Complimentary about Jose. Coy about transfers.
Interestingly, he was asked about squad depth and he said the 12-13 players who mainly played, played so well that they deserved to keep playing...
Ole's Press Conference (Spurs)
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Complimentary about Jose. Coy about transfers.
Interestingly, he was asked about squad depth and he said the 12-13 players who mainly played, played so well that they deserved to keep playing...
He's going to flog them to death again isn't he?
Yeah he certainly is
Interesting indeed, we have been poor to average in every game so far even if there are mitigating circumstances. I fear for him this season.
Not like his cup is overflowing with options, is it?
He's being hung out to dry. Some of those comments look like even he's surprised at how inept the board is, shocking that he's gotten absolutely no backing after a very good end to the season.
Only difference between him and Mourinho right now is he won't throw the towel in because of no transfers, but he's being set up for failure right now. Not a fecking chance we ever achieve anything with this board/management group, whoever it is. Glazers, Woodward, Judge, etc. All of them are killing the club and have no interest in making us competitive again.
Only difference between him and Mourinho right now is he won't throw the towel in because of no transfers, but he's being set up for failure right now. Not a fecking chance we ever achieve anything with this board/management group, whoever it is. Glazers, Woodward, Judge, etc. All of them are killing the club and have no interest in making us competitive again.
It isn't. Maybe that was the point he is making. He doesn't have options to rest players. We also have to hope we don't pick up an injuries from the internationals or we will be well and truly done.
I am not his biggest fan but the board have let him down. It is abundantly clear he has no faith in half the squad. Get rid of them ffs! Other clubs don't have this problem.
If Ole's surprised regarding the board, he had been naive as feck. After what happened all this time, even under SAF, even someone from the outside that has any interest about this club would have known better.
That is the most tight lipped I have seen Ole in press conferences. He clearly didn't know how to answer the transfer related questions without expressing his own frustrations.
He is now taking about finances being badly hit, not getting a look in at the options that were there (his answer on the exploit comment), focusing on turning the mood around with results on the pitch and improving the group, and fumbling when asked about the ineptitude of the board.
The journos did a great job of cornering him, and it's sad to see that the confidence and swagger he had after getting the team to 3rd erode so quickly because of what's happened over the transfer window.
He is now taking about finances being badly hit, not getting a look in at the options that were there (his answer on the exploit comment), focusing on turning the mood around with results on the pitch and improving the group, and fumbling when asked about the ineptitude of the board.
The journos did a great job of cornering him, and it's sad to see that the confidence and swagger he had after getting the team to 3rd erode so quickly because of what's happened over the transfer window.
His days are numbered. Unfortunately the people above him, are not.
This club is just very strange these days and a shadow of what it once was. I forsee a long, long time before there is an upturn in fortunes on the pitch.
Ole needs a full backing to compliment his lack of top flight managerial experience, he has been let down. Once we are struggling come the new year, fans will call for his head and the twats above him will no doubt take action by season end.
As for the game on Sunday would not be at all surprised if we lose but I will go with a 1-1 or 2-2.
This club is just very strange these days and a shadow of what it once was. I forsee a long, long time before there is an upturn in fortunes on the pitch.
Ole needs a full backing to compliment his lack of top flight managerial experience, he has been let down. Once we are struggling come the new year, fans will call for his head and the twats above him will no doubt take action by season end.
As for the game on Sunday would not be at all surprised if we lose but I will go with a 1-1 or 2-2.
The amount of backtracking he's had to do today actually makes me feel a little sorry for him. He's being led to the gallows, poor guy doesn't really stand a chance of finishing the season.
We finished third last season, the talent we have is improved and will improve and we added DVB. Jesus enough with the doom and gloom.
Yes Ole has so far not been backed, and our depth is to put it mildly: Shallow. But lets not sell our team short just yet.
Yes Ole has so far not been backed, and our depth is to put it mildly: Shallow. But lets not sell our team short just yet.
I think Ole will be gone at some point of this season and looking at him now, he knows it himself too. Our fecking state of the club and board
Yet he has to put on a brave face and say they’re all good lads, all good players etc etc.
Ultimately, he’s going to play Rashford so hard into the dirt he’ll do his back in again. We’ll be so dead on our feet because he has no options, we’ll barely make it until January.
I have my doubts about Ole but he’s literally working with both hands tied behind his back.
Yeah right absolutely no reason for doom and gloom apart from the very things you mentioned there.
If Martial or Rashford gets a long term injury then we're in big trouble. The drop in quality is huge in our forward line.
They don't need to be injured really. Just burned out when playing too many games in congested schedule, would be enough to affect the result.
Is is not just about the incoming players, but the fact that we are struggling to get rid of players that are not needed is even more frustrating.
What @ti vu said. They just need to be burnt out and also when you’re more fatigued you’ve more chance of injury. The board are fecking Ole, they’re fecking the players and they’re fecking the fans.
