Much more than that. the 3-2 against Southampton, last min goal against Wolves, the only convincing win was against Leeds, if the other Southampton slaughter was a gift. I can only say we had 3 rough patches so far, got 1 lucky winning streak and the fans thought we deserve to stay at the top.
United's form since going Top of the Table in January
- Thread starter MyOnlySolskjaer
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It shows the perfect mentality of this squad.
We are lucky that Barca and Real Madrid can't spend much money in the summer because otherwise Fernandes would go there......the only player with a 100% winning-mentality.
We are lucky that Barca and Real Madrid can't spend much money in the summer because otherwise Fernandes would go there......the only player with a 100% winning-mentality.
It must be physical/mental form and being drained. Today, Wan Bissaka looked like he was drunk and Rashford like he had the mother of all hangovers. Bruno played like an epileptic and Mason like a spherophobic. I’m happy for Martial that he was spared today, because he would probably have won the prom queen trophy only to puke in it.
Quite damning when every one of those were winnable...
You need to capitalize on those opportunities regularly to sustain a genuine title charge and we've done it with increasing rarity lately while the legitimate contender have separated themselves entirely from the rest of the pack due to consistency
You need to capitalize on those opportunities regularly to sustain a genuine title charge and we've done it with increasing rarity lately while the legitimate contender have separated themselves entirely from the rest of the pack due to consistency
This is true. Look at our bench today. City is kinda cheating it with their quality in depth. As good as Klopp is even he is struggling with a few injuries.
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You can say that at least two results were really bad, mostly against Everton because that was a clear winning position, and WBA. Sheffield was a shock but the team never looked like getting anything.
So 4 to 7 points dropped means United would be with 7 to 10 points of City going into the weekend. It's better than what it is now, but still a bit off the pace. However United should really have been out of sight from the chasing pack of Leicester, West Ham, Chelsea, Liverpool, Everton, whoever else.
Everton was extremely unacceptable, followed by WBA, and Sheffield, then today's result.
So 4 to 7 points dropped means United would be with 7 to 10 points of City going into the weekend. It's better than what it is now, but still a bit off the pace. However United should really have been out of sight from the chasing pack of Leicester, West Ham, Chelsea, Liverpool, Everton, whoever else.
Everton was extremely unacceptable, followed by WBA, and Sheffield, then today's result.
Our latest form is up to mismanagement in a rotation. We have goodish defense, very good attacking combination, but those players are tired, other teams are getting used to our attacking plays. If VDB had at least 10 matches in first team, things would have been much different. Can rest Bruno, new attacking options and most importantly talented player like VDB having a good form is an exception.
Im yet to be convinced Ole actually knows what he's doing.
We keep blaming the team and individual performances but the same thing keeps happening over and over.
We cant break down low press teams, playing two sitting mf against lower league teams is pretty shocking.
We go ultra cautious against the big teams, instead of trying to win we just try not to lose.
The only game plan Ole seems to have is give the ball to Bruno and hope for some magic. Even thats stopped now. Teams are just marking Bruno out of the game and that stops his whole game plan.
I really dont know where we go from here tbh.
Our form is abysmal, 15 points from 30. Lose heavily this weekend in the derby and can see us start to free fall down the table.
We keep blaming the team and individual performances but the same thing keeps happening over and over.
We cant break down low press teams, playing two sitting mf against lower league teams is pretty shocking.
We go ultra cautious against the big teams, instead of trying to win we just try not to lose.
The only game plan Ole seems to have is give the ball to Bruno and hope for some magic. Even thats stopped now. Teams are just marking Bruno out of the game and that stops his whole game plan.
I really dont know where we go from here tbh.
Our form is abysmal, 15 points from 30. Lose heavily this weekend in the derby and can see us start to free fall down the table.
I find this funny because when Mourinho had us in 2nd while City where on that 100 point incredible run, he was slaughtered on here for lowering standards. Yet when Ole spends a fortune and still has us in second with City running away with the league, it's viewed as some kind of progress.
Double standard cafe at it's finest.
Tell you what, Ole's lucky he's not a Chelsea legend. Abramovich would have sacked 1.5 years ago.
Wouldn't it be ok if we were first?
People talk about bottling. We were riding our luck through moments of brilliance and poor finishing well beyond that period. Our results are just averaging out now.
