I think signing Ronaldo, on top of Sancho, and also clinging on to Lingard, has been a mistake in developing Amad and Hannibal. With James and Lingard gone, and no Ronaldo there would have been lots of minutes for Amad and I’m sure he’d have produced.
Hannibal is slightly different as I think he should get minutes further back on the field as well. Playing a 3-man midfield, rather than a double pivot would maybe stop you getting pulled apart. But you’d then have the issue with Bruno, maybe. I actually think he could be great in a 3 but OGS wouldn’t try that or make it work.
Your transfer have got better but the summer was a bit of a mess considering the amount invested in Amad and Hannibal. It suggests Murtough and OGS aren’t really on the same page to me. Or, Murtough doesn’t have the power he should have. He should be given the scope to let the likes of Lingard go and block daft spur of the moment signings like Ronaldo.
It does seem like they aren't on the same page which I can understand because Solskjaer predates Murtough the DoF. And when that happens, the manager still has significant control when it come to shaping the team and long-term vision/direction of the football side of the club, which is well documented. But some control has been wrestled away from the manager as we all know and I'm expecting the recruitment department to assume control if/when a new head coach is appointed.
I do believe Amad Diallo was a club signing and is a natural for the right sided role. And I also believe Solskjaer should've integrated Diallo into the team which would've aided his development and spent the Sancho money on midfield. And don't get me wrong I do rate Sancho but he's not a right winger and whether he's deployed left or right, he will look to cut in field so he's best deployed cutting in on his stronger right foot. In the Europa league final Emery started a 18 year old Pino on the flank and it seemed like Solskjaer was afraid to even use Diallo off the bench. And for me Diallo is a bigger talent in comparison to the Villarreal kid.
I also hear that the team is imbalanced now and it's easy to see why. Midfield has been neglected when we easily could've strengthened it. We had Pogba at the club and decided to add Bruno Fernandes to the team, when I think we should've signed a player who would either come into play in the double pivot or help us transition to a 4-3-3. But instead what happened was we caused a even bigger problem by trying to shoe horn both Pogba and Bruno into the same line up which has also contributed to the imbalance in the team. Pogba should've been sold once Fernandes was signed, and it further demonstrates the naivety of the inexperienced coaching staff imo.
I also have no doubt that under a manager who implements a proactive brand of football, we'd see the likes of VdB, Amad, and Hannibal, utilised much more, which would also save us a lot of money in the transfer market. You can't build teams without making best use of the resources already at your disposal which is something we've failed to do with the current manager imo. And if he had integrated Amad and Hannibal into the team then maybe we could say he's definitely building a team and could've maybe defended him. But unfortunately that isn't the case and it does look like a new coach will be required which will not only potentially help the more established players but also the young players. Someone like ten Hag would be extremely beneficial in that regard and has shown he can bring through talented youth and remain competitive at the highest level (Champions League).