That’s it in a nutshell. It’s nothing to do with entertainment, just whining that we didn’t absolutely decimate the opposition. It’s a 2-0 win on a Thursday night in the Europa, against a team that shut up shop. Job done and move on.
Ole Gunnar Solskjær | 2021/22 Discussion
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik and Imran hold a long overdue conversation about United's awful league form with 1 win in 7. They discuss a disappointing draw at Bournemouth, a not so disappointing draw against Liverpool and a crushing defeat at Chelsea - Is time nearly over for Erik Ten Hag?
Then in a special second half of the pod, Nik welcomes Natalie ( https://twitter.com/natalie_17) to discuss the fortunes of Manchester United Women as they booked a place in the FA Cup Final after a historic first ever win vs. Chelsea.
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What we are lacking is proper collective movement. We are not really synchronized as a team. Improving off the ball movement will help us reduce turnovers both while attacking and defending. An elite level coach is what we are lacking, however, I doubt that Ole is looking or asking the Board for one.
Why do people even bother watching if all they care about is the result? Just tune in at the full time whistle.
Well, all you do is whine about Ole and Dan James on here. You're making this forum toxic and you dont contribute to anything other than one-liners about how shit they are.
That is bizarre. Why be on a forum to discuss when thats all you do.
Move on
ufff, that surely must be the opposite
We had two shots on target all game (3 if you include the last-minute penalty)!! TWO! Granada had three! I'm sorry, but last night was fecking boring and that's an awful word to use to describe United. Boring, boring Man United has become the new normal and it's unacceptable.
Jeez, we play Sunday, Telles needs minutes to be of use next game and we need Luke fresh, last thing we need is him to do his hammy, what you don´t understand, yellow card is just a trigger. Telles plays against Granada anyway, where does he gets minutes to get some confidence to be of use. I realyl don´t udnerstand some posters thinking...
LW: Rashford, James, Martial, Pogba (Ole's choice)
RW: James, Greenwood, Mata & Amad(Smaller games and dead rubber games)
ST: Cavani, Martial, Greenwood, Rashford
There's ways of switching it up. All those players have played well in those positions at some point. Up to us to figure out how and why they worked well and implement it.
I don't see how people find it a ridiculous notion that we are pretty boring to watch. We are.
Honestly, we play very similarly to Van Gaal against lesser teams, but the difference is Rashford and Fernandes. We didn't have a player anywhere near Fernandes's level, and Rashford is a much better player now. Due to that, we are more capable of scraping out a goal from the same lifeless football.
Some people seem to paint our football like peak 06/07 or 07/08 stuff. We play nothing like that. It seems strange that people think it is absurd to say we are not entertaining.
Despite having a worse front line, Chelsea create more chances than us. Werner (can't hit a barn door) , Giroud (never prolific), Abraham (average) , Pulisic (injury prone), Havertz (been terrible so far), Ziyech (average), Mount (good player). They have lesser players yet outmatch us in this area. That is due to them having a much better system, but that can only carry them so far. They still need a goalscorer. They haven't got a star player yet, but we have at least one. Arguably, Rashford is reaching that territory too.
We have good players, but we are not a good team in possession. Despite having Fernandes (arguably the best AM in the league) , we are fourth in terms of creativity. We have Greenwood and Rashford on the wings with Cavani/Martial through the centre. But we rely too much on a single player's abilities and not a system to help create more.
With the way we play, the only way we will win the title against Guardiola is if we have better players than him. I guarantee if Solskjaer and Guardiola had the same team, Guardiola would finish miles ahead. Why? A better system.
Honestly, we play very similarly to Van Gaal against lesser teams, but the difference is Rashford and Fernandes. We didn't have a player anywhere near Fernandes's level, and Rashford is a much better player now. Due to that, we are more capable of scraping out a goal from the same lifeless football.
Some people seem to paint our football like peak 06/07 or 07/08 stuff. We play nothing like that. It seems strange that people think it is absurd to say we are not entertaining.
Despite having a worse front line, Chelsea create more chances than us. Werner (can't hit a barn door) , Giroud (never prolific), Abraham (average) , Pulisic (injury prone), Havertz (been terrible so far), Ziyech (average), Mount (good player). They have lesser players yet outmatch us in this area. That is due to them having a much better system, but that can only carry them so far. They still need a goalscorer. They haven't got a star player yet, but we have at least one. Arguably, Rashford is reaching that territory too.
We have good players, but we are not a good team in possession. Despite having Fernandes (arguably the best AM in the league) , we are fourth in terms of creativity. We have Greenwood and Rashford on the wings with Cavani/Martial through the centre. But we rely too much on a single player's abilities and not a system to help create more.
