Ole Gunnar Solskjær | 2021/22 Discussion

[minoo-utd]

This thread needs a poll. Sack sack sack. 3 wins last hahaa6162626 games this man can not win 4 5 football matches together. What else di you need?

 

[BluesJr]

But the crux of what your saying is also dependant on new players. Which I agree with.

It isn’t though. Look at how Klopp had Liverpool playing within weeks of being there and their squad was horrible.

 

[Keefy18]

Yeah because Herrera was leaving. In most of our good performances they played together. He did not in anyway replace him. Besides if Matic is on the bench surely he's a replacement for him?

Herrera was not replaced, because if he was still here he would be in our team, without question.

Well wouldn't that therefore mean he replaced Herrera?

Herrera was dropped, McTominay played in his place alongside him.

I've no doubt Fred and Garner will also now play more frequently with Herrera and Fellaini now gone.

 

[Skills]

Thing is, I have no idea what else he's supposed to do with the squad he has! It's all very good clamouring for Angel, Chong, Garner, and Greenwood, but to expect them to challenge for top 4 straight away is massively optimistic.

I cannot understand how we didn't bulk up the midfield and attack this past window. I'm all for a measured overhaul, and I don't expect us to be challenging Liverpool or City for the next 3 years, but when you see Leicester getting a free run at Tielemans, and Gomes going to Everton for relative pennies, you wonder how the board expects us to hold of challenges from mid-table teams.

I really like Solskjaer and like a lot of the players in our squad, but we're going to have to accept this season - and potentially more after - will be write offs. There's no way we're catching City and Liverpool with a quick fix, I think we're best off building foundations to challenge once Pep and Klopp move on.

So, for now, Solskjaer is fine at the helm, we're going to finish between 8th-5th which is where we deserve to be finishing right now. But we're a work in progress, let him have a fair crack at it.

Because he chose to spend 130m on 2 defenders.

 

[Viral United]

No. Him being a bad manager will be. These two players were regulars when we finished 2nd. Ole is a big fraud.

They were not regulars at that time. Issue is these players can't do their job and trusting them will be big issue for Ole.

 

[prateik]

I have a feeling we'll put all our eggs in one basket with the EL come xmas time, we have some really iffy fixtures Sept/Oct.

Top 4 is always on. Chelsea and Arsenal are shit. Spurs are due a wobble.

 

[Enigma_87]

It isn’t though. Look at how Klopp had Liverpool playing within weeks of being there and their squad was horrible.

A very basic concept that is very hard to grasp by some. Good coaches and managers have the ability to raise the level of average players and can make the team as a whole play better.

Funnily enough we had a manager in Fergie that was doing just that on many occasions.

 

[Leif GW]

I like the players he's signed but I don't think he's up for the job as head coach sadly. He's had a summer of preparing the players and a system but I just don't see it, this is not how a well-coached team looks like. Guessing it'll all end in tears before the New Year.

What we need to do is to hire a director of football who has a vision and a long-term strategy and let him recruit our next coach. Let Woodward deal with the commercial stuff but get him the hell away from the footballing side of things.

 

[minoo-utd]

Out of context, this quote doesn't sound particularly good.

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Clueless.

 

[Jim Beam]

Before you go saying another poster is talking shit, it'd help if you were in anyway correct in your sentiments.

Must of imagined Ole replacing Smalling with Maguire? Darmian was replaced with AWB? James replaced Sanchez.

As for Fergie back in 86, Key word you missed is.... "slowly". I didn't say he done it in his debut transfer window. Over the course of 3-4 years he rid the club of bad apples. That is an absolute feckin fact.

It didn't happen over night, nor will it for Ole and nor does it rarely ever happen for any manager. Jesus, even Pep struggled in his debut season at City and then rid the club of a huge bunch of players that were ageing, under performing and that were over paid.

Reality is this, Ole has bought just the 3 players in and all 3 so far in the 4 games have done good to very good.

The real work is continuing to phase out the bad apples and coach the young lads and improve their games and in turn performances and results.

He's not perfect and yes Ole is making some errors which is to be expected, but sacking him won't fix a damned thing as quickly as our spoiled supporters are demanding them to be.

Ok, Keefy

 

[pascell]

Top 4 is always on. Chelsea and Arsenal are shit. Spurs are due a wobble.

I'm not saying I disagree but I dont really know what to make of it all. If we won today and against Palace then we'd have had a cushion on Arsenal after 4 games and we play them at home soon, that game we must win, even if it's this early in the season.

I think it'll be us or Arsenal for top 4, Arsenal beat Spurs then they'll be full of confidence with players still to settle in the team. I think they'll beat us to it this season just because they have more firepower than us.

