Why so many knee-jerk reactions and negativity 7 games in?

[Swedish_Plumber]

Ultimately it seems like the same pattern we’ve been seeing since LVG. There’s no real point in beating the big teams if you can’t manage to cope against those you’re expected to beat.
I don’t know how long we’re expected to put up with a short period of excellent form followed by horrible form where we appear to have never played with each other.
Is there a reason we can go from looking unstoppable like the first few games under Ole/in lockdown to us struggling for goals kind of form right now? It’s been 3 years and we still struggle, IMO people are well within their rights to question the manager.

 

[stw2022]

The suggestion there’s been any kind of progress is delusional. Where is it?

Not only is the football still bad we actually play with zero tactical intention now. We’ve won less and we’ve spent a crapload of money on players it’s embarrassingly obvious he doesn’t have a clue how to use.

What is he even building towards if three years in we’re still at the ‘everyone plays like they’ve never met any of their team mates before’ stage?

Notwithstanding his late 86th minute subs as if he’s under the impression that eating up time is something the team chasing the game does

 

[Josep Dowling]

I think it’s pretty obvious. Expectation has gone through the roof signing Ronaldo, Sancho and Varane. On paper we have had the best transfer window in the league. Watching us playing football is a different story and fans are slowly realising it’s not good enough with Ole in charge.

The same things were said under Moyes. Look after 10 games etc. The BIG difference is we haven’t played a single top side. We should have been top by this point if we want any chance to win the league. Once Liverpool and City start to flow they win week in, week out. Even 90 points doesn’t win the league these days.

 

[AndySmith1990]

People are fickle, they expected us to compete and seriously challenge for the league with players like Fred, McT and Ole as a manager, now when they see that we are so far of the likes of City and Liverpool, their knee jerk reaction is expected.

And yeah, that 2nd place finish was very much down to Liverpool being a mess, and Chelsea being inconsistent. At this current state of affairs, we will fight for 4th place finish and that's what makes people see the harsh reality.

I think you have the first part wrong. The problem is that we don't expect to challenge for the title with Ole as manager, but we should expect to challenge for the title with players like De Gea, Varane, Maguire, Shaw, Pogba, Bruno, Ronaldo Greenwood, Rashford, Sancho, Cavani. That right there is the crux of the issue.

Re. The OP. Kneejerk is an impulsive reaction to an event with no thought or reflection for what's come before it. There's nothing knee jeek about many of the criticisms or reversations fans have regarding the manager. There are plenty of fans who didn't want him as permanent manager, myself included, because he was in no way qualified. Take away the name Ole Solskjaer and replace with Mike Basset - former manager of Cardiff and Molde. Should Manchester United hire him? Obviously not. Anyway, all that's to say all the talk of kneejerk in this thread is incorrect, and possibly willfully ignorant in an attempt to downplay genuine long-running criticisms.

 

[Plant0x84]

Three years in the job so far, has he been given enough time to prove his worth ? That should be a poll.

Interesting debate point this, because generally you would assume it should be plenty of time to get the team challenging. You might even argue that we are challenging- consecutive top 4 finishes, a final last year and keeping pace at the top of our league so far this season. This is our best start to a season under Ole so far.
However, look at the state the club was in when we finally sacked Jose. It wasn’t just a case of clearing out ‘deadwood’ and bringing in new players, but changing to whole attitude, ethos and mentality of the club - staff included. That’s no small feat in the time Ole has been in charge.

 

[stw2022]

Interesting debate point this, because generally you would assume it should be plenty of time to get the team challenging. You might even argue that we are challenging- consecutive top 4 finishes, a final last year and keeping pace at the top of our league so far this season. This is our best start to a season under Ole so far.
However, look at the state the club was in when we finally sacked Jose. It wasn’t just a case of clearing out ‘deadwood’ and bringing in new players, but changing to whole attitude, ethos and mentality of the club - staff included. That’s no small feat in the time Ole has been in charge.

It’s a minute feat. We could have hired a decent comedian at the Christmas meal got a life coach in to give a pep talk.

Three years to cheer people up isn’t a massive achievement.

‘Ethos’? What are you talking about? The football is disjointed and tumescent. Since he’s got his teeth done Shaw does look handsome now he’s smiling more but that’s not really huge progress in the grand scheme of things

If the only thing we’ve improved in after three years are abstract concepts then I despair.

