Solskjær press conference vs West Ham (A)

The White Pele

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If you watch the video and have the context of the question I don’t see anything wrong with what Ole has said on the midfield and philosophy.

He was asked what he looks for from the double pivot and he essentially says he wants dynamic, well rounded players that can attack and defend. That’s what the club looks for and tries to develop in our own players.

He was then interrupted by a follow up question about whether it’s his “over-arching philosophy” to have players that can do more than 2 or 3 things which was a bit of a wishy washy question which got the wishy washy answer it deserved.
 

Withnail

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Okay, then fair enough on the first part, which I didn't see, but I can't agree on the second. Ultimately, you're a manager and your job is to win football matches.
All good and well having the right attitude and so on, but you've still gotta win, especially at a club of this magnitude.
As for the process, the trust is given with a goal coming into sight. You would have to say that this year requires him to bear fruition on the goals allocated to him with that trust.

The reason I'm conflicted on his statement here is that in the post match interview he said we played well, which didn't sit right with me. We were awful.
In my opinion, for the first time, it's coming across that he appears a bit rattled. I could be wrong, but the pressure on him to build on the past this season is absolutely immense. Nothing like what he's experienced before.
As was pointed out earlier context is important so I went and watched the video. Fair point on the post match comments. It could be he was talking nonsense and/or want to get out of there as quick as. I know it's part of the job but I'm sure it's a pain when you've had a bad night and he said in today's presser we didn't play well against YB. It really is silly for anyone to suggest we played well. He often says questionable things post-match but then so do a lot of managers. On the pressure side of things, we'll have to see. From what I've seen so far he seems more sure of himself and more animated this season and if you watch the presser he doesn't appear at all rattled.

I agree you do have to win but my reading of what he was saying is that getting good results is based on having a good process. All each player can do is concentrate on what they are supposed to do within the team. If the players/managers are overly worried about the outcome of each decision that is a distraction from the job at hand. He wasn't necessarily saying results should be ignored either. There is a balance to be struck obviously but again this was in the context of getting praise for Leeds/getting a kicking for YB.
 

Zoo

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I knew there would be a mini meltdown over that comment about philosophy. It was obvious he didn’t want to answer the question and provide filler for Carl Anka’s latest puff piece in the Athletic. Anka is the latest journo who fancies himself as a tactical guru, it’s a trend nowadays with these pretentious journos. Every article of his is him explaining to us simple people what happens on a football pitch.
 

tomaldinho1

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If you watch the video and have the context of the question I don’t see anything wrong with what Ole has said on the midfield and philosophy.

He was asked what he looks for from the double pivot and he essentially says he wants dynamic, well rounded players that can attack and defend. That’s what the club looks for and tries to develop in our own players.

He was then interrupted by a follow up question about whether it’s his “over-arching philosophy” to have players that can do more than 2 or 3 things which was a bit of a wishy washy question which got the wishy washy answer it deserved.
I mean, bit harsh on @Samid who scribed it pretty much perfectly. The first part being specifically about the double pivot is even more distressing because it's been 3 years and it's never worked consistently - you know it's bad when Utdreport cut off the end of his sentence in their quote re 'proper' players.
 

Pickle85

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If you watch the video and have the context of the question I don’t see anything wrong with what Ole has said on the midfield and philosophy.

He was asked what he looks for from the double pivot and he essentially says he wants dynamic, well rounded players that can attack and defend. That’s what the club looks for and tries to develop in our own players.

He was then interrupted by a follow up question about whether it’s his “over-arching philosophy” to have players that can do more than 2 or 3 things which was a bit of a wishy washy question which got the wishy washy answer it deserved.
But the way I see it, this is a bit of a fudge. What manager wouldn't want players that can do everything instead of players that can only do one thing? It came across as if he didn't really have an answer so fence sat. The problem is that we don't have players that can do both to the required standard (particularly not with McTom out) so he needs to adapt. Wishing for Fred to become Robbo won't make it so.
 

