly was switched off, Maguire made a meal out of a really poor cross
5th goal - Pogba is caught napping, Shaw hadn't tracked back to his position, something he had done throughout the game (infact to pretty much that exact position where Aurier got the ball), which means that it wasn't a tactical issue.
6th goal - Pogba diving way too early and in a position where there was no real danger.

Now, I'm not going to say that Ole got everything spot on. I do think Bruno should have stayed on, and we should have subbed Pogba instead. And I do think, that we were lucky that we didn't concede a goal from one of those long balls over our defence. But, it's tough to pin this defeat on Ol, when there was no obvious tactical issue here.

 

[sammsky1]

Ole isn't getting sacked for a good while yet.

 

[UnofficialDevil]

If he has some self respect left in him should come out and resign. I dout it.

Ive been saying this all along, if he loves the club like he says he does he should resign.

 

[UnofficialDevil]

Ole isn't getting sacked for a good while yet.

Lets hope he resigns then.

 

[broccoli]

Understandably there will be a lot of overreaction after such result. Sure the team was poor and even with 11 they would probably be defeated tonight but the red card basically killed your aspirations very early. In my opinion Ole shouldn't have tried to minimize the risks after HT, basically you're telling your players to endure +45mins in fear of being humiliated. Should have went for it even with 10 men. That's the United's way isn't it? With that said Woodward is the one who needs sacking.

 

[RedBanker]

Ole isn't getting sacked for a good while yet.

Probably true.. This club board will wait till we have lost around 10 games and out of the CL.

 

[The Neville wears Prada]

Just voted sack. Why wait and prolong the agony.... Yes we may go on a purple patch for a couple of months, but we already have a decent sample of almost two years. We have a good squad on paper, certainly something a new manager can work with for this season. The league looks very winnable this year, with some crazy results overall and it is still to play for! Feels a bit like another 'Leicester' season in that sense, where almost any team could win the league...

We need to be decisive and offer an up and coming manager who would drive the club forward in every way... The only option has to be Julian Nagelsmann. Our board will wait and wait though and we will be around 12th by March, and we will knee-jerk hire Pochettino (good undoubtedly, but not the right fit, that I am sure of).