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

[Bilbo]

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.

Very much agree on the first point. He was selfless in how he stripped down the squad in his first summer. That was a guy landing his dream job and risking his reputation making moves that were right for the club, not him. Doesn't get enough credit for that.

Let's be clear, the top 4 hamster wheel is no bad place to be. I've gotten more used to not being in the CL than I have being in it so we shouldn't downplay that. With regards to progress we have to be careful also. If Chelsea don't win the league or CL are they regressing? If Liverpool don't get 95 points with VVD back have they regressed? I realise those managers have 'credit' in the bank from recently winning big titles, but it is possible that we could look back on this season without trophies and still see progress, just as it's possible that we could win an FA cup and decide otherwise.

As I just said in another post in this thread, if the plan was and still is to build something that will be ready to thrive once City's cycle is through, we are still making very good moves and well placed for that.

 

[Banat]

Some people are so stubborn. It's not only 7 games in, it's a 3 years process without any identity or brand of football. I couldn't care less if we were bottom of the table at this stage, while playing at least with some identity on the pitch.
There are no signs of any improvement and we are just delaying the inevitable.

 

[Plant0x84]

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

Maybe you’ve never been in a position of management, or maybe you’re just really poor with people but I can tell you from personal experience that is the biggest load of under exaggerated crap going.
It’s all well and good if you start from scratch, you can create your own working environment and staff moral, but when you go in to turn around a failing business it can be hell to motivate the demotivated, raise moral and reinstate a sense of pride in the work place and the job people are doing. Sometimes you just can’t do it and you have to let people go. The sense that it’s just crack a few jokes and sing a few songs and all is rosey is laughable. Don’t underestimate the job Ole has done in that regard. He had players like De Gea and Martial who 3 years were key players who wanted out - he turned that around and they signed new contracts. I wouldn’t be surprised if he does the same with Pogba in the coming months.

 

[hammerfadl]

Firstly, I agree that there are alot of messages on forums/twitter etc. that are completely over the top. It's by all means not completely doom and gloom. But with Oles 3rd full season started, and we soon will enter year 4 of his tenure, I feel we should come across as way more of a team than what currently is presented.

The 7 matches so far haven't shown any development in the teamplay, for some games it has looked worse than the previous season. We were lucky to draw Everton (according to xG), but unlucky to only draw Southampton. We were very lucky to win against Wolves, but should not have lost to Villa. The other 3 wins have all been deserved, although one has to thank Noble/de Gea for that West Ham win. As it stands we are averaging 2 points per game, enroute to 76 for the season. A minor increase from the year before.

The issue with that is two-fold. The first is that we have been rather lucky so far with the opponents compared to most competitors. I mean, City have already played Liverpool, Chelsea, Leicester and Spurs. The second part is that comparing to the same matches last year, United are 7 points worse of this year. So already there's 7 points that need to be gained somewhere else just to reach the 74 from last year.

If we count all 47 matches played this calendar year, we have a win rate of 53%. Converting all games to giving 3, 1 or 0 points, we get a performance just below that which on average would have been enough for 4th in the league the last 7 years.

The last 18 games only 1 have ended with United not conceeding a goal. That is just nowhere near good enough for a defence. The avg. conceeded in the same 18 games, is 1,38 pr game. That is almos as bad as the 18/19 season where United shipped 54 in the league.

 

[passtheball]

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.

Yes, this is the most stupid comparison in all of football.

When SAF came into the club, there was a drinking culture in the English game, with United being no exception. At the beginning of 89-90 (the season of that infamous TARA poster), he offloaded tipplers like McGrath and Whiteside from the team and brought in many new players. He was building a modern, professional club.

A far cry from today where fitness levels have never been better and every little detail is taken care of for managers and players by a large team of experts. Ole has everything on a silver platter for him: world class players, an adoring OT, and almost a half-billion in transfer spend, but all he can show for it is negative, conservative football and choking in semi-finals and finals. He neither entertains nor wins.

 

[dinostar77]

Some people are so stubborn. It's not only 7 games in, it's a 3 years process without any identity or brand of football. I couldn't care less if we were bottom of the table at this stage, while playing at least with some identity on the pitch.
There are no signs of any improvement and we are just delaying the inevitable.