FiftChoice

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The quotes and the analysis of quotes on this forum is slowly starting to look like Jose's 3rd year.
Yeah, but it’s bound to happen with the start we’ve had. Ole has dug his own grave only winning 3/4 of his first PL games…. And what is it, an average of only 2.75goals pr game..!
 

Samid

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I mean, bit harsh on @Samid who scribed it pretty much perfectly. The first part being specifically about the double pivot is even more distressing because it's been 3 years and it's never worked consistently - you know it's bad when Utdreport cut off the end of his sentence in their quote re 'proper' players.
I usually just copy the text from MEN but add any missing bits if I've got the presser on in the background. MEN don't post the full quotes either for some reason.
 

Sparky Rhiwabon

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Solskjaer asked about midfield and his 'philosophy'
"I’m not here to explain every single detail of how I want my team to play. We want central midfielder who can play. Today’s football is about he’s a good 6, 8, 10 back in the day you had proper midfielders, Roy Keane, Paul Scholes, Bryan Robson. You see players out there who can attack and defend and that’s what we look for, midfielders who are complete and we try to develop that in our midfield.

It's a balance between with how many you commit forward and how you defend because one little mistake and there’s a counter attack towards you.

Overarching philosophy… I don’t sit here and claim and talk... football is a simple game and it's about making good decisions and being in a team.

Sometimes we look too much into the all intricacies and it’s passion, it's desire - who wants to win the ball? Which one of the striker has the desire to get on the end of crosses?

You can talk about all sorts, it looks nice on paper. But when you go out on that pitch, it's who wants to win, that’s one of the big things. You want winners and I think I’m getting there with my team, team players."
Oh dear
 

Dante

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Here's a clipped version of Ole's midfield comments. It's really not as bad as some of drama queens in here are making out.

Judge from the original source, not the chinese whispers.
 

Pickle85

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Here's a clipped version of Ole's midfield comments. It's really not as bad as some of drama queens in here are making out.

Judge from the original source, not the chinese whispers.
"Back in the day you had midfielders, proper midfielders"

You can surely understand some of the backlash here? I'm all for pushing back against the unnecessary over-intellectualising (is that a word?!) of football but he does come across here as a little bit of a throwback.
 

VanDeBank

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I don't know why this place is going mental because Ole didn't read out his tactical manuscript on a generic question regarding tactics in a presser.
Nothing he said was wrong, just a vague, generic answer to a vague, generic question.

I have plenty of doubts on his tacticul acumen as demonstrated in both Istanbul and Villareal, but feck me you guys that desperately want to replace him with basically anybody are just grasping at straws.
I've always liked his approach to pressers, but this is a weird one.
What is he trying to say here?
We tried in the game, which is important?
Intention? We went out with the intention to win the game and that's what matters?
You can have all the intention in the world, but hypothetically if you're losing 10 games in a row all that intent means jack squat.

Also, he's a Manchester United manager.
He is judged on the style on football and ability to deliver trophies. Obtaining the right outcomes are vital in reaching that point. It's about playing attractive football and winning. We're not Spurs ffs.

I do not like this aspect of his interview one bit. It's shambolic.
As an example, the Sancho -> Dalot sub against YB. Every competent manager would make this exact sub. It's not even debatable as to whether or not it makes sense. There's been quite a few slamming that particular one on here. Why? Because the end result was bad. So you can criticize every decision made, regardless of their being a logical connection or not.
The temptation is always to say ‘oh that’s just Ole being diplomatic, keeping his cards close to his chest, etc.’ but the stark reality is he brought Lingard back, despite him being a valuable transfer commodity who could’ve generated much-needed funds to shore up central midfield, and he has played him a fair amount already, and will no doubt continue to do so, even though it’s blatantly obvious that he’s nowhere near the required the level. Maybe it’s time to admit that the same applies to Ole.
Bullocks. He wasn't "brought back by Ole". His loan ended.

