Get behind the manager and club

Footy van de Geek

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Apart from Sir Matt and SAF, Manchester United, for all their status, have historically been one of the most average teams in the top league(s).

All this crap about how we're Manchester United, the biggest team, etc., needs to stop. It's not true historically except for the two blips already mentioned.
Football can be broken down into two eras; Pre WW2 & Post WW2.

Manchester United, with the exception of the 1970's, have been a club that have always competed for trophies. Post WW2, there are few clubs that can match what we have achieved.

None of this retelling of history nonsense to redeem Ole.
 

Nou_Camp99

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Well said, but boy are the moaners going to come after you.
Let them come.

These same people were calling for his head after 3 games into the season. Absolute state of it. Imagine we sacked a manager after 3 PL games. We'd be a laughing stock forever.

We're only 5pts behind Chelsea n Leicester with a game in hand.
 

RedChisel

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Well said, some fans have no patience and perspective and are basically just glory hunters who think they are owed trophies.

Can understand to a degree that emotions are high after a loss or crap performance, so that's when you'll see alot of the shit posting but some are never happy regardless.
 
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Well said, some fans have no patience and perspective and are basically just glory hunters who think they are owed trophies.
Yet no-one is talking about trophies. People just wanna see this massive investment produce fun football consistently. After 2 years that’s exactly what you’d expect from any decent manager after that spending.

You could say we’ve been waiting almost a decade for that, “patience” indeed. There’s tonnes of examples of managers getting teams playing entertaining football in a much shorter time than 2 years.
 

Bilbo

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What you're seeing is typical Mourinho dour tactics, but they're incredibly effective -- at least for now. Spurs just beat a decent (not great) City side 2-0 in a borefest, but it was a beautiful borefest from the POV of a Spurs fan. It's not enjoyable to watch, but a club like Spurs need a trophy much more than they need scintillating football.

Spurs are playing well within the narrow confines of what they have set out to do. We are not.
That's part of the problem that we have though. The POV of a Spurs fan is very different to ours, but it shouldn't be. I'm born and raised in Tottenham and know a lot of fans. They are delighted to be at the top of the table, and could not care less about their performances, but they've been unimpressive and their luck will probably run out.

Scrappy single goal victories over West Brom, Brighton & Burnley. All of those games could easily have gone the other way. Those opponents all had good chances to go in front. Outplayed by Everton, and choked a 3-0 lead at West Ham. United couldn't have bent over any more than we did against them. The only match they've been really impressive in was the win at Southampton. Spurs fans couldn't give a hoot and why should they? They know where they are in the pecking order.

Now imagine our own reaction to those sets of results and performances. We'd be picking apart every single game, as well as the City win. We wouldn't be using phrases such as 'United are playing well within the confines of what they have set out to do'. We still behave as though we have the best team in the league, and that makes no sense at all because we all KNOW that our squad has imperfections.
 

Siorac

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If I recall, we had a worse start last year and got 66 points, so I am not sure why we would get less points this season?
Current points per game ratio is 1.625; that's 61.75 points over a full season. So it's just simple maths, probably not a prediction.
 

Massive Spanner

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Current points per game ratio is 1.625; that's 61.75 points over a full season. So it's just simple maths, probably not a prediction.
it's funny how people are OK with using metrics like xG to defend the manager - "yeah sure we're not scoring goals but our xG is one of the highest in the league so it's bad luck" - yet will likely dismiss this as "ah you can't take this in isolation based on only eight games". Just watch.
 

Gabagoo

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Get behind the club, that's it. The manager is not equal to the club.

Getting behind the manager, players, board or owners (lol) adds unnecessary layers of committment that at best make supporting a team more complicated and at worst, create conflicts of interest.
 

romufc

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Current points per game ratio is 1.625; that's 61.75 points over a full season. So it's just simple maths, probably not a prediction.
That's not how it works though, complexity of games is also taken into consideration. It's simple maths to have a go at the manager.

Last season after 8 games we had 9 points.. so simple maths would have got us 42 points? We got 66.
 

RedChisel

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Yet no-one is talking about trophies. People just wanna see this massive investment produce fun football consistently. After 2 years that’s exactly what you’d expect from any decent manager after that spending.

You could say we’ve been waiting almost a decade for that, “patience” indeed. There’s tonnes of examples of managers getting teams playing entertaining football in a much shorter time than 2 years.
Yet some of the best football we've played since SAF retired has been under Ole. I'll admit some has been terrible at times aswell.

