Ole Gunnar Solskjær | 2021/22 Discussion

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fergiesarmy1

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In Ole's short managerial life at United, he very nearly got us into the Champions League from a near-impossible position. He purchased 3 players who have been our best performers so far in the season. Got rid of some of our worst-performing players. He could have probably been short-changed by the club with player purchases, or couldn't get the right profile players he requires during the summer window - we have no clues. The tactics and style of play at present is likely due to the players he has at his disposal.

Granted there are no guarantees he will be successful, but let's have some patience and enjoy the journey. There are absolute no guarantees another managerial change will bring relief to both our present issues or future success.
Exactly, people talk about Poch as if he is a certainty to come and a certainty to be successful. Maybe he has reservations about working for that tosser Woodard and our scumbag owners. I would. Has a better team, better stadium and a better CEO while living in London. Maybe we aren’t as attractive as we used to be, Jose didn’t really seem to take to living in Manchester.
 

noodlehair

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Can someone please point out a foolproof plan for United to be successful rather than just stating the negatives?

All I'm reading is ifs, buts, hindsight, etc...
When you have people just making stuff up to criticise the management and players I don't think you're going to get any sense.

No one in their right mind would expect us to have been challenging for the league this season so I'm perplexed as to what people actually want from our manager.

The only pattern I'm seeing is people who have pre conceived opinions and are now just seeing what they want and ignoring everything else to back those opinions up.
 

Cassidy

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You'll have to word this better because it makes no sense. You are claiming I blindly criticised our manager and then directed the comments at you?

Not sure what you actually mean but reading your other replies in this thread you seem to just be nickpicking parts of people's posts and completely ignoring the points they are making just for the sake of it, so I'm not even sure what your opinion is.

Do you think Ole is doing a good job or that we should get rid of him?
I don't think we should get rid of him, but I also don't think he is doing a great job. I think he is doing ok.

Personally I think this season is all about laying the foundations and trying to develop some of the younger players so we can build the team further next summer.

So for this season my concern for Ole is to see how far he can develop the likes of Gomes Rashford Greenwood James and Martial etc so we can see what quality we need to add in the summer.

Whilst also developing an attacking identity for the team

Also I don't necessarily think its a given Ole will be the one to take the team forward after that
 

UncleBob

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In reality, we didn't know what we wanted to do with Herrera because Jose didn't want to keep him, and by the time Ole made his mind up it was too late.
Ole wanted to keep him, contract talks were held, what PSG offered was mental and we would've been out of our minds ala Sanchez if we'd offered him something similar. I would've preferred him to stay, but lets not pretend he's been that mint for us either.
 

FrankDrebin

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I might enjoy this Ole journey alittle more if we played some good football at times.
Yesterday was tragic.

But we need to stick with him. Continue to get out the mediocrity within the squad,continue to bring in bright,enthusiastic,determined players and build from there.

I mean,what other option do we have ?
 
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anant

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If people can't see us having improved in defence this season, then well there isn't anything one can argue.
Under Mou last season, we made 122 passes (excluding crosses, 7th in league) in final 20 yards (City 245 passes) and allowed 130 passes (6th worst in the league)
This season, we have made 41 passes (3rd best in the league) in final 20 yards (City 66 passes) and allowed 21 passes (5th best in the league; 4 off Pool who've allowed 17)
You compare that on a per game basis, we're making one more pass on an average in final 20 and allowing 4 less passes in final 20! If that's not improvement, then not sure what is
 

noodlehair

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Exactly, people talk about Poch as if he is a certainty to come and a certainty to be successful. Maybe he has reservations about working for that tosser Woodard and our scumbag owners. I would. Has a better team, better stadium and a better CEO while living in London. Maybe we aren’t as attractive as we used to be, Jose didn’t really seem to take to living in Manchester.
What I don't get is the assumption he'd have been successful here. What is it based on? He could have been, but he would have needed to do BETTER than he has at Spurs, at a worse run club and with a weaker squad...and on the evidence of this last window, also while spending less money.

It's a pretty bloody massive assumption, and using it as a tool to beat the current manager with seems quite pathetic and more importantly, totally pointless.