With the way we play, the only way we will win the title against Guardiola is if we have better players than him. I guarantee if Solskjaer and Guardiola had the same team, Guardiola would finish miles ahead. Why? A better system.
Let's see what happens in the summer. We are on course for the EL semi's, win that and we are in Pot 1 for the CL. Let's see if the club back him and how clever we are in the market. Hopefully we have some sort of pre-season to prepare for the new season and that we get our business done quick to integrate new players. If we finish 2/3 and actually win the EL. I will not be moaning. Then Ole will have no excuses to improve the football on the field as the majority of the squad will be his players with no hangover from previous managers.
When you have to give these types of excuse for performance after literally every game, I think it's time to accept that our football is just not good to watch. You're definitely fighting a losing battle on that front.
Games generally aren't good to watch when one team decides to put 10 men behind the ball and stifle the other, which is what teams do against us quite regularly. The irony is, we're a team that's better when the other side wants to play football with us.
Our biggest win in Spain since when? (Come on, quizbrains!)
As Sir Alex said, it’s not our obligation to entertain the away crowd in Europe. Granada had home advantage and used it to deny our play any way they possibly could,kicking, tugging, filming, and we beat them 2-0 away. That’s a perfect night in Europe summed up.
That's an issue all big teams have to contend with, though. It comes with the territory of being the biggest and most valuable and expensive team. The key is figuring out how to get the better of bus parkers. Even still, we've recorded 5 nil nils against our traditional domestic rivals this season, so even our ability to play well against sides that want to play football with/against us has dissipated somewhat recently.
It's not ridiculous to say we are boring to watch on times, last night was a snooze fest.
What's ridiculous is to expect exhilarating football every game. That goes for any normal season, but in particular to this congested season where there's been close to zero break or pre-season. The players are quite clearly flagging and have been since January, I would say.
We are not boring by design. Ole has repeatedly stated what he wants from the team in terms of attacking, playing and passing the ball quickly and the required fitness levels to carry this out. He's satisfied with results and progress in mentality, but he's clearly not content with our overall play otherwise he'd be saying so.
You are screaming for a system to make us less boring at the same time comparing us to LvG, who was over reliant on a system that made us extremely boring. So which is it?
People do care, they're just capable of understanding that our players are knackered from months of playing every three days, on top of having had no pre-season. Unlike you and your entitled moaning.
I have issues wit Ole and Dan James therefore I post about my issues with Ole and Dan James.
Stalking me or even having having mental notes of my posts is not only bizarre, but creep-ish. That, alongside bestowing yourself the responsibility of reminding folks what they’re free to do and the evident need for validation from strangers online are very troublesome narcissistic tendencies. You give me the heebie jeebies. Please, I politely request that you do not quote me again.
Agree. Our forward line is an emerging teenager, Rashy, Martial, good old Dan James and old man Cavani. We need more. 1 maybe 2.
What if the ref stitches us up? What if we hit the post 8 times and lose to a double deflection? What if we're hit with even more injuries?
Did you watch those games by any chance? Because if you did, you'd know those 0-0s said a lot more about the opposition than it did us.
Our football is boring and functional, I can certainly agree with that. But I feel that it's acceptable, given the circumstances. This seasons is unprecedented, we've played a game every three days for months, we had no preseason, we still lack quality in depth, we still lack quality in a couple of positions, our players are knackered. We play in a way the avoids expending energy in trying to bomb forward all the time, and it's understandable. Ole and Maguire are on record stating that our training revolves around recovering from the last game and preparing for the next, there's no time to do anything else. Our football is functional, and gets results more often than not.
Playing like we do is part of managing the squad. We conserve energy by playing conservatively because we have to. I expect that the most prominent complainers are well aware of that, but admitting that would mean giving Ole some credit, and we can't have any of that, can we? No, we have to complain incessantly about how boring and useless Ole is, how he's killing this team and people's love for the sport and how he's a clueless idiot who needs to go.
Playing like we do is part of managing the squad. We conserve energy by playing conservatively because we have to. I expect that the most prominent complainers are well aware of that, but admitting that would mean giving Ole some credit, and we can't have any of that, can we? No, we have to complain incessantly about how boring and useless Ole is, how he's killing this team and people's love for the sport and how he's a clueless idiot who needs to go.
So what about last season? The football was just as boring for most of it.
Also, could you elaborate on the links between being tired and playing more cohesive football?
