If the squad is so poor, then how is last season's winning streak explained?

vangagal

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Not a single post on pressing, how it’s done. What was the difference then and now. Not a single post. The difference then and now was the team managed to stay compact. After all the injuries they lost that part, and it’s still missing now. That was the key success factor at the beginning. I don’t know if anyone noticed, but that was actually an improvement last night. The team pressed when compact and stand off when they are not. Key factor when you don’t have the legs in the team. Could also write an essay on that unbalance effecting runs and rythm on the play, which again makes players look for easy options on the passing. But what’s the point. Ole probably didn’t work enough on Fred’s passing and Matic defense runs last week, so he is shit..
Write it then Sherlock. No ones gonna stop you
 

Tony Banta

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No need for such a long analysis, Pogba and Martial were integral to the winning streak. Both got injured and it fecked us completely - simple
Except Pogba and Martial both played in defeats v Arsenal, Wolves, Everton, Man City.

Pogba played in the draw v Chelsea, Martial was an unused sub.

Only Pogba played v Huddersfield. (1-1)

Both were again present v Cardiff (0-2)

They were integral in our poor run of results.
 

redshaw

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New manager bounce was part of it but we also had Matic playing his last good games with Herrera back in the team and Pogba more forward. It showed what we can be if we have a once class player like Matic playing well holding with someone like Herrera. Ole came in he was all about entertaining football and had nothing to lose. The run was a lot longer than a manager bounce and it got stopped with injuries to Matic Herrera Pogba, we went counter attack and have been since. Matic was back to being poor, Herrera then didn't feature much with his contract or alleged injuries.

We can't re-enact that 4-3-3, we needed to replace Matic and Herrera and we did neither. McTom could just now step in but we still have an issue with Matic and Fred not being able to do the job so we go with Pogba playing deep in a 2
 

vangagal

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I would have got rid of the lot and added 7 players. Herrera was good but I don't like having decent players threatening us. Unfortunately our transfer people are incompetent. In such circumstances keeping herrera was a must

If I was ole in January I would go on players at their last 1-2 years of contract. Fraser would cover both flanks, Verratti will take herrera's role releasing Pogba in a more advanced position while milik would add options upfront. That can save our season
Hence why i said keep him or buy new midfields but none of it happened.

I even take Matuidi or Kondogbia for now if it means Pogba can freely operated up front.
 

bosnian_red

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Teams go through winning runs and losing runs, a big part of being a good manager is keeping the confidence high and keeping those winning runs going while also stopping a bad run and bouncing back. Fergie always did that, Pep and Klopp almost always do it. Ole hasn't really shown he is capable of turning the tide effectively. Its going to change eventually of course, but big clubs need to do it asap.

Also our team is young and very confidence driven, so by nature it'll be inconsistent and have bad runs. Again, Ole's job is to find a way to get them more consistency, get their confidence back and get results on the pitch. I do think he has a good chunk of positives in his time here, and at full fitness with normal confidence I think we'd be a good side (like we've shown at times). Unfortunately that's been way too scarce.
 

devilish

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Hence why i said keep him or buy new midfields but none of it happened.

I even take Matuidi or Kondogbia for now if it means Pogba can freely operated up front.
I would avoid getting more golden oldies. I would go for players from smaller teams who can improve us and we can build a team around

If milik doesn't persuade our physios then belotti could be an option
 

Zlatattack

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You think I am happy with us letting load of players go and not replacing them? You think I am happy watching laboured football?
NO to both.

But I am not going to make myself feel better by saying, oh we should have kept Herrera like he some sort of WC player who would transform this team.
I think we're all pissed off. I don't even look forward to the football anymore. Haven't done in months.
 

Rozay

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For a start, the squad was arguably stronger.
 

Ventura

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As mentioned, we had Herrera (<-- important player) and a Lukaku who was delivering goals to an extent, and Lingard was in some sort of form, in addition to the sudden excitement at getting rid of Mr. Toxic. Once the window closed without replacing them, everybody should immediately know this would be a rough season, so what we're seeing unfold now, shouldn't be any surprise. Mata and Matic may have been done last season, but they are now even doner, Pereira, Lingard and Fred never had it in the first place and should be at Southampton. There's still not a right winger in the squad since ... not sure when, actually. We depend heavily on Martial for goals, who is injured. The squad is in an absolutely baffling state to the point where I'm rubbing my eyes in disbelief! Good luck sorting all of that out simply by firing the manager.
 

