Just what the hell has happened this season?

[Lentwood]

It's pretty simple really in my opinion.

- We have always been an effective counter-attacking team. Ole set us up to play very simple, basic counter-attacking football, for the most part. This was especially effective in away games, but we looked out of ideas against teams who sat deep.

- Ole knew we needed to be more 'progressive' and be able to dominate games to start putting away the weaker sides consistently enough to really threaten City

- Ole experimented with a higher line against Spurs last season, and we got absolutely humped 1-6 at OT, because Ole had zero clue how to implement this system or prepare the players for it.

- We quickly abandoned that one game experiment and ground out a decent season.

- This year, Ole signed Varane, and I believe thought that having a world-class partner for Maguire, with a bit of pace to boot, would suddenly solve all of our tactical woes, when it came to playing progressive football.

- This proved to be as ridiculously naive as it sounds, and we looked like the easiest side in the world to play against. Mid-table teams cut through us like a hot knife through butter, and predictably when we played the good sides, we got absolutely humped again.

- By now, confidence was at rock-bottom. The defenders were all at sea, having to play high but with no protection from the six players in-front of them. The attackers clearly had no clear instructions from Ole about pressing, how to press and what sort of runs/patterns they should be making when we have the ball.

- Ole has gone and RR has come in with completely different ideas, right in the middle of the busiest period of the season. It's clear RR has strong ideas about how to coach and organise a team, but we're not likely to see the fruits of his efforts/knowledge until the team have had time to adapt to a radical new style.

- Ronaldo is a problem, because even allowing for the odd worldie, he's about the most unsuitable striker possible to play in a RR/Jurgen Klopp-type system. This will hold us back from going to the next level under RR.

- My prediction is we will go through the rest of the season posting much-improved results, with some low-points along the way, probably just about scraping into 4th if we can keep key players fit.

 

[Lentwood]

We hired a terrible manager who bought really poorly for 3 years and hoarded players who weren't good enough.

Disagree with the bolded part. Klopp or Pep would definitely be able to put together top sides with players like Maguire, Varane, Sancho, Cavani and Fernandes. Not saying they would have been THE first-choices these managers would have gone for, but they would have been able to get them working effectively enough in their systems.

Even AWB gets too much stick. Yeah, he's not Reece James or TAA, but if people think he's a 'bad player' or the reason for our struggles, they're living in cloud cuckoo land

 

[Mainoldo]

Here you go Ole. 3 year contract.

 

[Lentwood]

I think the current squad got a culture shock when Ronaldo signed. There was no more hiding for these players and the expectation that our summer transfer window bought was of seriously challenging on all fronts.

The players have crumbled under this weight, Solskjaer crumbled under the weight and now the players are showing this in their performances. Signing the best players available doesn't automatically mean your team levels up, there has to be foundations in place otherwise everyone will start sinking.

To be the best team, you have to be ruthless and all this talk of team spirit and good lads is not enough anymore. There has to be some actual graft, some sacrifice and most importantly some direction. We've not had any of that, and a player like a Ronaldo who doesn't have anything but that will start to put some noses out of place for the weaker individuals. Too many have a free ride for far too long and would rather have the status of playing for United rather than the glory.

The bunch of players that finished 2nd in the toughest and best league in the world last season?

Sorry, I don't buy the 'shrunk in the shadow of Ronaldo' narrative. First of all, Ronaldo has been as poor as any player this season. Second of all, I firmly believe 99.9% of our problems this season have been tactical. It's not about 'weak players', 'poor players' or 'weak mentality', it's about playing football in a manner that would shame an u18s Sunday league side because the former manager had the tactical nous of a pigeon.

 

[eire-red]

I guess one of the positives from this trainwreck of a season is that it has forced the issue for a complete rethink.

I never felt confident under Ole, we were always waiting for the wheels to come of. Now Ole, his "jobs for the boys" coaching staff and Woodward are gone.