So true. A (sort of) proof of this is how many times we've won from behind this season. When we really need to turn the heat up we have it in our locker.
Spot on. We've played more games than anyone else since football came back in June last year. We had no preseason and we don't have the opportunity to work on things in between games.
Fatigue is certainly a more valid area of mitigation for us, than it was for Liverpool for example, who used that exact same reason for their slump despite them having at times 9 days off between games, and getting themselves knocked out of the cups very early.
It is, and it's why more creative players are required to unlock these defences. Even our rivals, with the exception of City, have more often than not played defensively against us as it's a well known weakness of ours. It's equally well-known that we can tear teams apart if they open up against us.
Right....
Have you ever played a game of football? Or any sport for that matter?
Suggesting fatigue doesn't affect performance is quite a claim.
Rubbish. We were piss poor against Chelsea in both games. The majority of those games were muted affairs, there's no point dressing them up as something they weren't.
Yes, it was boring up until we signed Bruno, and also towards the end after the restart. Before Bruno can be explained by the complete lack of creativity in Pogba's injury absence. I'm completely down with that, at least in part, being Ole's fault for not signing a decent back up, but we know that we were trying to sign Bruno that summer and that Ole was unhappy about that dragging out and not being finalised, so he was aware of the need at least. Towards the end, the team was clearly knackered, and some have argued that we should have binned off the Europa League to allow the first team to have a proper break and pre-season. But, we obviously cared about trying to win a trophy, despite the mischaracterisation of Ole's comments on cups, so we went all in for it.
And I don't know, I think we're fairly cohesive for the most part, but tiredness affects across the board.
Jesus wept
Your 5 latest post is visible in your profile for a reason. If you can't handle that without making it about stalking, you should get off the internet.
The Ole discussion thread is about discussion, not your ranting about how shit he is in on-liners. That makes the thread poor and the forum poor.
Im pretty sure you can up your post and stop ranting on-liners after every game and performance.
I understand that some people defend him because in the end he plays better football than Jose and Jose was backed more than Ole. But please, don't just go after any supporter who thinks he plays dull football. Playing dull football without winning anything is meaningless and should not be celebrated. In a club in the size and the prestige of Manchester united you aim for great honors and do it with exciting football. We are neither playing exciting football at the moment nor winning great honors.
English Premier League 2020/21 Fixture
2nd most goals scored in the league, scored 3+ goals in 10 of the 30 games, 2nd most Shots on target.
In top 4 for I think every meaningful attacking metric but we're boring. Considering that none of the stats back that argument, I'd say maybe, just maybe people need to stop watching youtube highlights of other teams and use that as a basis to compare our 90 min performance.
| Team | Games where team scored 3+ goals |
| Man City | 11 |
| Man Utd | 10 |
| Liverpool | 8 |
| Arsenal | 8 |
| Chelsea | 8 |
| West Ham | 8 |
| Spurs | 7 |
| Aston Villa | 7 |
| Leeds | 7 |
| Leicester | 7 |
| Everton | 4 |
| Southampton | 4 |
| Crystal Palace | 3 |
| West Brom | 3 |
| Brighton | 3 |
| Newcastle | 2 |
| Burnley | 2 |
| Wolves | 1 |
| Fulham | 1 |
| Sheffield Utd | 0 |
2nd most goals scored in the league, scored 3+ goals in 10 of the 30 games, 2nd most Shots on target.
In top 4 for I think every meaningful attacking metric but we're boring. Considering that none of the stats back that argument, I'd say maybe, just maybe people need to stop watching youtube highlights of other teams and use that as a basis to compare our 90 min performance.
I wont speak for anyone else, but I suspect that the real issue some have (and I certainly feel that way) is how this forum so often feels like we've lost a game after we've won. As far as I'm aware this is still the best United forum available, and its a habit for me to log in straight after a match and post and read. Its something that I'm now always hesitant to do and I know that there are a lot of posters that feel the same way, many of whom have taken it a step further than me and just stopped coming here.
Everyone on here has a responsibility to try to keep this forum a place where new people want to come. These days it looks like a playground for the hyper-critical, and the less 'dramatic' are leaving or taking one look and not bothering.
We would be even better off if we had a consistent number 9 and a RW. Hopefully we can address those issues during the summer.
I expected better football, a comfortable top four finish and a good cup run this season. Fair is fair and bar a catastrophic end to the season, Ole has achieved what I expected. I'm not sure what most expected this season but surely it wasn't more than that. I agree that our football can certainly improve, but a-lot of that is down to having a front three that just didn't work as a unit this season. Martial has been very poor and Greenwood is suffering from the well renowned 'second season syndrome'.