He'sRaldo

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Good luck sorting all of that out simply by firing the manager.
And that's the question, isn't it? Can a different manager salvage this season given the (lack of) quality and numbers?
 
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Sir Scott McToMinay

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They were coached by a world class manager but felt shackled by him as well.
Jose as a coach and Ole as an assistant would’ve worked well imo, Jose would’ve been the bad cop, and Ole would’ve been the good cop telling the players how good they are whilst Jose was drilling them into a well coached side through pain and tears.
 

roseguy64

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I thought about this too and came up with;

1. New manager bounce.
2. Herrera was playing in the midfield. Now he didn't do anything special, but he did enough to mean Pogba could do the special stuff.
3. Lingard was in really good form, probably form of his life.
4. Shaw, Martial, Rashford, Lingard, Pogba were all fit. Right now they're injured to varying degrees and they are our attacking capability. Outside of these players we have no attack.
5. We still had Lukaku who could score goals, albeit in patches and usually against the lesser sides.
6. We played 433 with attacking intent not 4231 relying on the counter.

The new manager magic wore off pretty quick. With Herrera gone, we have nobody to free up Pogba (we need McTomminay to replace Matic who's turned to rubbish). Lingards run of form ended ages ago. 4 out of these 5 players are injured, Lukaku has left and not been replaced, and we've been found out on the counter, we have no plan B.
Lingard has better form for us than last season. When we finished 2nd he was winning matches for us.
 

roseguy64

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Well I did say that in the post. Also should point out that Lukaku had a hot scoring streak in that period but still got frozen out. It does seem like single point of failure territory and after 9 months there has been no robustness or plan B implemented.

Point of thread is a rebuttal to the poor squad argument that is used to justify what we are seeing now. We had a top 6 squad at least, we don't now, and it was a bad way of going about a rebuild, responsibility for which lies with the manager.
Was Lukaku frozen out or did he not play because he got injured? The latter IIRC. He was definitely told that Rashford would be first choice though which explains this summer.
 

Canagel

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Paul Pogba. He basically gave Solskjaer the full time job playing in his preferred position.
 

Irwin99

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If you look at the stats of when Herrera was in the team and out it's a big difference if I remember correctly. He got injured around the first tie in the PSG game but before that he was in fantastic form. Weird that people almost completely brush aside his contribution to that period and his form in the 16/17 season. Anyway, other factors:

The 4-3-3 and the form of Pogba was pivotal
Good level of pressing
Little bit of luck also. DDG in cheat mode vs Spurs last season, the PSG game was a complete freak result.
Lukaku did make a decent contribution- remember the games against Arsenal in the FA Cup and PSG
Oppo teams struggled to figure us out I think after two years of Jose.
 

Lee565

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I'm not buying this "poor Ole, how can he do anything with this team".

Look at where Leicester were at when Puel was sacked and where they are now under Rodgers. Since he took over he lost supposedly Leicester's best world class centre back Maguire and his only additions were Perez and praet, these are 2 players that our fans would have used as examples of our lack of quality to excuse the poor form under Ole had we signed them, and yet Rodgers has greatly improved Leicester city to the point they look stronger favourites to finish top 4 than us under Ole where expectations have now been lowered to a club lucky to be a top 8 side now.
 
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Camilo

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He's our very own Tim Sherwood. Except quite possibly far worse...
 

Rob67

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It’s a fairly simple explanation that has been provided by many posters previously.

1. Players delighted to be free after Mourinho’s reign. In particular Pogba who was great for a month or 2.
2. The perfect fixture schedule for a new manager to come in.
3. Squad depth worse than ever now with Herrera & Lukaku gone. Who despite not being the cafs favourites, were vital squad members.

We fecked up big time appointing Ole. As much as I love the man, he has no clue what he is doing. Even in the dark times under Klopp, it was clear they were working towards something promising. We have none of that going on. No progress whatsoever.

