Ole made the point about Liverpool having injuries which needed to be considered when judging the season. Obviously many people slated him for it, despite it being an obvious fact.
Solskjaer's legacy and his future
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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.
Zero trophies, a team in a free fall, no style of play, and all opposition fans cheering his stay at United.
Sky showed a graphic there comparing his Utd team to Rangnick's Leipzig side. We are basically at the bottom of the league for every stats involving any sort of effort. Pretty damning, really.
It was amateur hour, with an amateur in charge of a gifted squad. Varane and Ronaldo must have been completely bemused coming into that situation.
Looking at those stats this morning and realizing that all his coaches responsible for that mess are still here, is troubling.
His legacy is a very poor one and it’s going to take time to get these players back into the proper mindset and doing proper sessions and coaching again.
Looking at those stats this morning and realizing that all his coaches responsible for that mess are still here, is troubling.
His legacy is a very poor one and it’s going to take time to get these players back into the proper mindset and doing proper sessions and coaching again.
... sounds like you still don't know, and only read the title. Because I doubt you have a subscription.
He hasn’t got a legacy..also absolutely not a legend either, just because he scored the winner in a final ? Lee Martin did too and it set us on the way to total dominance for nigh on 30 years so he’s more of a legend than Ole ever will be
Your defensive stats are horrifying. If that was Norwich I wouldn’t bat an eyelid. How can anyone say you were heading in the right direction.
Yet somehow its the players. what those stats tell you is how difficult we found it to win back possession and why. We were horrible at having a coordinated press. Unless you think our players are championship level, that's the only explanation. Our attacking when we did attack, was quite ok. Also shows you how our defenders haven't been helped this season.
You underestimate the Ole fanboys and 'I will support the manager no matter what' mentality that many of the supporters seem to have. The only thing he's done well was to bring some positivity to the side after the final Mourinho days, and buying some quality players.
We are 10th. Thanks Ole
He did serious damage to this club.
Do people see now how much damage can manager does with "give him few seasons and let him to build his squad"?
He left us with Maguire and AWB who are not good enough. Maguire is even a captain ffs.
Team is not coached at all. Rashford, who is top top talent, stagnated in his general play. He is still great in one on one but the rest of his game is not good enough.
Thank feck that Hendo was injured this summer. Otherwise he would be our no1
Do people see now how much damage can manager does with "give him few seasons and let him to build his squad"?
He left us with Maguire and AWB who are not good enough. Maguire is even a captain ffs.
Team is not coached at all. Rashford, who is top top talent, stagnated in his general play. He is still great in one on one but the rest of his game is not good enough.
Thank feck that Hendo was injured this summer. Otherwise he would be our no1
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Utter trash. Disjointed. No idea how to pass, how to move, how to create. Nothing. We're clueless and its down to him. 3 years down the drain.
At least Moyes only was here for 8 months, the damage he did in terms of signings cannot be understated either. Not brought a single proper midfielder and brought AWB and Maguire for combined 130 Million. Criminal.
gotta give it to Ole in that he talked a good game. All that talk about pressing and "no one should work harder than us" at the beginning was nothing but talk. Even with neglecting our midfield by filling it with nothing but workhorses didn't help.
I think today highlights so much of the damage he did being here for so long. It’s a massive mistake from the club that borders on negligence.
Good players, that don’t seem to know what to do most of the time. AWB and McTominey as consistent starters is really bad.
We look lost, and that’s his legacy.
Good players, that don’t seem to know what to do most of the time. AWB and McTominey as consistent starters is really bad.
We look lost, and that’s his legacy.
I don't know how anyone can say he's left us in a much better place than when he joined us, and still keep a straight face.
Our team is appalling, he's left behind a shambles. We look closer to a team scrapping for relegation than we do a team at the top tier of football.
Before anyone cries about signings he brought in, I emphasise the word team, not individual players.
Our team is appalling, he's left behind a shambles. We look closer to a team scrapping for relegation than we do a team at the top tier of football.
Before anyone cries about signings he brought in, I emphasise the word team, not individual players.
There is no legacy considering how much he squandered on nothing players.
Most worrying thing is that this is not like it was under Mourinho when players were demotivated, that could be fixed easily.
We look totally lost coaching wise, can't even do the basic well. It's going to take a lot of work and time to come out of this shit hole.
Leaving us in a better place? We'll definitely not as toxic but football wise were way way worse at this point.
We look totally lost coaching wise, can't even do the basic well. It's going to take a lot of work and time to come out of this shit hole.
