Hope this is wrong as I think we desperately need a new midfielder as a minimum or I think we will struggle and we also need striker.Yet apparently we are not prioritizing a midfielder in January but a striker. Ole says he is happy with the options he has got. January is going to be really stressful isn't it?
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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Yes but we have a transfer committee. It’s not going to be made up of finance and corporate people.
Touché.. go watch a United in the 80’s video. Cheer you up.
It wasn't either defence or midfield. We needed to strengthen both the areas. Had we not signed Maguire and AWB, our defence would have looked like this Young Smalling Jones Williams. That screams mediocrity.
The transfer committee has little to do with the hiring of a manager and transfer committees are rarely a good thing.
The defence could've been strengthened for a lot less the £130m we spent on Maguire and AWB.
I have read although not sure how accurate it is, that Ole would resign as manager if he thought it was in best interest of club.
You think Tixi hired Guardiola? Come off it man. Your talking nonsense.
A transfer committee ran club currently sit top of the Premier League mate.
Easier said than done. AWB has been really good so spending 50m was worth it. Maguire is definitely not worth 80m but that is the market we are in now. I think people are over critical of his performance but one man cannot fix the whole defence. He has been decent so far. I would say all our signings have been decent, none of them have had a Sanchez or Mkhi like feel. We missed the boat by not signing a midfielder. It will always remain amystery whether it was the board who refused to back Ole by giving him more funds or it was Ole himself who decided he is happy with the options. Looking at Ole's interviews from April to July it seems he wanted more players so I cannot completely trust the Board in this.
It is obvious it is in the best interest of the club, so why he is not leaving? it is a worse start than last year yet we sacked the toxic one but not Ole. We should not wait, he should be sacked by the club.
This place is such a cesspool now. I don’t think anyone hates the club or manager more than some of so called.... people. Can’t even call them fans or supporters because they are obviously not, by definitions of the words.
When the going gets tough, I guess the true colours of many are shown. And boy, they are ugly.
When the going gets tough, I guess the true colours of many are shown. And boy, they are ugly.
Why would you use that tone when you somehow make up what I said?
The Dof is part of the decision making when it comes to hire coaches and the organization of the football side of things, if you don't have one the board who is generally made of people that have little to do with football are making these decisions alone without the input of someone that is a football specialist. You suggested that the board only has to stop making incompetent managerial appointments when these people are by default incompetent in that domain. Soriano is by default incompetent in that area that's why he has always worked with a lot of football specialists around him, at Barcelona and at City.
Your opinion doesn't make it obvious
Weird thing is that the going isn't all that tough. Our last 8 games have been entertaining mostly, with a couple of shit displays among some great goals, excitement and young players emerging.
I fancy us to win our next 2 putting us on 7 wins and 2 draws from 10, with the spurs game a proper midweek must win.
I'm enjoying the season for the first time in the current spell.
Were so much better than end of last season it's night and day. Yesterday was a terrible performance with a weak team but lets see how we follow it up.
Not sure. Maybe he has faith that he can do well from now until the summer and reassess the situation then perhaps.
Agree. I find the season getting more enjoyable progressively. Team is finding cohesion but I think it will still take a while for the results to catch up. Sheffield doesn’t seem like a weak team at all this season.
He inferred he was more than happy because last year we'd have lost by 3 or 4. He cited drawing the game as real progress compared to last year.
We did sporadic comebacks then and we did it on Sunday. There's no fecking progress if anything it's worse. His standards are terribly low.
Yes but you are claiming this can only be done with a DOF which clearly isn’t true. Woodward has signed off 3 managers. However the first one was recommended by Fergie and the lastest one was also recommended by Fergie. So what you are suggesting actually happened at United but it was still unsuccessful. I’m not requesting change I’m requesting people learn from there bloody mistakes.
It's as clear as day to see that Ole is not the man to take us to the next level. I feel it's amazing how low his standards are, having played for Fergie and all. What was all that BS about being 4-5 nil down?