It's inventionism. Making stuff up out of thin air and using it to criticise the team you support is a really weird thing to do.
 

Andycoleno9

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Can someone please point out a foolproof plan for United to be successful rather than just stating the negatives?

All I'm reading is ifs, buts, hindsight, etc...
I would go with our initial plan when we sacked Jose. Ole as interim manager while we search for perfect manager for the future.
We should hire proven manager who plays attacking football( i am personally for result over style but i know that most of United fans want nice football). That manager is Poch whos situation in Spurs is not 100% clear. If we go all out for him i am sure we can hire him. If not him then Tuchel or Favre or even Jardim or Ten Cate . Favre and Poch proved that they can work with what they have and still implement their style of football.

Of course that there is no manager in the world for who you can say that he will be success. But hiring proven manager who already showed what he can do is a good start.
 

crossy1686

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Can someone please point out a foolproof plan for United to be successful rather than just stating the negatives?

All I'm reading is ifs, buts, hindsight, etc...
They can’t unfortunately. This place has become a moan-fest for all those that don’t think solskjaer is good enough while having absolutely no constructive opinions on who the club should appoint or what the club should do to improve the situation.

The fact of the matter is we’re in a huge transitional phase. He’s managed to clear out most of the mercenaries/dead wood while bringing in the three best signings we’ve had since Fergie.

The results haven’t been perfect but his win ratio is still above average at the moment. Things would be 100% different if those penalties would have gone in during the other matches also.

Its impossible to please some people, and yes, we would all like to win more games and have more points but when we have to start players like Young, Matic and Mata that should say all everyone needs to know about the state we’re currently in.

Give the man some fecking time to get shit sorted instead of jumping down his neck 5 games into a new season. He’s the only manager we’ve had so far that looks like he knows how to rebuild, and the irony is he’s never done one before now.
 

fergiesarmy1

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What I don't get is the assumption he'd have been successful here. What is it based on? He could have been, but he would have needed to do BETTER than he has at Spurs, at a worse run club and with a weaker squad...and on the evidence of this last window, also while spending less money.

It's a pretty bloody massive assumption, and using it as a tool to beat the current manager with seems quite pathetic and more importantly, totally pointless.

It's inventionism. Making stuff up out of thin air and using it to criticise the team you support is a really weird thing to do.
What?
 

DomesticTadpole

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Ole has to be allowed to get rid of all the unwanted players, otherwise if we do go to a new manager eventually, he will just be left with those same problems. As Ole gets all the players he wants it could improve. If not we need a manager who will play good attacking football. The defence is already better, it now needs the midfield and forward line to be right.
 

crossy1686

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I would go with our initial plan when we sacked Jose. Ole as interim manager while we search for perfect manager for the future.
We should hire proven manager who plays attacking football( i am personally for result over style but i know that most of United fans want nice football). That manager is Poch whos situation in Spurs is not 100% clear. If we go all out for him i am sure we can hire him. If not him then Tuchel or Favre or even Jardim or Ten Cate . Favre and Poch proved that they can work with what they have and still implement their style of football.

Of course that there is no manager in the world for who you can say that he will be success. But hiring proven manager who already showed what he can do is a good start.
Pochettino wouldn’t be an improvement unfortunately. Mostly because the people who are calling for Solskjaer to go also aren’t willing to wait three seasons for Pochettino to build his own team. Plus, why would he even consider us? He’s done some great work at Tottenham and with clubs like Madrid apparently being interested he’d be daft to sabotage his career and move to us right now, same for any of those names you mentioned. They all want to be the next Barcelona/Madrid/Juventus/PSG manager, Where the winning and trophies come easy.

if we do sack Solskjaer at some point we’ll have to look at someone like Rodgers, and I’m not even kidding.
 

noodlehair

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I don't think we should get rid of him, but I also don't think he is doing a great job. I think he is doing ok.

Personally I think this season is all about laying the foundations and trying to develop some of the younger players so we can build the team further next summer.

