Very late subs

roonster09 said:

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Yes he brought on the subs late for this match but he has been fine if we look at the previous matches. Thanks to @roonster09

He was asked about this at the post-Wolves press conference but he brushed the question off with a non-answer

To be fair, James (who was the most obvious one to replace) was getting better as the game wore on. I still would have preferred to see Greenwood replace him earlier, but I can understand some reluctance to take off James as he was starting to hurt the Wolves defence a bit.

He certainly made the subs too late against Wolves. I have a feeling it's more to do with a lack of options from the bench than any tactical decision though.

I can't remember what game it was, but early in his reign we went up and he brought on attacking subs. I remember it because Jose would shit his pants, let us go defensive and we'd be holding on for dear life, so I was loving it. He seems less sure about it now.

CM10 said:

He certainly made the subs too late against Wolves. I have a feeling it's more to do with a lack of options from the bench than any tactical decision though.

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+1 - Bench is really weak, even when he made the subs, they didn't do much better than what was already out there. Greenwood was hanging around in the box waiting for something, Mata was Mata - couldn't deal with pressure when he was on the ball, Pereira was anonymous.

Squad depth in the midfield / wings is atrocious right now.

When you bring on subs too late they would be hanging around too unless they were given specific instructions. Bringing on subs should also be able to change the way we play. Bringing on Mata was a stupid move most of the time. But there are games when Mata can change the complexion of the game. This is something Ole has to learn from the way SAF does it. Some matches it is Park some matches it is Phil Neville etc.
I thought he missed it by not bringing on Matic once Wolves equalised and we were not able to score. Wolves at that stage were not attacking and therefore bringing on Matic would have released Pogba to go forward. What we needed was also to create space and putting it too many strikers is not going to create space.
I do not think either Ole or Phelan is good at bringing tactical changes. It looks like Rene was the one who was responsible under SAF for that part of it as you can see SAF is always talking to him most of the time during the games and he was known to be good in that side of things too.

MrPooni said:

He was asked about this at the post-Wolves press conference but he brushed the question off with a non-answer

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He didn't brush it aside...

He said that the players on the pitch were in control of the game after the Wolves goal... everybody out there were doing as was asked of them and Ole felt they would win the game.

And he was mostly right our team did rally well wrestling back control of that match after Wolves could have taken momentum after their goal. The crowd were right behind them, the adrenaline was rising in Wolves.. but our players managed the next 20-minutes really brilliantly and looked as if they may well win that game. It didn't happen. If it did (and it easily could have) nobody would be batting an eyelid about the late subs.

And - Ole doesn't make late subs in most games.. he just felt in this situation the players on the pitch were doing well.

I know, mata especially needs to work his way into a game, I'd play the wee genius in the first half personally.

Personally I'm not a fan of really late subs unless we are trying to see the game out and wind down the clock.

Late subs don't give the players enough time to affect the game.

The Wolves crowd were in full voice as well, as good as Greenwood is, I doubt at 17 he will have ever experienced a cauldron of noise like that. So maybe Ole didnt want to throw him into that, and give the Wolves crowd a chance to jump on the first mistake he made and dent his confidence for 20 minutes or more.

So instead brings him on late, so he gets a taste of it when there is minimal chance of something going wrong. He now knows how intimidating an away crowd can be, with little risk to us.

I trust Ole on this one. In the next few weeks we will see Greenwood get more minutes, maybe half hour at home where the crowd will be behind him and give him a boost of confidence even if he tries something and it fails.

I thought the obvious substitution would be Greenwood for James. However I agree with the view that James was playing well and see no reason to complain about Ole not making the sub.

I hate when players come on in the 91st minute if It is merely to get them a 'run out' or a bonus payment in their pay cheques. If you want to give a player some experience surely 10 minutes is the minimum expectation. It is especially annoying when a team is 3-0 up and cruising and use a double sub in the 89th minute.

I also agree that one criticism for Ole could be that he waits too long on changing personnel and tactics at times. However when you look at the bench he doesn't often have huge amounts of options.

Patience said:

He didn't brush it aside...

He said that the players on the pitch were in control of the game after the Wolves goal... everybody out there were doing as was asked of them and Ole felt they would win the game.

And he was mostly right our team did rally well wrestling back control of that match after Wolves could have taken momentum after their goal. The crowd were right behind them, the adrenaline was rising in Wolves.. but our players managed the next 20-minutes really brilliantly and looked as if they may well win that game. It didn't happen. If it did (and it easily could have) nobody would be batting an eyelid about the late subs.

And - Ole doesn't make late subs in most games.. he just felt in this situation the players on the pitch were doing well.

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100% this.

EvilChuck said:

The Wolves crowd were in full voice as well, as good as Greenwood is, I doubt at 17 he will have ever experienced a cauldron of noise like that. So maybe Ole didnt want to throw him into that, and give the Wolves crowd a chance to jump on the first mistake he made and dent his confidence for 20 minutes or more.

So instead brings him on late, so he gets a taste of it when there is minimal chance of something going wrong. He now knows how intimidating an away crowd can be, with little risk to us.

I trust Ole on this one. In the next few weeks we will see Greenwood get more minutes, maybe half hour at home where the crowd will be behind him and give him a boost of confidence even if he tries something and it fails.

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Paris in the Champions League was hardly the Highbury Library, and that didn't faze him.

Hopefully we see this game out comfortably today. However, if any changes are needed today I would like to see what Greenwood could do with 30 mins of play with all of Old Trafford behind him.

Maybe if we are sitting comfortable we could get Gomez or Chong some game time too in the last 20 mins. I think it's important these three get minutes under their belt as we will need to call on them to start at some point in the season.

80 mins on the clock, losing the game and Ole has made just one unforced change. Mata is on the bench and we’re crying out for a bit of composure and creativity. It’s very concerning.