Pundits refusal to criticise Ole

[Schmeichel's Cartwheel]

It’s never his fault. He’s not been backed. The board aren’t good enough. The players aren’t good enough. There’s truth in some of those statements but the Glazers & Woodward aren’t selecting the team. They aren’t making daft subs. They aren’t making Sunday league level tactical mistakes like keeping Fred on or telling Wan-Bissaka to stay narrow when we’re playing a back 5 or the shockingly bad implementation of zonal marking on corners. That’s all on Ole

I’m sorry but it’s nonsense. If this was Jose or Van Gaal the ex players on sky & BT would be hounding him out, but because he’s their mate he gets a free ride.

I’m sure most managers would love to be “not backed” with 250m spent in less than 2 years. He’s wasted most of that too. He’s bought one player who had made a big difference, Bruno, a player he turned torn in summer 2019 while chasing Longstaff & only bought because Pogba & Scott got injured.

The number of excuses made for him is a disgrace.

 

[Aretak]

It's just his mates who refuse to say anything bad about him. Phil Neville's comments yesterday were absolutely embarrassing, ranting about some conspiraceh to get "this boy" sacked. Paul Merson actually called out Solskjaer for getting it wrong from the start. If that famed intellect can see it, there's no way Ole's buddies can't. They just won't say it.

 

[Bastian]

And it's funny in that they are the only ones, every other pundit pretty much thinks he's out of his depth. Just the Nevilles, Scholes, and to some extent, Keane.

 

[morbidsaint]

If this was Jose or Van Gaal? You do know both of them have managed us, right? And when they did, our ex-player pundits defended them both. Gary and Rio defended Mou to the bitter end. Personally i'm glad our ex players defend our manager and team. Literally EVERYONE else spents all their days slamming OGS and our team. That included our own fans, even after a so far decent season where we since january is the team who has collected most points out of any team in the PL.

 

[K Stand Knut]

Title definitely needs changing.

Loads, if not the majority of pundits/media criticise Ole. It’s the lack of praise at the relevant times that is wrong

Ex-players maybe don’t but is that not obvious? Like someone said, it’s their mate.

 

[Gazza]

Barney Ronay alludes to this in his latest piece in the Guardian

“
There was an eerie quality to the BT Sport analysis of Manchester United’s exit from the Champions League. At times the post-match segment was like watching a highly skilled Victorian parlour game as Paul Scholes and Rio Ferdinand accepted the challenge of describing the ineptitude of United’s start against RB Leipzig, the tumescent team selection, the unchecked early gains of Julian Nagelsmann’s swift diagonal attacks – all the while managing not to mention the name of United’s manager.l”

 

[Samid]

He’s probably the most ridiculed manager ever amongst pundits, fans and on social media. Classic case of only seeing what you want to see because of your contempt for the man.

Some of the keyboard warriors on here could do with som fresh air for their own good.

 

[b82REZ]

He's part the old boys club. He could have us in the bottom three and they'd still look for excuses.

It was telling last night that Scholes and Ferdinand seemed like they could recognise the problem (lack of on field identity/playing style) but were reluctant to lay the blame on the only person responsible for that, the manager.

I understand it must be difficult for them to criticise a mate, but they're doing far more harm than good. I'm actually starting to miss the days we didn't have our ex players as pundits

 

[Dante]

When have Scholes or Ferdinand ever criticised any manager? They're not the type. It has nothing to do with it being Ole or anyone else.

 

[Ludens the Red]

Barney Ronay alludes to this in his latest piece in the Guardian

“
There was an eerie quality to the BT Sport analysis of Manchester United’s exit from the Champions League. At times the post-match segment was like watching a highly skilled Victorian parlour game as Paul Scholes and Rio Ferdinand accepted the challenge of describing the ineptitude of United’s start against RB Leipzig, the tumescent team selection, the unchecked early gains of Julian Nagelsmann’s swift diagonal attacks – all the while managing not to mention the name of United’s manager.l”

Yup I noticed that. Rio especially was very critical about the lack of a style and consistency but of course fell short of actually mentioning Ole.

 

[b82REZ]

When have Scholes or Ferdinand ever criticised any manager? They're not the type. It has nothing to do with it being Ole or anyone else.

Scholes was very vocal about Jose. I don't think he was really a pundit during the other two.

Neville criticised old managers in a very diplomatic way in the past, but always sets his stall out thay any manager should be given the duration of a season, so at least he's consistent with that.

Ferdinand, is actually a very good pundit IMO, and I'm sure he did lay into Jose, but you can tell he just isn't comfortable when he has to criticise Ole.

