Yet another Tactical Masterclass from Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. Whoop whoop!

[Josep Dowling]

Context is the biggest indicator of a meaningful assessment. I applaud Solskjaer for the formation we displayed but the trajectory of the majority of the game always favoured Leipzig. We punished them for mistakes hence why we won the fixture. But as displayed when the requirement is for us to thrive on the front foot we often meet failure.

When you consider the pragmatism of Solskjaer he's almost no better than a past prime Mourinho. We are not an attacking team in the slightest but Ole has this very fortunate equaliser of having attacking players who excel in moments of individual brilliance to force the issue. One big indicator is that Ole should be growing with the occasion but we still have the same questions before he was even given the opportunity, What's the system ? What's the philosophy ? What direction is the team going in ? Can we be consistent ?

I’ve said it many times we win games from individual brilliance from players not tactics. He has no system which has become more evident this season as he’s changed the formation 4 times already.

He’s still trying to play Pogba as a CDM which is so clear he cannot play and gives away a penalty for yet another poor challenge. He won’t drop him though. Bruno and Pogba is becoming our Gerrard and Lampard issue England had for many years. One of them has to be dropped to get the right balance in the team.

 

[Moonwalker]

It's all part of the grand masterclass plan. You lose one game at home so as to make your next opponent think you are scheisse, and then you catch them cold in the next game.

 

[hungrywing]

Just don't start Pogba,, always looks better coming from the bench.

TBF Personally I believe Ole knows this.

He's in charge for 100 games already, if he still hasn't realised Pogba can't be trusted by now, he's beyond hopeless.

He probably fluctuates a tiny bit, gets the odd feeling of 'Maybe Paul could turn it around here'. But if one believes Romano, then Ole agreed with you regarding the bolded part.

 

[bond19821982]

Never mind we will see a new thread midweek when we beat the mighty Istanbul.

Our standards has dropped significantly that people start celebrating wins against Leipzig.

 

[passing-wind]

I’ve said it many times we win games from individual brilliance from players not tactics. He has no system which has become more evident this season as he’s changed the formation 4 times already.

He’s still trying to play Pogba as a CDM which is so clear he cannot play and gives away a penalty for yet another poor challenge. He won’t drop him though. Bruno and Pogba is becoming our Gerrard and Lampard issue England had for many years. One of them has to be dropped to get the right balance in the team.

Agreed an absolute calamity. The England comparison to Lamp / Steve is about as close as it gets. I'm not totally against Pogba playing a double pivot, but only when he has the infrastructure to do so. France had Matiudi often covering his defensive frailties dropping from the wide position playing like a hybrid wingback tucking into the midfield (very disciplined) , in form Kante who can cover a multitude of spaces behind the opposition half, the likes of Mbappe / Griezmann who were clearly coached to constantly be on the move providing the midfield options, Giroud to feed the ball to feet it was a specific and well worked system.

We have Mctomminay and Matic about as mobile as a punctured bicycle, Bruno who works hard but is not defensively astute, bang average defenders who on a probability ratio will likely be exposed 1 on 1 and despite this all Solskjaer still thinks its Paul's best position. Its ridiculous.

 

[Wilt]

Happens literally every other week.

this

‘Yet Another Tactical Masterclass’

For gods sake

 

[Web of Bissaka]

Never mind we will see a new thread midweek when we beat the mighty Istanbul.

Our standards has dropped significantly that people start celebrating wins against Leipzig.

Istanbul and Leipzig are great top teams!

Beating them are great achievements!

 

[Ali Dia]

The only chance we could get away with playing Pogba and Bruno in the same midfield is if we upgraded on the 3rd midfielder. Signing matic up to 3 more years instead of investing in a proper replacement player there was a huge mistake. Fred is good but he doesn’t have the passing or strength to hold down the midfield with Pogba and Bruno getting forward. He also loses the ball in the press a bit more than I like to see. We need someone physical and aggressive with superior passing.

 

[Zlaatan]

Never mind we will see a new thread midweek when we beat the mighty Istanbul.

Our standards has dropped significantly that people start celebrating wins against Leipzig.

Yea celebrating 5-0 wins in the CL against last seasons semi-finalists are obviously way beneath a club like United.

 

[izec]

Whoop whoop indeed. Always the same poster with his told you so threads, that turn out a disaster. No surprise, since Ole is bang average and backing him will make you look bad

 

[hmchan]

The positivity after the Leipzig game was shocking. Our shape wasn't particularly good and we were bang average for most of the game. We just took advantage of Leipzig's collapse at the end of the game and made the scoreline appear better than it was. Villa winning Liverpool 7:2 didn't suddenly make them a title challenging team, nor Dean Smith a tactical masterclass.

I'm still wondering how we played 4 central midfielders over Arsenal's 2 and still struggled to dominate the game.

 

[el3mel]

The jokes about the "whoop whoop" thing is the first thing that made me laugh hard today.

 

[Foxbatt]

The positivity after the Leipzig game was shocking. Our shape wasn't particularly good and we were bang average for most of the game. We just took advantage of Leipzig's collapse at the end of the game and made the scoreline appear better than it was. Villa winning Liverpool 7:2 didn't suddenly make them a title challenging team, nor Dean Smith a tactical masterclass.

