Was Ole a coward?

bosnian_red

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Shit thread. We have 2nd pretty much wrapped up. City miss out on winning the title at the end of their own game (always better than it happening during someone else's match), makes it harder for Liverpool to get top 4, and our players are rested.
 

r3idy

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Coward ??? His vision is clear and he is a man of conviction knowing if he was to play same team 3 days in a row it would come back to bite him on the arse. His decision to rotate was perfectly acceptable and rational.
Couldn't give a toss about City. Some small satisfaction in knowing that it makes it more difficult for the scouse to finish top 4. However let's not forget that they are the single worst defending champions in history and six home defeats on the bounce was a major contributing factor to them sitting pretty outside a champions league place. The Irony is that if they would have rotated more, then its highly likely they wouldn't have lost all those six games.

His obligation and duty of care is to his players first and foremost. He has managed this situation perfectly both on and off the pitch in my opinion.
 

Eriku

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Yeah, Ole should definitely have run the risk of causing injuries to important players when we’re two weeks out from our first shot at trophy under him, just for the sake of postponing their league title by a few days.

Come on :rolleyes:
 

amolbhatia50k

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Would Sir Alex done the same, United have blown 2 league titles with a 5 point gap and 3 to play. A long shot for Ole to catch City but stranger things have happened...
When was this? And what stranger things have happened?
 

JustinC00

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Imagine being a manager and getting called a coward for rotating when you have top 4 locked up and have 5 games in 12 days and in the game just before your #1 CB that has played almost every minute gets seriously injured which is a reminder the risk of what can happen to players that are playing that much in that small of a time frame

Do you really think citeh were gonna drop 6 points to Brighton & Newcastle?
 

JustinC00

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Would Sir Alex done the same, United have blown 2 league titles with a 5 point gap and 3 to play. A long shot for Ole to catch City but stranger things have happened...
Did the team have to play 5 games in 12 days when that happened?
 

Grande

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Handing City the title without them even playing, your thoughts?
Can you and those other cretins -those claiming Ole was a coward for not giving Amad, Van de Beek, Tuanzebe, Williams etc playing time - can you go into a small chatroom and slug it out among yourselves as to why Ole is a coward? Now, that would be the daring thing to do!
 

Zlatan 7

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Why is it a shit thread because I asked an opinion on do people think Ole was a coward - most seem to think he made the right choice. Some don't it's only a question you don't have to reply to. It's a football page after all people have different opinions and like to bounce them of each other.
Why would his decision lead to him being a coward anyway? What the feck has being a coward got to to with team choice?

Coward ffs :lol:
 
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I don't think Ole plays that line up if fans are in the stadium.

I think Ole got lost trying to prove a point to the FA over the fixture pile up.

I think Ole could have started s stronger team and if we lead at half time then make all the subs.

I'm a big fan of Ole but was disappointed yesterday
 

HailtotheKing

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Ole has been a coward in terms of the way he sets up the team sometimes. But last night I think took balls. And it was the right thing to do. Fair play, Ole. I think he’s really growing into the role. Just need 2 or three more signings. Which to be fair, had we actually got what he wanted last year we would have properly challenged. Sancho, Bellingham and a Center back. But now we need a CDM more than anything and it will transform our game. All this talk of transition and process. I think the process has always been about the process of getting the glazers to reach into their pockets. That’s the real journey we’ve been on.
 

BusbyMalone

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I don't see what's particularly cowardly about it, personally. We have 3 games close together. It makes logical sense that the second game in that three-game run would be the game that you rest the players. We didn't "hand" City anything. They won the title on their own merit. Winning that game would just delay the inevitable.

The only thing I would criticize Ole for last night is the subs. They made absolutely no sense. But I don't blame him for the team he picked.
 

lex talionis

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Cringeworthy thread title, which betrays an absence of any understanding of the context in which Ole made his decisions yesterday.
 

Maticmaker

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Nothing to do with cowardice.

Ole did what other managers in his position would do, he could however have been a bit more succinct in 'rotating his players' as he still finished up risking injury to some obvious first choice players. Last night we could still have lost and incurred injuries, to key players, then the question would be about his judgement.
 

Van Piorsing

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Nothing to do with cowardice.

Ole did what other managers in his position would do, he could however have been a bit more succinct in 'rotating his players' as he still finished up risking injury to some obvious first choice players. Last night we could still have lost and incurred injuries, to key players, then the question would be about his judgement.
Spot the feck on.
 