Where do we go from here? Now more than ever it's crunch time at the club, we've assembled a "talented" squad and it still hasn't worked. It feels like the penny has dropped that this isn't Football Manager.

Sometimes it has to get worse before it gets better.

 

[Gordon Godot]

I guess one of the positives from this trainwreck of a season is that it has forced the issue for a complete rethink.

I never felt confident under Ole, we were always waiting for the wheels to come of. Now Ole, his "jobs for the boys" coaching staff and Woodward are gone.

Where do we go from here? Now more than ever it's crunch time at the club, we've assembled a "talented" squad and it still hasn't worked. It feels like the penny has dropped that this isn't Football Manager.

Sometimes it has to get worse before it gets better.

We need football experienced decisions makers. Now we the farce of Murtough and Lingard, squad management still a joke. Ralf not backed, which makes a mockery of his consultant role. This season is on Woodward and his utter incompetence and the failure to appoint experienced football people

 

[Andrew7582]

I guess one of the positives from this trainwreck of a season is that it has forced the issue for a complete rethink.

I never felt confident under Ole, we were always waiting for the wheels to come of. Now Ole, his "jobs for the boys" coaching staff and Woodward are gone.

Where do we go from here? Now more than ever it's crunch time at the club, we've assembled a "talented" squad and it still hasn't worked. It feels like the penny has dropped that this isn't Football Manager.

Sometimes it has to get worse before it gets better.

The club was still briefing only a few months ago that they had full confidence that Ole was the man take us forward, they were all in on the Ole project and didn't see this trainwreck coming at all, it took them completely by surprise. We are now relying on these same deluded, incompetent and jobs for the boys mentality people to make the right decisions going forward. I don't see a positive when it's still these same people running things.

 

[horsechoker]

It's pretty simple really in my opinion.

- We have always been an effective counter-attacking team. Ole set us up to play very simple, basic counter-attacking football, for the most part. This was especially effective in away games, but we looked out of ideas against teams who sat deep.

- Ole knew we needed to be more 'progressive' and be able to dominate games to start putting away the weaker sides consistently enough to really threaten City

- Ole experimented with a higher line against Spurs last season, and we got absolutely humped 1-6 at OT, because Ole had zero clue how to implement this system or prepare the players for it.

- We quickly abandoned that one game experiment and ground out a decent season.

- This year, Ole signed Varane, and I believe thought that having a world-class partner for Maguire, with a bit of pace to boot, would suddenly solve all of our tactical woes, when it came to playing progressive football.

- This proved to be as ridiculously naive as it sounds, and we looked like the easiest side in the world to play against. Mid-table teams cut through us like a hot knife through butter, and predictably when we played the good sides, we got absolutely humped again.

- By now, confidence was at rock-bottom. The defenders were all at sea, having to play high but with no protection from the six players in-front of them. The attackers clearly had no clear instructions from Ole about pressing, how to press and what sort of runs/patterns they should be making when we have the ball.

- Ole has gone and RR has come in with completely different ideas, right in the middle of the busiest period of the season. It's clear RR has strong ideas about how to coach and organise a team, but we're not likely to see the fruits of his efforts/knowledge until the team have had time to adapt to a radical new style.

- Ronaldo is a problem, because even allowing for the odd worldie, he's about the most unsuitable striker possible to play in a RR/Jurgen Klopp-type system. This will hold us back from going to the next level under RR.

- My prediction is we will go through the rest of the season posting much-improved results, with some low-points along the way, probably just about scraping into 4th if we can keep key players fit.

We went down to 10 men early on and didn't tighten up against a good spurs team

 

[He'sRaldo]

We've gotten too used to writing off entire seasons, and Ole's tenure from the minute he was hired full time was a long, drawn out, PR and excuse-laden exercise in doing just that.

It was especially evident after the Liverpool 0-5. After that game everyone and their dog, including the players, knew that the manager was done. To not sack him then and there basically announced our true intentions to the world: we are not a serious football club. So from that moment on, there was nothing to play for. And there will continue to be nothing to play for until we show some true intent of wanting to actually compete.