I hope you are wrong about his days being numbered. However, I suspect you are right about it being a long, long time before we seriously challenge for top trophies again. There are so many sticking plasters covering up so many cracks at this club. That's why I just laugh when people talk about changing the manager.
Look at how many players Pep and Klopp have been allowed to bomb out of City and Liverpool. They've had entire squad turnovers and they are still spending. Yet Ole is lumped with players like Rojo and Andreas on long term contracts and given the task of being competitive.
We can keep changing managers all we want but the long term damage to the club means there is no easy way back. Unless we think a new manager is suddenly going to make Luke Shaw and Wan-Bissaka into Alphonso Davies and Joshua Kimmich. The way some on here behave if we got a better coach in Lindelof would start passing through the lines like peak Ferdinand instead of panicking under any kind of press.
I'm as pessimistic as it comes but this angle is a bit overplayed.
We have decent depth in midfield. We have a zillion centre-backs, even if we don't really have much faith in any of them. But then centre-backs are rarely rotated in any really good team, they are usually the players with the highest amount of minutes anyway. At left-back there's a big drop after Shaw, true; at right-back, all our options are a bit meh so you can rotate between them very easily when necessary. Wan Bissaka will be first choice but he's not much better than the others, it's not a big issue if he's rested.
The forward line, well, yeah, I'll give you that. Anything we've got beyond Martial, Rashford and Greenwood is uninspiring, to say the absolute least. But then Liverpool won the league with their attacking depth being Minamino (0 - that is zero, yes - goals last season) and Origi. Is that much better? I don't really think so. They made it work somehow.
Agreed, its madness to only have brought in one player this window. Pathetic.
He's been hung out to dry and it's a repeat of the 2018 summer window when we massively failed to capitalise on a good season beforehand. The board are fortunate that fans aren't in as it'll be them who get targeted rather than Ole when the results start to turn due to having no strength in depth.
Ole is being setup to fail by Woodward and the board. The thing is they ain't bothered how the club perform on the pitch to an extent, as long as the revenues keep coming in. The merry-go-round will continue, miss top 4 sack the manager. Hire new manager buy some decent players, get top 4 but then don't buy any players, sack the manager. Rinse and repeat. Feck off Woodward, Feck off Glazers, Fecking leeches.
Well we need a right winger which would give us options. One good player up front changes things. We can rotate. Mata and James can do a job. We’re an injury away from starting James in the premier league and the champions league twice a week. Also, it’s fine having lots of players but it’s clear that Ole doesn’t trust them as he barely subs them on. Why else would he be doing it? I personally don’t believe his in game management is that amateur.
Yeah, guess he did meant that.
if transfers end as they are, we are definitely walking on a narrow ledge. Tight schedule, CL group of death, little backup.
He shouldnt be surprised by those above him, there is no victim in that cycle. All of them have different choices to make, personal interest will dictate which path they take.
Spot on mate.I hope you are wrong about his days being numbered. However, I suspect you are right about it being a long, long time before we seriously challenge for top trophies again. There are so many sticking plasters covering up so many cracks at this club. That's why I just laugh when people talk about changing the manager.
Look at how many players Pep and Klopp have been allowed to bomb out of City and Liverpool. They've had entire squad turnovers and they are still spending. Yet Ole is lumped with players like Rojo and Andreas on long term contracts and given the task of being competitive.
We can keep changing managers all we want but the long term damage to the club means there is no easy way back. Unless we think a new manager is suddenly going to make Luke Shaw and Wan-Bissaka into Alphonso Davies and Joshua Kimmich. The way some on here behave if we got a better coach in Lindelof would start passing through the lines like peak Ferdinand instead of panicking under any kind of press.
We have zillion center backs but about half or more are injury prone to be counted on. Both the first choice full backs are very flawed while the back up is meh. You must forget thing quickly? Shaw never had an injury free season. AWB looked dead in his feet toward the end of last season and we couldn't rotate. 2 of the back up in Dalot and TFM got also injured quite often.
Midfield has the depth, but even the first choice midfielders hardly can perform consistently. Not showing the ability to boss the game, so that there is less pressure on the defense, and more support for the attack.
It's rich to compare to Liverpool attack where as it's seasoned players in their prime being productive. Origi is better than the option we have in Lingard, Daniel James, Iglaho combined. They have Shaqiri around despite not using much. They had the luxury to loan then sell Danny Ings if you happened to forget
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Ole is clearly annoyed with the lack of activity in the transfer market. I still think this squad can do well but I'm far less confident about finishing top 4 now than I was at this point last season. I really don't envy Ole's position at the moment, I very much doubt that we'll be able to get Sancho in in January like we did Bruno either so this could be a very long season.
We badly need a right winger, as we literally don't have one - so I agree with you there. But my point is that if we don't buy anyone because Woodward and co. are incompetent - not much doubt about that unfortunately - then we can't just accept that Ole will have to run the first team in to the ground. He'll have to use the squad, plan ahead - in short, he has to MANAGE the team. Don't do ridiculous things like when he played Pogba against fecking Rochdale last season.