No reason to wait, sack Ole the minute Poch feel ready. Poch does have other interesting options though, with the Bayern job being available and maybe even Real Madrid. If the board don't splash the cash to get Poch I'm afraid we'll end up with someone incompetent once again, or even worse, be stuck with Ole. The man is driving us straight into mediocrity.
The selection of managers out there are very poor at the moment and Poch is a proven manager who can build for the future aswell.
No reason to wait, sack Ole the minute Poch feel ready. Poch does have other interesting options though, with the Bayern job being available and maybe even Real Madrid. If the board don't splash the cash to get Poch I'm afraid we'll end up with someone incompetent once again, or even worse, be stuck with Ole. The man is driving us straight into mediocrity.
The selection of managers out there are very poor at the moment and Poch is a proven manager who can build for the future aswell.
I didn't which is why I used the term "most" several times hence not all. To reiterate my point, most clubs learn from their mistakes by hiring a specialist of football management which is generally a DOF, sporting director or whatever term that you want to use. Boards made of people without football expertise, which is the majority of clubs, rarely gain that expertise by themselves.
Now you draw the conclusion that you want.
I'm Ole out but I think its most lip service. But it's worth remembering that, as a manager, Ole's standards have been defined by the Norwegian league and relegation with Cardiff. As has his standards of playing and coaching staff.
How many players who played under SAF and have become manager have 1. Played the so-called 'United Way'.
2. Been seriously successful.
I would say his players have mostly become very run-of-the-mill managers. Nothing special.
It is too pathetic. Football is a simple game if you get the basics right. At this level you cannot teach players how to control the ball anymore or change their technique. You need to lay the foundations of how you play and then get them to practice how to be in shape and how to transition and how to defend. Then you practice your set pieces and how you defend as a team.
Look at yesterday. Our first goal was conceded because we failed in this. It is very easy to blame Jones for this but to play Jones as the left sided defender in a back 3 is asking for trouble as anyone can tell. Because they were out numbering us in midfield we never got close to them. It is also ridiculous to think that Fred and Pereira can play against a 3 man midfield let alone a 4 to 5 man midfield.
As a manager what do you do when you find that there is no more midfield players available but you need another player who is capable of able to play against a team used to playing in the lower division? You put in a defender who can play a but in midfield. In this case Jones who has played there more than one occasion. Play him in front of the back two CBs. Give him his task of stopping the flow in midfield.
But he played Jones in a back three on the left. Huge mistake.
Then we had Fred and Pereira playing together in one line. Beat one and the other is beaten also. There is no depth in defense. This is why the forwards were getting isolated. Two midfield players are in a line and defending. We should have gone with Jones in midfield and the other two forward of him.
We do not narrow the pitch when we lose the ball. We are too open and that also makes them easy for the opposition. Honestly without David we would have beaten yesterday.
The less said about the corners and the set pieces, the better. It is not that we score from them but we cannot even get them right. Either the players are refusing to follow orders( which I highly doubt) or Ole is not interested in getting them right.
Also what is the point of putting in high crosses from either flanks? Martial and Rashford are not going to win any headers against any PL CBs. the way we are doing it when they are all set and facing the ball.
All of this comes down to coaching or lack of coaching. It is now up to the players to improvise and being very good players they are doing so and that is why were even at this level.
Look at yesterday. Our first goal was conceded because we failed in this. It is very easy to blame Jones for this but to play Jones as the left sided defender in a back 3 is asking for trouble as anyone can tell. Because they were out numbering us in midfield we never got close to them. It is also ridiculous to think that Fred and Pereira can play against a 3 man midfield let alone a 4 to 5 man midfield.
As a manager what do you do when you find that there is no more midfield players available but you need another player who is capable of able to play against a team used to playing in the lower division? You put in a defender who can play a but in midfield. In this case Jones who has played there more than one occasion. Play him in front of the back two CBs. Give him his task of stopping the flow in midfield.