We are an inconsistent team not the worst team in the league like some would have you believe, I'm not saying we are in great shape but if we win our game in hand then we are right up there.
 

Okey

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Methinks too much is made of this 'get behind the club/manager/players' thing. I'm not sure there's any doubt we support our club, which is the only constant. Players and managers come and go. Fans are free to hold wildly divergent views on them. There's that many of us that surely differing views are a given, no?
 

TrustInJanuzaj

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In our current starting XI, 7 out of 11 players are from the Mourinho era and 1 out of the other 4 is a kid from the academy.

Out of the 7 "Mourinho" players, 5(arguably 6) play better now than they did for Mourinho. Our highs/peaks are also significantly higher than under Mourinho. Our best player is a Solskjær signing. Our bench looks stronger than it's ever done in the post Fergie era.

To say that nothing has improved under Ole is bollocks. We lack consistency. This will be the season that Ole needs to prove that he can achieve this. Being great for 50% of the season means nothing in the long run. It just proves that you have a high ceiling and can deal with any opponent. You need a special winning mentality to keep it up. That is what separates the great managers from the caretakers and miracle workers.
Agreed with this.
 

Rightnr

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Most of the top reds in this thread would have us playing in League One before they 'stop backing the manager'.

Idiotic attitudes like this is why we won't get close to a league title for longer than the scousers if we don't change our approach.
 

crossy1686

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Let them come.

These same people were calling for his head after 3 games into the season. Absolute state of it. Imagine we sacked a manager after 3 PL games. We'd be a laughing stock forever.

We're only 5pts behind Chelsea n Leicester with a game in hand.
Never understood this “I want it now” approach. Smacks of spoiled entitlement.

I suspect these are the same people who think you’re either good at something or bad at it also. No comprehension of process or learning curve.
 

rollingstoned1

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Because (and that is only my opinion) league is stronger.
why wouldn't the league necessarily be stronger if the 3rd place team got only 66 points? we see that goalpost being moved to suggest that our 3rd place finish wasn't that impressive all things considered yet if people want to start sharpening their knives already it's because the league is strong when they feel we may finish outside european places.
 

crossy1686

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Most of the top reds in this thread would have us playing in League One before they 'stop backing the manager'.

Idiotic attitudes like this is why we won't get close to a league title for longer than the scousers if we don't change our approach.
What gives you the impression people would support the manager if we got relegated? Why go to that extreme?
 

TrustInJanuzaj

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Most of the top reds in this thread would have us playing in League One before they 'stop backing the manager'.

Idiotic attitudes like this is why we won't get close to a league title for longer than the scousers if we don't change our approach.
I don’t think this is true. Most of the ‘top reds’ believe Ole has down enough to continue after a good season last time out. While ever we continue to improve he should stay and at least personally I’m not yet willing to say that progress has ended.
 

TrustInJanuzaj

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Because (and that is only my opinion) league is stronger.
Not sure this true, there are just many external factors which has made this season different and made top teams more inconsistent. I expect the pattern will change at some stage this season.
 

TrustInJanuzaj

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Current points per game ratio is 1.625; that's 61.75 points over a full season. So it's just simple maths, probably not a prediction.
If we finish on 60points I’ll be the first to see him go (unless that’s someone in the top 3!). That being said we are likely going through our worst form of the season and I truly believe we will our in a good run at some stage which will see us pick up plenty of points.
 

Nou_Camp99

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Never understood this “I want it now” approach. Smacks of spoiled entitlement.

I suspect these are the same people who think you’re either good at something or bad at it also. No comprehension of process or learning curve.
These same people will moan if Poch takes over and he says he needs time to sort his own style and team out. Our fans want it all and want it NOW, you're right.

There's definitely been progression under Ole. When he took over he nearly turned around a 14pt deficit to top 4. We just missed out in the end sadly but it was some effort to even be in the running.

Second season we kicked on and came 3rd and got to 3 semi finals. Injuries weren't kind and we definitely looked jaded at the end of the season. He signed Bruno and brought Greenwood through too who was class.

This season we've had a slow start for sure but we're still well in the race. We're above Arsenal n City and within touching distance of the teams at the top.

If we don't come top 4 come May then he will likely lose his job. Right now that goal is well within our reach. We've played 8 games ffs.
 

