I would assume it’s mainly because of the run of games we have coming up, with little to suggest that things are going to click in place in time for us to be properly competitive. If it was reversed and we had this points total after playing Liverpool, City, Chelsea (not to mention the others in this upcoming run) then we’d be talking about a title challenge right now.
I am not feeling as negative as the majority it seems, however I would add that it's not just 7 games. I think it's the context of those games in terms of who we played and the performance levels. That creates a definite sense of dread ahead of a highly demanding set of fixtures. If we don't improve substantially over the coming weeks we could be out of the game and that is a hugely disappointing prospect.
What we have to remember is that there are a few players in the squad who need to either learn the league or learn one another. Sancho is going to be a slow burner as is Varane. Give it time, which unfortunately not many people want to give Ole/Squad.
United tend to do better against the better teams as they are more open at the back and United can hit them on the break. What United need to and which has always been a problem is to win the low block matches, those are the matches which wins you games. I wasn't happy with a draw at the weekend by any means, but I'm not going to write the season off because of it. Game 17 and I may start getting worried if the next set of games were to take us into the latter stages of the season. Game 7, not so much.
People just want instant fixes/success. This season could turn out to be a success, but if seemingly the majority on here controlled the club we'd never get the chance to play it out.
Exactly, it seems as though we want both an instant success and a long term fix, which is impossible.
I know what you mean OP and i would previously have agreed with you, however it feels deeper than just 7 games to me. I thought last season was a good outcome and we performed reasonably well on the whole (lots disagree with that), we also then had an excellent summer and invested well and so i was expecting us to build on last season.
We have started the season very poorly in my view, and dont look like a well oiled machine or well drilled at all. We are lucky to have as many points on the board as we do, and we owe a lot of that to De Gea for seemingly rediscovering his world class form, and are already out one of cup.
That says to me Ole has taken us as far as he can, i personally am pleased with the job he has done up to this point, but it does feel as though he's hit his ceiling and the club have given him the tools to deliver (both in time and investment). I think it would be a big move for the club to remove Ole now after only 7 games and dont expect them to either, however i expect us to continue to decline in the coming weeks and suspect we'll see some more poor results.
I have said elsewhere that i do expect the club to act fairly soon and i dont think it will drag on if performances and results dont improve, despite what others believe (finance people in charge etc), we're not run by fools and the level of investment the club has committed this season is significant.
Most of us didn't want him here in the first place.
We were told to be patient until the "rebuild" was finished, and then judge him.
3 years down the line and we still see this shit on the pitch.
After more than 300m in investing he still hasn't got a clue how to get the best of his players and we keep watching this shit on a stick football week in week out. And this time we are told to wait until it miraculously clicks between them.
3 Years and he should have won something, I agree there, but numerous semi finals and a final, isn't something to be scoffed at. That being said even if we won the EL, I still can see the same threads popping up wanting Ole to leave the club. That being said, this is the first season where 95% of the squad is "his squad" and not remnants of other managers. Barring a DM and to a degree a striker (not so much we have Cavani/Ronaldo) this is Ole's squad. So now he needs to perform and now he needs to get the players playing the way he wants. Which will take time to bed into the new set of players. Give the players time to adjust to one another and I'm certain he'll come good.
Half the caf seem to have already written off the season already, after 7 games and we've Ole out threads popping up all over the place. I know they have different names but they're all the same thread containing pretty much the same posts.
The start hasn't been great and the team hasn't properly gotten going yet this season but we're still in touching distance and should get out of the CL group.
We'll see in the next 3 - 5 games if the doom and gloom was warranted.
7 Games isn't that many games and arguably Liverpool should have won the league last year, given the free fall that they had, would not be surprised if that was us, again there'd be calls for Ole's job. But whataboutisms didn't solve anything.
A huge % of the online fans have are so impatient and irrational it's getting hard and harder to bother with Redcafe.
7 games in people on here have decided the season is a write off, Sancho is shit and Varane is past it. You can't talk to someone with that mind set.
I saw somewhere that Ronaldo was past it and was the reason for our shite play lately. You can't win them all.
I am not sure what positivity can be sought after?
We as Manchester united want to win the PL /CL, that is the bar set for the manager and the team. To do this, we need keep up with the other teams that will challenge.
Unfortunately, we have lost to Villa at home, drew to Southampton and Everton, barely beat West Ham and Wolves, whilst our challengers are playing each other and looking good.
In the CL, it took a 95th min goal to beat Villareal and we lost to Young boys, so in 7 games we look poor. Another 7 games we could be out of both competitions, the title challenge and CL.
Tell me, what do you see that gives you optimism? Out of interest. There hasn't been a progression in our style of play, despite an improvement in the players at his disposal.
When he first came, he got good results against the top sides, but that stuttered last year after teams realised he only has one tactic against them - sit back, keep it tight, hope to nick one on the break. We've pretty much always struggled under his watch to break down sides lower than us in the table.
Watch a replay of Liverpool - City game at the weekend. Maybe that's where the pessimism lies. It's like a completely different sport, watching those two teams play, compared to the dross we serve up, week in, week out, having spent a fortune.
I'm optimistic for the future because we have a team that we all know can play well, we all know this. Look at the Newcastle and Leeds result for one. We are in a rough patch at the moment and losing Maguire doesn't help. We have several new players looking to bed into the team, all of whom have gone straight into the first team at once. We have also each year progressed and improved on our league position. I still have the belief that we will come good.