But he played Jones in a back three on the left. Huge mistake.
Then we had Fred and Pereira playing together in one line. Beat one and the other is beaten also. There is no depth in defense. This is why the forwards were getting isolated. Two midfield players are in a line and defending. We should have gone with Jones in midfield and the other two forward of him.
We do not narrow the pitch when we lose the ball. We are too open and that also makes them easy for the opposition. Honestly without David we would have beaten yesterday.
The less said about the corners and the set pieces, the better. It is not that we score from them but we cannot even get them right. Either the players are refusing to follow orders( which I highly doubt) or Ole is not interested in getting them right.
Also what is the point of putting in high crosses from either flanks? Martial and Rashford are not going to win any headers against any PL CBs. the way we are doing it when they are all set and facing the ball.
All of this comes down to coaching or lack of coaching. It is now up to the players to improvise and being very good players they are doing so and that is why were even at this level.
It's actually easier done than said depending on the person in charge of recruitment. Leicester signed a very good RB for around £20m who has performed brilliantly for them and is very good going forward. Bayern bought Kimmich from Leipzig for €7m. Leipzig bought Klostermann for €1m and at 23 he's displaying world class potential. I could go on and list more names at RB that have been signed for very reasonable fees which just highlights how smart alot of clubs operate in the transfer market.
We also didn't need to spend a world record £80m on a CB when there was a plethora of targets around Europe who could've been bought for far less and couldn't have done worse than Maguire. Clubs around Europe must be in shock to see how we're wasting vast sums of money with very little return.
Hindsight can be funny. We were crying for experience in the defence and now we cannot backtrack and say we could have signed some inexperienced guy that Leicester signed and doing wonders there. Leicester have a more stable system in comparision to us so it automatically becomes easier to look good there. Maguire does not have that luxury.
I again don't understand your argument of compromise the defence to fix the misfield. We are supposedly one of the biggest clubs int he world , why should we compromise on one position to strengthen the other. Signing Maguire was not the problem, not signing a backup forward and midfielder was.
Poch was managing a team that made it to the CL final, whereas Ole took over a disillusioned club with a bloated squad, and has made a lot of cuts to the team and hasn’t been able to replace them yet.
This is the issue with a lot of people on here. Throw up a couple of facts, ignore all fecking context.
Thank fecking god you lot aren’t running the club.
It's quite interesting to read the fanfare that greeted Ole's appointment. Let this be a lesson to you all:
https://www.redcafe.net/threads/ole-gunnar-solskjær-permanent-manager.446090/
https://www.redcafe.net/threads/ole-gunnar-solskjær-permanent-manager.446090/
Since made permanent, he is averaging 1.19 points/game on average (25 points from 21 league games so far), that's enough for 45 points in the league.
Have a look at previous years and see what 45 points will get you. It puts into context our position this season.
The last 5 years, 45 points is 13th 3/5 times.
So we have been near the bottom of the table, mid-table if we have a win a two. I would say our position this season is nothing surprising, he is simply performing to his level.
To anyone Ole in, how do you explain your stance?
Do you think Crystal Palace, Watford, West Ham etc have better squads than us?
Do you think it's reasonable for a club our size, to be writing off multiple seasons, in order to see if he is capable of improving dramatically? Or have you all collectively given up and are just happy to take part now, as long as you have a manager fueling your fantasies of years gone by?
Have a look at previous years and see what 45 points will get you. It puts into context our position this season.
The last 5 years, 45 points is 13th 3/5 times.
So we have been near the bottom of the table, mid-table if we have a win a two. I would say our position this season is nothing surprising, he is simply performing to his level.
To anyone Ole in, how do you explain your stance?
Do you think Crystal Palace, Watford, West Ham etc have better squads than us?
Do you think it's reasonable for a club our size, to be writing off multiple seasons, in order to see if he is capable of improving dramatically? Or have you all collectively given up and are just happy to take part now, as long as you have a manager fueling your fantasies of years gone by?