GlasgowCeltic

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You can support the team, and still provide critique, or even over the top criticism on this, an inconsequential internet chat room
 

crossy1686

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These same people will moan if Poch takes over and he says he needs time to sort his own style and team out. Our fans want it all and want it NOW, you're right.

There's definitely been progression under Ole. When he took over he nearly turned around a 14pt deficit to top 4. We just missed out in the end sadly but it was some effort to even be in the running.

Second season we kicked on and came 3rd and got to 3 semi finals. Injuries weren't kind and we definitely looked jaded at the end of the season. He signed Bruno and brought Greenwood through too who was class.

This season we've had a slow start for sure but we're still well in the race. We're above Arsenal n City and within touching distance of the teams at the top.

If we don't come top 4 come May then he will likely lose his job. Right now that goal is well within our reach. We've played 8 games ffs.
This season is an anomaly. We're not the only one's having a slow start also, in this country at that. Both you and I, along with others said at the start of the season the lack of preseason will cost us the first 10 games in the league, and it's looking like we were right.

The season is far from over. If we can find consistency we will do very well this season, we're not that far away from having a well-balanced team for the first time in 10 years.
 

Gasolin

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Current points per game ratio is 1.625; that's 61.75 points over a full season. So it's just simple maths, probably not a prediction.
No problem with that. We are saying City will get 57 pts this season, correct?
 

Gasolin

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it's funny how people are OK with using metrics like xG to defend the manager - "yeah sure we're not scoring goals but our xG is one of the highest in the league so it's bad luck" - yet will likely dismiss this as "ah you can't take this in isolation based on only eight games". Just watch.
No I certainly don’t say that. If we all agree that City will get 57 pts this season, I have no problem with that model really. No problem at all.
 

Nou_Camp99

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This season is an anomaly. We're not the only one's having a slow start also, in this country at that. Both you and I, along with others said at the start of the season the lack of preseason will cost us the first 10 games in the league, and it's looking like we were right.

The season is far from over. If we can find consistency we will do very well this season, we're not that far away from having a well-balanced team for the first time in 10 years.
Spot on mate.

As soon as we beat Leicester we should have sent the kids to Europa IN Germany. We didn't even bloody win it anyway and look what it's done to our new season. Could have given our first 11 August to rest up and then they could have played a few friendlies before Palace whilst the ones who played in Europa enjoyed their break.
 

Siorac

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No problem with that. We are saying City will get 57 pts this season, correct?
We're saying that if both teams continue accruing points at the same rate, they'll finish with 62 and 57 points, respectively. However, recent history suggests City are much more likely to significantly improve on that ratio than we are - after all, in six out of the last seven seasons, we ended up with somewhere between 64 and 70 points. So City's performance can still be considered an anomaly at this point while our own is only slightly lower than our usual standard.

I can't speak for City's actual performances this season because I haven't really seen them play. Our own give precious little reason for optimism that we can somehow be much better. The most likely scenario, by far, is that we end up in the high 60s again - standing still, in other words.
 

Plymouth Red

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Never understood this “I want it now” approach. Smacks of spoiled entitlement.

I suspect these are the same people who think you’re either good at something or bad at it also. No comprehension of process or learning curve.
Are people really saying "I want it now" or are they saying "We've waited long enough". There's a massive difference.

I think we've waited long enough to see Pogba justify his fee and World Cup winner's medal, or for Rashford and Martial consistently show they are fulfilling the potential we all saw in them a couple of years ago. Or for our defence to be a strong, reliable platform for the team to build on, or for us to develop a way to break down stubborn teams, or to establish a style of play which defines what sort of a team we are.

Most people know that Greenwood and Williams, for example, need time to learn and develop. But the majority of the squad have had plenty of time and it's just not showing consistently in their individual and collective performance, apart from the exceptional game now and then.

When you put this against a backcloth of what our squad earns compared to others, it doesn't encourage people to be patient, which is a natural reaction.

I agree that under SAF we were spoiled in the sense that we won silver regularly but that was down to the combined exemplary efforts of the manager, coaches, players and Board. No-one can say as fans that we are spoiled today but we have three recent semi-final defeats to reflect on and maybe that says something about how we are equipped or not to get back on the perch.
 

Zen86

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Are people really saying "I want it now" or are they saying "We've waited long enough". There's a massive difference.

