Ole Gunnar Solskjær | 2021/22 Discussion

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Berbasbullet

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Terrific post.

I have no idea why, but a pretty sizable portion of United fans somehow have convinced themselves that Maguire is shite, but all his key stats prove hes up there with the top CB's in the league.

Also (knock on wood), just the fact that hes fit and available all the time is such a massive upgrade on the likes of Jones and Baily who always are just a gust of wind away from being sidelined for months.

Yes, he cost too much, but its not like hes responsible for his price tag
It’s the propaganda around him, and the price tag.

People make him a meme “lol 85 mil” etc and it’s easy to believe the narrative.
 

Robbie Boy

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You have an everyone is toxic and I’m not, holier than thou attitude, you say you’re not obsessed with Ole, you’ve made hundreds of posts criticising Ole with disingenuous points yourself. You’ve made more posts about Ole than I have made in total. I am not allowed to criticise managers but you’re allowed to criticise Ole, Apparently I’m contributing to toxicity and you’re not, I’m disingenuous but you’re not, you’ve brought up me bashing Rodgers the ex-Liverpool manager in another thread here’s just a few of you bashing Ole:






From Locked threads:






I see you on every thread mentioning Ole acting as if you’re the RedCafe Police. You’re heavily biased against Ole, you hide that with an occasional positive post, you’ve made plenty of disingenuous posts about the man and there’s many more. You frame it as you criticising OleIn vs OleOut for being toxic when the vast majority of your more recent posts are having a go at people who rate Ole more often than not. I could post pages of your “toxic” posts if you’d like. You’re a fraud who acts like he has a balanced view, when in reality you don’t at all. Go through my posts, they all back Ole. You’re as Ole Out as I am Ole in and you’re just as biased as everyone you constantly criticise.
No idea what you're on about, the topic is about Rodgers being randomly critisised. Holier than thou? I have serious doubts about him ffs and wanted him out back in 2019 when things looked dour. I just think some - like you- are utterly obsessed and your extremist attitude doesn't do the forum any good. Sure go off and make baseless criticisms about other managers. You obviously deem anyone praising another manager to be an attack on Ole. Obsessive.
 

Eriku

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Of course a manager will take the overpriced players if it keeps him in the job. But isn't that kind of the problem here? People talked about Mourinho getting players that served him and not neccesarily the future of Manchester United. Solskjaer was supposed to be the opposite of that, focused on United and not himself.

At the end of the day, I think it was a bad choice, made far worse because of the huge amount of money paid. And if Solskjaer just thought he was a great player and right for him, than that doesn't colour it better due to his limitations.



We are a big club with a lot of money and a lot of desperation. Of course we are going to pay more. The solution is not just about negotiating or whatever the CEO, negotiator and manager discuss. It's about being better overall and not reaching the negotiation table from such a weak position. With Maguire, for instance, we were as weak as it gets - Our defense was an issue and everyone knew we were desperate for a CB.



I don't remember De Gea being a big issue in the summer of 2019. And yes, I would have been happy to play another year with those guys rather than invest 80m in Maguire and handicap myself long term.



I don't mind paying over the odds. I mind paying over the odds for players who will not be worth it long term and will prove an issue rather than a solution (or force us to look for another CB who will "complete" them). I'm OK with paying 80m for a CB or overpaying for a CB - if he's worth it. Maguire was an easy, lazy choice.. We should have done more homework and look for a better solution. And if he cost tons and was overpriced - so be it.
Good job Pep didn’t rate Maguire then

Asked if Maguire would turn United into title challengers, Guardiola said: "Yeah. Maguire is an excellent, top-class player.

"We were interested, but we could not afford it. United afford it. He's an excellent player, national team too, he had an incredible World Cup.
But sure, Ole wanting to sign him is an indictment of his footballing acumen.
 

SirAF

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Good job Pep didn’t rate Maguire then



But sure, Ole wanting to sign him is an indictment of his footballing acumen.
Yeah, there are several sticks to beat OGS with, but Maguire is not one of them. Signing him was a no-brainer.
 

Olecurls99

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Mourinho achieved that, too, he qualified for the CL in both 2017 and 2018.

Ole would be the first post-Fergie manager to finish in the top 4 in consecutive seasons.
Fair enough. What you said then
You're right, it's completely pointless. They might as well hire the caf as managers.

You're being fecking silly if you think it's not the most important aspect of a team in this current climate, with the emphasis teams are placing on it
You don't think players are more important than coaches? Really. Who gets paid more?
Do you think City went out and signed a rough diamond in Mahrez and made him great or were they not signing one of the best players around for huge money at the time. Same goes for
De Bruyne
Sterling
Sane
Silva
Silva
Aguero
I'm focusing on the attacking players because you can, to a degree, coach a team to defend well but Pep can't coach Rashford to pass and move the way the above players do. Not unless he started when Rashford was 8.

