New Podcast - United Hour - Istanbul Review & Everton Preview

[Alock1]

This week, I am joined by Colm (@Duafc) and Jamie (@Vault Dweller) to have a good moan about United's defeat to Istanbul Basaksehir, before looking ahead to a massive game against Everton.

• Where did it all go wrong?
• No, seriously?
• What happened?

We also talk top trumps, ex-prem legend's hair doos, bake off and give our top fantasy football tips for the coming weekend.

Listen on Apple Podcasts, iTunes, Spotify or wherever you get your pods by searching 'United Hour'


Again we massively appreciate shares, comments and ratings / reviews!

You can now also follow us over at Instagram by searching unitedhour or following this link

 

[ghaliboy]

feck me that Rafael goal against Liverpool was a banger. Weaker foot IIRC, was that the same game Evra was winding up the away fans at the end and they blew up and tried to stop him? Then he had the arm and was noshing it? we had some characters in this team didn't we lads...? Lads?..

 

[Duafc]

Didn’t we lads...? Lads?..

 

[Alock1]

feck me that Rafael goal against Liverpool was a banger. Weaker foot IIRC, was that the same game Evra was winding up the away fans at the end and they blew up and tried to stop him? Then he had the arm and was noshing it? we had some characters in this team didn't we lads...? Lads?..

Absolute banger! The goal is at 0:56

 

[Vault Dweller]

Absolute banger! The goal is at 0:56

That was indeed a peach of a goal. But this was his best...

 

[Annihilate Now!]

Nice pod, would have liked to hear a bit more about Ole's changes once again negatively impacting what was already a poor performance... Not just with the non formation /setup, but with the personnel and timing.

 

[VanGaalyTime]

That was indeed a peach of a goal. But this was his best...

Nice one boys. Just not sure United have the required consistency right now. I'm still quite positive about this season and it's a little early to me to suggest Ole out. But it worries me we're not improving consistently. One step forward, 20 steps back.

 

[Alock1]

We have a number of listeners who must be feeling pretty vindicated, all in some forms calling out the potential false dawn

@UmbroDays @kundalini @Amir @crossy1686 @croadyman

 

[croadyman]

We have a number of listeners who must be feeling pretty vindicated, all in some forms calling out the potential false dawn

@UmbroDays @kundalini @Amir @crossy1686 @croadyman

Yeah I felt it was a decision made when there was too much euphoria around and not enough clear thinking

 

[Alock1]

@iammemphis @The Red Thinker @#07 @nikineil @The Man Himself @Shiva87 @Cutch

I want to see where you're currently at with Ole, and to do that I'm going to put @buckooo1978 's question to you from before the Istanbul game.

Good luck finding a positive from this

7 points in 6 games with a goal difference of -4 is inexcusable

Collectively terrible today. Arsenal better prepared in a more coherent system and deserved the win.

We were all over the place and Ole needs to take responsibility for this. Until 75 mins the only sub was Matic and that Pogba was still on the pitch was baffling. Terrible in game management today with no plan. It felt like we were relying on set pieces which were poorly delivered mainly by Shaw.

too conservative with the like for like changes. Greenwood in particular looked dangerous

pathetic performance and all our momentum gone. There's been a lot of fanfare about Solskjaer the last few games. How do we justify 7 points from 6 games in 15th place?

& particularly in light of this week's loss to Basaksehir?

 

[Amir]

We have a number of listeners who must be feeling pretty vindicated, all in some forms calling out the potential false dawn

@UmbroDays @kundalini @Amir @crossy1686 @croadyman

I'll only listen to the latest podcast tomorrow. Meanwhile, can't say I feel vindicated. Just low. Doesn't help being 'right' if the result is the club is going nowhere and personally I'm tuning into games as a chore more than anything because I'm lacking any belief.

 

[UmbroDays]

We have a number of listeners who must be feeling pretty vindicated, all in some forms calling out the potential false dawn

@UmbroDays @kundalini @Amir @crossy1686 @croadyman

I have about 10 mins left in the podcast but some crow was being eaten! But it’s a shame we had to be right.

There were so many good points, but one everyone missed is McT ended up on the right wing and I remember he put in at least 1 cross.

I still believe that unless were Europa spots or higher at the turn of the year, then Ole may need to go. I don’t want it to be before the end of the season but our season is on the line in an already shit year.

Wednesday was the biggest example ofOle’s inept managerial skills when he can’t just counter attack. He got sacked from Cardiff and only other team he managed was Molde. Nothing on his CV said he was the man fir the job and we all got duped.

