Why are Man United playing worse than last season?

tomaldinho1

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Ask yourself the question how hard is it to setup to counter with one of the best & deepest squads in the league versus actually having to coach some kind of offensive style of play? Even then, last season, we bailed ourselves out with so many last minute goals, penalties and lucky decisions versus weak teams (WBA peno overruled and then we get a peno to win 1-0 for example, Brighton hit the woodwork 5 times and we get the VAR handball peno) we haven't played good football for ages.

That and there is zero meritocracy in Ole's team - you are either a favourite i.e. you start even if you have a broken leg or you are a benchwarmer, form is irrelevant. I can't even begin to describe how bad an environment this must have created and it's not surprising there are so many reports of players turning on him.

The one glimmer of hope I have, is judging by some of the replies on this forum, a lot of people have forgotten what good football looks like after LVG > Mou > Ole and if we hire a progressive and attacking coach, even if they don't win something it will be much more enjoyable to watch.
 

bosnian_red

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We wanted a more front footed/proactive approach. That requires more/different coaching that Ole has been incapable of doing. Increased expectations demanded a more progressive play style too, which we've failed at.

Anyone saying Ronaldo... we were garbage and outplayed just as bad as these games vs Wolves before he joined. Sure we have to change a bit with Ronaldo, but a lot of the changes have also been unnecessary coaching changes that have made us a lot worse.
 

Strelok

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stefan92 said:
Ronaldo's signing is a problem I believe, because I think it messed up Ole's planning. I am quite sure that he would have liked to play a front three of Rashford, Greenwood and Sancho this season, due to Rashfords injury maybe Pogba on the left for the first games.

But now Ronaldo blocks the CF position, Greenwood is stuck on the right were he does feck all except sometimes scoring a great goal, Sancho is stuck on the left and does not understand how that happened, Bruno and Ronaldo don't work well for the national team and are just replicating that.

At the back you have a similar situation, Varane was signed while Ole apparently also made promises to Bailly that he would play more, and this does not work out at all.

Midfield is obviosly an old story now, where van de Beek does not get a chance.

So my guess is, that the summer signings and their usage in the first games brought some unrest to players who expected to play more or in a different position and maybe that caused a rift between them and Ole that lead to him not trusting them anymore, but focusing on his core of players even more. And that is something that we might see spiraling out of conrrol at the moment.
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Imo this quite a fair assessment. But I'd like to add:

1. The Ronaldo signing: agreed with what you said and imo this also has fecked up our dressing room dynamic. We now have a player who is supposed to be bigger than the club, at least according to his fanboies. It's never a good thing to have a player bigger than the club, especially when his onfield performance couldn't justify that.

2. I don't think the Bailly issue you mentioned is correct. Because I haven't heard any report that Ole made such promises. Please correct me if I'm wrong though.

3. I was a big Ole in but imo he has showed he doesn't know how to handle the megastars. It's bleeding obvious that we're a better team with Cavani upfront than Ronaldo. I don't know it's because of the upper pressure or the dressing room pressure but he keeps playing him as a #9. And he subbed Cavani for Ronaldo by the 55th minute in the Everton match. It's very unfair and disrespectful to Cavani. Imo Ole has fecked up massively by doing so. He showed he's afraid of Ronaldo's status and ready to treat his players unfairly and disrespectfully because of so. He lost the respect of his players as a result.

4. Ole has also failed spectacularly tactically. A highline would never work without a high pressing system. Ronaldo doesn't press, so of course there would be no high pressing if he's deployed as a #9. So if he wants to play him it's ok but definitely not with a highline. Or with a highline but Ronaldo as a LW not a #9.

As a result of all the above and what you've mentioned Ole has completely lost the dressing room. You add that to the shite tactic and of course no surprise we failed spectacularly.
 

Leftback99

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Agree with a lot of above.

It all started with recruitment in the summer for me, going into the season with a top heavy squad where it would be impossible to keep everyone happy set alarm bells ringing. Spending a fortune on Sancho and then Ronaldo but no defensive midfielder made me doubt there was any plan to how we were going to set up this season. Some may laugh but even the sale of Dan James made me think "who is going to do the hard graft for this team?".

Our forwards all play for themselves and there is no partnerships anywhere on the pitch. Shaw and Maguire are playing like they have been on the drink since the Euros final.
 

Karlos PFC

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Well you write in your OP don't say Ole is shit, but basically it's that simple.

