Whoever we go for I just hope the club remember that they are allowed to fire interims if it’s not going well. We don’t have to stick with whoever we go for. We can roll the dice again in March if we need to.
Ole Gunnar Solskjær | Leading contender to become caretaker manager
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This this.
Two of his last results including getting thumped 5-0 at home!!! by the Scousers and beaten 4-1 by the might of Watford.
If permanent fair enough.
But if it has to be an interim it's hardly the end of the world.
You've left out he's also finished 2nd and 3rd before. Reached a Europa Final.
Oh and had the best interim spell any interim has likely had.
Much rather keep Fletcher than go with Ole due to the negativity (justified, I may add) surrounding the end of Ole’s previous tenure
2nd and 3rd. When we were miles behind the team that actually won the league. He’s a counter attacking manager, that’s literally all there is to him. When the onus was on him to start getting on the front foot and setting his team up to control games, he failed massively.
Another thing to note; the makeup of this squad doesn’t suit that style of play at all. We have different type of wide players than we did back then. I think Ole would struggle massively if we make the mistake of bringing him back.
Or maybe that different style of player we currently have would help him control games?
As opposed to trying it with a bunch of players who were finished, injured, couldn't pass a ball or couldn't be bothered?
So it depends how negative or positive you want to be about it.
Either way we're after an interim it seems. If he wasn't called Ole I think you'd be ok with somebody who'd finished 2nd and 3rd before. You wouldn't feel the need to caveat those finishes anyway.
We wernt miles behind when we finished 2nd, we finished 12 points behind City but it would've been only 6 if we hadnt have thrown away 6 points against Liverpool and Leicester at home a couple of weeks from the end of the season
Of course I’m negative about this appointment, because I have literally seen it before and it was horrible by the end of it. Also, he arguably had better midfielders then he would now so no, I don’t think the squad in its current makeup will be better for him.
We were never really in a title race that year. City won it quite comfortably.
I know you've not referenced it, but I think this is a good moment to highlight that Solskjaer's 2nd place finish is actually the closest we've come to the league winners since Fergie retired, even if Mourinho and his "greatest ever achievement" 2nd place yielded a few more points.
I'm also not sure I buy the last bit. In his first full season we had Fred, Andreas Pereira and McTominay as our most frequently played midfielders. Casemiro, Ugarte and Mainoo could absolutely do the same job they did. Considering Dan James was our 3rd most used attacker that season (behind Rashford and Martial), I'm not exactly sure what you think Mbeumo, Amad, Cunha or even Mount would be struggling with.
Even the season after, when the attack was definitely stronger, saw us using McTominay and Fred as our main midfield pairing, and I'm not sure why Pogba, Rashford or Greenwood cutting inside is any different to what our current crop could do.
12 points is miles behind. We were quite jammy in a few games to even be that much behind. The underlying stats had us lower than 2nd, someone else mentioned it was 4th.
It was also covid which was a lock down season, I put that as an anamoly year that may suit certain managers and teams more than others.
Lost the same amount of games as city that year (6).
We just drew more
We just drew more
Not arguing we were but we still finished 2nd and what level of manager are you expecting as an interim. Having said that we were top of the league beginning of Jan that season. So to say we were never in it isn't true.
And as I said, he was the interim before and it couldn't have gone any better
In no way are Fred and McTominay better CM's than Casemiro and Bruno.
Memories have faded as to how bad those two were on the ball. McTomimay was having games where the goalkeeper was making more passes.
His team now is better than the team he got sacked with. Without doubt.
we went from making excuses for why Amorim was losing to making excuses for why Ole was winning.Didn't he have Pogba and matic too?
They were both finished. Literally the last season Pogba was really a player. Matic had one more season at Roma and that was him done as a top level professional.
Pogba only started 16 league games. Only completed 9 full league games. One goal. Unfit, unmotivated, injury prone. Finished as a player.
I’m pretty sure this time it would be four months and thanks.
Innit, he’s going to manage us for about 17 games and lord I’m praying an extra 5 with his final game being a win.
Why on earth would they need to do rounds of interviews for an interim anyway?
I 100% think they would keep an interim who gets us Europe the useless twats.
I 100% think they would keep an interim who gets us Europe the useless twats.
Why were we in the Europa League in the first place that season again?
Probably the mistake was that there was open heart surgery on that squad??
If they have to negotiate so hard with Ole, who would/is-most-likely jump(ing) at the chance to be interim, then just go with Fletcher and ask him to bring in Carrick and maybe even Ruud for support. It's an interim gig, and that's all it is. Should be in place immediately after the cup match imo.