But definitely our chakra has gone from purple to green so that’s worth a contact extension I guess

 

[RkkMan]

Failure isn't 2nd and 3rd place. If thats what you deem as failure then every manager who doesn't come 1st is a failure surely? Sack everyone who doesn't come 1st? Is that now the message?

And don't hide behind the better football excuse. If we play better football under the next guy but still finish no higher than 2nd you will all want him out too.

I have not talked about failure or better football ANYWHERE you're the one who's brought it up in what seems like a desperate straw man argument
Yes finishing 3rd then 2nd wasn't failure on paper but last season we got knocked out of a CL group which was tough but were more than capable of qualifying from when we were top(after that shocking result to the Turkish Team) needing a point in 2 remaining games to finish the job. We also lost the EL final to a team that had never won a major trophy in their history at a club like Madrid, Bayern, Chelsea or City those two instances get a manager an instant sacking but we not only stood by him we gave him a new contract and had on paper the best transfer window of all English teams so forgive people for having question marks over a manager who's been given near perfect conditions to succeed after 3 years yet we look no better than the last 2 seasons.
If the next man came in and made us regress after being given the amount of time and backing Ole has even with "better football" I'd want him sacked too because it's a results business at the end of the day you Sir Alex of 20-25 years at one club is never happening again in our lifetime and you're best off sooner accepting that because looking for the next Sir Alex is what will keep us in football purgatory

 

[frostbite]

Interesting debate point this, because generally you would assume it should be plenty of time to get the team challenging. You might even argue that we are challenging- consecutive top 4 finishes, a final last year and keeping pace at the top of our league so far this season. This is our best start to a season under Ole so far.
However, look at the state the club was in when we finally sacked Jose. It wasn’t just a case of clearing out ‘deadwood’ and bringing in new players, but changing to whole attitude, ethos and mentality of the club - staff included. That’s no small feat in the time Ole has been in charge.

Actually, the first few months under Ole we had a lot of wins. So "the change to whole attitude" you are talking about happened in an instant!

The problem is that since then, we have stagnated. We are not any closer to winning anything, even though we have spent a lot of money.

 

[fergieisold]

So compared to LVG Jose the football is better I will give you that, but with Ole at the helm when we go into games against teams we should be beating we struggle. Villa outplayed us for virtually the whole game, against Everton we started well first half first 20 odd minutes I genuinely thought we will win, but as happens with Ole he decides to make subs when we’re 1 nil up, and we end up luckily drawing.

Id agree, it’s a problem that needs to be solved - and I think we just have to give the management more time at this point.

I have no appetite for yet another knee jerk manager and potentially going backwards. The ole outers want it done today, but I’ve seen no convincing argument for who’s going to come in and suddenly make us title challengers.

 

[9 Stone Elvis]

Its not knee jerk. Quite the opposite.

Ole came in, did well, should never have really been offered the job in the first place but everyone was backed into a corner on a tidal wave of feel good factor and an unexpected good run+. At no point in the three years has he ever tried to impose a particular style onto the club. Its all been harking back to DNA and The United Way and Sir Alex.

Its brought some success so lets not knock it. The club is a much better place. The players got back onside. We finished 2nd, we reached a final. Thats all positive and it bought him time.

The reason the tide is turning now is because all the potential "other" reasons for us not quite being there have faded away over the last three years and we are now left with one. The manager. This was his chance. The crowds are back, the players are signed up, the set piece coach has come in, the goalkeeper issue has resolved itself (for now), Pogba is quiet, Sancho was signed, money was spent, deals were done early.

No matter what is wrong with the team now falls squarely on his shoulders and the truth is we are no more organised, we have no more of a plan and we are making the same mistakes as we have done throughout his time here. We are being regularly outplayed by clubs who are greater than the sum of their parts because we are less than the sum of ours.

If we had title aspirations, and given the team we have, we should be sitting on 18-21 points right now and going in to the tough games with a bit of a gap. We aren't and the title aspirations look shot already.

The most damning thing I could say is that I go into every game STILL not knowing whether to expect a 4-0 win or a defeat.

 

[FattyFooty]

A huge % of the online fans have are so impatient and irrational it's getting hard and harder to bother with Redcafe.

7 games in people on here have decided the season is a write off, Sancho is shit and Varane is past it. You can't talk to someone with that mind set.