Despite making 3 good signings, it wasn’t nearly enough. I don’t know what the board were thinking but you can’t expect to sell Lukaku and hope his goal contribution will be magically implemented after his departure. An absolute disgrace we didn’t bring in a replacement. Our midfield has feck all quality or depth, which was common knowledge before the season started.
Brilliant post El-Manos. Agree 100% with every word.
The massive problems we're having was totally expected. It really isn't rocket science as to the reasons why.
 

hn4manunited

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New manager bounce was part of it but we also had Matic playing his last good games with Herrera back in the team and Pogba more forward. It showed what we can be if we have a once class player like Matic playing well holding with someone like Herrera. Ole came in he was all about entertaining football and had nothing to lose. The run was a lot longer than a manager bounce and it got stopped with injuries to Matic Herrera Pogba, we went counter attack and have been since. Matic was back to being poor, Herrera then didn't feature much with his contract or alleged injuries.

We can't re-enact that 4-3-3, we needed to replace Matic and Herrera and we did neither. McTom could just now step in but we still have an issue with Matic and Fred not being able to do the job so we go with Pogba playing deep in a 2
bravo. Most reasonable and complete when it comes to all the reason why. If you add to your list of things; a run of poorer teams, the key players wanting to show how good they can be after Jose got the sack, then that pretty much covers everything.
 

fastwalker

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Apologies if there is a thread that is already devoted to this, I haven't seen it. Some of this has been argued about in the Ole Performances thread, but I felt a specific thread could help focus the issue.

The main argument I've seen from fans who want to give Ole more time, is that no other manager would be able to get any more out of this squad of players.

I've given it thought, but come to the conclusion that this just defies logic. When Ole came in, he talked up the potential of the squad. We also went on that winning streak, picking up 35 points from the first 14 games, which was title winning form. Not only that but the football being played was expansive and free flowing. We spent a lot time winning games and looking like we were going to win games.

If you compare that to this season's form and the form from the tail end of last season I see teams that are world's apart (despite a brief upsurge right at the start of the season). We do look dismal it has to be said. There seems to be little evidence of a finely tuned, well-oiled machine which has a clear setup and method of penetrating other teams. We are toothless in attack, creating few chances from open play. Many of the players seem to have regressed to shadows of what they're capable of. Fred, our £50m signing from Brazil, looks like a bona fide pub player. Rashford is becoming a meme version of himself that now blazes free kicks over the bar from a ridiculous angle, instead of whipping the ball into the box when we're chasing a game. Lingard has become entirely impotent as an attacking threat and is widely derided by the fanbase. DDG is not looking like the unbeatable force he once was and now you're worried every game he might let a routine save creep in. Pogba, by far our best player, is cutting a disconsolate figure who might only stay if we agree to pay him the GDP of a small country.

To me this all indicates squad mis-management. And the logical conclusion to that is that Ole has to be the person who is responsible for this, this is his remit. He talked up the squad when he got the job, but now it looks like the goalposts are moving. All of a sudden the squad is not good enough and somehow we are now overachieving with this squad by getting to midtable!

From my perspective, I am sad to say that I don't think Ole is a good manager. I don't think he's a good tactical manager or even that good a motivator. The impression I get is that his main failure is trying to be SAF-lite. Whereas SAF was respected, liked and - most crucially - feared, Ole seems to be mainly liked and to a lesser extent, respected. Ole seems to be too chummy with some of the players, calling them nicknames and the like, while at the same time he has alienated others, such as Lukaku and Matic, to our detriment. Say what you want about those players, I would probably agree with you, but I get the feeling that a top manager like SAF would have kept those players on side and got what he needed out of them. Instead, Lukaku felt justifiably frozen out and was sold. Fair enough, but a bit dumb (this is being kind) when no replacement has been lined up ready to bring in. It indicates a serious and concerning lack of foresight.

I think he is good at making his favourites in the squad feel great about themselves, but terrible at giving harsh doses of reality and the hairdryer when it's required. And that would indicate that he would rather be liked than respected. Which is not a bad quality in a person, but it's not what is required to manage an elite football club.

What should be said I think, is that Ole's plan A works. When all players are fit and available, we look very capable. Pogba, Martial, James and Rashford (when he is not in Rashinaldo mode) are a potent attacking force and we saw it in the first couple of games of the season, I thought we were unlucky at Wolves. Additionally the players brought in have been successes in general, but can this be said to be a real success? If you spend £80m on a centre back, you really should bloody hope they turn out to be good for you.

But our strength is incredibly brittle. Injuries to Pogba and Martial make 'midtable side' seem like a generous description. Whereas elite managers rely more on their systems than individual players; ie. when one player is injured, another albeit less quality player can fulfil the same role in the interim. Conversely, Ole's system seems to be very easily ruptured in more of a 'single point of failure' kind of way.