City have great technical attacking and defensive players. We don't. They're not brilliant technically because they have great coaches. City bought them for fortunes because they're brilliant technically. They've been doing it for 10 years and although we've started to match them for spending its hard to sell a Mahrez United if City are in for him too.
He'll want to play with the best.

We've definitely dropped the ball for 10 years with bad signings but that can't really be all levelled at Ole's door. I would like to see him sign more technically gifted footballers but I do go along with the idea that he really wanted
Sancho and that signing would have really went a long way towards helping us this season.

I'm not happy with a lot of the football we serve up but it comes down to the players we have. When we get the right players in, the style will improve. The greatest coach in the world can't teach Fred and Mctominay to play like Veratti and Modric.
 
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LovelyLittlePanda

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@Amir Can we agree almost none of our goals against this season came from Maguire's slowness? I can't remember it costing us either.

So what other glaring weakness does Maguire have that we need to compensate for?

If Spending tons on a centerhalf who is good but has issues causes long term problems because we'll always have to compensate for his weaknesses, then maybe you should think long term, take a few more months and look at other options.

My belief is such a thing was never going to happen because we were obviousy weak defensively and Solskjaer was desperate to improve that, if only because he knew it might cost him his job. That deal was not brilliant for United and, as I've said, may be an issue going forward. But it helped perserve the manager.

You may say that it emphasize the problem of having a manager who is not secure in his position and might be making deals that are right for him and less right for the club. Which is probably why there is a lot of merit in a structure that doesn't give the manager all the power - by using a DOF or transfer commitee.
What's wrong with Ole taking the overpriced option to stay in his job (because it was an improvement)? Your critique is basically "if he loves the club so much, he wouldn't let poor Utd overpay", as if our transfer budget is an accurate representation of what we can afford to spend.

Which manager would've risked a sacking rather than say yes to the Maguire deal in August? Moyes?

Which manager would be so selfless and say no to the deal to "not harm the club"? Ghandi?

Seems like an unfair criticism of Ole. As MinGin pointed out, more likely than not, he'll get another overpriced option a year later.

Funnily enough Ole is involved with some of the changes to the club can prevent us from overpaying in the future. We can be pessimistic and think things won't change with Woodward, but can't fault Ole for trying.

It’s the propaganda around him, and the price tag.

People make him a meme “lol 85 mil” etc and it’s easy to believe the narrative.
85 million for a player that isn't special is a meme. He's fairly ordinary. We overpaid by close to half his price. At least we started a trend with City paying 45m for Ake.
 

Berbasbullet

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@Amir Can we agree almost none of our goals against this season came from Maguire's slowness? I can't remember it costing us either.

So what other glaring weakness does Maguire have that we need to compensate for?


What's wrong with Ole taking the overpriced option to stay in his job (because it was an improvement)? Your critique is basically "if he loves the club so much, he wouldn't let poor Utd overpay", as if our transfer budget is an accurate representation of what we can afford to spend.

Which manager would've risked a sacking rather than say yes to the Maguire deal in August? Moyes?

Which manager would be so selfless and say no to the deal to "not harm the club"? Ghandi?

Seems like an unfair criticism of Ole. As MinGin pointed out, more likely than not, he'll get another overpriced option a year later.

Funnily enough Ole is involved with some of the changes to the club can prevent us from overpaying in the future. We can be pessimistic and think things won't change with Woodward, but can't fault Ole for trying.


85 million for a player that isn't special is a meme. He's fairly ordinary. We overpaid by close to half his price. At least we started a trend with City paying 45m for Ake.
You’re proving my point, is it his fault he cost 85 million? No. He’s a very good defender though and people are ridiculous in his criticism as if we signed a really bad defender. He’s clearly a solid defender that we can all agree cost too much.
 

Womp

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Fair enough. What you said then

You don't think players are more important than coaches? Really. Who gets paid more?
Do you think City went out and signed a rough diamond in Mahrez and made him great or were they not signing one of the best players around for huge money at the time. Same goes for
De Bruyne
Sterling
Sane
Silva
Silva
Aguero
I'm focusing on the attacking players because you can, to a degree, coach a team to defend well but Pep can't coach Rashford to pass and move the way the above players do. Not unless he started when Rashford was 8.

City have great technical attacking and defensive players. We don't. They're not brilliant technically because they have great coaches. City bought them for fortunes because they're brilliant technically. They've been doing it for 10 years and although we've started to match them for spending its hard to sell a Mahrez United if City are in for him too.
He'll want to play with the best.