 

[nikineil]

@iammemphis @The Red Thinker @#07 @nikineil @The Man Himself @Shiva87 @Cutch

I want to see where you're currently at with Ole, and to do that I'm going to put @buckooo1978 's question to you from before the Istanbul game.



& particularly in light of this week's loss to Basaksehir?

Halfway through the podcast and I can't help but agree with the complete apathy that most of us are feeling with United performances right now. I was all about Ole in even post the Spurs defeat. Naively I bought into the lack of preseason and lack of fitness issue that was mentioned earlier. Admittedly now, I am definitely nudging myself towards the Ole out camp.

To @buckooo1978 's question, honestly, I don't have an answer. Last season, Ole knew his strongest first 11 (post Covid break) and the excuse then was we were running them into the ground. I am all for having greater strength in depth for a bunch of positions, but this season it's hard not to see Ole and the coaching staff are seemingly out of their depth. We just appear to be a counter attacking team and are doing it better than Jose ever did, but it seems pretty easy to suss us out by sitting deep, as many of the podcast team pointed out. People didn't like it when LVG called Ole a defensive coach, but I feel he is exactly that, and we are good at exactly that. I am not saying its a bad method of coaching, as it has brought us results against some of the biggest teams, but our Achilles' heel has been breaking down low block teams, be it through creativity (which we sorely lack if Bruno underperforms) or through width (no wingers and no decent attacking fullbacks). It's nothing that most of you lot have not pointed out yet, but with this clamour for Poch, I honestly don't see it. I don't know who we should go for next, but I know we should not appoint Allegri or Sarri (?!). Maybe Poch is the right answer, but honestly I don't see it. (Sorry @Amadaeus ).

Loving the podcast as always and the 5 star review on iTunes is a done deal!

 

[Amadaeus]

Halfway through the podcast and I can't help but agree with the complete apathy that most of us are feeling with United performances right now. I was all about Ole in even post the Spurs defeat. Naively I bought into the lack of preseason and lack of fitness issue that was mentioned earlier. Admittedly now, I am definitely nudging myself towards the Ole out camp.

To @buckooo1978 's question, honestly, I don't have an answer. Last season, Ole knew his strongest first 11 (post Covid break) and the excuse then was we were running them into the ground. I am all for having greater strength in depth for a bunch of positions, but this season it's hard not to see Ole and the coaching staff are seemingly out of their depth. We just appear to be a counter attacking team and are doing it better than Jose ever did, but it seems pretty easy to suss us out by sitting deep, as many of the podcast team pointed out. People didn't like it when LVG called Ole a defensive coach, but I feel he is exactly that, and we are good at exactly that. I am not saying its a bad method of coaching, as it has brought us results against some of the biggest teams, but our Achilles' heel has been breaking down low block teams, be it through creativity (which we sorely lack if Bruno underperforms) or through width (no wingers and no decent attacking fullbacks). It's nothing that most of you lot have not pointed out yet, but with this clamour for Poch, I honestly don't see it. I don't know who we should go for next, but I know we should not appoint Allegri or Sarri (?!). Maybe Poch is the right answer, but honestly I don't see it. (Sorry @Amadaeus ).

Loving the podcast as always and the 5 star review on iTunes is a done deal!

Don't worry, you will see it soon, whether it is at United or not. Pochettino reminds me so much of klopp before he joined Liverpool. Kopp without a doubt is one of the main reason why Liverpool are as strong as they are now. Pochettino impact will be the same. However, I m not confident in our board as they have shown plenty of patience to a manager that I known from his interim job that he wasn't good enough.

 

[Morpheus 7]

Really good pod this week, cheers lads. Nice mix of guests I thought. I have disagreed with Colm with so many points for a long time(maybe even years ha), still respect his opinion though!
Think the last two he's been on have been excellent.

The real questioning of the decisions made by the manager and coaching team. Nobody wants to flat out say we need a change because it's Ole. If he wasn't an ex player I think more would feel comfortable. The results and performances haven't been near good enough. If we change on this international break, we can still salvage this season. If we don't, we are clearly going to see more of the same until the new year when it's too late. Obviously Ole and his coaching staff isn't all to blame. Years of awful management from the board down to the core mentality of these players available, manager can only do so much. Unfortunately he's not been doing near enough from team selection, in game management, tactics, substitutions and general shape and performance. We can get more from what we have consistently. I don't like changing manager but I've seen enough.

 

[2 man midfield]

Loved @Duafc ’s summing up of the first goal:

“You wouldn’t be seeing that in the champions league, the premier league, or Sunday league”

 

[iammemphis]

Im not at work this week, hence why i haven't listened to the pod yet. But i will on Monday i promise!