If a coach can't get the best out of his players, doesn't have a style of play and just says that "football is simple if you got great players", we could spend 500m this summer and we still would be in this exact same position.

Style of play no matter how many are gonna dismiss it as an excuse or whatever, is necessary for all players and those that are maybe out of form, came back from injury or whatever the case. They'd know their positions, had specific instructions, knew where the feck to pass the ball, attacking and defending movement, how to open spaces in teams defending deep and how to play form the back.

Ole hasn't done anything resembling all the above, because he isn't a great coach and in his mind he thinks that football has stayed the same from 20 years now.

He hasn't shown anything in his tenure to suggest that if we spend more and get world class players the football would improve. Hell he can't even get world class talents like Sancho and VDB play. Also yes I consider VDB world class because he has shown it with Ajax, but here Ole wants him to show some individual quality like some others. But VDB knows football (he came from the best academies in the world after all) and he knows that football has everything to do with organization and not just individual quality.

I've been waiting this season for a long time. It would be his make or break season, but oh boy the guy is clueless. Been here for 3,5 years and I could count on my hands fingers how many games were enjoyable.
 

L1nk

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1. For the longest all we seemed to play was Counter Attacking football but it's just completely unsustainable when there's zero alternative and we cannot break low block teams down, we have good wins yes especially against teams that afford us space, but then we also have terrible losses against teams we shouldn't be losing against, we will not win anything this way. So I feel like now Ole thinks he has the players capable he's tried to switch to a more pro-active style, the problem is the implementation is sorely lacking and the players are at sixes and sevens having absolutely no idea what they are doing, this seems evident by what you saw on the pitch against Liverpool, the half assed pressing by random players, defenders woefully out of position all the time, you get the point.

2. His favouritism of players, he keeps picking his favourite players regardless of whether they're in shocking form for multiple games prior or have just come back from injury and are clearly not fully fit, see Harry Maguire for that one. His man management has been shown for what it really is, awful, and not this amazing thing that everyone thinks it is and it seems like the players have had enough of it. Everyone and their Nan can see the DVB situation is ridiculous, but now players like Lingard are being lumped into it to, I'm not even Lingard's biggest fan, but if you wanna keep him, play him? His clear favouritism is there for all to see and it's backfiring on him because the players who are his favourites are woefully underperforming in this system.

3. He has had his ass covered by some of his favourites though, see Bruno Fernandes last season, I firmly believe Bruno is solely the reason he's still in the job, how many times did he bail him out last season? Too many to count. Now Bruno is underperforming see how the whole thing is going

Most importantly..

4. It isn't just 'this season' if you've been paying attention to us on the pitch for seasons now, there are a lot of matches where it felt like a win was papering over the cracks, you can look at that initial PSG win that sealed him the job as an example, we were woeful and the 3 goals we scored we couldn't have begged for more luck if we tried. At any point during the time Solskjaer has been here can you say we've been on consistently great runs of form with the odd loss or two here, it's always been, some nice wins, then horrible losses, always 1 step forward and 2 steps back. How many times, on this forum alone, have we said "Oh whenever he needs a win he gets a win" like we've had a bad run of results then somehow he pulls a result out of his ass and we go on a good run, before slipping again and then just when it looks like his job may be in trouble, he pulls out a win again. This has happened multiple times since he's been here and is the reason people thought we would actually get a result against Liverpool this past weekend, because he just has that knack of doing it when his jobs been potentially called into question.

All in all, it's been seasons of crap from a legend, who should have never got the job on a permanent basis in the first place because he was not qualified for it in the slightest, woefully undercoaching players and playing them in a counter attack or nothing system with so many cracks in it that's had about a hundred rolls of paper used to constantly cover them, all sprinkled with a little DNA and Passion. Unfortunately the foundation is what's cracking now because it's completely unsustainable, infact i'm surprised it's taken this long for everyone to see. I supposed romatic blindness will do that to you.
 

Sparky Rhiwabon

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Three obvious reasons why this was fully expected:
1. The manager and coaching staff have no track record of success in managing / coaching at this level
2. Murtough and Fletcher have no real director of football experience
3. We failed to address the midfield
 

stefan92

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Strelok said:
2. I don't think the Bailly issue you mentioned is correct. Because I haven't heard any report that Ole made such promises. Please correct me if I'm wrong though.
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I am not sure about that. I think I read about that somewhere here on the Caf, but can't give you a real source.