We've definitely dropped the ball for 10 years with bad signings but that can't really be all levelled at Ole's door. I would like to see him sign more technically gifted footballers but I do go along with the idea that he really wanted
Sancho and that signing would have really went a long way towards helping us this season.

I'm not happy with a lot of the football we serve up but it comes down to the players we have. When we get the right players in, the style will improve. The greatest coach in the world can't teach Fred and Mctominay to play like Veratti and Modric.
Yes, I'd say good coaching staff is just as important as good players, regardless of context. Great coaches improve great players even further and even improve lesser players due to a system. The best teams in the World aren't looking to pay the best money and look for the best coaches for shits and giggles. The rest of your post is silly. We hardly have a lack of technical players in our squad. What we lack is a system to get the best out of them. Players like Gundogan aren't any more impressive than players like Pogba or Bruno. Yet the way he dominates games is on another level to those two, as the style of play that city employ on their teams is second to none. Players like Henderson etc. would have been laughed at United. There is countless examples. Look at what Nagelsmann is doing with Leipzig, the football they play is great to watch, effective, relentless and they are neck to neck with a Bayern team and I bet you'd be hard done naming half the squad. Once again returning to the original point - a great system elevates great players even further, whilst also making lesser players more useful throughout the season due to understanding their roles and being able to fill in to a higher degree. You don't need a whole world class squad to do that. No-one is expecting us to go head to head with City, that's not why we want him out. Why people are losing faith/have lost faith is the lack of progress in regards to eventually being able to contest City - evident in our football. He didn't fecking join yesterday, he's been here a considerable amount of time, long enough for people to begin identifying the style and approach he is going for with this team.

Lastly, your point about Pep not being able to teach Rashford how to pass and move is the most ridiculous thing I've read on here in a while. Pep, the manager known for his relentless pursuit of passing patterns and movement, can't improve a player as gifted as Rashford? Look at what he's done to players like Sterling, Sane's best season etc. That is a ridiculous opinion imo. Pep would absolutely do far better with this squad than Ole would. Anyone thinking otherwise is in fecking la la land tbf.
 

Matriac

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85 million for a player that isn't special is a meme. He's fairly ordinary. We overpaid by close to half his price. At least we started a trend with City paying 45m for Ake.
The £80m for Maguire was market price for what was available at the time.
He's not the best in the world, but he's very solid and reliable.

We didn't have any proper long-term captains in the club (evidenced by Young being picked after Valencia that summer), and I'm certain Ole always planned to make him captain by the following summer (but Young moved in Jan), this to help change the culture in the club/locker room. There's lotsa reports on Maguire doing lots behind the scenes for the culture, including making everyone demand more from themselves for punctuality and professionality for showing up for training, meetings etc.

He's English (and a national team regular), meaning he qualifies as homegrown, and we need at least 8 senior (over 21) players in the squad that are homegrown or we can't have 25 squad players. We were about to get rid of several other homegrown players, and we needed to refill with some solid players part of the core that was likely to stay at the club for 5-10 years. (Another reason why AWB was favored.)

And he was available that summer, so we needed him then to get the project started to start working on the team culture.
Had Maguire been dutch like Ake I'm sure he would have gone for 40-50m. But he had those other factors that meant that Leicester could charge more in this limited supply and demand market.

Over time he'll definitely be worth the fee.
 

Olecurls99

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Yes, I'd say good coaching staff is just as important as good players, regardless of context. Great coaches improve great players even further and even improve lesser players due to a system. The best teams in the World aren't looking to pay the best money and look for the best coaches for shits and giggles. The rest of your post is silly. We hardly have a lack of technical players in our squad. What we lack is a system to get the best out of them. Players like Gundogan aren't any more impressive than players like Pogba or Bruno. Yet the way he dominates games is on another level to those two, as the style of play that city employ on their teams is second to none. Players like Henderson etc. would have been laughed at United. There is countless examples. Look at what Nagelsmann is doing with Leipzig, the football they play is great to watch, effective, relentless and they are neck to neck with a Bayern team and I bet you'd be hard done naming half the squad. Once again returning to the original point - a great system elevates great players even further, whilst also making lesser players more useful throughout the season due to understanding their roles and being able to fill in to a higher degree. You don't need a whole world class squad to do that. No-one is expecting us to go head to head with City, that's not why we want him out. Why people are losing faith/have lost faith is the lack of progress in regards to eventually being able to contest City - evident in our football. He didn't fecking join yesterday, he's been here a considerable amount of time, long enough for people to begin identifying the style and approach he is going for with this team.