I think we've waited long enough to see Pogba justify his fee and World Cup winner's medal, or for Rashford and Martial consistently show they are fulfilling the potential we all saw in them a couple of years ago. Or for our defence to be a strong, reliable platform for the team to build on, or for us to develop a way to break down stubborn teams, or to establish a style of play which defines what sort of a team we are.

Most people know that Greenwood and Williams, for example, need time to learn and develop. But the majority of the squad have had plenty of time and it's just not showing consistently in their individual and collective performance, apart from the exceptional game now and then.

When you put this against a backcloth of what our squad earns compared to others, it doesn't encourage people to be patient, which is a natural reaction.

I agree that under SAF we were spoiled in the sense that we won silver regularly but that was down to the combined exemplary efforts of the manager, coaches, players and Board. No-one can say as fans that we are spoiled today but we have three recent semi-final defeats to reflect on and maybe that says something about how we are equipped or not to get back on the perch.
“Waited long enough” being 8 games into the new season.
 

Gasolin

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We're saying that if both teams continue accruing points at the same rate, they'll finish with 62 and 57 points, respectively. However, recent history suggests City are much more likely to significantly improve on that ratio than we are - after all, in six out of the last seven seasons, we ended up with somewhere between 64 and 70 points. So City's performance can still be considered an anomaly at this point while our own is only slightly lower than our usual standard.

I can't speak for City's actual performances this season because I haven't really seen them play. Our own give precious little reason for optimism that we can somehow be much better. The most likely scenario, by far, is that we end up in the high 60s again - standing still, in other words.
You have began extrapolating, so let's extrapolate properly.

We had 66 pts last season because the 2nd half gave us a lot of pts.
Our breakdown by match days was:
01-18: 25 pts, ranked 8th, with a gap of 27 pts with the top team.
19-38: 41 pts, ranked 3rd, with a gap of 6 pts with the top team.

At the same stage last season (8 matches), we had 9 pts, with a gap of 15 pts with the top team.
Right now, we have 13 pts (+4 pts) and a gap of 7 or 4pts if we count the game in hand with the top team.
It's much more manageable.

Why do we say we can still do it if the 1st half is better than last year?
Because let's look at the season right before (66 pts too).
Our breakdown by match days was:
01-18: 29 pts, ranked 6th, with a gap of 19 pts with the top team.
19-38: 37 pts, ranked 3rd, with a gap of 17 pts with the top team.

The first half was bad but the 2nd half is always at least 3rd best, and last year, the gap was reduced from 17 pts to 6 pts.

Our goal this year is to fix no matter what the first half pts tally and the gap to the top.
And so far, we are on track.
Come the 2nd half, since Ole has a history of making the team run twice consistently over 18 games, we can finish strong.

This is an useless exercise because only real results matter, but if we take our current pts tally of 13 pts in 8 games and do a simple extrapolation, we are talking about getting 29/30 pts in the 1st half. This is a progress of +1 pt vs 2 years ago and +5 pts vs last year.
We then apply the 2nd half, which can be 41 pts, or higher.
Even if it was 41 pts, we finish at 71 pts.
Considering the trend of having improved 4 pts between the 2 season, and imagining we improved 4 more pts, it's 75 pts.

That's for me where we could end up.

This doesn't account for the fact that the first 3 or 4 games show a real fitness issue and we might discover form much faster even in the first half.
In this case, any improvement over the 30 pts we can do in the first half will translate in us benefiting with high pts tally. Could we reach at least the 80 pts to finish the league in a reasonable position? That is to be seen.

There is a lot of work there but if we want to extrapolate, that's the minimum level we should get into.
To be fair, I think it's even best to split the analysis by 4 because each 2 or 3 months has its own challenge, but we can start with a 2 halves vision, since United under Ole seems to be performing really well in the 2nd half, clearly.
 

M16Red

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Pogba wants to leave. I won't get behind him anymore. He doesn't try because if he did he'd be in the team and be one of our best players. But he cba as usual.
Should I check with you before I back them?
 

Andycoleno9

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Pogba wants to leave. I won't get behind him anymore. He doesn't try because if he did he'd be in the team and be one of our best players. But he cba as usual.
Awb? Mata? They both try but you want them gone. Why? Lingard tries also
 

Nou_Camp99

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Should I check with you before I back them?
Childish response. I said I won't back him. 'I' being the key word there for the hard of thinking.