You're woefully misinformed. Reports that we do have seem to indicate that Lingard wanted to stay. How reliable that ends is, no one knows, but its better than your made up soup.
 

Lash

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Why does everyone want to hear some self indulgent lecture on tactics in a pre match press conference? I'd hazard a guess most people have never practically implemented tactics, so it's just a self aggrandising exercise that everyone partakes in. Over-specialisation is a real issue in midfield anyway. It's precisely why Bellingham is seen as a generational as he has it all.
 

Pickle85

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I don't know why this place is going mental because Ole didn't read out his tactical manuscript on a generic question regarding tactics in a presser.
Nothing he said was wrong, just a vague, generic answer to a vague, generic question.

I have plenty of doubts on his tacticul acumen as demonstrated in both Istanbul and Villareal, but feck me you guys that desperately want to replace him with basically anybody are just grasping at straws.

As an example, the Sancho -> Dalot sub against YB. Every competent manager would make this exact sub. It's not even debatable as to whether or not it makes sense. There's been quite a few slamming that particular one on here. Why? Because the end result was bad. So you can criticize every decision made, regardless of their being a logical connection or not.

Bullocks. He wasn't "brought back by Ole". His loan ended.

You're woefully misinformed. Reports that we do have seem to indicate that Lingard wanted to stay. How reliable that ends is, no one knows, but its better than your made up soup.
It does look like we're after extending him though, doesn't it?
 

Pickle85

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Why does everyone want to hear some self indulgent lecture on tactics in a pre match press conference? I'd hazard a guess most people have never practically implemented tactics, so it's just a self aggrandising exercise that everyone partakes in. Over-specialisation is a real issue in midfield anyway. It's precisely why Bellingham is seen as a generational as he has it all.
Ugh, this again...can't have an opinion unless you've managed in the premier league. Close down the forum.
 

Withnail

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Why does everyone want to hear some self indulgent lecture on tactics in a pre match press conference? I'd hazard a guess most people have never practically implemented tactics, so it's just a self aggrandising exercise that everyone partakes in. Over-specialisation is a real issue in midfield anyway. It's precisely why Bellingham is seen as a generational as he has it all.
The fact that these threads often don't make it to two pages when we're doing well tells you what you need to know about whether people are actually interested in what he says in pressers.
 

Lash

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Ugh, this again...can't have an opinion unless you've managed in the premier league. Close down the forum.
No, that's not my point. Of course you can have an opinion. I don't get why people feel the need for ole to go into complete depth about tactics, and if he doesn't the automatic response from people is he clearly has no idea about tactics - as opposed to a random internet forum fan.
 

Lash

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The fact that these threads often don't make it to two pages when we're doing well tells you what you need to know about whether people are actually interested in what he says in pressers.
:lol: true
 

Pickle85

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No, that's not my point. Of course you can have an opinion. I don't get why people feel the need for ole to go into complete depth about tactics, and if he doesn't the automatic response from people is he clearly has no idea about tactics - as opposed to a random internet forum fan.
I don't think it's the 'not going into complete depth' that people have an issue with. It's the callbacks to Robbo, Keane and Scholes. It's the 'back in the day you had proper midfielders' old school rhetorical nonsense. You can't blame people for questioning his tactical nous when he's saying things like that. Ole is a legend but I do think he leans a little heavily on 'the good old days'.
 

Dante

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"Back in the day you had midfielders, proper midfielders"

You can surely understand some of the backlash here? I'm all for pushing back against the unnecessary over-intellectualising (is that a word?!) of football but he does come across here as a little bit of a throwback.
The next sentence, he elaborates what he means. He goes on to talk about "midfielders who are complete". In other words, total footballers rather than specialists.

Nothing wrong with that.

What this basically means is that he doesn't believe in the likes of Makalele having one specific job in a 3, or Lampard having one specific job in a 3. Instead, he wants all-rounders. Hence the pursuits of Bellingham last season and Camavinga this season. Those two are the future of football. Anything but throwbacks.