 

[Duafc]

Really good pod this week, cheers lads. Nice mix of guests I thought. I have disagreed with Colm with so many points for a long time(maybe even years ha), still respect his opinion though!
Think the last two he's been on have been excellent.

The real questioning of the decisions made by the manager and coaching team. Nobody wants to flat out say we need a change because it's Ole. If he wasn't an ex player I think more would feel comfortable. The results and performances haven't been near good enough. If we change on this international break, we can still salvage this season. If we don't, we are clearly going to see more of the same until the new year when it's too late. Obviously Ole and his coaching staff isn't all to blame. Years of awful management from the board down to the core mentality of these players available, manager can only do so much. Unfortunately he's not been doing near enough from team selection, in game management, tactics, substitutions and general shape and performance. We can get more from what we have consistently. I don't like changing manager but I've seen enough.

Years I love that so much! Sometimes we can all be very agreeable on the pod and it’s actually not always ideal because disagreement is what it’s all about sometimes!

What have we usually disagreed on?

 

[Duafc]

Loved @Duafc ’s summing up of the first goal:

“You wouldn’t be seeing that in the champions league, the premier league, or Sunday league”

Absolutely brutal mate.

 

[Rood]

Had a listen and although there are several points I would disagree on, the goals were obviously unforgivable and I may well have felt the same recording straight after the match. Although its a collective feck up, Matic has to take the majority of the blame for the first, there is no excuse for such a lack of awareness from a senior pro - I had to watch the whole sequence back several times to try and understand how we got into such a mess in the first place.
Althought the defensive players have had a lot of criticism in the aftermath, it is actually Bruno and Mata making poor decisions on the right which directly leads to both goals.

Bruno's form has become a worry - he's simply giving away the ball far too much and if he sets up a couple of chances then you can accept it, but hes not making those key passes at the moment. Dont want to criticise him too such since he carried us for much of the year but is it a coincidence that he didnt start in our best performance recently vs Leipzig?

One thing I do disagree with @Duafc is on Cavani starting, with Martial's ban it has meant his minutes upfront in the CL have been vital plus Cavani looks far off match fit to me - and thats not really surprising when he hasnt played since March and then missed training for a couple weeks in quarantine. This again goes back to the messy preseason and leaving it until the last minute to bring him in.
I do agree though that the team was stronger that it needed to be as I personally would have rested more players to keep them fresh for the more important match tomorrow.

 

[#07]

@iammemphis @The Red Thinker @#07 @nikineil @The Man Himself @Shiva87 @Cutch

I want to see where you're currently at with Ole, and to do that I'm going to put @buckooo1978 's question to you from before the Istanbul game.



& particularly in light of this week's loss to Basaksehir?

I cannot really defend our most recent performances. The Arsenal and Basaksehir performances were by no means good enough.

However, if we win our game in hand we're three points off the top four. Top four should not be our aim but, the points difference to it shows, the season is far from dead.

I think there are mitigating circumstances for the season as a whole. We were clearly half-baked coming into it and I'm not putting too much weight on the pre October international games. However, if we are going to start turning possibilities into reality we have to start winning.

In terms of Ole, I think if he wants to save himself he has to accept the reality of where this squad is. Then he show the coolness under pressure he had as a player to make the right choices to address that. His decisions on Wednesday night screamed panic: just throw on forward players and hope they do something. For a start, his response to the Arsenal game should not have been abandoning the full screen in front of our back four. Even though we played badly against Arsenal but for Pogba's tendency to concede penalties (3 in the last 10 home games, right?) we were well set up to nick it. It might not be a popular or attractive way of playing but if we'd have gone to Turkey to stifle and try and rob a win late we wouldn't have left Demba Ba free on the halfway line at our corner.

The reality is we need to play ugly for a bit. Fred and McTominay is woefully uncreative but we don't have a prime Michael Carrick at defensive midfield playing through balls so that's what we gotta go with. We need to protect our defence. We need to stop trying to play out from the back because we are terrible at playing through the press. We need to go direct into the channels early and often and use the pace we have up front. And we probably need to have a target up top to play off of to allow us to by pass the press. Its not the prettiest style of football but we need points on the board and Ole needs to stop with the experiments of trying to shoehorn in attackers for the sake of it. If he can't do that then I imagine he'll be out pretty soon.

 

[Morpheus 7]

Years I love that so much! Sometimes we can all be very agreeable on the pod and it’s actually not always ideal because disagreement is what it’s all about sometimes!

What have we usually disagreed on?