If Haller hadn’t rounded the keeper and slipped, if Southampton don’t bottle their chances to go up 3-0. To think we were laughed at for saying it wasn’t sustainable.
Agree with this.
"Bottling" implies that something changed as a result of going top and increased pressure coming on. In reality it was clear from our performances up to that point that we weren't going to stay on top.
Our slew of comeback wins being the most glaring example. At the time some seemed to see it as a positive sign, when really it was telling us that we were falling behind far, far too often. It was inevitable that we weren't going to be able to keep digging ourselves out of those holes. Those results were unsustainable.
4 semi final losses in a year.
Arguably the biggest bottle job of the CL group stage in the competition's history.
And this spectacular shitting of the bed in the league once we hit top spot.
This squad of players haven't a testicle between the lot of them.
Arguably the biggest bottle job of the CL group stage in the competition's history.
And this spectacular shitting of the bed in the league once we hit top spot.
This squad of players haven't a testicle between the lot of them.
For me the drop in form mostly comes down to squad management and tiredness - Ole has gone strong in the cups but progress there comes at the expense of league form.
This squad is not ready to fight on 3 (even 4) fronts but at the same time there are players who have not played enough (VdB, Axel etc) so that compounds the issue.
After we went top of the league I would have rotated a lot more in the cups and focused entirely on the league - we might have got knocked out but would be a lot closer to City with a 6 pointer coming up on Sunday. Instead Ole tried to go for everything and the result is that we are out of the title race in a top 4 battle with 2 massive cup ties coming up, if he can win one then it will have been worth it
This squad is not ready to fight on 3 (even 4) fronts but at the same time there are players who have not played enough (VdB, Axel etc) so that compounds the issue.
After we went top of the league I would have rotated a lot more in the cups and focused entirely on the league - we might have got knocked out but would be a lot closer to City with a 6 pointer coming up on Sunday. Instead Ole tried to go for everything and the result is that we are out of the title race in a top 4 battle with 2 massive cup ties coming up, if he can win one then it will have been worth it
It's not a metal block. Our position was not reflective of our progress and excellence as a team. When we were top pretty much nobody expected a title and that says it all. When Conte's Chelsea or Inter went top people would genuinely believe becuase he's a top manager.
No you aren't going to let the players and Ole off by blaming the officials for all those dropped points, just maybe if we actually didn't arrogantly take beating WBA & Sheff Utd for granted then it would have negated those poor decisions
Hate agreeing with someone at Chelsea but Tuchel is absolutely bang on that the rest of this league has handed it to City
Should we have had a few more wins since going top? Yes
Since going top have we had 1 loss in 10? Yes
Could any manager in the world with this squad have kept pace with City winning an unprecedented 21 in a row? Absolutely not.
Get real people.
Since going top have we had 1 loss in 10? Yes
Could any manager in the world with this squad have kept pace with City winning an unprecedented 21 in a row? Absolutely not.
Get real people.
Yeah many said that if Ole kept trying to fight on multiple fronts that at some point we were going to pay the price and now it has come home to roost, personally I would never have appointed him on a permanent basis in the first place way back in March 2019 but he could at least be willing to take more risks in games or bring in better coaching rather that just giving jobs to his old Utd mates
Could any manager in the world get better results and performances with this squad? Definitely.
Saying City's bar is so high that it doesn't matter how shitty we are because we are so far anyone is mediocrity to say the least.
Could any manager in the world with this squad have kept pace with 21 wins in a row Man City?
Could you answer the question please?
Give over with same old boring mediocrity crap, Ole took over a team that hadn’t won a league title in 7 years, he didn’t take over from an unstoppable winning machine, stop living in the past and get real.
Unless it's just the way the media have reported it (which is likely) Oles comments were all over the place and confusing
He said were not in the title race
We're not getting carried away
We will keep pushing and not let city run away with it
We will keep fighting for the title.
It wasn't very consistent. It did seem like he gave the players an excuse not to win the games before they even started
I think 2-4 is right for this squad, however we could be in a much better position and that falls on Ole in terms of his in game management
He said were not in the title race
We're not getting carried away
We will keep pushing and not let city run away with it
We will keep fighting for the title.
It wasn't very consistent. It did seem like he gave the players an excuse not to win the games before they even started
I think 2-4 is right for this squad, however we could be in a much better position and that falls on Ole in terms of his in game management
To be fair the fans complain about every single player in our squad except Shaw and Bruno.