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You say we're crying for experience but we sign a inexperienced RB for a ridiculous sum. And you do know that Pereira at Leicester is considerably more experienced at a higher level than AWB?
The problem isn't Maguire but the sum that was spent on him and AWB. Maguire in particular has been pretty average and his £80m price tag is something that is hard to look past. There was RBs and CBs who would've cost far less than both and would've contributed at the very least as much. We're currently in 10th with the most expensive CB in the game who has looked shaky.
We are 10th because of many reasons and not just because of AWB and Maguire. Your criticism of AWB hardly makes sense. What makes you think Periera would have made us better , considering it has been the midfield and creativity that has been our major issue. The whole argument that we could have spent less money on defence to spend more on midfield shouldn't be even made and the question should be asked to the owners and the board as why is that the case.
We're not going to get top 4 imo. Which is a failing. But if we're improving and if we keep making good signings and if the players clearly still have some fight in them then I'm happy to be patient. Solskjaers had the job a year, the years before that aren't on him.
The reason I brought Pereira up was due to making the point that there was value signings to be made and gave you some examples of players who cost very little and are better than AWB. Pereira would improve our right side considrerably going forward and is significantly better in that regard in comparison. The elite clubs in Europe have fullbacks that are more than capable of being a big threat in attack.
The midfield was worse than our defence when we lost the likes of Herrera and Fellaini. It was pretty obvious what the priority should've been. The defense would've been fine as long as we signed a mobile DM and a creative #8. The likes of Smalling, Lindelof and Tuanzebe etc could've held the fort in the meantime which would've seen us have a more balanced team. We had numbers in defence like no other position and were well stocked which can't be said for the midfield and attack. You don't rebuild by smashing transfer records when there's so many areas needing surgery and the midfield was the worst.
Agree here. James was a good signing though, but we didn't need Maguire. A midfielder plus a striker would have been much better for us.
Wait. So you think we're being properly run?
We conceded 54 goals in the league last season. A lot of people on here wanted Smalling nowhere near the team because his passing wasn't up to scratch. As for RB, the abuse that Young received we are all aware of. I think most smart managers build from the back.
For me it was right to address those two positions. Maguire will be a leader for this team and AWB will be our right back for 10 years. Now is the time to focus on other areas.
I think clearing out those whose heads aren’t in the right place is super important, and there’s some work still to be done before we can think of becoming more stable. Having to resort to Pereira and Fred in CM says a lot.
I remember people were bitching about us not going for certain talented players under Fergie. He’d tell us that one of the biggest factors for him is character. Ole clearly shares that value.
Yes, I’m still Ole in. He might not bring us glory, but I trust him to trim the squad and make sure we have the right characters in place.
You are just rewriting history by saying defence was fine. Our defense was a mess which needed some experience. Maguire was the right buy. He was not worth 80m but that is something we all know. Also, good luck taking periera from leicester. They would have asked insane amount for him too. Again I find it very strange of you to criticise AWB's singing considering he has been really good. I bet if he was signed by city then we fans would have been just bashing our manager and board.
Signing just 3 players with a net spend of less than 75m is unacceptable.
The right characters in place, united way, youth etc only matters when results is favorable.
All the right characters, the united way, youth etc doesnt matter if we ended up bottom table.
What good is characters, united way etc if you can't challenge with that? Saf wont be saf if he does all that without winning any trophies. Forget trophies, we're 10th. Where is the fabled characters and hunger? I see worse player than last year, more lazy, more clueless, more inclined to not track back. What's the real concrete character you're implying?
Players that wants to play for us? Which player personates that? Other than james i dont see anyone else breaking sweats and extra effort and i dont see passion and pride at all.
Maguire was not the right buy. Our defensive issues last season were due to fullback and lack of a CDM. If we’re talking experience what experience of competing at the top of top level football does Maguire actually have.
Yes we could have done with a CB but Maguire wasn't the right purchase one bit.
I doubt we would be much worse off if we had not bought him than we are now
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