 

[Sayros]

Gotta step out of the sky/BT bubble, because Ole is pretty much criticized everywhere else that there aren't pundits who are former United players.

You'd think as a pundit, you know that you're sometimes going to have to criticize your former teammates but they didn't get the memo apparently, but it's understandable and so their opinion has to be taken with a grain of salt.

 

[Skills]

The media and opposition fanbases all know the way to keep this circus going is to not highlight his failures. If they did, someone at United might actually take note.

 

[UnitedSofa]

I have never known a time that there is so much toxic and vitriol towards our OWN MANAGER in my whole entire life supporting man utd.

Now we're UPSET because you can't see pundits (who you usually criticise for knowing feck all apparently) for not criticising Ole.

Dear lord this place has become a cesspool.

 

[Pogue Mahone]

It’s never his fault. He’s not been backed. The board aren’t good enough. The players aren’t good enough. There’s truth in some of those statements but the Glazers & Woodward aren’t selecting the team. They aren’t making daft subs. They aren’t making Sunday league level tactical mistakes like keeping Fred on or telling Wan-Bissaka to stay narrow when we’re playing a back 5 or the shockingly bad implementation of zonal marking on corners. That’s all on Ole

I’m sorry but it’s nonsense. If this was Jose or Van Gaal the ex players on sky & BT would be hounding him out, but because he’s their mate he gets a free ride.

I’m sure most managers would love to be “not backed” with 250m spent in less than 2 years. He’s wasted most of that too. He’s bought one player who had made a big difference, Bruno, a player he turned torn in summer 2019 while chasing Longstaff & only bought because Pogba & Scott got injured.

The number of excuses made for him is a disgrace.

Did you even watch the Tv coverage last night? Ferdinand and Scholes made it absolutely clear where the problem was and neither of them mentioned him not being backed in the transfer market.

 

[Pogue Mahone]

Yup I noticed that. Rio especially was very critical about the lack of a style and consistency but of course fell short of actually mentioning Ole.

It was fairly fecking obvious where his criticism was aimed. He didn’t need to name Ole.

 

[Raoul]

It’s never his fault. He’s not been backed. The board aren’t good enough. The players aren’t good enough. There’s truth in some of those statements but the Glazers & Woodward aren’t selecting the team. They aren’t making daft subs. They aren’t making Sunday league level tactical mistakes like keeping Fred on or telling Wan-Bissaka to stay narrow when we’re playing a back 5 or the shockingly bad implementation of zonal marking on corners. That’s all on Ole

I’m sorry but it’s nonsense. If this was Jose or Van Gaal the ex players on sky & BT would be hounding him out, but because he’s their mate he gets a free ride.

I’m sure most managers would love to be “not backed” with 250m spent in less than 2 years. He’s wasted most of that too. He’s bought one player who had made a big difference, Bruno, a player he turned torn in summer 2019 while chasing Longstaff & only bought because Pogba & Scott got injured.

The number of excuses made for him is a disgrace.

As long as he's top four or near it, they will not criticize him.

 

[FrankDrebin]

Seen it before, though not necessarily with this club.
I remember Hansen and Lawrenson being extremely lenient on their criticisms of Liverpool when Dalglish was at the helm.

 

[patty123]

He’s probably the most ridiculed manager ever amongst pundits, fans and on social media. Classic case of only seeing what you want to see because of your contempt for the man.

Some of the keyboard warriors on here could do with som fresh air for their own good.

Ah but he's not, as never seen newspapers post pics of turnips with his face and name attached like they did with Taylor back in the 90's or how about "the wally with the brolly" our ex coach McClaren or the abuse moyes took towards his end here "the clueless one"

Look I get where you are coming from and defending your fellow country and I admire you for it, but lets not get carried away here, he makes the same kind of rookie mistakes over and over and that entitles people to offer constructive criticism of him in my book given the expectation and demands of managing one of the worlds biggest teams.

 

[romufc]

I have never known a time that there is so much toxic and vitriol towards our OWN MANAGER in my whole entire life supporting man utd.

Now we're UPSET because you can't see pundits (who you usually criticise for knowing feck all apparently) for not criticising Ole.

Dear lord this place has become a cesspool.

Nail on the head. I have never seen this.

We are having a go at pundits because they don't criticise? Did Scholes or Rio say we played well or we set up well? No, they have been saying exactly what the caf have been saying.

Certain fans want pundits to disrespect managers. Dont forget Scholes has been a manager too, likewise Neville so they know what it is on the other side.

How much credibility would you give a pundit if they start calling Ole a PE teacher which is what the caf want them to do?