Solskjaer's philosophy is spot on, imo. The more limited the individuals are, the more exploitable their weaknesses become. The ideal midfield is one where everybody can do a bit of everything and is a constant threat to the opposition.
 

DatIrishFella

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This is a fecking huge game for Ole. Nothing more than a convincing win will take the pressure off for a bit. That Young Boys game was the worst performance Ive seen in Europe since Jose's monumental feck up against Sevilla in OT a few years ago.
 

RedDevil@84

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Here's a clipped version of Ole's midfield comments. It's really not as bad as some of drama queens in here are making out.

Judge from the original source, not the chinese whispers.
Still looks bad to me, especially the part where he downplays tactical approach and talks about passion being more important than tactics "which is just good on paper".
Because when we screw up our passes, look confused and clueless on the pitch, he could always put it as "they wanted it more than us" which has been used quite a few times over the last 2-3 years.

I agree that it is too early in the season to write off Ole or lose our minds, but this season he doesn't have much excuses. He got a top forward, a top defender and a top winger. It is time to deliver, Not just in terms of trophies or title challenges, but in terms of performances week after week. We cannot be blowing hot and cold all season.
 

Pickle85

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The next sentence, he elaborates what he means. He goes on to talk about "midfielders who are complete". In other words, total footballers rather than specialists.

Nothing wrong with that.

What this basically means is that he doesn't believe in the likes of Makalele having one job in a 3, or Lampard having one job in a 3. Instead, he wants all-rounders. Hence the pursuits of Bellingham last season and Camavinga this season. Those two are the future of football. Anything but throwbacks.

Solskjaer's philosophy is spot on, imo. The more limited the individuals are, the more exploitable their weaknesses become. The ideal midfield is one where everybody can do a bit of everything and is a constant threat to the opposition.
Again, I agree that it's better to have players that are good at everything than good at a couple of things but the players that can do everything to the required level are few and far between. As for 'the future of football', I can assure you we have not seen the end of midfield specialists.
 

golden_blunder

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I was watching Garry Neville's interview of Roy Keane recently and there was a point when they both laughed at the "philosophy" aspect of football. Both seemed rather dismissive of it.

Very narrow minded view from them imo and generally from people who dismiss modern coaches as "hipster" or some other silly word.

Having the means to make your team work hard, press and move well is equally important as "recruitment".

Stuck in the past used to be the scousers way. How the turntables
I think you’re slightly off there because king of the philosophy was LvG (perhaps why they laughed) and his ways were not exactly this decade
 

VanDeBank

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It does look like we're after extending him though, doesn't it?
I think so yeah. But there's quite a big difference between selling him or letting him go on a free. The OP's argument was: "we could have used the funds to buy a DM".
 

Lash

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I don't think it's the 'not going into complete depth' that people have an issue with. It's the callbacks to Robbo, Keane and Scholes. It's the 'back in the day you had proper midfielders' old school rhetorical nonsense. You can't blame people for questioning his tactical nous when he's saying things like that. Ole is a legend but I do think he leans a little heavily on 'the good old days'.
Completely reasonable point to put across, I'm not sure that's the bulk of responses though. Think the majority want him to get a fecking whiteboard out and talk about phases of play. I think it doesn't highlight a valid point of over specialisation, but phrased in a bit of a harking back way. He has actively chased players that fit that mould though, we made a hell of an effort for Jude, but it didn't work out. I don't think anyone would say he is being a dinosaur trying to get someone like that into his system.
 

Dante

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Still looks bad to me, especially the part where he downplays tactical approach and talks about passion being more important than tactics "which is just good on paper".
Because when we screw up our passes, look confused and clueless on the pitch, he could always put it as "they wanted it more than us" which has been used quite a few times over the last 2-3 years.

