Ole Gunnar Solskjær | 2021/22 Discussion

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DomesticTadpole

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Wtf was he doing smiling in the post mach interview. He should be seething and showing his team that the performance was unacceptable. He needs to set the standards daily and not accept mediocrity.
If you were earning what he's earning you would be grinning like a Cheshire Cat.
 

Robbie Boy

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I don't think it's subjective I think it's objectively delusional.

Unless Ole wins something you cant say he's been more successful than LVG or Jose. The history books will not remember a manager who spent £400m and achieved nothing with it.
There's certainly far more variables and context, which I touched on later in my post.

However, I've always found the narrative on here of "Ole has been better so just shut up; I don't care about winning things" to be very fecking weird. It's been rammed down everyone's throat for years now. It's certainly worth more of a conversation, and isn't as one sided as some have you believe.
 

Teja

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Our players very rarely make tactical fouls at the right time / in the right places, which is certainly on Ole.
Yup I sort of agree. To be clear, I'm no longer Ole in because there are too many things lacking, but I just wanted to defend him a little. I feel like we're trying new things tactically this season and it isn't quite coming off yet.

Couple of thoughts:
  • Pre-season Ole said he wanted to attack more. Of course the Caf took that to mean we're going 4-3-3 but I think it was a more general comment on commiting more men forward in attack.
  • We signed Varane who was supposed to complement Maguire and sweep up counter attacks, deal with pacy attackers etc. allowing us to play a higher line. We are doing that now. Atleast personally, I think out defensive line is a lot higher up this season than it was last.
  • We've consistently been caught out on the counter this whole season by pacy forwards.
  • We were never this bad at dealing with counter attacks last season.
Taking it all together:

I notice a 4-1-4-1 type shape in attack where one of the CMs is given a license to go further forward. If Pogba plays at CM, he'll be in the left half space and Bruno in the right half space. If it's McFred, McT is allowed to forward and into the box almost as the right attacking mid and Bruno patrols the left half space.

That leaves LCB (Lindelof today), Fred (our deepest midfielder) and RCB (Varane) to mop up behind. At this time, If Fred misses a challenge, we're in trouble. If Varane misses a challenge (see Villareal goal where he stepped up and missed his), it's the same. Against Villareal we started McT in the role Fred played today, but his positioning was shit and that caused problems as well.

We could use Matic in Fred's role (and we did a couple of times and saw instant improvement in our play) but he doesn't have the legs to be the starter week in week out, so might as well sink or swim with McFred.

I wonder if he'll call off the experiment early and ask both CMs to sit a bit deeper as they did last season but teams will just clog up the center and we'll run into familiar problems around breaking teams down if he does that. He's on borrowed time though, pressure's on to deliver, has a great squad and if he's messing with the tactics now, he won't last.
 

Viral United

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Its look like Ole run out of ideas now, way to predictable. And with CMs like today I am not surprise we concede goal.
 

Fooza

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Is anyone still annoyed about Ole smiling? I am.
I'm a smiley person in life too, but no way am I smiling in that situation, especially after putting faith in McFred, and then consistently being shat on by their performances. I'd be seething and it being draw just hurts when they were a weaker team. I just can't understand it.
 

Ash_G

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There's obviously a few things to be frustrated about with how we're playing but two that standout for me that would be small changes but would make a big difference are unforced errors and tactical fouls. As others have said on the latter we're just not good at these and it's a big part of why we keep finding ourselves having opp attackers running directly at our centre backs. Even if we're not looking to intentionally foul we need more players to be be physical enough and go into challenges thinking they're going to get the ball or go in hard enough that they'll get everything.

On the unforced errors it's just frustrating. It's just the basics, we give the ball away so cheaply even in relatively unpressured situations and it's typically quite near our goal. Particularly when we have Bruno/Pogba (and probably soon Rashford) players who tend to be quite high risk in how they play and are going to give the ball away we need the others to get the basics right.
 
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He doesn’t really though. When he first came in we had some great results playing on the counter but last year the form against the ‘Top 6’ was better than only Spurs. The results against the better teams have plateaued yet people are using results from 2 seasons ago to defend him. The old McFred backs to wall with Rashford or Martial doing something on the counter wasn’t effective last season & it won’t be this.
All any of us can do is wait and see. By the end of November we'll see how the land lies.
 

united_99

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Imagine if they get someone like Butt as interim and then make him permanent :annoyed:
 

Blood Mage

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At least when Pep opens the chequebook, he wins trophies and plays good football. Why is Ole splurging? To play shite and finish top 4?

Maguire, Varane, AWB, Donny, Bruno, Sancho, Cavani, and Ronaldo, all for top 4? It's ridiculous.
It's laughable and Ole hopes we don't notice the lack of progress. He wants us to believe we're in a constant state of rebuild, because he himself knows he doesn't have what it takes to win trophies.
 