Lastly, your point about Pep not being able to teach Rashford how to pass and move is the most ridiculous thing I've read on here in a while. Pep, the manager known for his relentless pursuit of passing patterns and movement, can't improve a player as gifted as Rashford? Look at what he's done to players like Sterling, Sane's best season etc. That is a ridiculous opinion imo. Pep would absolutely do far better with this squad than Ole would. Anyone thinking otherwise is in fecking la la land tbf.
How is Rashford gifted though? He's lightning fast and he can dribble past players when there's lots of space. He is not as technically gifted as any of City's forwards. He doesn't give and go like Sterling or beat players in tight spaces like Mahrez. This is why City are better at breaking down teams who park the bus. Just look at Rashford's stats. He is ten times better in games where we are countering.

If the coaches were that critical then surely they'd all be on similar money to the players. Do you honestly think that if Mctominay went to City that he would start playing like De Bruyne because of their wonderful coaches?

So you think our players are close to City's technically. You think Cancelo and Bissaka are similar technically. You think Fred and Rodri are similar technically. You think Gundogan and Mctominay are similar technically. I'm sorry but they're not.

Greenwood is very good technically but Mahrez is further along in his career and is obviously the better right winger. They also have Silva just sitting on the bench too. How can you not see that difference Womp?

Sterling and Rashford although similar in quality have different talents which I've outlined. Bruno and Pogba are obviously very good technically but Pogba has missed over half of the games under Ole. That needs to be highlighted more when people talk about injuries.
I haven't even mentioned Phil Foden yet. What a player he is.
I can't agree with your stance and I would honestly say that if Ole had City's squad that we would dominate the league playing world class football simply because Ole would have the best players at his disposal.
 

Matriac

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Pep weekly wage is above every City player. Same with Klopp.
Fair point, but I think he meant the first team coaches at every team, not the manager.
Since the claim was all the coaches at city would make some of our average players world class.
 

Keefy18

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I'll try to put a counter-argument by looking at Rodgers history. Only fair. I do believe that managers can improve and also that Rodgers has improved, but this forum loves to look at Ole's career prior to United so lets go there.

His European record is the biggest concern by far. Its woeful. He doesn't have a single victory against a renowned coach, and he's lost a lot of games to teams that he should be beating

Liverpool
2012/2013 Lost in Europa League round of 32 to Zenit
2014/2015 Failed to qualify from a CL group containing Real Madrid, Basel & Ludogorets, with only 1 victory against Ludogorets. Then went on to lose the round of 32 tie in the Europa League to Besiktas

His Celtic record leaves a lot to be desired, but probably not hugely relevant to this given the strength of the Scottish league, but worth noting 7-0 & 7-1 losses to Barcelona and PSG. No shame in losing to those sides with Celtic, but those are massacres.

Leicester
2020/2021 Lost in Europa League round of 32 to Slavia Prague

Its the very first thing that would be picked apart should he ever land a job of the profile of our club again. He's shown nothing in Europe to suggest that he belongs at the top table, but plenty of reasons to fear that he doesn't. This isn't even yet mentioning that his Leicester side, and yes they had injury issues, threw away a 8 point gap over United with 9 games to play. They won only two of those. They also lost (or to use Cafe wording, bottled or choked) a quite easy-on-paper League cup semi-final against Villa, who were battling relegation.

I've watched some Leicester games (incl Sunday) when they have been very good. I've also seen some matches, particularly the Arsenal home loss. where they were every bit as bad as we were on Sunday and people were starting to talk of another collapse. To his credit they have steadied the ship.

His personal record against Ole reads W1 D1 L3, so there's also that if we need a direct comparison.

I've put this out there not to discredit Rodgers, who again I think is a good to very good coach, but would you look at his record without bias and suggest that he should undoubtedly be viewed as a better coach than Ole right now? I don't see it, and his credentials do not support it.
Excellent post and most United doomsayers and Ole bashers would suggest our squad is tumescent and heap praise on Leicesters players, in particular their midfield of Barnes, Tielmans and Maddison.
 

Jim Beam

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Fair point, but I think he meant the first team coaches at every team, not the manager.
Since the claim was all the coaches at city would make some of our average players world class.
Not sure that this has been claimed. The discussion went about the importance of players vs coaching. And how Ole would dominate the league and played world class football with City players. Maybe he would win the league somehow (I have my doubts), but the playing style would be massively different for sure and if we are honest not nearly as dominant. There is a reason why Pep is the highest paid manager in the world.

Also, surely when you imply the importance of coaching, you mean the guy who pulls all the strings. I wouldn't want Arteta in United, let alone some other unproven member of Pep coaching team.
 

Robbie Boy

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Excellent post and most United doomsayers and Ole bashers would suggest our squad is tumescent and heap praise on Leicesters players, in particular their midfield of Barnes, Tielmans and Maddison.
I saw someone try justify saying Leicester had a better squad than ours :lol:
 

Matriac

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Not sure that this has been claimed. The discussion went about the importance of players vs coaching. And how Ole would dominate the league and played world class football with City players. Maybe he would win the league somehow (I have my doubts), but the playing style would be massively different for sure and if we are honest not nearly as dominant. There is a reason why Pep is the highest paid manager in the world.

