Just because he’s doing a better job now doesn’t mean previous criticism was not justified. This principle that if a striker ever scores again it makes any and all previous criticism of his performances null and void is so pervasive in all areas of football chat these days.
You’re allowed to criticise something that then improves without being attacked for when you criticised when criticism was valid. Else we’ll all be afraid to say anything in case the goalkeeper that drops a clanger goes on to make a world class save within the next three months
That's not necessarily true. Not if the criticism wasn't just about how things are going right now. Conclusions are drawn from that about how things are going to look further ahead, as well as about why things are going as they are.
It's all very well to criticise a striker who isn't scoring. But if you're arguing that he's not scoring because he's shit, that the manager is guilty of a grave lack of judgment for giving him chances and that we're never going to win with him in the lineup, and he
then goes on to start scoring and establish himself as a key contributor, that means you were wrong about all of those things, and that those points in your criticism were
not valid. You will have made the mistake of drawing unwarranted and hasty conclusions about the player, confusing a temporary tough spell with more fundamental shortcomings. Rather than argue "He needs to get better if he's going to warrant his place in the team", you argued "He's not good enough for this team, and the manager is making a mistake in playing him".
And so it goes with this issue. The problem is not that people were unhappy after the Tottenham or Arsenal games, and felt that wasn't good enough. It wasn't. The problem was that there were lots of people who were happy to conclude that Ole was an incompetent, clueless manager, that we were going nowhere, that half the squad was shit and that we'd never get anywhere with this manager and/or these players. All of those things were wrong, and there was no reason to draw those conclusions at that time. There was already at that time no shortage of experience over the last year to suggest that the progress has been real, as long as you were prepared to think in a longer perspective than the last few games.
In any case, I'm sure we're all happy that things are going well and if people have changed their stance that's great, and also to be expected in view of the results. No shame in that. But it'd also be great if many people would remember this the next time we hit a bump. Which we will.