In conclusion pretty much all the decisions made and rhetoric spewed over the past few years have all pointed to the same message. We're not actually trying to compete. That much has been fully exposed this season, and with the Ole exercise in general. And it seems like the players, staff, and everyone involved, hear that message loud and clear. And the motivation of the staff will only come back consistently once the leadership shows the same drive to want to win.

 

[RedDevilCanuck]

Ole was never good enough and his staff were amateurs. We know this.

Recruitment is so important and it has been a disaster since 2008. Yes 2008. Buying Nani, Anderson and Hargreaves having just won the league and to supplement Rooney and Ronaldo was good business.

After that Berbatov wasn't needed, tevez should have stayed, Moyes dithered, LVG bought terribly, Jose fecked up then wasn't backed and Ole spending all that money on Harry and AWB has destroyed us.

A clear plan with future considerations and smart recruitment with some luck with the youth setup is the way to the top. We have failed terribly with this. We like to buy big names for social media likes.

Salah and Mane were not big names at the time Klopp got them. In fact Salah was seen a a PL failure and Mane a good player in a 10th place team. They were a good age, had potential, and fit perfectly for Klopp as he had a clear vision for them - hard working inverted wingers who could create, finish and run like possessed demons all game.

We don't buy players like this. Either our scouts are terrible, or ownership steps in and makes the decisions.

 

[Mingus]

Covid has played its part.
We only signed Ronaldo because there was the real possibility that Cavani would spend more time in Uruguay and in quarantine than available up front.

Because of this, maybe, we didn't sign a defensive midfielder. You can see the team dynamic has been affected.

The short gap between the Euro final and the start of the new season meant a disrupted pre-season for the 2nd season running.

Nevertheless, we carried on with the plan to transition from a counter attacking team to a possession based team. It became obvious that we didn't have the players for this and confidence became damaged. Even the good players looked poor.

 

[bdspeedy]

Chase the lot of them out. We will NEVER WIN ANYTHING with this board and with the Glazer's as owners. Stop giving them money. Nothing will EVER change until they start losing money.

 

[Jippy]

What happened is the logical continuation of one of the biggest swindle jobs in football history.

Delusional people believing a few token gestures has let the Glazers off the hook and now we're set for a decade or so of pathetic football results and, at best, flat lining while they drain the club and sell it for a profit when we solidify a status as a mid-table club.

The Glazers have taken hundreds of millions out of the club. They've also spent £1.24bn over the last 10 years, fractionally behind City, Chelsea and Barca, according to this research.

The problem clearly isn't that the Glazers don't spend on players, it's that we've been so poorly run and have just wasted stacks of cash.

It's actually more galling that we've frittered all that cash for so little return.

 

[m1tch]

The bad apples have spoiled the cart. 100% on the players, it's clearly a bad group and individuals like Bruno managed to paper over the cracks for a while. Let's hope we have the long overdue clear out.

 

[Offside]

This season is no worse than many seasons we’ve had since SAF. We’re currently 4th and in the CL knockouts.

 

[Cathy Ferguson]

Ole was never good enough and his staff were amateurs. We know this.

Recruitment is so important and it has been a disaster since 2008. Yes 2008. Buying Nani, Anderson and Hargreaves having just won the league and to supplement Rooney and Ronaldo was good business.

After that Berbatov wasn't needed, tevez should have stayed, Moyes dithered, LVG bought terribly, Jose fecked up then wasn't backed and Ole spending all that money on Harry and AWB has destroyed us.

A clear plan with future considerations and smart recruitment with some luck with the youth setup is the way to the top. We have failed terribly with this. We like to buy big names for social media likes.

Salah and Mane were not big names at the time Klopp got them. In fact Salah was seen a a PL failure and Mane a good player in a 10th place team. They were a good age, had potential, and fit perfectly for Klopp as he had a clear vision for them - hard working inverted wingers who could create, finish and run like possessed demons all game.