I'm still wondering how we played 4 central midfielders over Arsenal's 2 and still struggled to dominate the game.

We can play 5 midfield players and if they are the wrong players and in the wrong positions then we will continue to struggle. We should have never started with this 11. We should have played Cavani and DVB to start with Matic in the DM role. Fred in midfield and not McTominay in the right side. From the kick off we were on the back foot because none of our midfield players got hold of the ball because none of them are good at keeping possession or pressing anyway.

 

[yumtum]

Wonder what will come first, 10 league games or 10 league points?

Everton, West Brom, Southampton and West Ham.

 

[Hawks2008]

You are wasting your time if you think you can prove me wrong. No one can do that to Amadaeus.

 

[croadyman]

Masterclass

The guy doesn't know other than counter attacking and has no clue how to beat high press.

Yeah the high press is both Ole's and the team's achilles heel and the rest of the league knows it only too well

 

[croadyman]

The masterclasses are just luck where we can counterattack.

The true Ole is tactically inept and the in-game management is a joke.

Very hard to argue with that

 

[croadyman]

I thought we had 9 points. Turns out, it's been worse, we have 7 points in 6. Bloody hell.

Should be only 4 points

 

[R'hllor]

Dunno whats with this nonsense how United fans are happy that we lost, if that was the case, everyone of them would have their own United podcast by now.

 

[Kopral Jono]

Never mind we will see a new thread midweek when we beat the mighty Istanbul.

Our standards has dropped significantly that people start celebrating wins against Leipzig.

This is what I lament most about our current state. To me at least, little separates us now to the game-raising sides we used to make fun of back in the days.

 

[Ludens the Red]

Never mind we will see a new thread midweek when we beat the mighty Istanbul.

Our standards has dropped significantly that people start celebrating wins against Leipzig.

It’s shocking mate although there’s a troll element to it. It’s really dumb when people make new rehashed threads after defeats or during games we’re losing that haven’t finished but that’s meh.
What is incredible now is that us winning a game or even scoring a good goal (Newcastle) now incites the creating of multiple threads and a big song and dance.
Embarrassing and small time.

 

[POF]

Clueless

Did you notice he did it again today? The exact same change? 4-4-2 diamond to a 4-2-3-1?

Didn't think so!

 

[iato89]

Proper masterclass yesterday !! Seesaw results came back heh

 

[Greck]

The positivity after the Leipzig game was shocking. Our shape wasn't particularly good and we were bang average for most of the game. We just took advantage of Leipzig's collapse at the end of the game and made the scoreline appear better than it was. Villa winning Liverpool 7:2 didn't suddenly make them a title challenging team, nor Dean Smith a tactical masterclass.

I'm still wondering how we played 4 central midfielders over Arsenal's 2 and still struggled to dominate the game.

Read page one for the first time and the people there seem to think this is tennis. According to this math all the midtable managers who Ole dropped points to are tactically better than Arteta who is in turn better than Ole who is equal or better than Lampard who is now better than Nagelsmann and others. After all tactics is now a championship belt. Can't wait to see if Arteta can successfully defend his title next week

 

[Mount's Goatieson]

He is no tactical master, ole is suppose to be great against the big side but has only picked up 1 point against 3 of the top 6 sides so far and all were home matches as well, I'm sure the same would happen in europe soon as well.

The gist is pretty much out on Ole’s tactics for the big games (domestically at least). You just don't have to be naive or gung-ho to prove some sort of superiority and that's United’s attack pretty much nullified. Its interesting what Pep and Klopp will also cook up after Spurs (expected) , Arsenal and Chelsea all set up a bit more conservative and got results (in Chelsea's case a point we didn't get last season after ‘playing well’)

 

[DoneDaDa]

The only chance we could get away with playing Pogba and Bruno in the same midfield is if we upgraded on the 3rd midfielder. Signing matic up to 3 more years instead of investing in a proper replacement player there was a huge mistake. Fred is good but he doesn’t have the passing or strength to hold down the midfield with Pogba and Bruno getting forward. He also loses the ball in the press a bit more than I like to see. We need someone physical and aggressive with superior passing.

Yup, Bruno and Pogba would work with a Fernandinho / Casemiro type player.

 

[Matt851]

Yup, Bruno and Pogba would work with a Fernandinho / Casemiro type player.

Pogba simply jsnt good enough to be worth the effort of squeezing into the team

 

[croadyman]

Pogba simply jsnt good enough to be worth the effort of squeezing into the team

BANG ON

 

[Foxbatt]

Yes he is not worth the effort anymore. He is not a team player. He knows that if he plays like that for France Dechamps will drop him like a hot potato. Ole should drop him and start with DVB and Bruno to see how it goes.

 

[eire-red]

Pogba simply jsnt good enough to be worth the effort of squeezing into the team

Agreed, and just discussing it is getting tiring. It's like Sanchez all over, is anyone missing him?

What are people afraid of if we sold Pogba?

