Bastian
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- Jul 16, 2015
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- Mejbri
Good points. That seemed to be the strategy early on, it was about a higher tempo and to outwork other teams, with regards to which he kept referring to building the team's fitness. And he wanted to play out from the back too. It's up for debate if he's bought sensibly with those ambitions in mind, but it feels as though we hit a wall just before signing Bruno and then he changed the tactical setup quite a bit. And I'm not sure we ever got that hard working team he was going to produce.Thanks for being reasonable when faced with a different opinion by the way.
I believed the strategy has been become solid to beat and counter and then add the necessary layers to play higher tempo football. Which I think we were on track for until Ronaldo.
Now I believe Ronaldo is a world class player but I also feel he’s presenting the team with a similar identity crisis to the one Juventus suffered. We have to build around him which means we need energy from elsewhere. I think having a forward that does not press is exposing our weak CM more than we’ve seen with Cavani last season. I think Ole has spotted this issue. I have no idea how he fixes it without using McFred whenever Ronaldo plays. But that means always leaving out one of Sancho/Rashford/Greenwood/Pogba.
That is what I think is a major and new squad issue.
I would also hate for the team to unravel further I just don’t feel it will. I believe we have a good enough management to resolve the issues.
I would say though that if we do lose the next 2/3 games the I agree his position becomes harder to defend as I am expecting as manger him to make decisions to improve the current CM weakness or at least mask it better than the last few games have shown.
I expect us to get top 4 (I want us to win leagues as much as anyone else for what it’s worth) and I believe Ole is capable of working with these players to achieve that.
Eventually I think he’ll need replacing. I guess we just disagree on timescales perhaps?
In terms of that pressing game, yes, the team definitely has to account for Ronaldo being a roaming poacher preserving his energy. But I'd also say the team needs to account for Pogba's (tactical issue) and Martial's (acceptable standards issue) low work rate, and some other players inefficient (coaching issue) work rate.
I'd worry that his lack of credit in the bank will make it very difficult for him to manage dropping one or two of the bigger personalities, with regards to dressing room morale. The obvious one to me is Pogba who, as of yet, is not committed to the club long-term and has just come out with pretty scathing remarks, as he can't drop Bruno who has numerous times bailed him out and does work hard (though often inefficiently). It's definitely at the stage where he has to identify what players are going to give him 100% and forgetting the rest. He's done that in the past and it has worked for him. I just think there's too much negative momentum he won't be able to halt.
He's got a quarter of Phil Neville amount of must-win-games looming.