We have tried to rebuilt the squad for 9 years. Since SAF left we seen players come and go.

A footballers career is very short. In only about 4 years of time Fernandes, Maguire and Varane will be over 30 years of age. Ronaldo over 40.

Ole has been given everything a manager could wish for. If he needs another 3-4 years he needs new players again. The time is now.

The smile he had at the end of the Everton, it looks really insecure. He lookes scared to me. A brave smile. But he feels the pressure now.

 

[kthanksbye]

Unless you haven't been paying attention, this isn't really knee-jerk. A lot of us since last season have been concerned with the way we've been playing, especially things like off the ball movement, building from the back, moving the ball across to the other wing quickly. The fact that none of those problems are even close to being solved even after adding Varane Sancho and Ronaldo, is what has made more people take notice of the issues.
So yes, the reaction is not based on 7 games, that's a very simplistic view to take.

 

[shahzy]

By kneejerk you mean 3 years right?

 

[wolvored]

I was Ole in up to the time he bought Pellestri and Amad, said they would play... then didnt. I couldnt see the sense, and still dont, buying players that wasnt going to impact the first team, when we were crying out for first team players. Will they ever play for the first team? I seriously doubt it.
We then finished 2nd, but never was challenging for the title. Bruno largely made things happen when we scored and won games, but by and large unless we could score on the counter it was dire.

This season after the transfer window we had, at first I thought at last we may be going somewhere. Somehow we have gone back down to the standard of last year, with 2 proven WC players and a potential future one in the team, yet still play the same.

Ole is a chequebook manager, £400+ million spent and still we have glaring errors he cant or wont see in the team. He should have appointed WC/top class coaches, to improve us. Instead all his backroom staff get nice new contracts. When he first came he said this club was meant to win trophies regularly. Last year he said trophies were an ego thing and we didnt need trophies to show progress.

Overall I hope he can turn it around and make me eat my words, but I and many others just cant see it. 3 years in and his best performances was when he was interim.

If our manager was John Smith who played for Villa/Spurs/Newcastle and managed Cardiff and Molde, no one on here would be backing him now.

 

[RkkMan]

Top 3 finish.

A cup would be nice but a consistent finish Top 3 finish 4 years on the trot would be good enough to go another year in my opinion.

Quarters/Semi's in the UCL if we drop into the EL, get to the final.



Clearly talking about the league, considering the negativity has increased vastly since the Everton game. Hence the knee-jerking reaction. There's still 31 games to go. No need to panic.

The incredible thing is most people are panicking or getting worked up over results that haven't happened yet.

If we drop into the Europa League Ole shouldn't see 2022 as Utd manager simple.
Missing out on the CL knock out stages TWO YEARS IN A ROW would be sheer and utter embarrassment. Last season he had the(weak) argument that it was the Group of Death but that excuse doesn't suffice this season especially with Champions League Varane and Mr Champions League in our team. It's absolutely staggering how fans have allowed their standards to drop this much because of Ole the prospect of playing EL football 2 years in a row would be unimaginable to any Utd fan 10-13 years ago we shouldn't allow our standards to be in hell

 

[romufc]

See your starting point is the problem. The Glazers only want to get into the top four. That is where the bar is set, not least in Ole's contract.

The financial cost in transfers and long term restructuring of creating a probability of winning either of those competitions is very large. And even then there is no guarantee. It's not worth the cost or the risk of failure.

Short version - competing with oil states and magnates who don't care about profit and loss is just bad business.

I am not talking about the Glazers, if we are well of the top, I can imagine fan pressure costing him his job.

Liverpool seem to be competing with City just fine btw, that is a easy way out saying we can't compete with oil rich clubs.

On paper, we probably have a squad on par with anyone at the moment, I dont see why so many excuses are banded about. Ole is not good enough, a Klopp or Pep would win everything with this squad.

 

[9 Stone Elvis]

If we drop into the Europa League Ole shouldn't see 2022 as Utd manager simple.
Missing out on the CL knock out stages TWO YEARS IN A ROW would be sheer and utter embarrassment. Last season he had the(weak) argument that it was the Group of Death but that excuse doesn't suffice this season especially with Champions League Varane and Mr Champions League in our team. It's absolutely staggering how fans have allowed their standards to drop this much because of Ole the prospect of playing EL football 2 years in a row would be unimaginable to any Utd fan 10-13 years ago we shouldn't allow our standards to be in hell

Exactly!