So for this season my concern for Ole is to see how far he can develop the likes of Gomes Rashford Greenwood James and Martial etc so we can see what quality we need to add in the summer.

Whilst also developing an attacking identity for the team

Also I don't necessarily think its a given Ole will be the one to take the team forward after that
Well see that's fair enough and not too far from where I am. I'd probably say "too early to tell" rather than doing ok as I think last season was more a rescue attempt/write off.

I have reservations about the squad Ole has left himself with and there are elements of our performances I still find worrying, but I can also see very clear changes in our playing style, in the concentration and effort levels, and like that we at least seem to have a consistent plan. It just remains to be seen how we'll it all works and how long for.

I can understand reservations and criticisms but it's the invented arguments that baffle me. People pining over what we don't have or expectations that no manager could possibly live up to. Basically people just wanting to be critical and write things off for no reason other than to prove themselves right, even though I'm not even sure what it would prove anyone right about. Ole failing at United for example would not prove that anyone else wouldn't have.
 

crossy1686

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No thanks, no former scouse manager here please :lol:
Tell me about it...

but that’s the reality though. Who’s going to commit career suicide and join a club who keep fecking the manager every transfer window, riddled with dead wood and have fans who think they should be competing for the league title every season?

Rodgers has the ego and skill set to take the job. We’d probably look at Eddie Howe and the Wolves manager as well but either way we’d have to gamble and give them time to find their feet also. This is why it doesn’t make any sense to sack Solskjaer.
 

Cassidy

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Pochettino wouldn’t be an improvement unfortunately. Mostly because the people who are calling for Solskjaer to go also aren’t willing to wait three seasons for Pochettino to build his own team. Plus, why would he even consider us? He’s done some great work at Tottenham and with clubs like Madrid apparently being interested he’d be daft to sabotage his career and move to us right now, same for any of those names you mentioned. They all want to be the next Barcelona/Madrid/Juventus/PSG manager, Where the winning and trophies come easy.

if we do sack Solskjaer at some point we’ll have to look at someone like Rodgers, and I’m not even kidding.
I'm not sure that is true because firstly it didn't take Poch 3 years to improve Spurs and secondly Poch is more proven and so some people would give him more time

Hopefully about your last line there, we do enough this season so that we are more attractive to other managers. Things like continuing to get rid of deadwood and develop some of the young players as well as fix some of the structure above the manager
 

Greck

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Think many of the criticisms aren't around whether he should be sacked today, tomorrow or in January but rather whether he's decent enough to be the manager at the start of next season. I don't think he's doing enough but recognise there's plenty time for the case for or against his continued management to get stronger or weaker between now and May. Time settles most debates. Do take issue with the few trying to preemptively lower the bar to accommodate abject failure
 

fergiesarmy1

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Tell me about it...

but that’s the reality though. Who’s going to commit career suicide and join a club who keep fecking the manager every transfer window, riddled with dead wood and have fans who think they should be competing for the league title every season?

Rodgers has the ego and skill set to take the job. We’d probably look at Eddie Howe and the Wolves manager as well but either way we’d have to gamble and give them time to find their feet also. This is why it doesn’t make any sense to sack Solskjaer.
That’s what gets me with all these Poch fans, there is no guarantee he would want this job.
 

Sultan

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And if we don't want average players in this club and if nearly 100% of fan base wanted Rojo, Fellaini, Young, Jones, Darmian out of this club then i don't know why we should have average and limited manager.
The above players had years at the club to prove themselves and failed. I'll accept Ole being relieved of his duties once he's had the same time.
 

Cassidy

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The above players had years at the club to prove themselves and failed. I'll accept Ole being relieved of his duties once he's had the same time.
They shouldn't have had years... however I do think Ole should get till the end of the season at least
 

Tom Cato

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He played Chong and Fred in the most crucial part of the game against Leicester. And it paid off bigtime. Doesn't that make everyone happy?

In the meantime, Manchester Citys far superior squad just got spanked hard by football giants Norwich.
 

Wolff

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He played Chong and Fred in the most crucial part of the game against Leicester. And it paid off bigtime. Doesn't that make everyone happy?