Leaving us in a better place? We'll definitely not as toxic but football wise were way way worse at this point.
The way we played is like these players went 3 years without a manager. Has only been a week but you can tell the previous manager left the team with zero tactical identity.
It cannot be emphasised how disgraceful these stats are and how it was allowed to continue for so long.
Exactly.
Wow that is a shocking story
Ole has set us back by years...he had no plan and wasted so much money. AWB and Maguire for £130m. Signed Donny for £40m and never used him and probably lost value if we sell him. Lingard is probaby better than Donny and was loaned out and now is going to be lost on free. Pogba contract situation never sorted out and will be lost on a free. Ronaldo and Cavani our best two attackers old as hell. Juan Mata given a new contract for being a nice guy.
Honestly he's left such a mess that needs to be fixed. He's no legend for me
His legacy is that he turned us into a Cardiff-esque footballing side at the end.
A lot of wins in the past 18 months were all on a knife edge and games that could have easily swung the other way. Lots of 1-0 wins and 2-1 wins, or a 2-0 or 3-1 when we got a two goal cushion very late in the game, inevitably on a counter attack when the opposing team threw everyone forward thinking they could get a point, but lead to us getting an easy counter attack goal.
There really havent been many games where Utd comprehensively beat a team, or won by a 1 goal margin despite being completely in control and the opposing team completely nullified.
A lot of games under Solskjaer were not relaxed viewings.
There really havent been many games where Utd comprehensively beat a team, or won by a 1 goal margin despite being completely in control and the opposing team completely nullified.
A lot of games under Solskjaer were not relaxed viewings.
We've had I think basically 3 comfortable wins all season.
Opening day vs Leeds, probably the only genuinely good performance
Home to Newcastle, don't think we played well to be honest but was a pretty easy 4-1 win
Away to Spurs, they were so awful they sacked the manager 24 hours after the game.
Every other win, not that there's been many, have been shite performances where we've scraped the win.
Was the same for the last 2 or 3 months last season.
This.
A lot of fans hitched their bandwagon to OgS on nothing but romanticism so can’t bring themselves to fully climb down & admit that he vastly underperformed. He spent 3 years at the biggest club he’ll ever have the chance to manage with more good will than any manager could dream of & a vast budget. With that he failed to sustain any sort of playing style, bought a number of players who have large question marks hanging over them & failed terribly in vital moments.
As a player I remember him fondly but his tenure will only look worse with time one emotion leaves the discussion. I genuinely think he’ll look back in years to come & wonder how he got it so wrong.
I'm sorry but that just isn't true. The cultural reboot was something that he drove. He got Murtough and Fletcher into their roles, he got the data analytics and analysis departments off the ground, he reinstated the use of tech such as GPS in the sports science department after Jose forced us to do away with them.
The club was in a word, a basket case when he arrived with the brand being toxic both inside and outside the club. There was certainly no clamour for the manager's position when Jose left, like there seemingly is and was after Ole left. That Pochettino was apparently actively looking to leave PSG midseason and Rangnick has taken this interim job on when he absolutely didn't need to, should tell you of the quality foundations laid by Ole for the next man, as well as the fact that Rangnick isn't being brought in as someone to undo the work that Ole did, but to build on it.
He also was the only post-SAF manager who achieved two back to back top 4 finishes. Something that neither Jose or LvG could achieve despite spending more than Ole did at the same point in their tenures.
Yes, it ultimately went wrong at the end but he absolutely did a good job up to this point. Unfortunately it didn't work out and the blame is going to be laid squarely on him for that, but he wasn't exactly helped along the way either.
Not sure where we've been set back by years in either. We have a young team who are continuing to grow and develop with a ready supply line from the academy coming through as well. Literally the only areas which need investment in are found in deep midfield, everywhere else has quality and depth and for the first time since SAF, we actually have a coherently built squad. From GK, to CB, to the wings, to up front. We have legitimately top class players like Varane, Ronaldo, Sancho here. We certainly didn't have that in any of the other managers' time at the club. To hear you say we've been set back years you'd think Ole did what Jose did and proceeded to buy shit on top of the shit purchased by the previous manager and didn't bother to actually rebuild the squad. The fact we all went from looking to break top 4 to actively trying to challenge for the league is proof positive of the job he did. We certainly weren't thinking that in Jose's third season, or LvG's second, for example.
And then I can talk about the improvement of the likes of McFred and Shaw who were seen as legitimate joke figures among the fanbase. Or the fact we were much more enterprising under Ole than we were with the other guys 5+ goals scored 10 times in c.160 games: the previous 3 managers? twice in 302 games.