We didn't sell ourselves to Ronaldo, Varane, Sancho and another year from Cavani on the promise of top 4 and Europa League football. these players were bought for the CL and a title challenge. No doubt.

 

[Green Arrow]

If we drop into the Europa League Ole shouldn't see 2022 as Utd manager simple.
Missing out on the CL knock out stages TWO YEARS IN A ROW would be sheer and utter embarrassment. Last season he had the(weak) argument that it was the Group of Death but that excuse doesn't suffice this season especially with Champions League Varane and Mr Champions League in our team. It's absolutely staggering how fans have allowed their standards to drop this much because of Ole the prospect of playing EL football 2 years in a row would be unimaginable to any Utd fan 10-13 years ago we shouldn't allow our standards to be in hell

Agree with this statement the standards have definantly dropped over the years fans are being acustomed to the thought of finishing in the top 4 is a great result and also playing the EL is something to shout about, it isn't. We have bought three world class players for Ole to use in the team and one doesn't get a look in at all.
With the teams we have played at the start of the season we should have gotten 18 points out of 21 no excuses and the postion we are in now is a false one, when we play the tougher teams soon I expect us to drop points.

 

[RkkMan]

Aren’t Liverpool and city practically the same sides cept for Graelish?

Varane and sancho are both in a new league. Sancho should have been in last year, and should have signed a DM this summer. Ronaldo does change us as a side. We haven’t hit our stride yet but we very well could. When we do Ole has us very dangerous in the past. Imagine if we sign a DM this winter.

I've never understood people saying this. So you think we should have bended over to Dortmund and paid that ridiculous £108m price tag when COVID was at its peak with next to no certainty of fans coming back? Do you have any idea what knock on effects it would have had?
Not only would we have once again showed that anyone can take us for a ride but that price tag comes with massive massive pressure on the player Sancho as we're speaking needs time to find his feet(despite being £35m cheaper) and is being saved from a ridiculous level of scrutiny by Ronaldo's presence. With no Ronaldo to cover him last season all eyes would have been on him to be the savior of an imbalanced Utd team with a price tag of £100m+ that only one player in history(Mbappe) has fully justified to this day. The Sancho saga took exactly the course it needed waiting another year for both the club and player

 

[EtH]

It’s the performances. Not that all the handbags on the forum are warranted. But the performances so far have been shocking.

 

[Judas]

People have had doubts about Ole since the second he was made manager permanently. We've shown the same ups and downs and inconsistency throughout most of his time in charge.

 

[Orton]

3 years, no improvement on the pitch and about 400 million spent. That’s where the negativity creeps in.

 

[Orton]

If we drop into the Europa League Ole shouldn't see 2022 as Utd manager simple.
Missing out on the CL knock out stages TWO YEARS IN A ROW would be sheer and utter embarrassment. Last season he had the(weak) argument that it was the Group of Death but that excuse doesn't suffice this season especially with Champions League Varane and Mr Champions League in our team. It's absolutely staggering how fans have allowed their standards to drop this much because of Ole the prospect of playing EL football 2 years in a row would be unimaginable to any Utd fan 10-13 years ago we shouldn't allow our standards to be in hell

Group of death? PSG, Leipzig, Bursaspor. Seriously?

 

[Bilbo]

I've never understood people saying this. So you think we should have bended over to Dortmund and paid that ridiculous £108m price tag when COVID was at its peak with next to no certainty of fans coming back? Do you have any idea what knock on effects it would have had?
Not only would we have once again showed that anyone can take us for a ride but that price tag comes with massive massive pressure on the player Sancho as we're speaking needs time to find his feet(despite being £35m cheaper) and is being saved from a ridiculous level of scrutiny by Ronaldo's presence. With no Ronaldo to cover him last season all eyes would have been on him to be the savior of an imbalanced Utd team with a price tag of £100m+ that only one player in history(Mbappe) has fully justified to this day. The Sancho saga took exactly the course it needed waiting another year for both the club and player

I agree with you, but the point is that Sancho was considered to be the player next in line for this team, and while we were absolutely right not to give in to the price it's easy to see a different scenario where Sancho was secured last summer, and we would likely have been using this summers budget for Varane + a central midfielder.