Forevergiggs1

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behind closed doors I fully expect some sort of rollocking as opposed to his public persona
Maybe last year when he wasn't under as much pressure he just might have got away with it but can you imagine him giving rollickings to Ronaldo, Pogba or Varane ? Even with Cavani, Bruno, Maquire who have another year under their belts I could see telling him to go feck himself. Ole has absolutely no credit in the bank with these players and that will be his downfall.
 

Wheato

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The most infuriating thing is that we are constantly making the same mistakes.

Yes, we are playing teams who put 11 men behind the ball. Everton had a back 8 for parts of the game, but do you think teams don't do that at City, Chelsea or Liverpool. Of course they do. You have to find a way to break them down. We have had this same problem for 2 seasons now, especially at home. We are way too slow in possession, and it is easy to defend against. Fans are pointing to the spare man, screaming at them to pass it, but no, they go sideways, or play a pointless pass into AWB or Luke Shaw, and by the time the spare man receives the ball he is double marked with no where to go. Then the ball is passed back and exactly the same sequence is repeated down the other wing.

Mason Greenwood isn't a winger. He doesn't cross the ball into the strikers. He only wants to cut inside and shoot. AWB doesn't want to cross either, so from the right hand side there is no service to the strikers. I love Mason, but Sancho has been brought in to play on the right wing. His assist and goal stats from the right wing are world class. We play him on the left??

Playing Fred and McTominay at home, is like driving a Lamborghini with the handbrake on. Matic is our only proper CDM. When he plays we are a different team. He can pick the ball up from the back 4 and run with it. He can play through balls to the forwards. McFred can only go sideways. Also, Ole said that he needed to shore things up, because we were too open against Villareal. But it was our 2 defensive midfielders who caused most of our problems on the counter today. Fred was a disaster. Passing it to the opposition, playing hospital balls in our final third. He was bullied off the ball countless times and not just for their equaliser. I said after Villareal that McTominay was a yard off the pace of the game. He was the same today. Totally absent. I'm not going to jump on the Donny bandwagon, but he is a level above these 2 clowns in terms of moving the ball quickly, making forward passes. It's like Ole cannot see what we are all watching. Fred being disposed, and Everton scoring. Did he not see that happen? Is Fred going to start the next game? Probably.

I can't really fault Cavani or Ronaldo today. They had no service at all. Bruno ran his socks off, but again the service into him is really poor.

Another thing that really infuriates me. We have loads of corners in a game. Loads. And we never ever score from them. Don't even clear the first man sometimes. It really grinds my gears.

McFred will be the death of Ole.
 

Ralph1386

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Is anyone still annoyed about Ole smiling? I am.
I’m actually more annoyed at him smiling throughout the post-match interview than on the touchline.

In the interview, he’s had time to reflect after the game. But if you looked at his body language, you’d think we were 12 points clear at the top of the table.
 

copen1945

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Things should change in the coaching setup, but United could be a point ahead of City by the end of the matchday. The season has a long way to go.
 

HailtotheKing

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McFred will be the death of Ole.
I really hope so!

So sick of seeing them together. I see you going in on Fred but he was way, way better than McTominay. He played progressive passes, he got his foot in and stopped play. He wasn't ripping up trees but he was doing much better until he cocked it up. And now that's all everyone will focus on. McTominay was the Mcshits again. Maybe it's because he's been out for a month and being asked to play 3 games in a week??? Baffling by Ole. I really don't see what McTominay has other than height, that Donny can't do and do so much better. Matic and Donny have already shown they work well together and they were both fresh. Why not pick them? Or if you want the energy, Fred & Donny. But definitely not McFred. It used to be that they were solid but not creative or good enough to unlock a low block. On current form they're neither. And that's all on Ole for picking them. Like you said, his stubbornness will be the death of him. Such a sad way to go for a legend.
 

Infestissumam

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Things should change in the coaching setup, but United could be a point ahead of City by the end of the matchday. The season has a long way to go.
their opponents: Tottenham, Norwich, Arsenal, Leicester, Southampton, Chelsea, Liverpool
our opponents: Leeds, Southampton, Wolves, Newcastle, West Ham, Aston Villa, Everton

having a similar number of points is not exactly worth bragging about. We've had an extremely easy schedule so far in comparison.
 

red4ever 79

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It's laughable and Ole hopes we don't notice the lack of progress. He wants us to believe we're in a constant state of rebuild, because he himself knows he doesn't have what it takes to win trophies.
When Ole took over it was all the United way, believe in youth. He spunked 130m on DVB, Sancho and Diallo and doesn't play them.
 