We don't buy players like this. Either our scouts are terrible, or ownership steps in and makes the decisions.

Totally agree that our scouting is the main reason for our demise.

AWB and Donny rarely play and cost more than Salah and Mane.

Dalot cost more than Robertson.

Maguire and Sancho cost more than van Dijk and Allison, who were bought from the proceeds of selling Couthino who was bought for 10m.

Sancho more expensive than Jota.

Fred more expensive than Fabinho.

Fellaini more expensive than Henderson.

This has to stop. Only Bruno has been a success out of our recent buys.

 

[Ixion]

All summer fans expected a new DM, it seemed inconceivable we wouldn't sign one yet we signed another winger/forward and another stop-gap striker. We threw balance out of the window, coupled with playing favourites and marginlising several players then paid the price.

 

[Rightnr]

The Glazers have taken hundreds of millions out of the club. They've also spent £1.24bn over the last 10 years, fractionally behind City, Chelsea and Barca, according to this research.

The problem clearly isn't that the Glazers don't spend on players, it's that we've been so poorly run and have just wasted stacks of cash.

It's actually more galling that we've frittered all that cash for so little return.

And where did I say it was about 'cash'? It's about the running of the club. Clowns like Woodward, Judge, Arnold, their associated lackeys, including ex-players being given mates rates jobs as well as players coming in and joing the Manchester United club of mediocrity.

You can give a pig a car, it will still shit all over it and United are a perfect example of this. It's the Glazers letting the pig have its way with the car, not some hidden force of negative fans, fan channels or the ABU press. Much bigger organisations than United have proven that money is no remedy to incompetence and no dominant position is ever too dominat for a complete failure e.g. Kodak and Blockbuster. You either move with the times or get left behind, Notts Forest style.

Meanhwhile, I'm watching City play and getting even more pissed off.

 

[mu4c_20le]

Chase the lot of them out. We will NEVER WIN ANYTHING with this board and with the Glazer's as owners. Stop giving them money. Nothing will EVER change until they start losing money.

Now wait for someone to say they haven't been that bad and had been willing to spend the money

 

[moses]

In August I didnt think we'd have enough to win the league but do admit to thinking we had a sneaky chance at the Champions League. As long as we avoid Championship sides we might still do it.

 

[hobbers]

Disagree with the bolded part. Klopp or Pep would definitely be able to put together top sides with players like Maguire, Varane, Sancho, Cavani and Fernandes. Not saying they would have been THE first-choices these managers would have gone for, but they would have been able to get them working effectively enough in their systems.

Even AWB gets too much stick. Yeah, he's not Reece James or TAA, but if people think he's a 'bad player' or the reason for our struggles, they're living in cloud cuckoo land

AWB is an abysmal player for any side that wants to keep the ball or press aggressively. Klopp and Pep wouldnt go near him with a barge poll.

Maguire would also be on Pep's scrapheap even faster than Ake had they signed him.

We spent £130m on two awful defenders for a side that wants to be good with the ball and control games.

 

[AdamColeBebe]

Before the start of the season everyone thought we'd be challenging for the title this season, maybe not winning it but certainly challenging and he were are in February having seen

Out of the league cup in the 3rd round at home to West Ham

Beaten 0-5 at home to Liverpool

Out of the FA Cup in the 4th round at home to Championship Middlesbrough

19 points off the top of the PL table

Bar at opening day win against Leeds it's probably not a stretch to say the best week to be a United support this season was the 3 games where we had an interim interim manager in Carrick

So WTF has happened?

Who on Earth? I think you're mistaken here. I hope you're mistaken here.

 

[Houdini]

Mate, I was at the game.

Being a cup game on a Friday night, there were loads of fans that brought their kids. Me included. And a lot had come from overseas and made a weekend away out of it. We were in the ground for 4 hours and due to an issue with the tills, and the clubs decision not to accept cash, nobody could get a drink or a bite to eat for the entire time.