It was a disgraceful display last night from Manutd, how a club with so much resources can't bring in players who aren't afraid to play football is beyond me.
Last night felt like I was watching prime Barca versus Chelski in 09, the gulf in class between Chelski and us is almost a trillion mile, I can't believe how awful Ole has left us after spending close to half a billion pounds on dross players.
Every one of his signing seem like a push and run footballer, can't believe how shit we are in possession seems like we have absolute no idea what to do whenever we got the ball, to leave it short we are a disgrace to watch... the only legacy Ole and Co has had is having us play like Stoke city after SAF retired.
Last night felt like I was watching prime Barca versus Chelski in 09, the gulf in class between Chelski and us is almost a trillion mile, I can't believe how awful Ole has left us after spending close to half a billion pounds on dross players.
Every one of his signing seem like a push and run footballer, can't believe how shit we are in possession seems like we have absolute no idea what to do whenever we got the ball, to leave it short we are a disgrace to watch... the only legacy Ole and Co has had is having us play like Stoke city after SAF retired.
The more I reflect on it, the more I realize Ole completely failed in his task and we’re not much better off now than when he took the wheel. . Obvious on one level of course — the debacles v Liverpool and City — but we went into the new season with no plan whatsoever other than hoping all this talent would deliver results. Yes, he did clean up the toxic mess José left behind but the squad never pushed on to become a legitimate title contender. The absence of tactics and rank favoritism did him in. A really nice guy, but his luck ran out.
Ole's legacy is shit - he was not even good at what he was mocked off as - a Phys Ed teacher gets more effort out of his pupils.
People that still think the amount of times we scored over 3+ whilst knowing that our xG over seasons, goals scored over seasons (at least league wise) was nothing special.
Those games were nice but absolutely meaningless in the grand scheme. We were terrible at breaking teams down consistently, terrible at taking the game to the top opposition and always rely on sit back and counter. All fun that we beat Southampton 9-0 but much more were we playing shit on a stick, which will never get you anywhere, and hasnt gotten us anywhere.
Those games were nice but absolutely meaningless in the grand scheme. We were terrible at breaking teams down consistently, terrible at taking the game to the top opposition and always rely on sit back and counter. All fun that we beat Southampton 9-0 but much more were we playing shit on a stick, which will never get you anywhere, and hasnt gotten us anywhere.
More like the entirety of last season except against Leeds, Southampton, City, and maybe a couple of others I'm forgetting.
Every other game, the result was up in the air till the last 10 minutes and so often we needed some luck to get the win.
Penalties and no fans. There you go
I'm not sure a manager should be bringing in DOF's and Technical directors. Not real ones anyway (I still have no idea what Fletcher is actually doing).
We brought in Solskjaer very quickly after Mourinho was sacked. I'm not sure we can say there wasn't clamour for the job as there wasn't time to start one. We were supposed to have months to decide the new permanent manager anyway. United will always be an attractive option for managers.
As for Rangnick being someone to build on the work Solskjaer did, well, that work doesn't include the actual playing football part, which could also reflect on squad changes. So we'll have to see about that. I'd say his appointment and future role is a clear indication that we WILL be heading towards another direction, at least in part.
Finishing top-4 back to back should only be meaningful as a stepping stone to bigger things. That shouldn't be our target.
It’s even funnier because Ole preferred a midfield partnership specifically to be workhorses and this is what that got him. But hey, Ole sent us in the right direction.
Top 4 finishes are not what this club is supposed to be aiming for. Under Jose and Vangle we were spending more than anyone, just like under Ole. No one was claiming at the time that Jose and Vangle were doing a good job either, so saying Ole achieved marginally more than them while falling short of what we should actually be achieving is not any great accomplishment.
Agree 100%, spot on !
Pretty sure Rio refuted some of these "reforms" on his podcast when Stephen Howson said the same. Ole didnt really have a hand in updating the data analytics, improving training ground etc these were improvements made by the club not Ole. In fact some of the training ground improvements were implemented by LVG in his time here.
Also just as its pretty clear that Ole was out of his depth tactically its looking pretty clear his "cultural reboot" was to drag this club back to the dark ages of less tactics, inexperienced buddy coaches, less structure and what seemed a priority of a good vibe over a winning mentality.
Which when you step back and realise a man who had no experience of managing a top club, never showed any tactical ingenuity in his career, never rebuilt a club, never showed any great genius in recruiting, was given the keys to man united, I think his legacy will end up being a caution tale to other clubs that for every Pep, theres an Ole.