 

[Enigma_87]

8 shots on goal vs Southamptons 1. If Rashford was a better finisher none here would be baying at the managers head like a pack of wolves.

It’s fairly easy to set up against us. We will hear many ifs and buts and LvG has tonnes of possession too but so what?

2 points out of Wolves, Palace and Soton but we made a ton of shots. That’s nice consolation.

 

[starman]

Still back him. Haven't been that bad, but the pedantics love being pedantic....

Bar the Chelsea game in the 1st half, United have been by far the most dominant team in their games. Points have been lost in moments, rather than being outplayed. 2 missed penalties and Lindelof being as strong as a wet paperbag have cost us.

 

[FootyGirl88]

Worst start to a season since 1992

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[Sylar]

Whats going to annoy me is if all this talk about being happy with the squad, and him talking up youth. But then just giving youth 5 or so minutes here and there, and then relying on Lingard, Young, Matic, etc, who clearly are not head and shoulders above the youth who can at least grow into the roles and be used in the future (whereas most of these should be gone next season).

 

[royboy16]

His signings have been good.
See some improvements but some bad decisions too.

 

[The_Order]

The board has bought. The manager has bought. They've also sold but sadly the wrong players. They're promoting 'youth' but sadly the wrong players (Lingard, Periera incredible development of talent). Now, Woodward is making an absolute mess of the football club. But part of that mess, yet again, is hiring seemingly the wrong manager.

As with Jose, Ole has no excuses for being unable to turn us into a well managed and well drilled priper football team, regardless of shiny toys he may or may not have. I mean, he may not be good enough to do it of course so I suppose that's a decent excuse to have. But the manager can do plenty and doesn't seem to be able to.

Just goes to show that 'lets play with passion', ''set the boys free', 'we want to be happy' etc doesn't work. You actually have to have quality managerial ability.

I see Lampard and Emery doing better than Ole this season, sadly. And should he finish outside top 4 he should go.

Very fair points, Ole has only managed Cardiff and Molde up till now.

He doesnt have the tactical nous at the very top level, that much is clear and I won't combat any one who says as much.

My point is that the current mess is borne of a lack backing in midfield recruitment, no amount of shoulda woulda and whatabboutery will change that.

We are structurally unsound and an institutional mess at the board level. I work in governance, if you get the chance check out the book "The fish rots from the head" Bob Garratt'.

The way we are run, it really won't matter who we appoint an manager, the same problems will continue. From my personal observation, with the lack of creativity in midfield taken into consideration, we have improved in our pattern of play, we are fairly solid at the back, we used to get carved open in direct play, those days are gone. All of Ole's signings have been our standout players. Given the right backing we can progress.

Ole has weaknesses, his subs are too late and he fails to react to real time situations. Greenwood should hav been on the moment they went a man down.

Anyway, I will be optimistic that Ole learns and is given the opportunity to build something. Sacking him is a zero sum at this juncture.

 

[Alabaster Codify7]

Ole's mantra was that he's:

a) happy with the squad he has.
b) wants to play the United way
c) wants to give youth a chance

Today:

a) our squad limitations were visible for all to see. Look. Nobody wanted him to be Jose and slag of the board, but there are subtle things to say to tell the fans things aren't going to plan. Ole chose to not do that, he chose to act like he's extremely happy with not replacing players in midfield/attack. He gaves the impression he's happy to be here and happy to work with this lot - very David Moyes.

b) what's 'the United way', then? If Ole is basing this on wanting to replicate SAF and his time here as a player...….'the United way' certainly isn't being comfortably contained and made to look clueless by mid table teams like Palace and Southampton.

c) bollocks. When we needed an injection of something different, he defaulted to veteran Matic and 27yr old non-entity Lingard. The same Lingard that, as an attacker, has not scored or assisted a single goal since around Christmas.

Look at him. Look at his face, his appearance, and his demeanour.

His face is a man that doesn't know what to do.

His appearance - he's aged about 20yrs recently, he is physically resembling David Moyes. This job sucks the life out of managers. He is following that path.

His demeanour - the worst of the lot. He portrays a man that literally doesn't know what to do. He is indecisive. When he makes a decision, proactively, it usually involves bringing on an experienced player hoping that might steady the ship.

I'm sorry - I loved Ole as a player. I love him as a person and thank him so much for coming in as a caretaker and bringing us some kind of positivity. But the manager? He doesn't cut it. He didn't cut it for Cardiff City. He will not cut it for this club with the players he has at his disposal. That's a two-sided sword, the squad isn't his fault but he says hes happy with it - he'll die by this sword.

 

[DomesticTadpole]

Clueless.

If he said that it is weird. Results and outcomes are precisely the things that are under your control.