I'm sure we wanted that midfielder this summer. The Camavinga interest seemed real, but outside of him I don't think any of the clubs targets were available for a price that suited us. Despite fans impatience I can completely and easily get behind the clubs position to wait for the right targets at the right prices. It was subpar transfer business that got us into the mess we were in and we had to move away from that.

 

[Bilbo]

3 years, no improvement on the pitch and about 400 million spent. That’s where the negativity creeps in.

This is a headline only post though without context. There has been improvement on the pitch, it's just been clouded by a run of poor form at a time when expectations are at the highest they've ever been. It doesn't take away the fact that we were mostly a very solid team last season, and it also doesn't take into account the likelihood that we will become a very solid team this season.

'400 million spent' doesn't really mean much either. That's not the huge amount of money that it used to be and United are a club that are always going to spend that amount of money over three summers. It would be a concern if that money hadn't been spent well but I think it has been, we just aren't seeing the fruits of it right now.

I think most reasonable people would understand a touch of negativity, but the full on meltdowns are where the divide starts because there's no need for that, and this really is a hysterical forum these days. There's no doubt we are entering a crucial phase of the season though and one where, for me anyway, the managers job might actually be on the line. Fail to get through the CL group and I think he'll have to go. He'd be unlikely to survive that, but I think we will qualify.

 

[MacarisSocks]

If our manager was John Smith who played for Villa/Spurs/Newcastle and managed Cardiff and Molde, no one on here would be backing him now.

In a nutshell, we've turned into Nostalgia FC hoping one of our former legends can make us great again. Sure Mourinho was a flakey ego that needed removing, but our obsession with wanting Olly to bring back the good times and the Glazers contentment they dont have to deal with a boat rocker is concerning.

 

[RkkMan]

Group of death? PSG, Leipzig, Bursaspor. Seriously?

Our group on paper was the hardest last season. PSG and Leipzig were CL finalists and semi finalists respectively. Doesn't make it excusable since we carelessly dropped points away at Istanbul and at home to PSG

 

[Sphaero]

From an outsiders perspective I find these calls of impatience pretty bewildering.

If anything Solskjaers status as a club legend and figure of one of the best moments of the clubs history has given him more leeway and benefit of the doubt than most managers would have enjoyed. There is a certain romantic notion at play here that a lot of people would love seeing a part of the class of 92 being the person that lifts the club back into the heights of the Ferguson era. That is understandable.

However, stepping away from this viewpoint and looking at it objectively, here is where Solskjaer stands:

This is his third season as manager and he has been given vast amounts of ressources to be successful: around 300 Mil. € net spend over the last three Summers on top of generous signing fees and one of the highest wage bills in club football speak a very clear language. Manchester United is in terms of financial capabilites, prestige and reach without a doubt an elite club and with that comes a simple truth: Elite clubs constantly challenge for titles.

Does Solskjaer do this?

Do people believe that his United is capable of going toe to toe with Guardiolas City, Klopps Liverpool and Tuchels Chelsea over a full season? A lot of people don´t because while the results have not been terrible, United certainly does not play like a serious title challenger and still sits behind all three in the table despite having a far more favourable schedule (all three beforementioned clubs have played and taken points off each other at this point) which should have given them the opportunity to actually build up pressure on the opposition. If they don´t believe in Solskjaer being able to win the EPL they are right to question his position as that should be the baseline for a United manager.

The same applies to the CL. By most measures United should be in the conversation of winning the whole thing, not having to worry of making it to the KO stages.

It honestly boils down that Solskjaer has not proven to be able to rise to the standart a manager of a club of such a size should be able to do. Neither before he took the job nor in his time at the Old Trafford.

 

[b82REZ]

We have great players, world class players even, but are we a good team at the moment. No we are not. That's what everyone is upset about. However, I can see Ole getting the team playing well and us becoming good again. But you can't say that we're a good team by any stretch of the imagination.

We will come good, and all this doom and gloom isn't as bad as it may seem. We'll get there, just requires patience.

It's one person's job to get us playing as a team.

 

[largelyworried]

I agree with you, but the point is that Sancho was considered to be the player next in line for this team, and while we were absolutely right not to give in to the price it's easy to see a different scenario where Sancho was secured last summer, and we would likely have been using this summers budget for Varane + a central midfielder.

I'm sure we wanted that midfielder this summer. The Camavinga interest seemed real, but outside of him I don't think any of the clubs targets were available for a price that suited us. Despite fans impatience I can completely and easily get behind the clubs position to wait for the right targets at the right prices. It was subpar transfer business that got us into the mess we were in and we had to move away from that.