Also, surely when you imply the importance of coaching, you mean the guy who pulls all the strings. I wouldn't want Arteta in United, let alone some other unproven member of Pep coaching team.
The post you quoted from (see below) specifically mentioned city's coaches, in plural. Meaning the coaching team around city is what would make our "average" players world class.

Edit: Also in regards to "importance of coaching", the trend on here lately has been to want to swap out our coaches (carrick etc) so that our coaching can get better, since Ole focuses more on the managing and over-all picture instead of day to day coaching on the training ground. (Personally I'm for keeping them on to see how it can go next year, but am not against adding another coach if the right candidate can be made available.)

How is Rashford gifted though? He's lightning fast and he can dribble past players when there's lots of space. He is not as technically gifted as any of City's forwards. He doesn't give and go like Sterling or beat players in tight spaces like Mahrez. This is why City are better at breaking down teams who park the bus. Just look at Rashford's stats. He is ten times better in games where we are countering.

If the coaches were that critical then surely they'd all be on similar money to the players. Do you honestly think that if Mctominay went to City that he would start playing like De Bruyne because of their wonderful coaches?

So you think our players are close to City's technically. You think Cancelo and Bissaka are similar technically. You think Fred and Rodri are similar technically. You think Gundogan and Mctominay are similar technically. I'm sorry but they're not.

Greenwood is very good technically but Mahrez is further along in his career and is obviously the better right winger. They also have Silva just sitting on the bench too. How can you not see that difference Womp?

Sterling and Rashford although similar in quality have different talents which I've outlined. Bruno and Pogba are obviously very good technically but Pogba has missed over half of the games under Ole. That needs to be highlighted more when people talk about injuries.
I haven't even mentioned Phil Foden yet. What a player he is.
I can't agree with your stance and I would honestly say that if Ole had City's squad that we would dominate the league playing world class football simply because Ole would have the best players at his disposal.
 

Jim Beam

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The post you quoted from (see below) specifically mentioned city's coaches, in plural. Meaning the coaching team around city is what would make our "average" players world class.
And the post he quoted talks pretty much about Nagelsmann/Pep influence on their team.

Were talking coaches not the managers
Not really, see above. We can ask @Womp if we are not sure.

Anyway, back to your point. If players are so much more important, why Pep and Klopp are higest paid people in the team? You know, with them being head coaches.
 

rotherham_red

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You have an everyone is toxic and I’m not, holier than thou attitude, you say you’re not obsessed with Ole, you’ve made hundreds of posts criticising Ole with disingenuous points yourself. You’ve made more posts about Ole than I have made in total. I am not allowed to criticise managers but you’re allowed to criticise Ole, Apparently I’m contributing to toxicity and you’re not, I’m disingenuous but you’re not, you’ve brought up me bashing Rodgers the ex-Liverpool manager in another thread here’s just a few of you bashing Ole:






From Locked threads:






I see you on every thread mentioning Ole acting as if you’re the RedCafe Police. You’re heavily biased against Ole, you hide that with an occasional positive post, you’ve made plenty of disingenuous posts about the man and there’s many more. You frame it as you criticising OleIn vs OleOut for being toxic when the vast majority of your more recent posts are having a go at people who rate Ole more often than not. I could post pages of your “toxic” posts if you’d like. You’re a fraud who acts like he has a balanced view, when in reality you don’t at all. Go through my posts, they all back Ole. You’re as Ole Out as I am Ole in and you’re just as biased as everyone you constantly criticise.
Yep, exactly. I said the same to him before. Thank God you brought the receipts :lol:
 

b82REZ

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Excellent post and most United doomsayers and Ole bashers would suggest our squad is tumescent and heap praise on Leicesters players, in particular their midfield of Barnes, Tielmans and Maddison.
Hilariously the opposite is true.
 

Matriac

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And the post he quoted talks pretty much about Nagelsmann/Pep influence on their team.



Not really, see above. We can ask @Womp if we are not sure.

Anyway, back to your point. If players are so much more important, why Pep and Klopp are higest paid people in the team? You know, with them being head coaches.
You could also ask @Olecurls99 since he started talking about coaches at City in plural and how they are less important than the technical ability of players, which is why the city coachES aren't paid as much as the players.
which womp then replied to saying he thinks coaches has just as much importance.
 

Robbie Boy

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Yep, exactly. I said the same to him before. Thank God you brought the receipts :lol:
The receipts :lol:

I was a right negative Nancy for a while after the Jose fiasco tbh. Luckily I learned from my cnutish behaviour and took a step back and tried looking at the situation more rationally. You on the other hand...