In the meantime, Manchester Citys far superior squad just got spanked hard by football giants Norwich.
No. People are only happy when he don’t play them. Then they can moan and talk about how tactical naive Ole is, how he dosent make any in game changes etc..

On that note. Thought Fred looked good.
 

Cassidy

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He played Chong and Fred in the most crucial part of the game against Leicester. And it paid off bigtime. Doesn't that make everyone happy?

In the meantime, Manchester Citys far superior squad just got spanked hard by football giants Norwich.
I'm happy he subbed off Matic, hopefully next time he has the choice between Matic and Fred he picks Fred
 

walsh

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He played Chong and Fred in the most crucial part of the game against Leicester. And it paid off bigtime. Doesn't that make everyone happy?

In the meantime, Manchester Citys far superior squad just got spanked hard by football giants Norwich.
Exactly.

We're 4th after 5 games. We have been by no means sparkling but this was always going to be a transitional season (I know we've had many of those recently). The reaction is over the top in my opinion and if we manage to get into the top 4 come May then it's been a positive year.

We do need to strengthen in January however if we are to compete in the league, cup and the Europa.
 

JustAGuest

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He played Chong and Fred in the most crucial part of the game against Leicester. And it paid off bigtime. Doesn't that make everyone happy?

In the meantime, Manchester Citys far superior squad just got spanked hard by football giants Norwich.
Don't think the moaning will cease until we line up with Greenwood, Chong, Gomes, and Garner - and at the same time win every game in convincing fashion.
 

walsh

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Don't think the moaning will cease until we line up with Greenwood, Chong, Gomes, and Garner - and at the same time win every game in convincing fashion.
Indeed. I wonder how fans would react if he played all of the above and we lost. Probably would only mean that Ole is incompetent.
 

jem

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I am not using them as an ideal. Its the excuses that Ole defenders are throwing up. More time, more windows.. It didn't take Sarri and Emery time in implementing a style and its not taking Lampard much time too. Ole did well initially but has changed it completely albeit for worse performances.
Well then maybe you should be wary of using Lampard's initial results (not that they've been that great,) as any kind of barometer.
 

90 + 5min

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I would go with our initial plan when we sacked Jose. Ole as interim manager while we search for perfect manager for the future.
We should hire proven manager who plays attacking football( i am personally for result over style but i know that most of United fans want nice football). That manager is Poch whos situation in Spurs is not 100% clear. If we go all out for him i am sure we can hire him. If not him then Tuchel or Favre or even Jardim or Ten Cate . Favre and Poch proved that they can work with what they have and still implement their style of football.

Of course that there is no manager in the world for who you can say that he will be success. But hiring proven manager who already showed what he can do is a good start.
Poch? So many years in Tottenham. So much time to get his team playing football the way he wants. Very good squad. And still on same points as Ole...

Favre? You mean Dortmund manager? He won 2 titles 15 years ago. Yes, he has his team playing good this year but it is only start of Bundesliga.

Tuchel? Let see. One league title with PSG. One. And how hard can it be with those owners behind you. What titels can he show beside that?

Jardim? What has he done besides winning Greece League once (Where Olympiacos had a squad miles better then anyone else. Like coaching Celtic few years ago.) and France League once? Do you not know why he got fired from Monaco first time? Do you not see how Monaco is playing this year despite having good players?

Ten Cate? Really? Tell me, why haven't this man worked in Europe for a decade and is in far east coaching teams that most of the fans don't know anything about. Why isn't there a club in Europé that wants him?


I'm not saying that managers above are bad. Just putting them in different perspective for you. Every manager is good if you get some luck on your side and everything goes your way.
 

Random Task

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Let's draw a fair comparison between Ole and Frank's starts to their United and Chelsea managerial careers.

Lampard's Chelsea: Played 5, won 2, drawn 2, lost 1 (4-0 away to United no less). Scored 11 goals, conceded 11, resulting in a goal difference of 0.