Anyways I am convinced that something must have happened between Bailly and Ole, when Ole rather starts an injured Maguire then him, otherwise why keep him and than not play him? There must be a reason for that that happened after the transfer window, or simply Ole is even worse at selecting a team than I think.
 

KiD MoYeS

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Joel changed internet provider and has been unable to connect to the WiFi. The last Man Utd game he has watched was the victory against Leeds.
 

sparx99

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Zen86 said:
This echoes my sentiments. We've relied on counterattacks and playing very direct football for the last couple of seasons. The opposition figured this out long ago and hence we struggled against park-the-bus type tactics. Strengthening in the summer was the catalyst to play a more aggressive and controlling brand of football, but we've struggled to get the balance right and been carved wide open as a result. Now, the team is shot of confidence and we're in somewhat of a spiral.
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The counterattacking narrative is really tiresome. 15/20 teams in the League typically sit deep against us. We've had to deal with low blocks for all of Ole's time here. Bruno improved our ability to get through them. We haven't been playing counter-attacking football outside of games against City and Liverpool.

We have more possession in almost all our games. Where I do agree is that we play too direct. We have plenty of the ball and often controlled possession in the opposition half. However, we seem to lack patience which creates loads of turnovers.
 

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teams are beating us at our own game and we haven’t adapted to the new players or tactics at all. We didn’t need Ronaldo with Cavani here and Bruno playing off him. If we hadn’t signed Ronaldo I think the squad would have found a way to stay tight and hang on in there but the narrative changed instantly when he arrived and we all know that more recently having Ronaldo guarantees you nothing only goals. We weren’t particularity short on goals. We were short on work rate and inventive play and we didn’t address any of those issues

3 more major players thrown into a squad where fringe players already don’t play. Unrest. These lads were waiting for us to fail so they could have a public whinge. Ole really needed to use the squad better and keep everyone who is under contract involved. He’s failed miserably at that
 

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ToToMarshall said:
I absolutely feckin hate saying it, but I think it might be because this is the first time under Solskjær that we have a degree of expectation to be at a certain level and potentially achieve and win.

With Ronaldo, Varane & Sancho came the pressure to go up a level and compete, and I don’t think he’s been able to handle it.
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Posted this in another thread. Maybe it's too reductionist and simplistic, I'm aware there are many issues at play - lots of them coverer by the OP, but I think that's the biggest issue.
 

LoneStar

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Ole has always refused to manage the squad properly. In that he always has played a lot of his best players to the ground. And not given chances to other players. His subs during the game also reflects this, always too late and makes weird subs.

Ole has always talked about progress and how he needs time to deliver trophies. Fair enough, but it's now the third season and the expectations were to improve on 2nd, which is to win trophies.

Now take that and add Sancho, Varane and Ronaldo in the summer. Massive expectations going into the season. A very top heavy squad and a manager who refuses to give fringe players a chance. It was bound to end in discontent among the players.

In addition, he has no clue how to play Sancho and Ronaldo, but has to play them cause they are big money signings. Combine this with poor form of our defenders (Maguire and Shaw) coming into the season.
 

Luffy

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I think people like Ole, and other also rans are quick to get their coaching badges (I guess degrees would be a better word) and do the least amount of studying to reach as fast as possible to a managerial hotseat. This is true of Ole, Keane, Nevilles (need I say it), Southgate (who seems to have been born with a silver shovel in his mouth) and even a semi successful coach like Gerrard. These people look like muppets when getting outfought and outthought. Serves them right. France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the bigger South American countries know the merit of hard work.

These so called coaches want everything, and want it on their terms. Football is a great leveler. Someone as low key as Nagelsmann can now tower over the class of 92 and Souness and countless other pretenders to get things done and get aims achievable, if not achieved.

Already, it seems like football is moving too fast for these premature prima donnas and premature dinosaurs. A decade ago, the key to good coaching was repetition of passing movements in the training ground. Repetition is no longer prized. Now the key word is experiential learning. It is present at the forefront in all areas of professional life these days, but is a concept that has been around since the 80s.

Remember when Kante et al were considered finished under Lampard? Now they are bee's knees once more. It's all due to experiential learning, which is to show the results and work the process backwards. It also means role playing (i.e. practising football scenarios in limited space) and understanding the entire plan of the team. The right back cannot switch off when the coach is talking about the attackers. This is all not anything new. The riches available to coaches are there. It's all in the masters equivalent of football, but few 'elite' people in England take these higher classes.
 

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We went back to video game Fergie nostalgia football, with no system to make it work.