And this is what defines Ole as a poor manager to me. There is no indication of any system being developed that is capable of withstanding external stressors and pulls the maximum out of the considerable resources we have available. We simply should not be this bad, despite any injuries.

Additionally, the man-management has been poor. Freezing out Lukaku with no replacement. Indulging Rashford and giving the OK to the club to press ahead with his superstar contract with no evidence that he could be relied upon in the event of injuries or sale of other players reeks of post-peak Rooney with Moyes. Dybala would only come for stupid money as a result of these kinds of deals. Furthermore, there is talk of renewing Lingard's contract, Pogba also looks disillusioned and wants ridiculous money to stick around. £50m worth of Brazilian talent that was also coveted by Guardiola is now in abject freefall. Mata looks shot despite being only 31 and having never relied upon pace as part of his game anyway

Ole simply doesn't have the mettle of a SAF, the resoluteness to create a true siege mentality that can withstand the incredible stress that comes with being Manchester United. After 9 months the squad shows no signs of being greater than the sum of its' parts. He lacks innovation tactically, which probably could have been said of SAF as well, but SAF knew how to bring the right people in could fulfil this role for him. And to top it all off the players are looking worse than ever. Tepid, uninspiring performances are the order of the day

The red flags with this appointment keep piling up and I find blaming the squad an unacceptable excuse. There is enough talent in the squad to be comfortably top 6 form, and to put more than one goal past Astana. It is Ole's job to get the most out of the squad, to get the £50m version of Fred back. To ring the last drops out of Matic and Mata's career. To instil Gomes as the next bright English talent in the #10 role. To come down on Rashford like a ton of bricks for his over indulgent and reckless disregard for the team. To implement a system that allows these players to shine for him.

Ole is a nice guy, a club legend who clearly loves the club and it's deeply offensive when posters here personally insult him. But there is no way that he is elite, or I think, even top half manager material. And the sooner the penny drops with the fanbase, the better I say.
Excellent post. Every United fan should read this. Really excellent post.
 

Walters_19_MuFc

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Think he wanted more players, didn't he? He didn't exactly make it publicly known as much as Mourinho did, for example, but just the other day he said he wanted a striker to replace Lukaku. I also think he wanted another winger. Unfortunately, the board didn't or couldn't get Ole what he wanted. That said, Ole is extremely naive going into the season with the midfield and attacking options he has and thinking it was good enough. Even if the team performed well when he had taken over, as a manager, you're always wanting to improve your squad.

Going forward, it's really too early to judge whether he's the right man. I mean, we can't keep getting rid of managers, can we? Who would do better with this current crop of players? Jose couldn't and he's meant to be one of the best managers going.

Ole needs time to build his team. We had a big issue with our defence last season. Leaking goals left, right and centre. Ole obviously thought it was priority to start with the foundation of our team and address our defensive issues. By no means is it perfect, but so far we do look stronger as a defensive unit.

He now needs time to sort the midfield and attacking issues, because lets be honest, our squad is a mess. Not only in terms of ability, but balance.

Next season, if Ole is still here - and I hope he is, he can focus on getting a couple of midfielders and a couple of attackers (that's not including the striker that we'll hopefully get in January. Hopefully then we will start to see better and more consistent performances.
 

Walters_19_MuFc

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Not a single post on pressing, how it’s done. What was the difference then and now. Not a single post. The difference then and now was the team managed to stay compact. After all the injuries they lost that part, and it’s still missing now. That was the key success factor at the beginning. I don’t know if anyone noticed, but that was actually an improvement last night. The team pressed when compact and stand off when they are not. Key factor when you don’t have the legs in the team. Could also write an essay on that unbalance effecting runs and rythm on the play, which again makes players look for easy options on the passing. But what’s the point. Ole probably didn’t work enough on Fred’s passing and Matic defense runs last week, so he is shit..
Pressings all well and good, but it doesn't put the ball in the back of the net.

Even when we win the ball high up, some of our attacking players lack the decision making to capitalise on the oppositions mistakes. They're young and learning, but pressing is certainly not the only factor.
 

Rood

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Well I did say that in the post. Also should point out that Lukaku had a hot scoring streak in that period but still got frozen out. It does seem like single point of failure territory and after 9 months there has been no robustness or plan B implemented.