Why is this suddenly turned in to a winners mentality?
It's like the United fans complain about the players for months to no end and then when it shows they think Ole should be doing better.
Yesterday for example, Greenwood is woefully out of form, so is Martial who is also injured, Cavani just came back from injury for his first game, Pogba and VDB is injured - yet everyone is expecting a winners mentality?
Anyone who saw a defensive midfield of Fred and Matic should know that we played that because we hardly had any attacking options and that it would lead to a lack of goals and creativity.
Shoosh. Stop being realistic and making sense.
These fans are talking about the Southampton manager, Brendan Rodgers, Nagelsmann who gets beaten by other German teams all the time..when they all struggle they pretend like they never admired them.
Ole is improving the squad of United as seen soon when Henderson finally overtakes De Gea, the way that Fellaini and Sanchez was sold etc. Yet they still talk about how Jose's football is better than Ole. Even it is - Jose wanted to keep Sanchez, Fellaini, Lukaku and to add Perisic as our main winger..
How blind do people have to be? We were nearly a decade of zero players with great individual abilities- Di Maria, Zlatan etc left after a single season and then people complain about Ole using individual abilities of a player when he gets Bruno Fernandes, Wan Bissaka's one vs one defending, targets Haaland before he became a world wide phenomenon and tried for Sancho just last season.
Some fans just havent had that success in 10 years so that's what they crave - even if it's short term. It's why most of these supporters cried for Jose Mourinho when he was so obviously the wrong manager to go after Van Gaal. Who cares - they are thirsty for that short term success and it's the only thing they can see and question when it doesnt happen by the 2nd season. For the first time we have a manager that targets the players that the fans want and arguably top class players instead of Perisic and Schneirdelin, yet they dont give a crap because Ole cant win a title in his 2nd year.
This is a strange stand. If you don't think Ole is at least a good part responsible for the bad patches, stop crediting him when we hit good patches. The whole point of making progress as a team is to continue the good work. Yes, there will be slip ups and inconsistent results, but the whole team having no clue what to do shows very badly on whatever progress is being claimed
That being said the game still could have ended 0-2 with some early chances that we got.
Well said.
you're making him sound like a PE teacher.
we've got VDB who was one considered as one of the most promising CM in the world. For some strange reason Ole doesn't trust him. He prefers running Bruno to the ground instead.
There is nothing strange about that. VdB looked out of sorts in the deep role. He looked out of sorts in the no 10 role.
Either it is the first season syndrome or VdB is used to playing only in a particular formation and we don't play like that or if we play that formation, rest of the team suffers.
I still don't think it's a mentality issue. Rather key individuals dropping form.
Most of us saw it coming anyway, we've performed poorly for a few games (when sitting on top) but still somehow got the 3 points against the odds.
Ole thinks we're in a good spot which is understandable but also kind of lame considering the way we approach games. Seems like league season is finished for us.
Most of us saw it coming anyway, we've performed poorly for a few games (when sitting on top) but still somehow got the 3 points against the odds.
Ole thinks we're in a good spot which is understandable but also kind of lame considering the way we approach games. Seems like league season is finished for us.
Nagelsmann threw Ole out of the CL despite his team relying on a pathetic transfer budget. But hey, we set Ole to fail for not adding more extremely expensive and overrated local talent in the middle of a pandemic. Surely no one can expect Ole to give players a breather by relying on mediocre players like Van De Beek or give Diallo the full 90 minutes in a return leg we've previously won 4-0. There are not Grealish or Sancho after all.
Ole is not a washed up manager like LVG and Mou were. However that doesn't mean that he's top club level. His tactics are basic and players don't tend to improve under him. He also plays it extremely safe in terms of transfers, tactics and substitutions. That won't cut it at a club like United who refuse to spend 140m a year.
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JM acolytes till this day when ever some discussion starts regarding performance/results: 2nd, 2nd, 2nd. After him, similar type different bunch: 3rd, 3rd, 3rd and now we have 2nd, 2nd, 2nd as reflecting shield in middle of the season. Whats worse, in here, scale would tip against Ole if he doesnt reach top 4, thank God there is no such thing as top 7 for CL otherwise, some wouldnt mind being 7th and make some lame ass excuses why is that.
And again you are talking about results and success rather than how he is reshaping the squad of the last decade.