Ole once put out this vs City in the league cup:

Almost 2 years later and we're doing the same thing with better players.
 

DickDastardly

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First and foremost - team selection.

Staying in the comfort zone for too long.
He's so used to playing Fred and McTominay that he doesnt have a clue what to do if one of them is injured.
Usually just puts Matić there and then we pick on Nemanja being to slow, etc...

Maguire completely out of form.
Shaw out of form.
Varane injured too early to gel in.
AWB out of position far too often - that's nothing new - the boy couldn't keep his position last season, but he somehow got away with it by flexing the tackles.

That's the whole defence out of form/position.

The Pogba conundrum. Don't know where to play him, don't know how to use him + he keeps putting on very low performances when things aren't going our way.

The Ronaldo conundrum. Yes, he's a scorer. As everbody before me already said, Cavani put in a shift more, our attackers are more used to fluidity and Ronaldo doesn't provide that.

And that's basically it - our defense is out of form, out of position.
Our midfield is non existant/easily overrideable.
And our attack is not fluid enough.

Add in the national team breaks, injured Varane, covid crap with Cavani and Fred and you get what we get - disjointed team performances.

Liverpool just took advantage because they are a 36 months well oiled machine with a sublime Salah.
 

Ixion

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When Ole decided we'll play this you score 3 we'll score 4 system but forgot we still need to actually score those 4.
 

Yik

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For us to have had such a calamitous few weeks after the summer and the start we had, its almost a black swan event. For me the key isn't Cristiano but the horrifying loss in form of half of the team, Maguire, Shaw, Fred especially, in conjunction with the kamikaze tactics and poor coaching. What is truly mystifying is the seeming lack of any correction of mistakes/tactics game to game. This was of course epitomised by the last two matches where genuinely any layman watching the Atalanta game would know personnel/tactics needed to be changed. It would have been alarming in say, 1971 when I imagine coaches didn't have the benefit of rewatching matches but to happen in this day and age is truly flabbergasting.

Another example of our coaches seeming to have match amnesia is how often we get countered on our own attacking corners. It's happened so often this season with absolutely no sign of us having corrected it, that you must imagine every single team we face gleefully instructing their teams to attack this weakness of ours.

Another theory I have is that for some reason the return of crowds has hampered us much more than any other team. We're obviously having more difficulty playing away this season, hence the reason our mythical record ended. Whats puzzling is why this would hamper us at home, for which I have no obvious answer. Other than the games we smashed Leeds and Newcastle in, we genuinely seem to be still playing as though it was behind closed doors (i.e. for all away teams that come here its not really something that hampers them), again the best example being the Liverpool game. This despite rocking atmospheres all throughout the season. My guess is that the players, because they're not coached well, react to the crowd more than they should, i.e. raising the attacking tempo or pressing or shooting when shots aren't on. Instead of doing this in a controlled manner, I feel our players either overdo it and leave us exposed at the back or worse, they play as if 75,000 fans weren't singing their hearts out and play as if it was a behind closed doors match nullifying our home advantage. Either way it comes down to the manager to spot this and correct it.
 
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RopersReturn

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It’s been said before, but I think we’ve got a talented set of players with bags of expertise, but they look under-coached so consequently are playing individually. Tactically, the game has moved on in last 10-15 years, primarily- high press (Gegenpress) relentless possession (TickyTac).It’s no coincidence that the three most successful teams, Chelsea, Liverpool & City have adopted these styles of play with great success.
 

Offside

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The Young Boys game was big I reckon. Club morale as high as it had been in years then we go 1-0 up early. When the red card happened, that’s when Ole really earns his money and our game plan failed miserably.

The better players we have, the more the dressing room will lose faith in their manager. That’s what has happened here.
 

Dante

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We've spent the last 3+ years as a counterattacking team. The defenders could always count on what each other were doing. The midfielders were (mostly) in sync. The attackers' only job was to score on the end of quick attacks.

Then Ronaldo and Varane came and Ole decided to change his strategy.

In 2021/22, we've started playing a possession game further up the pitch so that CR7 could goal-hang and be at his dangerous best. To help with that high line, the defenders are also being asked to take more individual responsibility instead of relying on primarily on teamwork. Maguire in particular has gone from being sweeper style defender into an aggressive presser, and got caught out of position numerous times.

Basically, everything Ole (and to an extent Jose) has developed in terms of on-the-pitch identity has been thrown away this season. Luckily, his dressing room reforms should still be in place for the next manager. There's huge untapped potential in this side that Solksjaer hasn't been able to tease out, despite being the one who built it.
 