Are we playing well at the moment? Absolutely not. Can I see why people may be upset? Yes I can. However, do I think it warrants the absolute doom and gloom, world is ending reaction. Absolutely not.
It is because many fans think that we are entitled to win every game, in style , exactly the way we want it without any errors. They have no grasp of reality, life, pressure, the fact that the opposition want to stop us playing the way we want and think that a rebuild of the squad and second place finish have nothing to do with Ole and don't recognise that the only team above us are run by an oil rich state funded outfit. They don't accept things such as change of form, fortune, confidence and cry like babies if we lose a couple of games. They have never witnessed the seventies, relegation, the eighties, the Fergie early years and fergie out brigade, many have only ever known us being top all of the time and think that we are entitled to it because of who we are. That is why.
100% Agree. I try and stay out the match day threads because of this. Lingard's winner against West Ham proved just as much. Plenty of posters bemoaning him coming on. Then he goes and scores the winner. He's been one of our best players this season and because he's Lingard, people don't want to know.
That's half the issue. You're expecting a relegation battle or free fall for fans to be disappointed whereas at the biggest clubs its the lack of excellence that results in it. This whole Ole is decent/we aren't terrible, may apply appropriately to mid table clubs not the richest and most illustrious ones.
Not at all, if this were game 17 going into game 29 (our next 12 games) and the fixtures looked like they do now and we are continuing to play like this, then yes I can see the reasoning why we may be in trouble and people being upset. But there's still 31 games to go. That is a LONG time. Heck Arsenal could still win the league mathematically so it's not like a bad situation at all.
What’s the point of anyone replying when you have your mind already set on the fact that it is kneejerk, and some people in here are talking about “instant success”.
He’s been here for almost three years, has outspent the budget of small countries, and yet our record over three years is worse than the apparently “dark days” of Mourinho. We have a lower win rate, a lower points-per-match, and while we score a bit more on a per games basis, our goal difference per game is worse. On top of that, we are clueless in finals and semifinals, our approach and possession play are non-existent, our xG and chance creation are actually trending in the wrong direction.
Now on top of all that, we have a manager who would have struggled to find a job at a mid table team in the PL before we hired him. He’s had three years and a ton of backing to prove that he is at the level to manage an elite team, and we are still waiting on a sign that he can. We constantly see teams on a shoestring budget outsmart us and beat us when we are heavy favourites.
Anyone’s attempt to make it sound that this is about the 7 league games this season is just being willingly obtuse and borderline trolling at this point.
I'd like to turn this around. Can you list the things we are doing well, the improvements and reasons for significant positivity and also consider a list of things that would need to happen for you to think that things actually aren't going well?
To show things aren't going well? Out of all cups, top 4 out of grasp and a toxic environment. All of which I cannot see happening.
Obviously because we're not top 5 points clear on 21 points having scored 30+ goals and conceded 0.
Plus Solskjaer had the audacity to manage a team that lost a CL game away while down to 10 men and a League cup tie after making 11 changes.
How dare he.
I don't understand that sort of criticism. We cry out for depth and then when we rotate we complain that our best players aren't playing. But Ole overplays them and they get injured and he gets slated for injuring the players.
The same people declaring everything is shit now, were saying we would be in a relegation fight if we didn't get rid of ole about this time 2 seasons ago. And last season about this time they were saying that we would never even make the top 4 if we didn't get rid of ole. So this season there saying we will never get near the title if we don't get rid of Ole. So progress then.
Not the most convincing start to this season but it is only the start, tough games to come but let's play them and see how we get on. Thats all we can do
Well let's all hope so come the end of the season!
I told this to OP on another thread. Once Ronaldo, Varane and Sancho have been signed, the dice has been cast. Ole has to provide results. The target or expectation is not "don't go into a freefall". The target is title challenge.
And our performances in one of the easiest runs of the league does not give the confidence that we will do well in next 2 months of challenges. If we had gone down fighting in the games we lost/drew, then at least we could have said, we are getting there. But it doesn't seem so.
Ambitious teams look up the table and see how to reach there. They don't look at bottom of the table and say "Hey!! We are at least not with those dross".
I'm sure we all want to be at the top, including Ole/Players.
Of course the target is a title challenge this season and signing world class players like Ronaldo, Varane and Sancho puts huge pressure on them, but it will take a bit of time for the system to work with those players, they won't just slot in and play amazingly well instantly, they need time to get things moving so to speak.
Indeed. Ole has out-achieved all the doom-sayers' early/mid season predictions come the end of every season so far, so who's to say they're not the ones who will be proved wrong again? Everyone pretty much agrees Ole has to deliver something more this season, be it a trophy or title challenge, but the season has barely started. Now is not the time to start declaring this season a failure. City were sitting in 10th after 7 games last year and won the league at a canter. Liverpool lost 3 group games on their way to winning the CL a few years back. They'd both have given up hope in October if they had the attitude of this place
While I agree things haven't been too impressive and he'll need to win something this season, it is rather annoying when the club is written off at the start of the season. People seem to forget that seasons are long. We'll see how things go this season and how many people Ole/United prove wrong. After all that's what we all want is for the club to win things.