If he manages the squad carefully and we still get injuries, well, that's bad luck and will absolutely, once more, highlight the incompetence of the club leadership. But if Rashford starts 25 games in a row and then gets injured that's not bad luck, that's stupidity.
We overplayed the first XI after lockdown, yes, because every single point mattered hugely, we could barely afford to draw a couple of games. But that was because we got ourselves into a terrible position and had to make up 10+ points on our top 4 rivals. We start this season with a better squad than last season and we're not going for the league title so we should have some leeway to give games to squad players. I mean, last season we beat Spurs at home with Young, McTominay, Fred, James, and Lingard all starting! We won at City with all of them bar Young in the starting line-up! We still should be able to win games with a couple of squad players mixed in with the accepted first teamers. The likes of Arsenal and Spurs do not have a better squad than us, overall so Champions League qualification should still be the aim. This idea that the moment a couple of key players are out we're a pub team that can't be expected to beat anyone in the Premier League is nonsense.
The real problem is that once again, we're missing the chance to try and catch up to the best teams. It's yet another season without even a hint of a title challenge. That's the real issue. If we just want CL, this squad should be able to do it. But we should want more than that.
Ole should just handle his resignation the day after the transfer deadline. He's going to be sacked anyway. Let these clowns face the shitstorm they caused.
Gotta feel for Ole. He did a good job last season with the squad we had, considering the state of the club when he took over. He has had no backing at all this summer.
There is no point salting our squad publicly as it would cause unrest with the players, and he can't say he's happy with the squad as the fans would turn on him.
He'll be scapegoated soon and the cycle will repeat itself.
There is no point salting our squad publicly as it would cause unrest with the players, and he can't say he's happy with the squad as the fans would turn on him.
He'll be scapegoated soon and the cycle will repeat itself.
He won’t be sacked anytime soon. I reckon our season will go much like last and we’ll finish top 4 or thereabouts which is obviously good enough for the Glazers.
So in short, he played last season for the future and prepared to offload those who proved they didn't deserve to play, you know the likes of Jones, Pereira, Lingard etc and replace them with more quality like Sancho etc, but it seems now that the Ed wont do his job so we keep the same squad and Ole have to show some flexibility and adjust his management plan.
Ole will have a much tougher job this season as he has to perform with lesser players that should have been moved on and replaced. If we manage top 4 in these circumstances I'll be happy.
I'm not happy about that, but I can't expect more having to rely on the likes of Mata, Lingard, Dalot, Jones as backup. More than that, I'm afraid that instead of unlocking the potential of the first team, and improving further we'll see dips in form from solid players because of the lack of competition for places.
Ole will have a much tougher job this season as he has to perform with lesser players that should have been moved on and replaced. If we manage top 4 in these circumstances I'll be happy.
I'm not happy about that, but I can't expect more having to rely on the likes of Mata, Lingard, Dalot, Jones as backup. More than that, I'm afraid that instead of unlocking the potential of the first team, and improving further we'll see dips in form from solid players because of the lack of competition for places.
I'm still for Ole being kept on but I want to see more in his tactics and particularly earlier substitutions when it's clear the team needs invigorating.
I just wonder if the board are making sure they've got 50-75M to use with a new manager in January ?
I just wonder if the board are making sure they've got 50-75M to use with a new manager in January ?
Unless Ole can work a miracle and take 4th over truly ambitious clubs like Chelsea, Spurs, Leicester, Everton and Arsenal, he will be sacked, as all the other managers, also hung out to dry, have been. Wolves are in there too. Woodward and the Glazers are a disgrace.
Agreed, I don’t think it gives anyone a free pass. We still have the 4/5th best squad in the league in my opinion. There’s definitely an element of flexibility that needs to be applied by Ole.
Even If he does manage the squad very well, I still think we will get injuries. Can you remember last season as United fan when we didn’t have few moderate injuries that affected our season somewhat? We’re literally asking a miracle here in my opinion and hence people are being overly concerned.
I mean I agree with what you’re saying but the last part there I have to disagree slightly. We did look completely shit after rashford went off and Pogba wasn’t available. I think the same would happen I’d say Martial and Bruno were our for couple of months.
And again agreed. We should have consolidated our place in the top 4. Now I’m not asking for Sancho, Thiago, Werner, Havertz or what have you as a prerequisite for us to push on. I’m asking that we do our due diligence in the market and scout properly and stop pudding about. There are plenty of players who could potentially step up and be the next big thing. Kulesevski (sp) Chiesa, that Brentford winger come to mind. I mean yet here we are left with a player who’s got a big question mark hanging over him left as an alternative with 72 hours to go.
Of course they have. As I have said too in the past, the prime culprit is Woodward. He has let all managers down. Especially Ole. It doesn't mean that Ole is a top class manager. He is hung out to dry. Everyone knows we need a world class CB and a world class striker and a full back and a DM. In my opinion a world class CB is the number 1 priority even before anything else.