Not best Colm opening that can of worms ha...Rooney was a big one, especially in his latter days. That's the past though, I think it's healthy to have different opinions. Do appreciate the work and time you lads put in, the after game analysis is really improving the pod. It's making such a difference to game reviews, harder to spread it over a few but understand youse do your best. I think Alex is the person I agee with most, my cynical head is nodding constantly. Like agreeing with a ghost when I download the pod.

I like how you are raising the questions on Ole as I've said. You have in previous pods now. It's important that these questions are raised. I feel other United platforms are shying away from what we are witnessing. It seems many don't want to come across disloyal, considering what he's done for United. I want Ole to leave during the international break regardless of Saturday. I feel we could beat Bayern on the counter, then lose to Fulham the next game. There is no need to get personal on Ole or make it an Aftv in or out embarrassment. I just don't feel he's not the man to win a big trophy in the coming seasons, the inconsistency should be leveling out and it's still not. I have no issue getting beat, just that the team selections, shape and plan is consistent, it's not been. I cut him slack last year because of injuries, he's got options now and seems out of his depth to use them properly. Me and close friends are all in agreement, took a long time to get here. The squad is in better condition than he found it, time to progress with a coach that will get more out of what he has.

 

[Amir]

The reality is we need to play ugly for a bit. Fred and McTominay is woefully uncreative but we don't have a prime Michael Carrick at defensive midfield playing through balls so that's what we gotta go with. We need to protect our defence. We need to stop trying to play out from the back because we are terrible at playing through the press. We need to go direct into the channels early and often and use the pace we have up front. And we probably need to have a target up top to play off of to allow us to by pass the press. Its not the prettiest style of football but we need points on the board and Ole needs to stop with the experiments of trying to shoehorn in attackers for the sake of it. If he can't do that then I imagine he'll be out pretty soon.

My main issue with doing that is that this is survival mode, but I'm not even sure the survival of who - Manchester United's season or Solskjaer's job? Ever since he's appointment I've cared less about results and more about performance levels and style because that is what will take us forward eventually. But if we throw that out just to win games - and not ones that are going to win us the championship, just keep us in the picture for top 4 - then what is the point? This squad is at a stage that it needs to move forward or it's just wasting time.

 

[Amir]

Good pod. Never a truer word was said than the ones about how we're like a small team that can beat the big guys and that's it. And it's like we are sinking deeper into it.

Looking back as Wednesday's match, the word "arrogance" mentioned in the pod got me thinking. I didn't have any issues with making the odd change to the team. We did it against RB Leipzig as well, with Fernandes and Rashford. We've got a deeper squad than before so why not use it. And heck, even Fergie made changes in early CL group matches that backfired. The team was more than good enough to win, but I wonder about the inclusion of Henderson. There's nothing wrong with him, of course, but there's a difference between changing any of the 10 outfield players and putting on your second choice keeper. That's something that you do more in dead rubber matches in the CL or easy matches in any competition. Might have sent a wrong message to the players, especially looking at the first goal we gave away.

 

[The Red Thinker]

@iammemphis @The Red Thinker @#07 @nikineil @The Man Himself @Shiva87 @Cutch

I want to see where you're currently at with Ole, and to do that I'm going to put @buckooo1978 's question to you from before the Istanbul game.



& particularly in light of this week's loss to Basaksehir?

I'll be honest... my dread for United was washed away by the results of the election. So I am not in a bad place emotionally as I suspect some people might be! I know I would have been.

Look... I see this objectively as very poor performances. The defending against Istanbul... was laughably bad. That says the team's defence is low on confidence. Also, I know Ole is trying to make United tactically versatile, but chopping and changing every other game is not the thing to do. I can't remember the last time a successful team morphed to a different animal as per the opponent. Sure tactical adjustments happen but not frequent changes in the number of defenders at the back!

This team is developing but the also means it's inconsistent. Ole's in game management is inconsistent as well. He was terrible against Istanbul... but he was spectacular vs Leipzig. The Arsenal loss was down to our attacking patterns just not being good enough. Defensively we were fine until Pogba lost his mind.

The bad thing for Ole is that it seems a new problem is creeping in whenever an old problem is getting fixed. He needs stability now more than ever. Stick to a largely unchanging starting 11 for the league and build from the back.

I remember whenever Sir Alex would lose a game. The next game was all about possession, build from the back, defensive stability and sharp counters. He would be okay with a draw, but a back to back loss was simply inexcusable to him. It's because he understood that losing is a bad habit and that it sucks the confidence out usually good players.

Ole needs to be boring now. Be stable. Be ruthless with his 11 and stick to it. Just stick to his favoured 11. I stand by what I said before. Give him the year. If he messes this one up... he goes. If it looks horrible by Christmas... like we're 15th and winless in 5... He goes. This team is good enough to win more now.