I expected better football, a comfortable top four finish and a good cup run this season. Fair is fair and bar a catastrophic end to the season, Ole has achieved what I expected. I'm not sure what most expected this season but surely it wasn't more than that. I agree that our football can certainly improve, but a-lot of that is down to having a front three that just didn't work as a unit this season. Martial has been very poor and Greenwood is suffering from the well renowned 'second season syndrome'.
True.
Or at least largely stopped posting outside the general/CE.
But some have left altogether - yes. Which is a shame, as those were generally good posters.
Anyway, you can't realistically expect a brilliant display away in Europe to a team famous for shithouse tactics - can you? No, you can't - so what the feck are people whining about, then?
We won without too much trouble, job done, move on.
Save the OTT moaning for matches that actually warrant it to a degree.
We won without too much trouble, job done, move on.
Save the OTT moaning for matches that actually warrant it to a degree.
Still not getting convinced. The playing style just hasn't been there. I am really not getting any joy in watching us. Ofcourse results has been great and he deserves credit for it. It's just that we definitely has more in our team than what's being offered in the field. Still feel like a bunch of disjointed players trying to use their skillset.
I don't quite get this new big angle to moan about the manager with the football being brutally bad to watch. It's like every other moan been swatted away so now onto this one, until we start losing matches then can go back to that one.
I'm not going to sit here and say last month half football been edge of seat, but we had issues at the back and he seems to have sorted it out at a critical time of the season. He's went more pragmatic, and it's been the right move, plus factor in injuries too and the stage of the season.
Overall across the season we've been pretty much top scorers across comps I think and 2nd highest chances created. The goals been there. We've been very attacking in matches. Big problem has been teams parking the bus but we are scoring goals. Whenever any team attacked we have opened them up, the football been wonderful but that's far and between these days because it's the pressure end of the season, results are massive and teams are setting their stall out. But we keep grinding. Sometimes you swore people have rose tainted memories of previous years where it was attacking domination, espeically at this stage of the game.
Last night the result was excellent. All the Spanish wanted to do was defend and kick Lumps out of us. I baffled why anybody would be moaning about that game.
I'm not going to sit here and say last month half football been edge of seat, but we had issues at the back and he seems to have sorted it out at a critical time of the season. He's went more pragmatic, and it's been the right move, plus factor in injuries too and the stage of the season.
Overall across the season we've been pretty much top scorers across comps I think and 2nd highest chances created. The goals been there. We've been very attacking in matches. Big problem has been teams parking the bus but we are scoring goals. Whenever any team attacked we have opened them up, the football been wonderful but that's far and between these days because it's the pressure end of the season, results are massive and teams are setting their stall out. But we keep grinding. Sometimes you swore people have rose tainted memories of previous years where it was attacking domination, espeically at this stage of the game.
Last night the result was excellent. All the Spanish wanted to do was defend and kick Lumps out of us. I baffled why anybody would be moaning about that game.
@MU655 I totally agree that people can have their issues with our style of play. Honestly, it's one thing I really want for us to improve upon. Obviously, it's also totally fair to question Ole on this front too.
However, there are several factors/variables at play that could possibly explain some of our disjointed football. Conversely, there far too many far fetched excuses at times, and a-lot of dramatics from Ole's biggest fans at the mere signt of criticism - no matter how constructive it is.
Nevertheless, the first post in here last night was to slag off Ole. We had just come away with a two nil win in the QF of the EL against a shit house team. Yes, the match wasn't great but it was a good result and no one really expected a great quality match. The other 3 games looked of similar quality and Arsenal could only draw at home to Slavia Prague. There's certainly a conversation to be had about Ole but some of the negativity is ridiculous. If you find the right posters, you will find a good balanced debate. There are plenty however from both 'sides' that you should steer well clear of, as they have no intention of a rational debate.
However, there are several factors/variables at play that could possibly explain some of our disjointed football. Conversely, there far too many far fetched excuses at times, and a-lot of dramatics from Ole's biggest fans at the mere signt of criticism - no matter how constructive it is.
Nevertheless, the first post in here last night was to slag off Ole. We had just come away with a two nil win in the QF of the EL against a shit house team. Yes, the match wasn't great but it was a good result and no one really expected a great quality match. The other 3 games looked of similar quality and Arsenal could only draw at home to Slavia Prague. There's certainly a conversation to be had about Ole but some of the negativity is ridiculous. If you find the right posters, you will find a good balanced debate. There are plenty however from both 'sides' that you should steer well clear of, as they have no intention of a rational debate.
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