I think Ole has been quite brave in taking his time over targets. In his second season he could easily have gone for a big name attacker that would have kept the fans happy. He spent his budget on the defence instead, which was definitely sensible, if not exciting. So I do have respect for the job he's done so far in building properly.

The difference is that when you've just finished 6th, you're not really writing off the season by targeting 4th. Its a step up. But when you're a regular in the top 4 and finished 2nd last year, anything other than a title challenge is at best stalling, and at worst going backwards. You can only have so many years where you call it long term planning, before it looks more like the top 4 hamster wheel.

 

[Womp]

People are fickle, they expected us to compete and seriously challenge for the league with players like Fred, McT and Ole as a manager, now when they see that we are so far of the likes of City and Liverpool, their knee jerk reaction is expected.

And yeah, that 2nd place finish was very much down to Liverpool being a mess, and Chelsea being inconsistent. At this current state of affairs, we will fight for 4th place finish and that's what makes people see the harsh reality.

The thing is - many people who they are accusing of 'knee jerk' have maintained their opinions for some time now. So it's not like we are surprised we aren't challenging or not playing progressive, entertaining football. It was expected. I'm far more surprised that 1. he is still manager and that 2. there are still people backing him.

It was always going to be difficult, given how much the United fan base loves him, it's hard to isolate the appreciation for Ole the player from Ole the manager.

 

[Womp]

We have great players, world class players even, but are we a good team at the moment. No we are not. That's what everyone is upset about. However, I can see Ole getting the team playing well and us becoming good again. But you can't say that we're a good team by any stretch of the imagination.

We will come good, and all this doom and gloom isn't as bad as it may seem. We'll get there, just requires patience.

Let me get this straight... you maintain the exact same opinion as us 'knee jerkers' that we aren't nearly good enough collectively despite the quality of the squad, but because after 3 years of his management and little to no improvement in that regard, we don't seemingly have the same optimism as you, we are knee jerks?

How long do you genuinely think it takes a manager to start implementing some progressive football into a team? Hot tip: not over 3 years.

If he hasn't got the style sorted by now, he never will. That's the thing - people expecting things Ole cannot deliver. This is Ole's football. We are a team of very good players who try hard, are on occasion very good on the counter but lack the cohesion and benefits that comes with collective coaching.

 

[dirkey]

Aren’t Liverpool and city practically the same sides cept for Graelish?

Varane and sancho are both in a new league. Sancho should have been in last year, and should have signed a DM this summer. Ronaldo does change us as a side. We haven’t hit our stride yet but we very well could. When we do Ole has us very dangerous in the past. Imagine if we sign a DM this winter.

At the end of the day, with the players at his disposal, we should be playing far better football than we are. Put Pep or Klopp in charge of this team, and within a matter of weeks, we would be.

I love Ole. I've backed him for a long, long time. But it's so clear, so patently clear that he's hit his ceiling.

We used always joke back in the day about Liverpool fans "One more striker". That's what they used always say. For us "One more midfielder".

 

[Korwas]

The way I see it it's obviously too soon to say Ole has put the season on the road to nowhere, but he is clearly making us take a harder road to titles. When I map out CL group stages I expect 6 points against Young Boys and 6 at home against Atalanta and Villareal which should see us through without even mentioning the most difficult games away. Losing at Young Boys is forcing us to perform really good in the hardest games. The same is happening in the league. To get to 85+ points I expect us to win nearly every game vs non top 4 teams, when we don't we end up having to beat the strong teams instead. This isn't impossible by any means but we are making it harder on ourselves when we don't win against. Leagues are not won in the top-4 games, they are won in the 32 games against the teams outside the top 4.

 

[Rolledo]

The negativity is a bit draining, have to say.

And even if OGS might have been a bit lucky to get the job in the first place, he's also come along at a time where the level of the premier league is at a unprecedented high, while our expectations remain the same (trophies, nothing less). It does seem quite the feat to unthrone all of City/Guardiola, Liverpool/Klopp, Chelsea/Tuchel domestically, and PSG, Bayern etc in Europe. I can't help thinking that we fell behind at a really crucial point, and now seem a bit lost as how to catch up. Time is also not on Oles side obviously, as the further we get from our glory days, with no end in sight, the hurt (and negativity) grows.