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Ali Dia said:
teams are beating us at our own game and we haven’t adapted to the new players or tactics at all. We didn’t need Ronaldo with Cavani here and Bruno playing off him. If we hadn’t signed Ronaldo I think the squad would have found a way to stay tight and hang on in there but the narrative changed instantly when he arrived and we all know that more recently having Ronaldo guarantees you nothing only goals. We weren’t particularity short on goals. We were short on work rate and inventive play and we didn’t address any of those issues

3 more major players thrown into a squad where fringe players already don’t play. Unrest. These lads were waiting for us to fail so they could have a public whinge. Ole really needed to use the squad better and keep everyone who is under contract involved. He’s failed miserably at that
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I can only think that Cavani and Ronaldo (both fine players), were box office signings, essentially to sell shirts etc.
 

Rampant Red Rodriguez

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No new blood in midfield. And maybe OGS needs a help moving the team tactics forward.. Injury to very important players hasn't helped.. And neither have Traore/Pellistri, whom with Sancho led to double spending on the RW and yet thus far we've continued to play Greenwood.. But the midfield opinion is my biggest criticism and concern though, we're desperate for legs in CM to properly protect the back 4.
 

Strelok

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stefan92 said:
I am not sure about that. I think I read about that somewhere here on the Caf, but can't give you a real source.

Anyways I am convinced that something must have happened between Bailly and Ole, when Ole rather starts an injured Maguire then him, otherwise why keep him and than not play him? There must be a reason for that that happened after the transfer window, or simply Ole is even worse at selecting a team than I think.
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Maybe you're right it's not really important anyway.

But imo the decision to reward Bailly with a new contract is not entirely on Ole as we all know our stupid "protecting our assets' value" strategy. With him being very injury prone I don't think it's easy to find a buyer who is ready to pay what we paid for him. I haven't heard of any transfer rumour regarding Bailly in the summer either I think.
 

Zlatanator

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stefan92 said:
Ronaldo's signing is a problem I believe, because I think it messed up Ole's planning. I am quite sure that he would have liked to play a front three of Rashford, Greenwood and Sancho this season, due to Rashfords injury maybe Pogba on the left for the first games.

But now Ronaldo blocks the CF position, Greenwood is stuck on the right were he does feck all except sometimes scoring a great goal, Sancho is stuck on the left and does not understand how that happened, Bruno and Ronaldo don't work well for the national team and are just replicating that.

At the back you have a similar situation, Varane was signed while Ole apparently also made promises to Bailly that he would play more, and this does not work out at all.

Midfield is obviosly an old story now, where van de Beek does not get a chance.

So my guess is, that the summer signings and their usage in the first games brought some unrest to players who expected to play more or in a different position and maybe that caused a rift between them and Ole that lead to him not trusting them anymore, but focusing on his core of players even more. And that is something that we might see spiraling out of conrrol at the moment.
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Totally agree with Ronaldo's assessment. I feel he was the prime reason why Ole is in this situation. But we have to blame Ole for not finding a way to feed Ronaldo even after playing a handful of games.
 

Stactix

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I think it's simply a case of Ole being out of his depth. Been reading about his time at Molde and his successor has a much better PPG than him and at times their fans wanted Ole gone.

My issues with the team currently,

Horrendous decision making,
Mistakes, mistakes mistakes.
Poor use of the squad, over reliance on favourites. Sorry but this is the most obvious of the issues, players can consistently be shite but are right back on the team sheet. While some players actually have a good game, then never seen again.
Despite poor performances and injuries their is extremely limited use of the youngsters.


I've been up and down with Ole since he arrived, the board have proven just how fecking incompetent they are though with their 'contract renewals'
Atleast with Van Gaal, Utd won something and was bloody brilliant for chucking youth in. Wouldn't take him back but atleast he had a plan.

Even if Utd made it to the FA Cup Final, Ole won't have a clue as proven in the Europa League.
 

Rood

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Summer tournament hangover for several players and most of all Maguire and Shaw (who have clearly been off form all season) who also had the double whammy of losing TWO finals on penalties - mentally not easy to recover

Ole should have used the squad more to let these players ease into the season - instead he threw them straight in plus rushed them back from injury

This is a major reason that our defensive stats have fallen off a cliff

There are other factors too which add to this: attempt to play more progressive style, unsettled midfield due to McFred unavailability, integrating new players etc
 

Yik

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I'm pretty sure the amount of times we fell behind last season (and this) would rival relegation threatened teams. It was puzzling to us all why this happened but because we'd usually come back, it got brushed away. With crowds back (at home but especially away) going a goal down has a completely different psychological effect I imagine. Last year it was almost like a Fifa game when goals went in, short celebration(which any ethical player skips) and back to kick off.
 