If you want to continue to back the fraud go ahead. He's treated this club awfully. The amount of money we invested in him to bring him back and he's barely broke sweat for us in a red shirt. Ability is there. Effort sadly isn't. Don't think he's very football savvy at times either which is why he gets the ball taken off him so often in our defensive 3rd.
 

Massive Spanner

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No problem with that. We are saying City will get 57 pts this season, correct?
It's possible isn't it? You can only work with what you currently know.

Ole obviously had a much stronger 2nd half of the season than first half but two things played a huge factor in that; Bruno, and three months of a lockdown. Assuming we don't go and sign someone with an impact like he had again in January (very likely) and that there isn't another lockdown and we continue with this sort of schedule (incredibly likely) then it becomes very difficult to compare last season to this other than we had poor starts in both, albeit it's also fair to say that we had a tougher start to this season than last, too.

Maybe things will pick up in the second half again like you're saying but it's hard to see it with such a brutal schedule, to be honest. I really don't think it's crazy to say our points total so far could be a fair reflection of our points total at the end of the season. Probably 60-65 points, maybe 70 if we get better. Not great at all.
 

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I was thinking this myself before the West Brom game. Sure, there's so much to be negative about this season already, but unless things get even worse we're actually in with a reasonable chance of meeting my expectations after our transfer window, which I thought was lacklustre. Win the next two League games for example and we suddenly look like a top four challenger again. Win our game in hand whenever it's rescheduled and we might even only be a couple of results off 1st place. We're missing that attacking spark at the moment for some reason, we need to get Rashford, Martial, and Greenwood playing together consistently for a few games in a row and get Cavani on the pitch more (which I'm sure will happen now with a busy Christmas period incoming).

Bar the ridiculous mistakes against Istanbul last time, we've looked so much more solid defensively on the whole. All of Chelsea, Arsenal, Everton and West Brom didn't look like scoring overall. Everton did, but those kind of longer range efforts go in every now and again, while Arsenal got the penalty in what was pretty much a stalemate like the Chelsea game. We need to get more of a balance, but I think Greenwood coming back into the fray will give us another dimension. Mata has sadly looked weak in most of his starts and is rightly almost always subbed off by the hour mark. In terms of overall defending in open play in particular, we've done well to fix the problem from the first few games (Last 6):

Shots on Target Against:

Chelsea: 1
Leipzig: 2
Arsenal: 2 (1 Pen)
Istanbul: 2 (1 Pen)
Everton: 1
West Brom: 2

Shots on Target For:

Total: 28
Goals: 10

We're not letting many shots reach de Gea, but we're also only converting about 1/3 of our shots on target. We need to finish better and I hope Rashford & Martial can hit some form, with Greenwood also coming in and getting chances. We should start scoring more, I think the bigger problem was sorting the defence out which I'd say is now OK. We just need to find that little extra up front and get that conversion rate over 50% if we can (shots on target). It's obviously a little distorted as five of those goals came against one side where we had eight shots on target. So, the other five games include 20 Shots on Target with only five goals making our shots on target conversion rate only 25%. I fully believe that if we can even get a flat 50% in this area we will win a lot more games.

Still, we need to hit some better form fast and make the most of the next few games. Istanbul has to be a win if we are to get out of the group. We will need at least a point from PSG/Leipzig after that. While we play Southampton & West Ham in the Premier League, despite them being above us and doing rather well, we should come away with the six points and the season looks totally different again. Of course, we could be let down massively and there's always that thought in the back of your mind that we'll stutter... Just need these next few results and we're talking four or more wins in a row. This team plays well when it's confident and even when we have a weaker performance we often manage to avoid defeat. I'm not writing us off yet, this is going to be an odd season and I don't see why we can't finish in the top four again.
 

Nou_Camp99

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Awb? Mata? They both try but you want them gone. Why? Lingard tries also
Not quite the full story there fella is it?

Juan Mata was a superb footballer. He isn't anymore. So that's more down to age than not liking the bloke. I have loved him as a player. Sadly we didn't get him when he was at his best.

I never thought AWB was good enough. I won't hide that but I don't dislike the guy. I just think he's a good tackler and incredibly limited footballer. And I have been proven to be right as many more people are now saying the same thing as me. I was just one of the first to say it.

As for Lingard.....same applies to him. He tries every time he plays. He's just not good enough. That isn't his fault.


Pogba is good enough. he's good enough to be the best player at the club but falls well short. Why is that?
 

Andycoleno9

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Not quite the full story there fella is it?