POF

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A coward? Christ.

If anything, it shows that he's not an idiot. He had to rotate and definitely chose the right game to do it in.

He played the political game perfectly too. Set the table for it, said he couldn't play anyone who played the previous 2 games.

He still made the attacking moves to try to win the game. City were always going to win the title so losing that game makes little or no difference at all.

But, if anyone is "to blame" for having to play that team and City winning the title as a result, it's those that set the fixtures or the invading fans who got the Liverpool game postponed in the first place.
 

HailtotheKing

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Nothing to do with cowardice.

Ole did what other managers in his position would do, he could however have been a bit more succinct in 'rotating his players' as he still finished up risking injury to some obvious first choice players. Last night we could still have lost and incurred injuries, to key players, then the question would be about his judgement.
I think he still wanted to win/draw the game that's why he made those subs. You can argue that it wasn't the smartest thing to do with a final coming up. But I really don't think he wanted to hand it to City. I think he's grown bigger balls the longer he's been here tbh.
 

Djemba-Djemba

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I don't think Ole plays that line up if fans are in the stadium.

I think Ole got lost trying to prove a point to the FA over the fixture pile up.

I think Ole could have started s stronger team and if we lead at half time then make all the subs.

I'm a big fan of Ole but was disappointed yesterday
And if we aren't leading at half time? There's only 3 subs.

If we play a strong team yesterday we have to play a weak team tomorrow against Liverpool. There's simply no chance we could play 3 strong teams Sunday Tuesday Thursday.

It would have been absolutely mental by Ole. I thought bringing on Cavani, Rashford and Bruno yesterday was a bit silly to be honest.
 

always_hoping

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Clearly a wum thread, but i'll bite.

We were put into an impossible situation.

With everything on the line, you'd be daft not to take the Leicester game more easily, and be fresh for Liverpool.

If it just so happens that it helps Leicester get the top 4, and Liverpool don't... well that's hard luck.
The lack of effort by these wums nowadays is humorous though.
 

kidbob

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He was smart if anything. Play the first team against the weakest of the 3 (Villa) to ensure top 4 at the beginning of the run. Knows we have a better chance of beating Leicester (who are in worse form than Liverpool) with fresh second string players than tired first team ones and that the middle game was the only chance to rest players during the run. Knows that playing the first 11 against Leicester hands the following game to Liverpool on a plate anyway. All while seemingly hoping that a team that have lost once in the last 20 or so in the League are going to fail to pick up 2 points from an easy last 3 games. The risk was worth it because we have an actual final coming up to play that is real rather than banking on the fecking unicorn that is City failing to win their last 3 games against 3 teams who have nothing to play for.
 

SAFMUTD

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Yes a total coward, would have loved if he played the strongest XI showing some God damn balls and courage.

Only to get players injured, losing against Liverpool therefore giving the title to city and fecking up our chances to win the EL.
 

Alemar

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Handing City the title without them even playing, your thoughts?
But it was a tight game, we only lost due to a set piece. Might have gone the other way too - it’s not like Leicester had significant advantage or many chances
 

Lebo

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The biggest problem I had was giving up the title challenge too soon. City basically walked the league because we were the only competitors. I’m talking about from January until now
 

sullydnl

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First, it was the right thing to do.

Second, the use of a word like "coward" in this context is obnoxious.
 

GazTheLegend

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This thread is a good barometer to find opposition fans who are larping on here as Man Utd fans to be fair.
 

Tomuś

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No. He would be a coward (and brainless at that) if he folded under the scouse pressure and played the first eleven.
 
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And if we aren't leading at half time? There's only 3 subs.

If we play a strong team yesterday we have to play a weak team tomorrow against Liverpool. There's simply no chance we could play 3 strong teams Sunday Tuesday Thursday.

It would have been absolutely mental by Ole. I thought bringing on Cavani, Rashford and Bruno yesterday was a bit silly to be honest.
United could have started lineups similar to this. Made the subs at half time against leicester as required.

Leicester:

De gea
Williams Bailly Tuanzebe Telles
McTominay Matic
Diallo Bruno VDB
Greenwood

Liverpool:

De Gea
Awb Bailly Lindelof shaw
McTominay Fred
Rashford VdB Pogba
Cavani