ExoduS

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New signings we're integrated poorly. Too many stars or wannabe starts. Too many mouths to feed. Too little planning on how to integrate new team members. We sold a squad player (James) while keeping wannabe starters.

Ronaldo brought too much of an imbalance to the team where Cavani and Martial can't play anymore and where Greenwood plays out of position.

Ronaldo signing so far appears to be a big, big f**k up. He actually didnt make anyone better but made everyone around him unhappy.

Ole offcourse is too weak of a manager for a player like Ronaldo is.
 

Artimities

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When I look at the team from top to bottom... it looks and feels more like a Fifa Ultimate team than an actual club. I see so many posts talking about we need a quality this or a world class this and we are good, but we have more than 98% of the other clubs in the world. On top of players, its fans, revenue, exposure, history... I can go on and on.
So to me its a simple solution with a complicated means of solving it.
As I mentioned above, we have too many of the same type of players on our team. Pogba, Bruno and Ronaldo are 3 world class players that are all capable of elite play and moments.... but.... they cant all play together because it throws the chemistry and all of the other little things that other players can bring out the window.
Rashford, Greenwood, Sancho, Lindgard ... and I know we have others that I cant think of right now.. they are all basically the same type of players.
In the short term, we need somebody to come in and tactically work with what we have and build a cohesive unit from that, instead of trying to put an all-star team out every time.
Long term, we need somebody that can manage talent. Ole is not the right man. I love the guy but he is too nice and not what this team needs.

So to answer the question as to where it all went wrong...
I am going out on a limb and say that it hasn't yet.
Our next game is absolutely the biggest game this club has seen in a while. It sets the tone for the Champions League match and if we don't at least draw in that we are potentially out of the group stage and then I can say it has all gone south.
 

RedStarUnited

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Ronaldo this, Ronaldo that...

I feel like some of you have forgotten what it was like last season. Did we not set a record for the most come backs or something?

We have been conceding and going down in games for over a year. It was going to catch up to us eventually, and it has.
 

Real Name

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ExoduS said:
New signings we're integrated poorly. Too many stars or wannabe starts. Too many mouths to feed. Too little planning on how to integrate new team members. We sold a squad player (James) while keeping wannabe starters.

Ronaldo brought too much of an imbalance to the team where Cavani and Martial can't play anymore and where Greenwood plays out of position.

Ronaldo signing so far appears to be a big, big f**k up. He actually didnt make anyone better but made everyone around him unhappy.

Ole offcourse is too weak of a manager for a player like Ronaldo is.
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Who did Ronaldo make unhappy?
 

Marwood

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Saw another poster sum it up as a failure to transition from a counter attacking team to a possession team and now we're neither. I think that's spot on.

Main culprit in that failure is too many guys who don't keep the ball.
 

wattsy7

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There’s a few potential factors I believe.

  • A change from counter attacking style to a more pressing style
  • Ronaldo signing has changed the balance of our attack in & out of possession
  • Unrest from players who aren't getting games eg Van De Beek
  • Players out of form
  • Inexperienced coaching staff struggling with all of the above
  • This may not have a direct link to 1st team performance but the lack of organisation behind the scenes eg Murtough & Fletcher roles can’t help
  • I believe there was also a big increase in our data science department in the summer, perhaps the players aren’t buying into that, who knows
 

Zen86

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sparx99 said:
The counterattacking narrative is really tiresome. 15/20 teams in the League typically sit deep against us. We've had to deal with low blocks for all of Ole's time here. Bruno improved our ability to get through them. We haven't been playing counter-attacking football outside of games against City and Liverpool.

We have more possession in almost all our games. Where I do agree is that we play too direct. We have plenty of the ball and often controlled possession in the opposition half. However, we seem to lack patience which creates loads of turnovers.
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I'm not saying all we are is a counterattacking team, but we're certainly a team set up to play direct football and our best moments over the last few years have generally been in the form of counterattacks. Many teams do shut up shop against us, but we've never coped particularly well against it and have often been vulnerable to conceding ourselves. Generally speaking, the more we've tried to impose ourselves the more vulnerable we have become.
 
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