justsomebloke
Full Member
- Joined
- Oct 25, 2020
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Pretty much agree with this. We now have acute balance issues resulting to some extent directly from this summer's transfer decisions, and it's really really hard to see a solution for them, with the pieces we have available.Yes I’m losing faith. But I’m not in denial about last season’s league position. For me it has always been about points and league position over a long period. I don’t agree with micro analysis, it’s a waste of time and most of it is bollocks.
I never have said Ole is better than Klopp or Pep. If those two can’t win without their best players then everyone else has a chance - that's something that can’t be denied. And you can argue all day about the excuses but the fact is we finished above Liverpool last year.
And here’s the important bit about Ole - I used to think that we can finish above Liverpool again this year but after the recent run of performances and results, I don’t have faith any more. I prefer to judge over as long a period as possible but we’ve been poor for long enough now for me to form a view.
Mistakes were made in the summer. We should have bought at least one CM and a RB instead of Sancho and probably Ronaldo even though they sound like tough calls. I have to assume Ole had significant input into those decisions and must take responsibility. The team does not look balanced and that must be on Ole.
I don’t fancy any manager’s chances of winning the league with our squad as it stands but I am now tending to the view that Ole’s selection decisions are making it worse than it needs to be. Possibly he can turn it around but I just don’t believe anymore.
If you were going to play Pogba on the left, there was a real question if we really had the space to accomodate Sancho. And Ronaldo, wonderful player though he is, if you get him, he plays, and if he plays, then you have to build around him. "Focus vortex" was a phrase I used at one point. That has a major, and mainly negative, impact on what the rest of the team has to do and can do that must be put against the many positives he brings. Also, there's a question of appropriate depth. I think ideally you would want 6 players with a claim to fairly regular starts for those 4 positions. Currently, we have 7 or 8 (depending on whether you count Martial). Given that 2-4 of them are basically undroppable (Ronaldo, Bruno and to a lesser extent Rashford and Pogba), that's really too many.
Conversely, the CM has gone from being a weak but still basically functional area of the team to becoming an acute problem that has to be fixed, and quickly. In part because playing Ronaldo more or less takes away the option of shielding the midfield through diligent high pressing. And we just don't have a suitable mix of qualities in the players we have in that position, so that's not going to be easy. In retrosepct, it looks obvious that we ought to have prioritised the central midfield this summer, even at the cost of not signing Sancho. I can't claim to have argued that at the time. But I can claim to have argued that we should not sign CR, and I still think so. No midfield signing would have automatically fixed the midfield in itself, but the right one would at least have made a solution more feasible than it is with the current players.
It's on Ole and the coaching staff to solve this, and find a way to make this team work with the players they have (and probably in a way involving starting CR constantly as well as Bruno and a still un-renewed Pogba). If they can manage that, I take my hat off to them.