Very much agree that we are on an upward trajectory, very much agree that Ole should not be held responsible even if we do not make the Champions League. You are right, the overall points total is poor. However, we have to contextualise it against the backdrop of the current season. Similar to when we won the title in 2010/11 with an unusually low amount of points.
Ole has made mistakes but, in the main, its hard to think of another manager who would have done much better given the circumstances. I think, most people agreed, our squad was thin going into the season. Everyone was worried about what would happen if we lost Pogba, Martial or Rashford. As it is we lost all of them for months at a time. The players we called on in their absence just weren't good enough to keep us competitive. That is not Ole's fault, its the fault of the administration of the club allowing its ranks to be filled with players who aren't good enough.
In the context of City's FFP shenanigans, Pep has taken to saying that the best teams need the best players and that's why they spend money. Despite him using this as a get out for City's sportswashing he's right. Even if Johan Cruyff was raised from the tomb like Lazarus to be Ole's replacement, he could not make Andreas into Michael Laudrup. With the tools available to him Ole has done well. When he had middling players we got middling results. When he had better players he got better results. Yes, managers are important, but there's a limit to how much impact they can really have. Klopp, for example, is a great manager (though it pains me to say it) but Klopp couldn't make Karius into Ederson or Lovren into Van Dijk. Sometimes you just need better players.
Our current struggles are down less to Ole and more to the physical and psychological strain on our first XI. Harry Maguire even admitted in his interview last night that they've pretty much not been training because they've had two days for recovery. People say Ole should rotate more. However, taking the players out that improved our second half of the season results would be relying on the players that got us our first half of the season results and expecting something wildly different to happen. That's close to the definition of madness.
In the main our squad is not good enough. We have a strong first XI and then, sadly, players who I am not sure would get into the squads of West Ham, Watford, Aston Villa, Bournemouth or Norwich. Long gone are the days when a Nicky Butt could leave United in search of game time and become central to Newcastle, or Phil Neville could leave United and become captain of Everton. Sides like Sheffield United and Burnley wouldn't have any need for an Andreas Pereira etc So its no surprise that we struggle against them when we don't have our very strongest players available.
That's not Ole's fault, that's the fault of the administration that's allowed this squad to be created. Regularly renewing the contracts of players who clearly aren't good enough on big wages, making any manager's job of freeing up budget for new signings who might be much more difficult.