Juan Mata was a superb footballer. He isn't anymore. So that's more down to age than not liking the bloke. I have loved him as a player. Sadly we didn't get him when he was at his best.

I never thought AWB was good enough. I won't hide that but I don't dislike the guy. I just think he's a good tackler and incredibly limited footballer. And I have been proven to be right as many more people are now saying the same thing as me. I was just one of the first to say it.

As for Lingard.....same applies to him. He tries every time he plays. He's just not good enough. That isn't his fault.


Pogba is good enough. he's good enough to be the best player at the club but falls well short. Why is that?
And that is it. That is what i wanted you to say. And i understand you 100%. You think that they are not good enough for the club. Nothing to do with hate, like, dislike or what they did for this club.
Do you realise now why me and others want Ole out?
 
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Nou_Camp99

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And that is it. That is what i wanted you to say. And i understand you 100%. You think that they are good enough for the club. Nothing to do with hate, like, dislike or what they did for this club.
Do you realise now why me and others want Ole out?
Nope I don't. Ole's only goal so far has been to get top 4. He did that.

This season hasn't even got to half way point yet. If he doesn't improve and get us back in contention come spring time then you'll all have a point. Until then he hasn't failed has he? We are well in a top 4 race and looks good to get out of a tough CL group.

Come back in May. If we're 5th or lower then there's a discussion to be had.
 

Siorac

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You have began extrapolating, so let's extrapolate properly.

We had 66 pts last season because the 2nd half gave us a lot of pts.
Our breakdown by match days was:
01-18: 25 pts, ranked 8th, with a gap of 27 pts with the top team.
19-38: 41 pts, ranked 3rd, with a gap of 6 pts with the top team.

At the same stage last season (8 matches), we had 9 pts, with a gap of 15 pts with the top team.
Right now, we have 13 pts (+4 pts) and a gap of 7 or 4pts if we count the game in hand with the top team.
It's much more manageable.

Why do we say we can still do it if the 1st half is better than last year?
Because let's look at the season right before (66 pts too).
Our breakdown by match days was:
01-18: 29 pts, ranked 6th, with a gap of 19 pts with the top team.
19-38: 37 pts, ranked 3rd, with a gap of 17 pts with the top team.

The first half was bad but the 2nd half is always at least 3rd best, and last year, the gap was reduced from 17 pts to 6 pts.

Our goal this year is to fix no matter what the first half pts tally and the gap to the top.
And so far, we are on track.
Come the 2nd half, since Ole has a history of making the team run twice consistently over 18 games, we can finish strong.

This is an useless exercise because only real results matter, but if we take our current pts tally of 13 pts in 8 games and do a simple extrapolation, we are talking about getting 29/30 pts in the 1st half. This is a progress of +1 pt vs 2 years ago and +5 pts vs last year.
We then apply the 2nd half, which can be 41 pts, or higher.
Even if it was 41 pts, we finish at 71 pts.
Considering the trend of having improved 4 pts between the 2 season, and imagining we improved 4 more pts, it's 75 pts.

That's for me where we could end up.

This doesn't account for the fact that the first 3 or 4 games show a real fitness issue and we might discover form much faster even in the first half.
In this case, any improvement over the 30 pts we can do in the first half will translate in us benefiting with high pts tally. Could we reach at least the 80 pts to finish the league in a reasonable position? That is to be seen.

There is a lot of work there but if we want to extrapolate, that's the minimum level we should get into.
To be fair, I think it's even best to split the analysis by 4 because each 2 or 3 months has its own challenge, but we can start with a 2 halves vision, since United under Ole seems to be performing really well in the 2nd half, clearly.
Or we could just look at his entire time at United and see that he has a point-per-game ratio of 1.77, which is 67 points over a full season.

Also, for some inexplicable reason this idea that "United under Ole seems to be performing really well in the 2nd half of the season" seems to be gathering momentum and I'm not sure why. It happened once*. That's not a trend. And it'd be very hard to conclude that that one time was solely down to something specific in Ole's management style - the most obvious explanation would be that signing Bruno and the return of Pogba elevated the team. Your conviction that we'll definitely pick up more points in the second half of the season is based on little more than hope.

*yes, we did better in the second half of 18/19 than in the first. But he wasn't the manager in the first half of that season so it shouldn't really count as evidence that his teams are stronger in the second half of the season. Especially as we pathetically collapsed around March.