 

[prateik]

I'm not saying I disagree but I dont really know what to make of it all. If we won today and against Palace then we'd have had a cushion on Arsenal after 4 games and we play them at home soon, that game we must win, even if it's this early in the season.

I think it'll be us or Arsenal for top 4, Arsenal beat Spurs then they'll be full of confidence with players still to settle in the team. I think they'll beat us to it this season just because they have more firepower than us.

It's waay too early in the season to be worrying about a point or two.

The thing is, Chelsea are weak.. dont look up to it.
Arsenal are .. Arsenal.
We arent playing well.

If we can get our act together, its there for the taking...
If it takes us 2 months, that's still fine. Just stay in touch.
We can strengthen in Jan.. Arsenal have used up their transfer budget.. almost certainly... Chelsea cant sign anyone.


The key is to sort our team out and start playing well..

 

[Sylar]

Yeah this is something that I must be missing too. The usual weirdos talk usual shit about 'potential Pogba assist if Rashford...'. I mean, Rashford has been fecking shit, make no mistake, but was there even one situation today where he'd be sent through on goal with a through ball? But I mean on goal, not to one of the corners of the 16th yard box, like through on goal, just a keeper, clear angle and all that funny shit?

I can agree that he should have scored from one of James/AWB crosses, but we don't have a striker who'd score those at our club anyway.

I reckon a top striker scores the chance he has which Pogba puts him through in the second half. Rashford is too reliant on his right foot, and the ones that come onto his left are almost always weakly hit.

 

[beingshe7don]

The matter of fact is that we've all go the red tinted glasses on and are backing Ole foolishly. We repeated the same mistakes from the Wolves game. Rashford was wasteful as ever. We didn't bring in Greenwood until 9 min left in the game.

Why doesn't Ole understand that Pereira does not work when he's played as a No. 8, 6 or as a RM. Wan Bassaka was exposed to the extent he started making mistakes and had to go in for the tackle almost every time since he was out of position.

We were 3 games in before the start of this game and I did not see urgent pressing from our front three. The tempo of the game was so freaking slow and sluggish. What are the excuses? We also got a good pre-season in this time round?

We played Pogba as a DM which he clearly isn't. He doesn't have the discipline or the consistency to operate as a DM. Not making excuses for Pogba, he was completely shit today except for the last 10 min when he played higher up the pitch. How the hell is Mctominay playing ahead of Pogba? Like seriously that is a huge tactical error.

Why do you bring Matic to slow down the game further?

And Lingard came on and was being so selfish like he wanted to be the hero or something.... He refused to pass the ball on two occassions when Greenwood and Pogba were in better positions and took a shot far out and failed miserably

Rashford is NOT a 9. He doesn't have any hold up play ability. You would think that since our manager was a accomplished striker, he would teach a thing or two to Rashford. Guess what, Rashford hasn't improved and we are almost 9 months in since Ole joined the club.

I think the United boots are way too big for Ole. He's got good intentions and all and great work with getting rid of the deadwood but he doesn't have the tactical genius ability to switch things up when things aren't working out. He comes out with his smile and blaming how we were unlucky and bull crap. We didn't do enough to win the game. Plain and simple.

Let's face it, Ole wouldn't get the job as manager based on his resume credentials. He got it mainly as a romance and a ploy from Ed to appease the fans.

Our players may not be good enough but our manager hasn't shown great ability to doing well with what he has at the moment. He just has one style of play which does not always work out. We may have gotten Lukaku out but to have Rashford (whose proven absolutely nothing) on 250k wages is just criminal.

Rashford is not an out and out goal scorer.

In my opinion, Ole needs a little bit more learning as an Assistant Manager.

Ole serves better as a Director of football at United than an actual Manager.

 

[Walters_19_MuFc]

We were shite today but I felt we had enough chances to win the game. Same applies to all of our other games apart from Palace, where we didn't create anywhere near enough.

On another day we could be sitting on 9 points but its not quite gone our way.

That said, we do need to improve, but its not going to happen overnight.

 

[Ralph1386]

The problem is that sacking him won't change a thing now. So that's that.

 

[Son]

The best we can probably hope for is that Poch or Tuchell become available & they bring in some top quality coaches.

I've liked Ole's 3 signings but thats about it, we can't control a game properly & there is no exuse for the lack of results against poor opposition. Possession means nothing as Mourinho said after the final against Ajax.
The blatant nepotism some of our fans are openly celebrating is repulsive to watch at times.

Perfect if you’re the Glazers since fans only want to see home grown nobodys meaning cheaper wages.