Put me on ignore if I bother you because I'll continue to call out the bullshit hypocrisy when I see it.
 
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RUCK4444

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I'll try to put a counter-argument by looking at Rodgers history. Only fair. I do believe that managers can improve and also that Rodgers has improved, but this forum loves to look at Ole's career prior to United so lets go there.

His European record is the biggest concern by far. Its woeful. He doesn't have a single victory against a renowned coach, and he's lost a lot of games to teams that he should be beating

Liverpool
2012/2013 Lost in Europa League round of 32 to Zenit
2014/2015 Failed to qualify from a CL group containing Real Madrid, Basel & Ludogorets, with only 1 victory against Ludogorets. Then went on to lose the round of 32 tie in the Europa League to Besiktas

His Celtic record leaves a lot to be desired, but probably not hugely relevant to this given the strength of the Scottish league, but worth noting 7-0 & 7-1 losses to Barcelona and PSG. No shame in losing to those sides with Celtic, but those are massacres.

Leicester
2020/2021 Lost in Europa League round of 32 to Slavia Prague

Its the very first thing that would be picked apart should he ever land a job of the profile of our club again. He's shown nothing in Europe to suggest that he belongs at the top table, but plenty of reasons to fear that he doesn't. This isn't even yet mentioning that his Leicester side, and yes they had injury issues, threw away a 8 point gap over United with 9 games to play. They won only two of those. They also lost (or to use Cafe wording, bottled or choked) a quite easy-on-paper League cup semi-final against Villa, who were battling relegation.

I've watched some Leicester games (incl Sunday) when they have been very good. I've also seen some matches, particularly the Arsenal home loss. where they were every bit as bad as we were on Sunday and people were starting to talk of another collapse. To his credit they have steadied the ship.

His personal record against Ole reads W1 D1 L3, so there's also that if we need a direct comparison.

I've put this out there not to discredit Rodgers, who again I think is a good to very good coach, but would you look at his record without bias and suggest that he should undoubtedly be viewed as a better coach than Ole right now? I don't see it, and his credentials do not support it.
Top post. I fear it has too much common sense to gain much attention here though bud.

LITERALLY NOBODY claims Ole is the next SAF. Some of us just have the level headedness to assess the situation as a whole, the progress we’ve made, where we are heading and what alternatives there are.

When you do that there is next to zero reason to sack Ole at this point.

If Pep or Klopp turned up and Old Trafford would I consider changing Ole? Yes absolutely, and I’ve backed Ole consistently.

The fact is we are making slow but steady progress and improving the starting 11, meanwhile there is no alternative manager to guarantee an improvement on that.

The common sense approach would be to continue building on that foundation and actually plan ahead with our next appointment (weve never done that.) With the benefit of a DOF overseeing any transition to ensure continuous improvement.
 

Amir

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Good job Pep didn’t rate Maguire then
People here talk about City being streets ahead of everyone because of their financial power, and then accept their manager saying he lost out on a player because he couldn't afford him.
 

Amir

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@Amir Can we agree almost none of our goals against this season came from Maguire's slowness? I can't remember it costing us either.

So what other glaring weakness does Maguire have that we need to compensate for?
I can't give you an example because I barely remember any goals scored in our games this season. I watch them once and move on with my life nowadays, so it's about the impression in my mind rather than any examples. Is that impression wrong? Maybe, but I do believe that it hampers us, and also limits the way with play (partially because our other regular CB isn't exactly quick as well).

What's wrong with Ole taking the overpriced option to stay in his job (because it was an improvement)? Your critique is basically "if he loves the club so much, he wouldn't let poor Utd overpay", as if our transfer budget is an accurate representation of what we can afford to spend.

Which manager would've risked a sacking rather than say yes to the Maguire deal in August? Moyes?

Which manager would be so selfless and say no to the deal to "not harm the club"? Ghandi?

Seems like an unfair criticism of Ole. As MinGin pointed out, more likely than not, he'll get another overpriced option a year later.
I'm OK with overpriced. The question revolves around what that player gives you. Maguire improved us short term, no doubt about it, but he also causes issues that could and I believe will hamper us if we want to get to the absolute top. I think we should have looked better and thought longer term about what would serve us.

What manager would be so selfless? Probably someone like Fergie or Wenger, people who were at the job for so long and were not worried abot their positions, so they would think beyond the next six or twelve months. But I guess those no longer exist. That's why we can't give the manager all the power, as he's likely to think about himself. Even if some people believe Solskjaer is better than that. He's not. He's another manager wanting to survive, no matter what he was for us as a player.