There were people drinking water from the taps in the toilets! They were actually queuing up with paper cups that they had begged for from the club staff.

You can go to a Sunday league game and get a bacon butty and a cup of tea from and old lady at a serving hatch, but MANCHESTER UNITED in 2022, cannot achieve the very basics of hospitality.

Can you imagine those people who got on a plane from another country, booked hotels, paid over the odds for tickets. Do you think that they will be coming back here in a hurry?

Middleborough fans were laughing at us!

I am fuming. Doubt that I will re-new my season ticket. The place is an absolute shambles.

That is competly unacceptable. What a disgrace!

 

[Ish]

Club is a circus and it boils down to the owners. Every once in a while we might have a manager who steadies the ship for a bit and has a decent season but eventually the general incompetence and mismanagement at board level will catch up with us. Then there will be a significant period of turbulence. Rinse and repeat.

Meanwhile the deluded fanbase will continue thinking whoever the previous manager is was the reason for all our problems. They'll think the next guy will fix everything, failing to realise that the reason every manager fails is the shocking culture at the club. Players, wages, structure, recruitment, everything is a mess and it's a rotten climate for any manager to be in. And who hires those managers in the first place anyway? Exactly, the same people responsible for the mess. But hey those people will hire another manager, have some PR stunts via their mouthpieces, use some fancy buzzwords and the gullible fanbase will eat it up. At the same time the leeches will be laughing all the way to the bank and continue picking up their easy-earned dividends.

We will be having these exact same discussions 3-5 years from now if the cretins still are in charge. History has been repeating itself and will continue to do so until we as fans wake up.

Yep, owners and Woodward are clueless and it doesn’t help that we’ve literally appointed one managerial dud after the other, with zero footballing structure to support them.

 

[Ish]

The bunch of players that finished 2nd in the toughest and best league in the world last season?

Sorry, I don't buy the 'shrunk in the shadow of Ronaldo' narrative. First of all, Ronaldo has been as poor as any player this season. Second of all, I firmly believe 99.9% of our problems this season have been tactical. It's not about 'weak players', 'poor players' or 'weak mentality', it's about playing football in a manner that would shame an u18s Sunday league side because the former manager had the tactical nous of a pigeon.

Yeah that’s quite the take, saying the players have buckled under the pressure a signing like Ronaldo brings - when in fact, he’s been one of the biggest issues in the team and been out of form for a while now.

 

[Ixion]

The bunch of players that finished 2nd in the toughest and best league in the world last season?

Empty stadiums suit a team of bottlers

 

[Amadaeus]

Ole luck ran out and he was found out. Players lost confidence in him as well. People really blaming Ronaldo? Without Ronaldo, we would be in a much worse position. Definetly will be out of the champions league group stage and perhaps farther from top four.

 

[Bondi77]

The thread titles have gone to shite!

 

[rooney2009]

Ole luck ran out and he was found out. Players lost confidence in him as well. People really blaming Ronaldo? Without Ronaldo, we would be in a much worse position. Definetly will be out of the champions league group stage and perhaps farther from top four.

We all love Ronaldo mate but if you believe this Ronaldo is the way forward, you are hugely mistaken
We needed a proper defensive midfielder but we did not get one— that was ole fault
Why we bought a 37 yr old Ronaldo- I will never understand -he would make a good squad player but he wouldn’t accept that role
I think this season has been written off and we start again again next year

 

[IrishRedDevil]

Found our level.

 

[Crashoutcassius]

Ralf rangnick not a very experienced top level manager is probably the reality.

 

[Shark]

We all love Ronaldo mate but if you believe this Ronaldo is the way forward, you are hugely mistaken
I think this season has been written off and we start again again next year

Where have I heard this before? Feels like the past decade has been a right off. Season after season pissed down the drain because of poor planning. No reason why next season won't be any different.