 

[Roboc7]

If we sack him, there’s still no DOF or recruitment structure and it’ll be same people recruiting his replacement which they are clueless at. Will be same people trying to buy players for manager and sell ones he doesn’t want.

I dont think Ole is up to the job but this season is doomed whether he stays or not.

 

[Kostur]

I reckon a top striker scores the chance he has which Pogba puts him through in the second half. Rashford is too reliant on his right foot, and the ones that come onto his left are almost always weakly hit.

Thing is, he isn't one though, might as well be, easy to forget Rashford's age but he's not that, not yet. Makes it even more so mental with the 'attacking' options we've gone into this season.

 

[Mickeza]

Our world class goalkeeper, someone who wants 375k/week, cant play the ball out from the back.. every time he kicks out, he gives it straight to the opposition.

Our world class midfielder.. the most expensive player we have ever signed, keeps dwelling on the ball and loses it in dangerous areas.

that has nothing to do with the manager..

There’s a strong argument that both those players should have been moved on in the summer though and the money reinvested to overhaul the squad. As it is we’ll likely still end up finishing 6th this year and sell Pogba next year and lose De Gea on a free.

 

[minoo-utd]

3 wins in last 16 games. Which team accept this?

 

[VP89]

No point jumping to sack. We just have to sit through the season. Unless he turns us around drastically in both form and results I'd imagine we would move for Poch behind the scenes. Mind you Real may be thinking the same with Zidane.

 

[Hammerfell]

Out of context, this quote doesn't sound particularly good.

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I have to laugh.

 

[DomesticTadpole]

If we sack him, there’s still no DOF or recruitment structure and it’ll be same people recruiting his replacement which they are clueless at. Will be same people trying to buy players for manager and sell ones he doesn’t want.

I dont think Ole is up to the job but this season is doomed whether he stays or not.

Not recruiting a DOF is biting us on the rear now. A top class one would not let us sell players without replacing them.

 

[beingshe7don]

It's waay too early in the season to be worrying about a point or two.

The thing is, Chelsea are weak.. dont look up to it.
Arsenal are .. Arsenal.
We arent playing well.

If we can get our act together, its there for the taking...
If it takes us 2 months, that's still fine. Just stay in touch.
We can strengthen in Jan.. Arsenal have used up their transfer budget.. almost certainly... Chelsea cant sign anyone.


The key is to sort our team out and start playing well..

It's not just that we are not playing well. Our squad is thin and our attack and midfield (our best combinations) aren't good enough.

Front three (Rashford, Martial and James) are not good enough
Midfield three (Pogba, Mctominay and Lingard) are not good enough

We are going to struggle. Rashford is not a 9. Martial and Greenwood are the only strikers we can perhaps boast about.

Pogba is not a DM and should never play deeper than Mctominay.

 

[Skills]

Not recruiting a DOF is biting us on the rear now. A top class one would not let us sell players without replacing them.

He wouldn't have let us hire solskjaer in the first place.

 

[VP89]

3 wins in last 16 games. Which team accept this?

I dont care about the last season set of results. I'm just baffled he let sold or froze 4 central midfielders without replacing a single one. And then froze or sold 2 star attackers without replacing a single one.

It's quite hilarious really. He probably has some misguided romantic belief in the United youth players to do another '99 and play level with the likes of Augameyang, KDB, Son, Mane, Pedro etc.

 

[Toad]

Happy with...

• What he is trying to do with the squad I.e. recruiting players that want to play for us and not just the money
• The clear out of deadwood thus far
• Giving youth a chance and getting us back to what we are all about in that respect

Disappointed with...

• The naive comments about how he is happy with the squad
• The clear low expectations
• Recruiting without replacing properly
• Woodward
• The Glazers

 

[Inigo Montoya]

Not recruiting a DOF is biting us on the rear now. A top class one would not let us sell players without replacing them.

It's the work with what we have that causes me concern. The players are easily good enough to beat Wolves,Palace and Soton.

Burnley fecking trashed Soton.

 

[freeurmind]

Honestly, it does't matter if Ole got sacked. It will be the same cycle repeated as long as Woodward is in charge.
Ole is a scapegoat for the Glazers.

Amen

 

[GlastonSpur]

You are still deluding yourself that a big club wants the specialist in failure in your dugout? Not one concrete job offer has come his way since he settled in to ride on Kane's coattails, the only one talking him up to Madrid or Manchester is his agent.

United fans need to make up their mind: either he would have come to United if only you'd offered more money, or else he wasn't interested having bigger fish to fry.

Concerning offers from other clubs, Pochettino himself says: "(There have been) plenty. Plenty in five years and Daniel knows. From everywhere."

 

[DomesticTadpole]

He wouldn't have let us hire solskjaer in the first place.

That as well.