I agree that it is too early in the season to write off Ole or lose our minds, but this season he doesn't have much excuses. He got a top forward, a top defender and a top winger. It is time to deliver, Not just in terms of trophies or title challenges, but in terms of performances week after week. We cannot be blowing hot and cold all season.
And Ole's right.

He could come up with the perfect game plan, and the perfect set of tactics. But if all the players go onto the pitch with Martial's mentality they could easily lose. Whereas if they go onto the pitch with Ronaldo's passion to win, they'd likely be victorious.

In other words, it's fine margins. There are some things the manager can never account for. If that wasn't the case, home teams wouldn't have better records than away teams. 'Desire' makes a bigger difference than you think.
 

wolvored

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What's so wrong in what he said? Man Utd will play 9 out of 10 games against inferior teams - you don't need tactics to win those game because we have better players all around the pitch. However, if the opposition wants it more than you, you will lose. It's about making sure the players are hungry, are ready for a fight, and do the basics well.

Of course, when you play fellow title challengers, you need a tactical game plan and I think Ole and his staff has delivered on that account over the past 2 seasons. His record against the big teams is decent.
Yet we have won feck all. That doesnt add up at all.
 

Teja

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Why does everyone want to hear some self indulgent lecture on tactics in a pre match press conference? I'd hazard a guess most people have never practically implemented tactics, so it's just a self aggrandising exercise that everyone partakes in.
It's because after 3 years here, he hasn't said anything about what he wants beyond "making good decisions", "showing desire" and having a "winning mentality". He has to give the fans / journos more credit than that - he might feel that we're all idiots and we shouldn't have an opinion on football tactics, but I'm not sure what he'd gain by providing dismissive answers to perfectly straight forward questions.
 

Crustanoid

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It's because after 3 years here, he hasn't said anything about what he wants beyond "making good decisions", "showing desire" and having a "winning mentality". He has to give the fans / journos more credit than that - he might feel that we're all idiots and we shouldn't have an opinion on football tactics, but I'm not sure what he'd gain by providing dismissive answers to perfectly straight forward questions.
So what is the solution? Better press conference performances?
 

MattofManchester

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As was pointed out earlier context is important so I went and watched the video. Fair point on the post match comments. It could be he was talking nonsense and/or want to get out of there as quick as. I know it's part of the job but I'm sure it's a pain when you've had a bad night and he said in today's presser we didn't play well against YB. It really is silly for anyone to suggest we played well. He often says questionable things post-match but then so do a lot of managers. On the pressure side of things, we'll have to see. From what I've seen so far he seems more sure of himself and more animated this season and if you watch the presser he doesn't appear at all rattled.

I agree you do have to win but my reading of what he was saying is that getting good results is based on having a good process. All each player can do is concentrate on what they are supposed to do within the team. If the players/managers are overly worried about the outcome of each decision that is a distraction from the job at hand. He wasn't necessarily saying results should be ignored either. There is a balance to be struck obviously but again this was in the context of getting praise for Leeds/getting a kicking for YB.
These are all very fair points. Thanks for pointing them out. Context is imperative here.


As an example, the Sancho -> Dalot sub against YB. Every competent manager would make this exact sub. It's not even debatable as to whether or not it makes sense. There's been quite a few slamming that particular one on here. Why? Because the end result was bad. So you can criticize every decision made, regardless of their being a logical connection or not.
No doubt. It was my first thought as well that we should bring on Dalot for Sancho. It was the sub that made the most sense. It's illogical to slam that decision. The destabilisation of the midfield was a greater point of critique. As the other poster I quoted pointed out, it seems in isolation the quote is concerning, but with context it really isn't, so moving on...
 

Inigo Montoya

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"Back in the day you had midfielders, proper midfielders"

You can surely understand some of the backlash here? I'm all for pushing back against the unnecessary over-intellectualising (is that a word?!) of football but he does come across here as a little bit of a throwback.
I can always understand comments from posters who just love to take things out of context.

When has the game ever been won or lost on Ole’s presser?