Which is why I'd never put him on some great moral pedestal as others do. His history with us means nothing to me when I judge him as manager. Same as Mourinho or Moyes.
 

Robbie Boy

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Hilariously the opposite is true.
If you're an agenda poster it'll work something like this: Rodgers is shite and only doing well because Leicester have a top four squad or Rodgers is a miracle worker doing wonders with a mid-table squad.

People may not like Rodgers - I can clearly see why - but he's doing a very good job with Leicester. He has his shortcomings for sure, but I believe he's learned some lessons from his Liverpool spell. I also happen to think Leicester have a very good squad.
 

Keefy18

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I saw someone try justify saying Leicester had a better squad than ours :lol:
They've some good players but the hype about them is insane tbh.

Of course when Tielmans scored most forums I'm on lauded over him, whilst ignoring the fact that's the first time he's showed up in a game against us in I think 4 tries.

I've watched Leicester probably approx 20 times over 2 seasons and they are hit and miss and their midfield often doesn't impress me that much.
 

Jim Beam

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You could also ask @Olecurls99 since he started talking about coaches at City in plural and how they are less important than the technical ability of players, which is why the city coachES aren't paid as much as the players.
which womp then replied to saying he thinks coaches has just as much importance.
And the other side constantly puts emphasis on the importance of head coach (specifically mentioning Pep/Nagelsmann). Which is understandable considering what is their main responsibility and if you move them pretty much everything about the coaching part changes. Move Arteta and still everything stays the same.

Now, would you be kind and answer my question.
 

Matriac

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What manager would be so selfless? Probably someone like Fergie or Wenger, people who were at the job for so long and were not worried abot their positions, so they would think beyond the next six or twelve months. But I guess those no longer exist. That's why we can't give the manager all the power, as he's likely to think about himself. Even if some people believe Solskjaer is better than that. He's not. He's another manager wanting to survive, no matter what he was for us as a player.

Which is why I'd never put him on some great moral pedestal as others do. His history with us means nothing to me when I judge him as manager. Same as Mourinho or Moyes.
We already had a transfer committee in place since the summer of 2018, so it was a club decision to go for Maguire, not a selfish move by Ole. If anyone disagreed they could have vetoed the move.

He was what we needed at the time (and still do). There wasn't any other like him available so we paid more than we might have needed another time or if there were options that summer.
 

rotherham_red

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The receipts :lol:

I was a right negative Nancy for a while after the Jose fiasco tbh. Luckily I learned from my cnutish behaviour and took a step back and tried look at the situation more rationally. You on the other hand...

Put me on ignore if I bother you because I'll continue to call out the bullshit hypocrisy when I see it.
You give yourself far too much credit.

The fact that you're still talking about hypocrisy when you're still trying to police other people's feelings despite being called out for your own regressive behaviour says it all.

I mean, it is literally a forum where people discuss matters relating to football. Do you really think those people who actually defended the manager and club during those early days are not going to say I told you so? Or aren't going to back their corner? Even now, this thread turns into a train wreck after every draw, let alone loss. Do you not see how batshit mental that is? The goalposts have moved to such an extent that we're even arguing the whys and wherefores of a fecking draw! If he ever won the title, I guarantee we're still going to see some bullshit about how he won it the wrong way, or because the other teams dropped down a level. But that's not an issue for you, is it? I don't see you calling those people out at all. Yet, we're the hypocrites, the ones who unlike yourself have steadfastly held to the same line from day one. Please, make it make sense. We had people like yourself a year ago literally counting down the days til he was sacked, but that isn't seen as an issue for you. Oh no, what the real issue is a Manchester United supporter, who actually supports the club. That's the line you've drawn in the sand :houllier:

You and many others have been proven wrong by Ole multiple times over the past 18 months or so, and I'm sure that's hurt your pride, but there's no need to be Mr Perspective after the fact, when you've engaged in the 'bullshit hypocrisy' as you call it, just as much as anyone else. That just comes across as, ironically enough, holier than thou (which is what you accuse those who back Ole of) and very much a "do what I say, not what I do" attitude.
 

Robbie Boy

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You give yourself far too much credit.

The fact that you're still talking about hypocrisy when you're still trying to police other people's feelings despite being called out for your own regressive behaviour says it all.