 

[Schmeichel's Cartwheel]

He’s probably the most ridiculed manager ever amongst pundits, fans and on social media. Classic case of only seeing what you want to see because of your contempt for the man.

Some of the keyboard warriors on here could do with som fresh air for their own good.

I don’t see foreign pundits, I’m sure they criticise him because he’s not their mate. Over here, sky, BT, nothing. All of our ex players, from Neville, to Rio, to Scholes, to Keane, to Evra, to Hargreaves, nothing. The only one I’ve heard is RVP. Even the Liverpool lot, McManaman, Carragher, Souness, silence. Blame the board & players.

I don’t have contempt for the man, I wish him well. I have contempt for his management of my football club.

Why do the Ole In lot always make it personal? “You must just hate him” no, I just think he’s a shit manager

 

[Schmeichel's Cartwheel]

When have Scholes or Ferdinand ever criticised any manager? They're not the type. It has nothing to do with it being Ole or anyone else.

Both slandered Jose & LVG. Did you not see Scholes after Liverpool knocked us out of the EL?

 

[Striker10]

To me it's a sickness. People no longer enjoy a game.....and must tell everyone else that's the case. We've reached that point. People have been critical. Even when we've won games. (obviously not last nights). Where is the rationality? People think a plaster can fix a broken leg and that if we spend lots of money, it must mean we'll win even when other teams spend as much or perhaps more. It's a disgrace we're out of the CL. That much is true but who fancied us before hand? The players have to take responsibility and it's a learning process. I heard one commentator tell Maguire a number of games back - point out that we keep conceding first in these away games and he acted surprised.

I'm not. Because these players are immature. And have a ways to go to learn from their mistakes. You have to take pride in defence and give yourself a chance because if you keep starting games this way, eventually it will hurt you and it hurt us yesterday. The players had to be much more solid then they were. But again, I remember under Sir Alex....it wasn't always a picnic. It took us many years to get good and the fact is the English league right now, is as competitive as it gets even though there's been inconsistency. So the pundits probably have sympathy with Ole. The Pogba situation probably got him sympathy but we defeated ourselves ultimately. We have to tighten up. The amount of space they got at times was crazy and you need players to understand we keep conceding first for a reason. We're not starting games in the right spirit nor manner.

Ole should have got them to be more solid to observe how the game was progressing and then counter perhaps but tbh I'm not sure some of those guys listen or are capable. You need the defenders to demand help. The space we give away is shocking. It's not rocket science. We were exposed in the final third constantly in the first period of the game. The players need to learn from this. I'm sure in the years to come they'll learn.

 

[Zoo]

It’s because their main target is the ownership. Mourinho and Moyes also got protected, it was only really Van Gaal that wasn’t spared by the pundits.

 

[UNITED ACADEMY]

It’s never his fault. He’s not been backed. The board aren’t good enough. The players aren’t good enough. There’s truth in some of those statements but the Glazers & Woodward aren’t selecting the team. They aren’t making daft subs. They aren’t making Sunday league level tactical mistakes like keeping Fred on or telling Wan-Bissaka to stay narrow when we’re playing a back 5 or the shockingly bad implementation of zonal marking on corners. That’s all on Ole

I’m sorry but it’s nonsense. If this was Jose or Van Gaal the ex players on sky & BT would be hounding him out, but because he’s their mate he gets a free ride.

I’m sure most managers would love to be “not backed” with 250m spent in less than 2 years. He’s wasted most of that too. He’s bought one player who had made a big difference, Bruno, a player he turned torn in summer 2019 while chasing Longstaff & only bought because Pogba & Scott got injured.

The number of excuses made for him is a disgrace.

You might want to watch ESPN and others like Tim Sherwood, he's been heavily criticised. Even Ian Wright few months ago said Arteta would challenge if he was the United manager now.

Even last year Carragher heavily criticised Ole and had huge debate with Keane in Sky Sport.

If anything Ole is one of the most heavily criticised by pundits and media since last year up to now.

 

[Foxbatt]

It's understandable. They have shared rooms with him. Shared the joy of winning and the sorry of losing. Probably text each other often and good friends.
It would be extremely difficult for them to name him and go after him. Maybe they value the friendship more and won't criticise him unless they have absolutely no choice.

 

[Schmeichel's Cartwheel]

I have never known a time that there is so much toxic and vitriol towards our OWN MANAGER in my whole entire life supporting man utd.

Now we're UPSET because you can't see pundits (who you usually criticise for knowing feck all apparently) for not criticising Ole.

Dear lord this place has become a cesspool.