I fear so too. With a good helping of cliche sayings and buzzwords
Yes and that’s why he was fired - what’s your point?
He also finished 2 and 3rd in his 2 full seasons in charge
You made it sound like Ole was the only one that did not win the league or did not magically make United become a contender of the premier league title in the past 13 years, while the fact is that we have never been a PL title contender ever since Sir Alex.
Yes, we finished 3rd and were miles off the champions — but top four was the expectation at that stage, and that target was met. In the season we finished 2nd, we ended up 12 points behind, which isn’t flattering, but it was still beyond expectations given that we only got van de Beek, followed by four panic buys on the last day of the transfer window (and only Cavani added immediate value).
Calling those seasons failures now feels revisionist, especially after sitting through two and a half seasons of genuine collapse, where we’re not just miles behind the title winners but often not even miles ahead of the relegation zone. You can argue about Ole’s limitations — especially in terms of controlling games — but pretending that 2nd and 3rd place finishes were some kind of embarrassment, given what came after, just doesn’t hold up.
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Because we qualified for the Champions League and unfortunately slipped up in group stages. Shame really cause battering Leipzig 5-0 was one of many really fun nights under Ole.
Have you mistaken this thread for anyone saying Ole was perfect?
I'd have to think it's a good thing he knows and has the respect of the players, especially the senior ones like Bruno, Maguire, Shaw. The worst thing we could have is the drift under Ragnick and the indifference from the players.
Because we got knocked out of Champs League group stage.
Why were we in Champs League that season?
Again, what level of manager are you expecting to come in as interim? I'm not arguing that Ole is ideal.
Who's your preference for interim?
Isn’t he the only manager since Fergie to deliver back to back top 4 finishes? That felt sad to type.
Such a weird criticism of the last manager to even win us a knockout round in the Champions League or even regularly have us in it.
Fred is one of the most underrated players that we've had in recent times. A laughing stock for whatever reason. He played 5 seasons for us as a starter in midfield and part of a team that came 2nd once and 3rd twice in those 5 seasons. Admittedly he played a bit less in his last season. He was wrongly utilised in nearly every season here, but he kept on going and was pretty much a playmaker, ball winner and defense shield rolled into one. The idea that he was "so bad" on the ball is just wrong. Take a look at his statistics from the 20/21 season; 68 passes per 90 (85th percentile), 87% pass completion rate (84th percentile) and 7.12 progressive passes (88th percentile) while also being near the top for tackles (93rd percentile) and interceptions with 1.69 (84th).
I challenge you to find a midfielder in the PL this season with those stats other than Bruno, but even he has a much lower accuracy.
I really like your summary.
I don't mind him coming in as interim tbh. Just don't want his stay to be made permanent.
What your stats don't cover is how bad Fred was when he was off it. His bottom level was really low.
And you could never trust his first touch. Our CM is better now than it was then.
There's a reason he's spent the rest of his career in Turkey.
My question is for those not happy with the quality of those in the frame for the interim job is who on earth from the elite list of managers/coaches wanted would United be able to convince to come mid-season?
The ironic thing is those bothered by this are actually the ones who are really arguing against getting an elite manager.
Bruno, Amad, Mbeumo and Cunha all have incredibly low bottom level too.
I agree that he could be really poor, but these statistics are based on full PL seasons, and he has top passing statistics in there for a reason. Every PL midfielder has poor games, it's just that you don't care about them because you don't support them or maybe even watch their games.
19/20 season passing stats;
That's fair. How are you feeling about Fletcher? Too early for him?
Don't know enough to have an informed opinion. On the plus side, he's been with the club for a while so the decision-makers should have a pretty good idea of what his skills are and what he's capable of. On the other hand, the hierarchy hasn't inspired much confidence with their previous decision-making, so who knows.
That said, if the team performs well in his remaining games as caretaker and results improve, just keeping him on for the remainder of the reason wouldn't be the worst idea in the world (especially given the alternative would just be an interim appointment anyway).
Amad definitely doesn't. His big strength is that his touch and possession is nearly always secure.
Point is Fred was ridiculously up and down. He'd have a Championship level first half then come out second half and look a different player. You haven't included his stats for 21/22 either, the season Ole got sacked.
Fred in a 3 with two other good midfielders is fine. In a two, no you can't rely on him.
But anyway the argument was about the midfield and team as a whole, not just Fred.