Point of thread is a rebuttal to the poor squad argument that is used to justify what we are seeing now. We had a top 6 squad at least, we don't now, and it was a bad way of going about a rebuild, responsibility for which lies with the manager.
Well it was clearly mistake to get rid of Lukaku and Sanchez without any replacement, but is that all on the manager? He's been.pretty open that he did want to bring someone else in

Except Pogba and Martial both played in defeats v Arsenal, Wolves, Everton, Man City.

Pogba played in the draw v Chelsea, Martial was an unused sub.

Only Pogba played v Huddersfield. (1-1)

Both were again present v Cardiff (0-2)

They were integral in our poor run of results.
I thought it was pretty accepted that the poor run last season was simply down to a team running on empty (not used to a high energy style with several injuries to compound that)

My point is about the poor run recently
 

UNITED ACADEMY

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Lukaku involvements were from the bench in Ole’s beginning of good runs. So not sure how people can talk about Lukaku was one of the difference.

It’s clear that Rashford was on fire, Lingard wasn’t useless, Martial wasn’t injured & Pogba played in 3 man midfield & was on fire. Obviously we had Herrera but not having him wasn’t the reason why we are struggling to create chances & score.

If Rashford performs the same way as he was, Lingard isn’t useless, Martial isn’t injured & Pogba plays in 3 man midfield, we might see the similarity of that winning streak again.
 

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Apologies if there is a thread that is already devoted to this, I haven't seen it. Some of this has been argued about in the Ole Performances thread, but I felt a specific thread could help focus the issue.

The main argument I've seen from fans who want to give Ole more time, is that no other manager would be able to get any more out of this squad of players.

I've given it thought, but come to the conclusion that this just defies logic. When Ole came in, he talked up the potential of the squad. We also went on that winning streak, picking up 35 points from the first 14 games, which was title winning form. Not only that but the football being played was expansive and free flowing. We spent a lot time winning games and looking like we were going to win games.

If you compare that to this season's form and the form from the tail end of last season I see teams that are world's apart (despite a brief upsurge right at the start of the season). We do look dismal it has to be said. There seems to be little evidence of a finely tuned, well-oiled machine which has a clear setup and method of penetrating other teams. We are toothless in attack, creating few chances from open play. Many of the players seem to have regressed to shadows of what they're capable of. Fred, our £50m signing from Brazil, looks like a bona fide pub player. Rashford is becoming a meme version of himself that now blazes free kicks over the bar from a ridiculous angle, instead of whipping the ball into the box when we're chasing a game. Lingard has become entirely impotent as an attacking threat and is widely derided by the fanbase. DDG is not looking like the unbeatable force he once was and now you're worried every game he might let a routine save creep in. Pogba, by far our best player, is cutting a disconsolate figure who might only stay if we agree to pay him the GDP of a small country.

To me this all indicates squad mis-management. And the logical conclusion to that is that Ole has to be the person who is responsible for this, this is his remit. He talked up the squad when he got the job, but now it looks like the goalposts are moving. All of a sudden the squad is not good enough and somehow we are now overachieving with this squad by getting to midtable!

From my perspective, I am sad to say that I don't think Ole is a good manager. I don't think he's a good tactical manager or even that good a motivator. The impression I get is that his main failure is trying to be SAF-lite. Whereas SAF was respected, liked and - most crucially - feared, Ole seems to be mainly liked and to a lesser extent, respected. Ole seems to be too chummy with some of the players, calling them nicknames and the like, while at the same time he has alienated others, such as Lukaku and Matic, to our detriment. Say what you want about those players, I would probably agree with you, but I get the feeling that a top manager like SAF would have kept those players on side and got what he needed out of them. Instead, Lukaku felt justifiably frozen out and was sold. Fair enough, but a bit dumb (this is being kind) when no replacement has been lined up ready to bring in. It indicates a serious and concerning lack of foresight.

I think he is good at making his favourites in the squad feel great about themselves, but terrible at giving harsh doses of reality and the hairdryer when it's required. And that would indicate that he would rather be liked than respected. Which is not a bad quality in a person, but it's not what is required to manage an elite football club.

What should be said I think, is that Ole's plan A works. When all players are fit and available, we look very capable. Pogba, Martial, James and Rashford (when he is not in Rashinaldo mode) are a potent attacking force and we saw it in the first couple of games of the season, I thought we were unlucky at Wolves. Additionally the players brought in have been successes in general, but can this be said to be a real success? If you spend £80m on a centre back, you really should bloody hope they turn out to be good for you.