If he continues to do this for the next 1 and a half years and improve our squad bit by bit whilst ditching de gea, martial, Mata, jones etc then I'd be happy with it even if we dont win the PL.
That's ultimately the difference between me and you. You want that success and I personally dont think it can come that easily. Nagelsmann is a coach I'm interested in but United isnt run by Red Bull. It's being run by the Glazers and Woodward. Nagelsmann's time will come to manage United, but doing it now is very similar to going for Jose or Van Gaal.
People complain about Ole having no style of his play. People say that he relies on individual ability. Before a couple months ago we were seeing him use 352, 4231, 442 diamond.
Absolutely no plan or cohesion. That's because he is trying to build a squad that is flexible yet good enough for United based on their individual quality.
Managers like Nagelsmann are very tactically heavy that they change our entire squad if possible to blend towards their tactics alone. we saw this with Jose and Van Gaal - the only time it stopped is with Ole who had no tactics in comparison because he is building a squad up for once rather than building a squad around a specific tactic. Our squad has dropped Fellaini, Rojo, Sanchez, young, chong, pereira, dalot, Lingard, Fosu Mensah and more to continue.
The best way to see what Ole is doing is his first season when he would play Andreas Pereira non stop to see he was good enough then made his decision and sent him off to another club.
Some people are not interested in this and just want the quick short term success - but we are struggling for a decade after coming out of the management of a manager who managed us for 20 whole years. We are not going to be managed the same way as other clubs because we are simply not them.
Short memories.
Despite winning, we were really struggling against most teams all of this season.
Despite winning, we were really struggling against most teams all of this season.
Why isn't it ok?
It obviously shows that this season is a unique one off with regards to the amount of football played and the timeframes it's being played in.
Other teams are struggling with it, we're struggling too, just not as much as them as we are second.
City are outliers due to their ability to rotate their squad and not lose any quality.
It's been said countless times, but the amount of games we've actually won comfortably is staggeringly low. Not talking thrashings, I'm talking 2-0 wins, where we looked head and shoulders above our opponents, where there's no doubt which way the result was going to go. Truth is this season has been a struggle much more often than not, we're now getting the results our performances basically deserved.
Every team in the Prem apart from the one with the insanely deep squad is struggling right now.
Every single one.
Every single one.
Its understandable for Ole ins to want to deviate on this 'reshaping of the squad'. After all Ole had won jack shit despite spending nearly 300m worth of players. Even washed up managers like LVG and Mou were able to bring trophies home.
But let's play on your turf.
Ole invested around 145m in defence and we tend to play with 2 enforcers in midfield. Yet we conceded more goals to the likes of West Ham, Villa and Arsenal. But hey we need another 80m CB to make our previous 80m CB look decent.
In midfield Bruno had been a top top signing. He's probably the reason why Ole is still in the job while Rashford had been doing very well. However Greenwood, James, Lingard and Martial had regressed while Mata seem to have vanished in thin wind
The forward line had been an utter mess. Ole extended Ighalo's deal only not to play him. As said before Martial had regressed. Cavani had done meah but he's not a solution while Ole's failure to persuade his prodigy to sign for us rather then Dortmund needs to be noted.
Ole ins love to target Mourinho and LVG regarding signings. What they fail to do though is pointing out that Ole had signed 1 top player. The rest varied from meah (Maguire, AWB, Cavani) to not good enough (James) right till to non existent (Telles, VDB, Ighalo, Diallo). Its ironic how bar Bruno, all our top players are either youths who were given a shot by previous managers (ex Rashford) or signings from previous managers (ex Shaw in defence, McT and Fred in midfield etc). They love to point how top young players had regressed under them. Yet they also deviate from the fact that Martial, James, AWB and Greenwood had regressed under Ole after starting so well. Not to forget that we were all livid when Mou kept Fred out of the squad. Yet Ole ins seem to refuse getting enraged with Ole doing the same to Diallo and VDB with the latter being far more rated then Fred ever was. Its also ironic to see fans getting at Nagelsmann back despite the guy is younger then Ole and had knocked him off the CL despite managing a team on a ridiculous budget. Leipzig net transfer cost for the past 4 years is probably less to what we paid for Maguire.
To conclude Ole is a great man manager. However he seems reluctant to
a- allowing non mates to join his coaching staff,
b- trusting players outside the EPL
c- come out with a plan b especially during the game.
If that's true then he's not good enough for United.
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