Deery

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We’re trying to implement a forward thinking, front foot style of play we can’t rely on counter attack forever not if we are going to improve and that will take a little time to adjust to as we are seeing. The football seems a little disjointed but I guarantee we will come together and blast teams to shreds before long.
 

George The Best

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Only got to look at what Chelsea have achieved since replacing Lampard with someone who knows how to manage a squad. Won the Champions League with the exact same players.
 

dove

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He’s better than the three guys who came before him. There can be no expectation that whoever comes after him will be better.
I mean... 2 out those 3 guys who came before him managed to win trophies in their 1st or 2nd season while Ole is in his 3rd season and we have absolutely no chance of winning anything. How is he better? Smiles is not everything...
 

Eddy_JukeZ

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I see there's a lot of discussion going on regarding the midfield issues and the style of football under Solskjaer. Reading through our manager's quotes today, how he values McFred's abilities to break up play and to cover lots of ground and how he prefers a clearly direct style, it got me thinking.

So, i would like to ask a question: Let's presume that Solskjaer is here to stay. Let's also presume that, a year from now, both Ronaldo & Cavani are gone and in their place is Erling Haaland. We have also addressed the midfield by adding Declan Rice and Kalvin Philips to the already existing McTominay and Fred, but Pogba has bid farewell. The 4231 remains. The route-one football, the overall tactical approach off and on the ball is what we're witnessing today remain too.

Let's also presume that Klopp and Pep have stayed at their respective clubs. How would you feel about our chances to win the title? Would you be content with this nod to the days of yore, or would it be a matter of concern that a small fortune will have been spent to form a midfield and an attacking line that's suited specifically to one type of football? My second question is: Does the stabilization of the club after a tumultuous period and the progress in small increments warrant the absolute trust in an unproven (at the highest level) manager to go completely against the grain of modern football tactics?

Please, no "anyone but Solskjaer would win the PL" or "i'd rather live the dream than do what other clubs are doing" answers. Solskjaer talks a lot about the Ferguson days and United's DNA. The truth is that SAF, throughout the 90s and for the most of the 00s, did go against the grain. In an age when football tactics were becoming more defensive, he valued a game of many possessions, and he always tried to give his flair players the opportunity to fully express themselves on the pitch. This is probably what Solskjaer adheres to. But Ferguson was in a league of his own. Unlike what we've been witnessing thus far from Solkjaer, he wasn't chopping and changing systems and personnel just to survive. For many years, and despite what many believe, he also was ahead of the curve as a tactician on the island(even before he came to OT): He broke the traditional "hard men" centre-halves pairing by introducing a sweeper-like defender next to the stopper. He also moved away from the British midfield duo of one-all-attacking/one-all-defending to two dynamic who could both defend, attack and take care of the ball. The way he wanted his SS to operate between the lines was also very innovative. We must also not forget that, in the first years of the PL, nobody experimented with inverted wingers/inside forwards more than him. There, one can argue, lies the big difference between then and now.

So, what do you think? Will it be worth the risk? If Pogba leaves on a free, we're talking about an investment of around 300 million Euros on top of the money we have already spent under Solskjaer.
Excellent post.
 

Eddy_JukeZ

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He did a good job steadying the shop. Better than most and I thought he could do.

We are going nowhere this season.

He'll always need more and even then, the football won't improve. It was only a matter of time before we started dropping points. Our performances have been horrific this season. They aren't any better than they were last season to start. The results are, because our squad is better and De Gea has become amazing again saving us.

You don't need 5 years to showcase your managerial ability. It's somewhat evident after 1-2 years. This is what our team under Ole will always look like.

We could get Haaland and Rice in next summer and nothing will change. Ole is stuck in the past and so is this club. We need a fresh approach from a progressive attacking manager.

Ironically, I think the signing of Ronaldo will lead to his doom. There is no way even at 36, Ronaldo will be happy with just a top 4 push. Bruno nor Varane will be either. We've got a squad almost all in their peak(besides Ronaldo). The time to challenge is now.
 

clarkydaz

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He did a good job steadying the shop. Better than most and I thought he could do.

We are going nowhere this season.

Ironically, I think the signing of Ronaldo will lead to his doom. There is no way even at 36, Ronaldo will be happy with just a top 4 push. Bruno nor Varane will be either. We've got a squad almost all in their peak(besides Ronaldo). The time to challenge is now.
i agree about Ronaldo, if he aint winning trophies, then he is still top scorer. He will starve here with no service
 

roonaldo78

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Imagine if they get someone like Butt as interim and then make him permanent :annoyed:
Considering the way our board has handled these appointments, will not be surprised if the likes of Butt, Fletcher or Carrick are offered the role. I just do not get the feeling that there is any long term strategy.
 
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