Where were you for the Moyes reign? It was much worse than this. Fans are light on Ole. In fact he’s easily the most defended of our 4 managers post SAF, whilst also being the most pragmatic.

 

[Schmeichel's Cartwheel]

You might want to watch ESPN and others like Tim Sherwood, he's been heavily criticised. Even Ian Wright few months ago said Arteta would challenge if he was the United manager now.

Even last year Carragher heavily criticised Ole and had huge debate with Keane in Sky Sport.

If anything Ole is one of the most heavily criticised by pundits and media right now.

ESPN is an American channel. I like in England. I watch football on Sky & BT. He’s never criticised. They go to great lengths not to blame him.

I don’t have time to watch foreign football punditry on YouTube. I’m solely talking about the 2 main UK sports channels.

 

[tomaldinho1]

This is a problem in general, it's just exacerbated because BT insist on having three former United players on for United games.

At least one of the pundits should be neutral or, at the very least, not have a personal connection to managers. It's like when Jamie and Harry Redknapp talk about Lampard - they're hardly going to call him out on tv.

 

[Ludens the Red]

It was fairly fecking obvious where his criticism was aimed. He didn’t need to name Ole.

Rio’s been quite happy in the past to directly criticise Mourinho. Scholes the same with LVG. Like I get it, they played together so they have a loyalty to him. But as pundits it’s their responsibility to put that aside and call a spade a spade and not dance around it all the time.

 

[UNITED ACADEMY]

ESPN is an American channel. I like in England. I watch football on Sky & BT. He’s never criticised. They go to great lengths not to blame him.

I just told you ''others'' and even mentioned Tim Sherwood. He's one of the pundit of official PL channel. I watched the official PL channel, not American channel. Sherwood, Michael Owen, Lee Dixon and others are criticising him heavily. They also invited journalists and criticised him heavily.

Talking about Sky Sports, Carragher also criticised him heavily last year and had debate with Keane.

But then again, how can the Sky Sports pundits blame him at this stage when we are only 5 points off from the top of the league and won in our last 4 league games?

 

[romufc]

You might want to watch ESPN and others like Tim Sherwood, he's been heavily criticised. Even Ian Wright few months ago said Arteta would challenge if he was the United manager now.

Even last year Carragher heavily criticised Ole and had huge debate with Keane in Sky Sport.

If anything Ole is one of the most heavily criticised by pundits and media since last year up to now.

But they don't call him a P.E teacher or anything which means he isn't criticised.

They criticise the style, the tactics which is not enough for fans.

They want to say see I told you he is a P.E teacher, Rio agrees with me.

Like it or not, they are doing a job, disrespecting a former colleague is not good form. They have all played at a professional level unlike armchair fans.

They know you dont get the job if you dont have the qualifications. They know what goes on and what not.

 

[Dante]

Both slandered Jose & LVG. Did you not see Scholes after Liverpool knocked us out of the EL?

Where? At 8:25? At 10:16? He was kinder to LvG than he is to Ole.

 

[Dante]

Where were you for the Moyes reign? It was much worse than this. Fans are light on Ole. In fact he’s easily the most defended of our 4 managers post SAF, whilst also being the most pragmatic.

Ole is doing much better than Moyes.

He's also nowhere near as pragmatic as Mourinho or LvG. Ole's football has been the most exciting of anyone wince Fergie. By far.

 

[Matt851]

When have Scholes or Ferdinand ever criticised any manager? They're not the type. It has nothing to do with it being Ole or anyone else.

Hmmm maybe you should look up the things they said about mourinho and van gaal

 

[Robbie Boy]

Rio and Scholes made it pretty clear that he's the problem but their refusal to bluntly say it is ridiculous.

 

[arnie_ni]

Posted in the Scholes thread:

Not sure how anyone thought he was defending ole.

He criticised him for the change of formation with no time to work on, for their style of play saying that even if we get a sporting director he wouldn't know what time of player to buy and saying it didn't look like the defense knew what they should be doing.

He was as damning as he could be without saying ole out.

 

[arnie_ni]

Rio and Scholes made it pretty clear that he's the problem but their refusal to bluntly say it is ridiculous.

Yea, they done everything but say it last night I thought.

 

[Dante]

Hmmm maybe you should look up the things they said about mourinho and van gaal

Maybe you should provide some evidence.

 

[youmeletsfly]

Ole is doing much better than Moyes.

He's also nowhere near as pragmatic as Mourinho or LvG. Ole's football has been the most exciting of anyone wince Fergie. By far.

Maybe, but mostly due to moments of brilliance form players. Other than that, it's the dullest I've ever seen us play.