 

[Bilbo]

Do people believe that his United is capable of going toe to toe with Guardiolas City, Klopps Liverpool and Tuchels Chelsea over a full season?

Liverpool and Chelsea yes, but I think City have been and remain at least one level above everyone else in England. I honestly believe, and posted this frequently at the time, that the club looked at the state of affairs after Jose was sacked and decided along the lines of 'we are miles off where City are, and the level of investment required to catch them is outside of our reach, so let's plan to build a team over time to dominate the league after this cycle of theirs has ended'. I think they are doing this pretty well.

That end goal might not include Ole, but if his brief was to reset the culture and direction at the club, and put together the bones of a future dominant team, then he's done a pretty decent job of that up to now.

 

[Micky Targaryen]

The thing that really grinds my gears are that these Ole supporters equate themselves to the most loyal club supporters and the toppest of reds. You challenge their deluded faith in Ole, and they will pull out their Hail Mary card claiming that Fergie needed time too and they have been with the club since the dark days. Absolute cringefest. Fergie drove this club to its glory days and made us on the richest and biggest clubs in modern football and it should stay that way. And now what? Suddenly its ok to drop our standards because this club used to be relegation fodder back in the days? Suddenly Ole can bring the glory days, because Fergie did it too? Quit insulting Fergie like that.

To the staunch Ole supporters, wake up and smell the coffee. You are not Man United supporters. You are just plain Ole supporters and are so desperate for him and only him to succeed, for god knows what reasons, to the point of pure delusion. Even rival fans want Ole to remain. What does that tell you? If you think we Ole outers want the club to fail , then yeah we would want Ole to remain too.

 

[Micky Targaryen]

“Why so many knee-jerk reactions and negativity 7 games”

Probably because it isn’t based on seven games…..

Save your breath. Everyone’s been saying that but he’s still blabbing on the same 7 games narrative.

 

[Godfather]

From an outsiders perspective I find these calls of impatience pretty bewildering.

If anything Solskjaers status as a club legend and figure of one of the best moments of the clubs history has given him more leeway and benefit of the doubt than most managers would have enjoyed. There is a certain romantic notion at play here that a lot of people would love seeing a part of the class of 92 being the person that lifts the club back into the heights of the Ferguson era. That is understandable.

However, stepping away from this viewpoint and looking at it objectively, here is where Solskjaer stands:

This is his third season as manager and he has been given vast amounts of ressources to be successful: around 300 Mil. € net spend over the last three Summers on top of generous signing fees and one of the highest wage bills in club football speak a very clear language. Manchester United is in terms of financial capabilites, prestige and reach without a doubt an elite club and with that comes a simple truth: Elite clubs constantly challenge for titles.

Does Solskjaer do this?

Do people believe that his United is capable of going toe to toe with Guardiolas City, Klopps Liverpool and Tuchels Chelsea over a full season? A lot of people don´t because while the results have not been terrible, United certainly does not play like a serious title challenger and still sits behind all three in the table despite having a far more favourable schedule (all three beforementioned clubs have played and taken points off each other at this point) which should have given them the opportunity to actually build up pressure on the opposition. If they don´t believe in Solskjaer being able to win the EPL they are right to question his position as that should be the baseline for a United manager.

The same applies to the CL. By most measures United should be in the conversation of winning the whole thing, not having to worry of making it to the KO stages.

It honestly boils down that Solskjaer has not proven to be able to rise to the standart a manager of a club of such a size should be able to do. Neither before he took the job nor in his time at the Old Trafford.

This is a very good post

 

[DJ_21]

It’s funny that ole gets a lot of stick of everyone yet we’re on the same points as city, scored the same amount of goals but conceded 3 more. Obviously what goes against ole though is that we’ve probably had the easiest run of games at the start of the season and we should easily be sitting at the top right now, should be beating villa at home and everton. Seems like every time we have a chance to gain over our rivals we never take it. We do have a record of turning things around though when things get tough and everyone’s calling for Solskjær to be sacked, it wouldn’t surprise me if we came out with at least 10 points in our next 4 games which is the tough run. We’re so unpredictable, we can win games by 4 or 5 goals and then we can go and lose 1-0. Things could look a lot better in a months time if we beat the likes of city and Liverpool. It’s a must win against Leicester we are still only 2 points of the top.