 

[Amadaeus]

We all love Ronaldo mate but if you believe this Ronaldo is the way forward, you are hugely mistaken
We needed a proper defensive midfielder but we did not get one— that was ole fault
Why we bought a 37 yr old Ronaldo- I will never understand -he would make a good squad player but he wouldn’t accept that role
I think this season has been written off and we start again again next year

Don’t believe he is the way forward. I believe this season is his last season at a really top level. If utilized properly, he would have had an rvp like effect on the team, but our managers don’t do that because they aren’t good enough. Even with the way he has been utilized, his goal record isn’t that bad. The team this season should have been build around Ronaldo with creative forces around him like we did to rvp in sir Alex last season. We would have seen much better result and challenge for the title.

 

[shamans]

A bunch of us had been calling for this for a long time. Ole was making constant shit decisions. It finally caught up to the squad.

The man was absolutely clueless. He wasted millions on players that don't even work that well together. The most destructive era post Fergie

 

[Beans]

Bruno was the best player in the world for 18 months, and now he's quite average. Rashford was scoring more from the left wing than anyone in the world, now nothing. Greenwood tied the 18yo and under scoring record, then he became average. Matic got older and slower.

 

[Beans]

Who on Earth? I think you're mistaken here. I hope you're mistaken here.

That was the expectation based on bringing in Varane, Sancho and Ronaldo to add to a second place team. I didn't think it would happen, but I thought anything less would be a failure and Ole would have to go.

 

[alexthelion]

We all love Ronaldo mate but if you believe this Ronaldo is the way forward, you are hugely mistaken
We needed a proper defensive midfielder but we did not get one— that was ole fault
Why we bought a 37 yr old Ronaldo- I will never understand -he would make a good squad player but he wouldn’t accept that role
I think this season has been written off and we start again again next year

Ole said for the last two windows he was here that he wanted a DM. He wasn't given one, not his fault.

Agree with you re Ronaldo, should never have bought him, seems to have upset the balance of the team.

 

[Moston Red]

Mate, I was at the game.

Being a cup game on a Friday night, there were loads of fans that brought their kids. Me included. And a lot had come from overseas and made a weekend away out of it. We were in the ground for 4 hours and due to an issue with the tills, and the clubs decision not to accept cash, nobody could get a drink or a bite to eat for the entire time.

There were people drinking water from the taps in the toilets! They were actually queuing up with paper cups that they had begged for from the club staff.

You can go to a Sunday league game and get a bacon butty and a cup of tea from and old lady at a serving hatch, but MANCHESTER UNITED in 2022, cannot achieve the very basics of hospitality.

Can you imagine those people who got on a plane from another country, booked hotels, paid over the odds for tickets. Do you think that they will be coming back here in a hurry?

Middleborough fans were laughing at us!

I am fuming. Doubt that I will re-new my season ticket. The place is an absolute shambles.

That’s absolutely outrageous. They should have just given the food and drink away for free. That would have been the right thing to do.

I really hate this club at the moment. Toxic to the core.

 

[LilyWhiteSpur]

What has happened? You don’t have as good a team as you think you have. Also you have a manager with zip experience of an elite team.

 

[croadyman]

We attempted to move away from our strength of counter attacking to trying to be dominant in games playing with a higher line taking more risks and it didn't work we conceded too many chances without making enough.

I still always felt at the start of the season that Liverpool and City were ahead of us and we were about the same as Chelsea in terms of talent and ability. Felt we would finish 3/4 still think we will finish 3/4.

Dont think you can read to much into the cup defeats. Last night was a classic cupset, should of rolled them over somehow missed a glut of chances and some bad luck with ther goal and than the lottery of the penalties. Many times we have been knocked out of the FA Cup in similar fashion its just happens in that competition for some reason. And going out to a decent PL side in the league cup with the second string isnt really much to get in a fuss about.

Still in the champions league, don't rule us out of that yet. Feel like we are due a lucky win in that competition after all the times we have been knocked out undeservadly over the years.

I fear Atletico will keep up at arms length so won't get the chance to get that slice of luck in the tie