I mean, it is literally a forum where people discuss matters relating to football. Do you really think those people who actually defended the manager and club during those early days are not going to say I told you so? Or aren't going to back their corner? Even now, this thread turns into a train wreck after every draw, let alone loss. Do you not see how batshit mental that is? The goalposts have moved to such an extent that we're even arguing the whys and wherefores of a fecking draw! If he ever won the title, I guarantee we're still going to see some bullshit about how he won it the wrong way, or because the other teams dropped down a level. But that's not an issue for you, is it? I don't see you calling those people out at all. Yet, we're the hypocrites, the ones who unlike yourself have steadfastly held to the same line from day one. Please, make it make sense. We had people like yourself a year ago literally counting down the days til he was sacked, but that isn't seen as an issue for you. Oh no, what the real issue is a Manchester United supporter, who actually supports the club. That's the line you've drawn in the sand :houllier:

You and many others have been proven wrong by Ole multiple times over the past 18 months or so, and I'm sure that's hurt your pride, but there's no need to be Mr Perspective after the fact, when you've engaged in the 'bullshit hypocrisy' as you call it, just as much as anyone else. That just comes across as, ironically enough, holier than thou (which is what you accuse those who back Ole of) and very much a "do what I say, not what I do" attitude.
More ramblings. Feel free to ramble on some more... Better still, feel free to give out about those nasty 'Ole haters' and all the awful things they do, while doing the same things yourself. But of course, you believe you're holier than thou because you do it for the greater good. Nah, the rabid Ole in are just as shitty and agenda driven as the rabid Ole out.
 
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Matriac

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And the other side constantly puts emphasis on the importance of head coach (specifically mentioning Pep/Nagelsmann). Which is understandable considering what is their main responsibility and if you move them pretty much everything about the coaching part changes. Move Arteta and still everything stays the same.

Now, would you be kind and answer my question.
I assume you mean:
Anyway, back to your point. If players are so much more important, why Pep and Klopp are higest paid people in the team? You know, with them being head coaches.
I didn't think there was anything for me to answer here as my first reply to you was "good point" about pep and klopp making more. (But that the point was about the other coaches in the team working under the manager.)

The Head Coach (or Manager as normally referred to in the Prem) is absolutelty important as they are in charge of setting the over all strategy, they man manage the players AND the coaches. Over all if the results go badly the buck stops with them. They have a lot of responsibility (stress) on their shoulders. And in a way it's a psychological element that the boss of the players should at least make as much as the players he manage ("why should I listen to someone who makes less than me", it's a childish thought, but it does happen).
The coaches in the team are more like your co-workers as they are essentially support-staff to make you perform. And if you don't listen to them your boss/manager will tell you to.
 

Jim Beam

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I didn't think there was anything for me to answer here as my first reply to you was "good point" about pep and klopp making more. (But that the point was about the other coaches in the team working under the manager.)
Ah, fair enough. Apologies, that question was more for Olecurls99.

Agree about the rest of you post.
 

R'hllor

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More ramblings. Feel free to ramble on some more... Better still, feel free to give out about those nasty 'Ole haters' and all the awful things they do, while doing the same things yourself. But of course, you believe you're holier than thou because you do it for the greater good. Nah, the rabid Ole in are just as shitty and agenda driven as the rabid Ole out.
Amen, there is no line both camps wouldnt cross to spin some drivel in defense of their PoV or for/vs their guy.
 

Olecurls99

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Not sure that this has been claimed. The discussion went about the importance of players vs coaching. And how Ole would dominate the league and played world class football with City players. Maybe he would win the league somehow (I have my doubts), but the playing style would be massively different for sure and if we are honest not nearly as dominant. There is a reason why Pep is the highest paid manager in the world.

Also, surely when you imply the importance of coaching, you mean the guy who pulls all the strings. I wouldn't want Arteta in United, let alone some other unproven member of Pep coaching team.
"And how Ole would dominate the league and play world class football with City players"
This is my whole point in a nut shell. He wouldn't be playing. The players play the world class football. The manager selects them.
Do you think it's a coincidence that Zidane is one of the most successful managers and a great player? Of course not. He had the 3 things you need to be a successful manager.
1.Respect amongst the football community
2. Common sense
3. Great players

Guardiola has the same things. It's not rocket science. Bloody hell even Di Matteo won the Champions league with Chelsea.

Coming back to us. Ole has the common sense. His respect amongst the football community is being chipped away at by elements in the media and on here. He just needs some more really good players.
 

Siorac

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"And how Ole would dominate the league and play world class football with City players"
This is my whole point in a nut shell. He wouldn't be playing. The players play the world class football. The manager selects them.
Do you think it's a coincidence that Zidane is one of the most successful managers and a great player? Of course not. He had the 3 things you need to be a successful manager.
1.Respect amongst the football community
2. Common sense
3. Great players

Guardiola has the same things. It's not rocket science. Bloody hell even Di Matteo won the Champions league with Chelsea.

Coming back to us. Ole has the common sense. His respect amongst the football community is being chipped away at by elements in the media and on here. He just needs some more really good players.
Your point seems to be that the manager doesn't actually matter at all, which is a bit odd, particularly from a Manchester United fan.
 
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