Ole's United: Played 5, won 2, drawn 2, lost 1. Scored 8, conceded 4, resulting in a goal difference of +4.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that Lampard has fared no better than Ole this season. Both teams share 8 points, yet United have a significantly better GD and look considerably more solid at the back. Can't quite figure out why people are using Frank Lampard's frankly unimpressive start to his Chelsea career as a stick to beat Ole. Unless, of course, they were blissfully unaware of the stats.
 

Kurton

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Then again, that says more about the person saying it rather than it does about the current state of United. It's perfectly fine that we aren't at the level we aspire to be at, but actually not being able to idenfity the changes is a bit weird. I mean, the easiest thing to point out is the difference in approach, how we're generally standing higher up the pitch and try to win the ball back by collective pressure, plenty of great examples of that vs Leicester. That we currently don't have enough quality to take immediate advantage when we win the ball back is obvious, but what we're trying to do is the important thing.
Or the reply says about the person who wants to see things that are not there. You say as if we press and win the ball back the whole game. We seem to lose steam after 20 mins of the game. And it's not as if we did not have a manager who was doing that in LVG, but people could not wait to get rid of him sooner.

What's the point of pressure if we do not know what to do after we win the ball. There seems to be just one pattern of play, win the ball and hit on the counter. It seems there is too much emphasis on fitness than patterns of play. It should be pretty clear to see that as most wins have come against teams who like to play. Against teams who defend deep, we are toothless.

We have enough quality in the team to beat the likes of Palace and Southampton, but if the players are not coached well, we'll have more of the ones we've seen against the lesser teams. The team is less than the sum of its parts, and that's on coaching.
 

Yagami

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No thanks, no former scouse manager here please :lol:
Hey, that shouldn't matter! One of our greatest ever managers, and just one of the greatest people associated with the club in general, spent the majority of his career at City and Liverpool!

(Not that I'm advocating appointing Rodgers :p)
 

charlenefan

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Championship is far more competitive than the Norwegian league ? If the Norwegian league was even half as competitive as championship then Ole would have had the


Lampard in the championship = 6th place finish and close to promotion

Ole in the championship = sacked

Does that need any theology or thesis to draw comparison. We Manchester United are a division 1 team, the fact we are having debates about the championship speaks volumes about the level of manager we have at the helm than anything.
No the fact we're talking about the Championship says what an absolute knob cheese your are because it's you that's brought that into the conversation
 

Amarsdd

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I think I am totally convinced, by this thread no less, that Lampard is the love child of Pep and Klopp and the second coming of Jesus in footballing terms...... Ole out!
 
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Andycoleno9

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Let's draw a fair comparison between Ole and Frank's starts to their United and Chelsea managerial careers.

Lampard's Chelsea: Played 5, won 2, drawn 2, lost 1 (4-0 away to United no less). Scored 11 goals, conceded 11, resulting in a goal difference of 0.

Ole's United: Played 5, won 2, drawn 2, lost 1. Scored 8, conceded 4, resulting in a goal difference of +4.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that Lampard has fared no better than Ole this season. Both teams share 8 points, yet United have a significantly better GD and look considerably more solid at the back. Can't quite figure out why people are using Frank Lampard's frankly unimpressive start to his Chelsea career as a stick to beat Ole. Unless, of course, they were blissfully unaware of the stats.
The same how you deliberately or not ignore the fact that nobody is talking about stats. Jose had 3 wins in 5 games last year so by that we can say that Ole is doing worse job than Jose?
This comparison of Lampard and Ole is based on game style, how Lampard implemented his ideas in two months and Ole still didn't in 9 months.
 

VP89

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The same how you deliberately or not ignore the fact that nobody is talking about stats. Jose had 3 wins in 5 games last year so by that we can say that Ole is doing worse job than Jose?
This comparison of Lampard and Ole is based on game style, how Lampard implemented his ideas in two months and Ole still didn't in 9 months.
As aesthetic as Chelsea look under Lampard, their defence is an absolute joke. If this is the "style" you're eluding to I'm thoroughly pleased we have the current system.
 

7even

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Solskjaer is a care taker, a short term solution until the club has lowered our wage bill and replaced high earners with academy players. Nothing wrong with that. He’s doing great as a owner friendly DoF.
 
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