But our strength is incredibly brittle. Injuries to Pogba and Martial make 'midtable side' seem like a generous description. Whereas elite managers rely more on their systems than individual players; ie. when one player is injured, another albeit less quality player can fulfil the same role in the interim. Conversely, Ole's system seems to be very easily ruptured in more of a 'single point of failure' kind of way.

And this is what defines Ole as a poor manager to me. There is no indication of any system being developed that is capable of withstanding external stressors and pulls the maximum out of the considerable resources we have available. We simply should not be this bad, despite any injuries.

Additionally, the man-management has been poor. Freezing out Lukaku with no replacement. Indulging Rashford and giving the OK to the club to press ahead with his superstar contract with no evidence that he could be relied upon in the event of injuries or sale of other players reeks of post-peak Rooney with Moyes. Dybala would only come for stupid money as a result of these kinds of deals. Furthermore, there is talk of renewing Lingard's contract, Pogba also looks disillusioned and wants ridiculous money to stick around. £50m worth of Brazilian talent that was also coveted by Guardiola is now in abject freefall. Mata looks shot despite being only 31 and having never relied upon pace as part of his game anyway

Ole simply doesn't have the mettle of a SAF, the resoluteness to create a true siege mentality that can withstand the incredible stress that comes with being Manchester United. After 9 months the squad shows no signs of being greater than the sum of its' parts. He lacks innovation tactically, which probably could have been said of SAF as well, but SAF knew how to bring the right people in could fulfil this role for him. And to top it all off the players are looking worse than ever. Tepid, uninspiring performances are the order of the day

The red flags with this appointment keep piling up and I find blaming the squad an unacceptable excuse. There is enough talent in the squad to be comfortably top 6 form, and to put more than one goal past Astana. It is Ole's job to get the most out of the squad, to get the £50m version of Fred back. To ring the last drops out of Matic and Mata's career. To instil Gomes as the next bright English talent in the #10 role. To come down on Rashford like a ton of bricks for his over indulgent and reckless disregard for the team. To implement a system that allows these players to shine for him.

Ole is a nice guy, a club legend who clearly loves the club and it's deeply offensive when posters here personally insult him. But there is no way that he is elite, or I think, even top half manager material. And the sooner the penny drops with the fanbase, the better I say.
Could this be the longest post that's been made on the caf?
 

ayushreddevil9

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The squad isn't shit at least not according to most posters in the summer, in fact anyone who dare say that it was shit was mocked. Suddenly these same people are all throwing out that its a midtable side and Ole can't possibly do better.

We have so many hypocrites on here who flip flop their opinion routinely.
This. People say the squad is so shit when we couldn't beat Rochdale at home:lol:
 

Tony Banta

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I thought it was pretty accepted that the poor run last season was simply down to a team running on empty (not used to a high energy style with several injuries to compound that)

My point is about the poor run recently
We run around more in those first few games after Mourinho was sacked, it wasn’t really Ole implementing a high energy style, as other posters have alluded to it was more like ‘new manger bounce’ that wore off pretty quickly and whilst we were winning, the football wasn’t expansive or very impressive at times. The injuries/fitness excuse, was overplayed.

I said early in this thread, results masked performances.

Your post implied losing both Pogba and Martial was the reason for the poor run of results, which wasn’t the case.

The poor run we’re on this season is just a continuation of last season.
 

Mickson

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Nah, Herrera has always been underrated and appreciated in my opinion. The fact we didn't purchase a midfielder is ridiculous. There's no flow within the team at all and our midfield is why. No player knows how to create chances on this team bar Pogba.
Underrated? :D he won player of the season, which was ridiculous at the time. And even now, people want to give a mediocre player 300k a week. So, underrated? He is exactly the opposite.


Easy schedule? We have easy games now but that still doesn't matter. The biggest change was probably Ole's positive mindset compared to Mourinho's. He brought happiness and that only works for so long.
 

Rood

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We run around more in those first few games after Mourinho was sacked, it wasn’t really Ole implementing a high energy style, as other posters have alluded to it was more like ‘new manger bounce’ that wore off pretty quickly and whilst we were winning, the football wasn’t expansive or very impressive at times. The injuries/fitness excuse, was overplayed.