Are we losing our most important player? No.

A consistent match winner? No.

Does he work hard, or bring the best out of his team mates? No.

But let's shoehorn him into the team cause he might come good eventually, or the amount of good things he'll do in the game might outweigh the bad things. Or because he's very talented.

It's all just a bit frustrating at the moment.

 

[thepolice123]

Sits on the bench looking like he's got it all figured out when the game is still advantageous to us. When we are behind he comes down looking lost.

 

[cyril C]

The only chance we could get away with playing Pogba and Bruno in the same midfield is if we upgraded on the 3rd midfielder. Signing matic up to 3 more years instead of investing in a proper replacement player there was a huge mistake. Fred is good but he doesn’t have the passing or strength to hold down the midfield with Pogba and Bruno getting forward. He also loses the ball in the press a bit more than I like to see. We need someone physical and aggressive with superior passing.

The only chance that we could get Pogba and Bruno in the same midfield, is to change 3-4 players, if it doesn't work then change another 3-4 players. And if still doesn't work, another 3-4...

 

[cyril C]

We can play 5 midfield players and if they are the wrong players and in the wrong positions then we will continue to struggle. We should have never started with this 11. We should have played Cavani and DVB to start with Matic in the DM role. Fred in midfield and not McTominay in the right side. From the kick off we were on the back foot because none of our midfield players got hold of the ball because none of them are good at keeping possession or pressing anyway.

Trying to accommodate Pogba and Bruno is starting 11 was 1 mistake, not correcting it was a bigger one. Everything falls apart, players in the wrong position with the wrong feet during 1st half, Mourinho would have made the change after 15min but what did we do after 1st half - nothing. Just speeding up the tempo with the same players (almost) in the wrong position, was a double-mistake. Should have taken Pogba off and switched back to 4231 or 433 if you like, allow players to play with their familiar position and restart again.

 

[RashyForPM]

Context is the biggest indicator of a meaningful assessment. I applaud Solskjaer for the formation we displayed but the trajectory of the majority of the game always favoured Leipzig. We punished them for mistakes hence why we won the fixture. But as displayed when the requirement is for us to thrive on the front foot we often meet failure.

When you consider the pragmatism of Solskjaer he's almost no better than a past prime Mourinho. We are not an attacking team in the slightest but Ole has this very fortunate equaliser of having attacking players who excel in moments of individual brilliance to force the issue. One big indicator is that Ole should be growing with the occasion but we still have the same questions before he was even given the opportunity, What's the system ? What's the philosophy ? What direction is the team going in ? Can we be consistent ? The longer his managerial career ensues the more unanswered questions.

Great post. Completely agree about attacking players effectively keeping Ole in the job and that we rarely looked better than Leipzig. It was similar to the City 1-6 actually, where a top team went 1-0 down early on, had to push forward and got hammered by 5. We are not a better team than Leipzig at this moment in time, just like City weren’t better than us back then despite winning 1-6. Heck, we’re probably worse than Arsenal as Sunday showed, because at no point did Arse look like they were not in control, both possession wise and Mourinho wise in terms of keeping the other team out.

 

[el3mel]

Yup, Bruno and Pogba would work with a Fernandinho / Casemiro type player.

I have been of the same opinion till the last Arsenal game. Now I'm convinced Pogba will never work in midfield in premier league on the long term no matter what. We had 2 defensive midfielders alongside Pogba and Bruno against Arsenal and Pogba still managed to feck it up.

Yeah not gonna work.

 

[I Am Zlatan]

Agreed, and just discussing it is getting tiring. It's like Sanchez all over, is anyone missing him?

What are people afraid of if we sold Pogba?

Are we losing our most important player? No.

A consistent match winner? No.

Does he work hard, or bring the best out of his team mates? No.

But let's shoehorn him into the team cause he might come good eventually, or the amount of good things he'll do in the game might outweigh the bad things. Or because he's very talented.

It's all just a bit frustrating at the moment.

We could’ve said the same thing about Martial under Mourinho.. however I am starting to lose patience with pogba too, but I do wonder, under a different manager, maybe he can be the star that he’s supposed to be.

 

[Tony247]

I have been of the same opinion till the last Arsenal game. Now I'm convinced Pogba will never work in midfield in premier league on the long term no matter what. We had 2 defensive midfielders alongside Pogba and Bruno against Arsenal and Pogba still managed to feck it up.

Yeah not gonna work.

Out of six defensive players how it ended pogba tracking arsenal player alone in the box, only God knows. He was supposed to be working higher up on the pitch.

 

[BR7]

Right on cue

All the Ole Outer’s raid this thread after a loss

Typical RedCafe

Wind your neck in. Hands up all those who support ole ahead of the club

 

[Garethw]

Wind your neck in. Hands up all those who support ole ahead of the club

There seems to a lot of those about these days.

Would they afford him the same level of unequivocal support if he hadn’t played for the club? I don’t think so.

I never want us to appoint another former player again. People’s hearts are ruling their heads with Ole.

 

[BR7]

Any one who can sit here and tell us he’s got it are deluded and killing our club. Boy fans