I said early in this thread, results masked performances.

Your post implied losing both Pogba and Martial was the reason for the poor run of results, which wasn’t the case.

The poor run we’re on this season is just a continuation of last season.
Well I kind of see this season a fresh start and am not really thinking much about what happened at the end of last season

So we talk about this season alone then I do put it down to Pogba and Martial injuries (and lack of depth in attacking areas)
 

Charles Miller

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His best formation was 4-3-3 with Pogba-Matic-Herrera. Should have kept that system, insisted with the club to not let Herrera go, and signed a new DM in his first transfer window.
 

Heinzesight

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The players tried. They wanted to be in the team. They were playing for a place. Now they couldn’t give two shits.
 

amidnorthern

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These players in that period could 'climb Everest in their slippers'. I wonder if there was an extra special man-manager involved to some degree.
 

Tony Banta

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Well I kind of see this season a fresh start and am not really thinking much about what happened at the end of last season

So we talk about this season alone then I do put it down to Pogba and Martial injuries (and lack of depth in attacking areas)
The OP is questioning last seasons form.

If we talk about this season, Pogba and Martial featured 3 times together, we won 1, lost 1, draw 1.
4 league games without one or both we won 1, lost 1, draw 2.

So indifferent form with and without them.
 

Rood

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The OP is questioning last seasons form.

If we talk about this season, Pogba and Martial featured 3 times together, we won 1, lost 1, draw 1.
4 league games without one or both we won 1, lost 1, draw 2.

So indifferent form with and without them.
I was happy with the performances in those 3, we deserved to win them all - in fact apart from West Ham we have not been as bad as many suggest

The cup performances have not been good though but they are heavily rotated teams
 

NotQuiteManc

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Part new manager high, part fixtures but I think IMHO Herrera was key to make the midfield, and Pogba in advance position worked. When Herrera was missing, and Pogba back to mid 2, results suffered as well.
 

always_hoping

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Oh the memories. 12 Premier league games without defeat,won 10 of them which included 6 away wins!

Cardiff (A) 1-5 - Shots on goal 17, on target 9. 4-3-3 formation
Huddersfield (H) 3-1 - Shots on goal 16, on target 10. 4-2-3-1 formation
Bournemouth (H) 4-1 - Shots on goal 11, on target 8. 4-2-3-1 formation
Newcastle (A) 0-2 - Shots on goal 16, on target 7. 4-2-3-1 formation
Spurs (A) 0-1 - Shots on goal 13, on target 8. 4-1-2-1-2 formation
Brighton (H) 2-1 - Shots on goal 20, on target 5. 4-3-3 formation
Burnley (H) 2-2 - Shots on goal 28, on target 9. 4-1-4-1 formation
Leicester (A) 0-1 - Shots on goal 10, on target 6. 4-2-2-2 formation
Fulham (A) 0-3 - Shots on goal 15, on target 7. 4-3-3 formation
Liverpool (H) 0-0 Shots on goal 6, on target 3. 4-3-2-1 formation
Crystal Palace (A) 1-3 - Shots on goal 13, on target 4. 4-3-3 formation
Southampton (H) 3-2 - Shots on goal 16, on target 6. 4-3-1-2 formation

During that run United also beat Arsenal (A) 3-1 and Chelsea (A) 2-0 in the FA Cup


Back then Ole was a caretaker manager, under no pressure and just sent the players out to enjoy themselves playing mostly attacking football the opposite is happening now, he has gone into his shell and players while many are performing poorly its also nearly impossible to play well in such negative tactics of trying not to lose.

Now i don't expect United to play attacking game v Liverpool or City as that would be daft but United should be playing an attacking game plan against a poor sides like Newcastle but they probably won't and it will likely allow Newcastle to grab a result.
 

Casanova85

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A string of easy PL games.

That's it. The miracle of Paris was the end of the road. Then came reality crashing down. Barcelona in the QFs and the 4-0 vs Everton was the true level of Ole and the squad.

He should have been just an interim manager.
 

UnofficialDevil

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I'm not anti Scottish, I just wanted Moyes out.
I asked this question many times in the Ole thread never got an answer. If its the squads fault and not the managers, why cant he get the team to play the way they did that got him the job. All he had to do was add to that team and get fitness levels up, and he had a full summer for both.

Yet he cant get the team to play the way that landed him the job in the first place.