Agreed. Almost three years and there is no discernable pattern to our play on the ball or off the ball. Said it before, Ole has done a good job in getting Utd pointing in the right direction again but hes at the limits of his ability as a manager. Club needs an elite manager in the mould of pep, klopp, Tuchel etc to take it forward and get the maximum value out of this squad.

 

[meamth]

Those 3 years comments completely ignore the positives.

Why are we here now as a "Title Winning" aspiration team? Back then the way I see it, we're chasing after City and Liverpool season after season. Now we're in the mix, first season, since Sir Alex retired.

The team is playing badly now, not sync/clicked, suddenly we have zero tactics. It's mind boggling how the "Ole out" agenda turns out.

I believe the players will reach some chemistry, form and playing good at some point.

 

[Borys]

"Fear factor is back" is my all time favorite knee jerk reaction thread.

 

[Kostov]

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.

I think you have a very wrong understanding of league football mate, you can't win the league with an average manager even if you have a world class team (which is debatable also) and that is without factoring that you have to compete with 2 of the best managers in the world (Klopp and Pep). This said imo, this composition of average manager with and much better team might fluke a cup even a CL, like we have witnessed in history before, the league is a different gravy and expectations of competing were imo never suited.

Did anyone really think that we could compete with City? We finished how many? 15 points behind them, and they were not even pushing for the last couple of games? Yes it is knee jerk, we are so so far from a PL title winning team, and it was obvious to see.

 

[9 Stone Elvis]

Those 3 years comments completely ignore the positives.

Why are we here now as a "Title Winning" aspiration team? Back then the way I see it, we're chasing after City and Liverpool season after season. Now we're in the mix, first season, since Sir Alex retired.

The team is playing badly now, not sync/clicked, suddenly we have zero tactics. It's mind boggling how the "Ole out" agenda turns out.

I believe the players will reach some chemistry, form and playing good at some point.

Most people acknowledge that he has done many good things.

Motivated players play better
Happy players play better
Better players play better

He has done all of those things and those things have taken us from where we were to second last season. However....

Well drilled players play better
Players in an understandable effective system play better

He hasn't done those things and hadn't done them across the three years but this was masked by the improvements shown by the changes he did make. However I would argue we are now at the stage where if you take the best XI in the world there will be a ceiling in terms of achievement without the above two things in place.

We are coming up against teams and struggling who have the above two in place and are equally motivated and even happy but are not as good players as we have. Thats the problem in my eyes. Yes Ole has done some good things but to get us to the next level and to meet the expectation of having better players he either needs to complete the transformation with tactical acumen and a system or he will ultimately lose his job. the problem is if he could do that I would suggest it would have been done over the last 3 years and the fact that it hasn't is what is causing the issue - not a knee jerk reaction.

 

[largelyworried]

Very much agree on the first point. He was selfless in how he stripped down the squad in his first summer. That was a guy landing his dream job and risking his reputation making moves that were right for the club, not him. Doesn't get enough credit for that.

Let's be clear, the top 4 hamster wheel is no bad place to be. I've gotten more used to not being in the CL than I have being in it so we shouldn't downplay that. With regards to progress we have to be careful also. If Chelsea don't win the league or CL are they regressing? If Liverpool don't get 95 points with VVD back have they regressed? I realise those managers have 'credit' in the bank from recently winning big titles, but it is possible that we could look back on this season without trophies and still see progress, just as it's possible that we could win an FA cup and decide otherwise.

As I just said in another post in this thread, if the plan was and still is to build something that will be ready to thrive once City's cycle is through, we are still making very good moves and well placed for that.

I don't think winning the title is the target for them guys, rather just showing they're more or less at the same level as City. If they lose out to City but the difference is down to fine margins, I suspect both clubs would be fine with that. If there's still a chasm between the clubs though, as there was last season, then that might be different. Less so at Liverpool (who are they getting that's better than Klopp?) but if Chelsea finish 15 points behind City and fail to retain the CL, Tuchel could certainly be at risk, knowing Abramovich. The key thing is that those clubs seem to have more pieces of the jigsaw than us. Decent first teams, decent squads, good managers and the tools to overcome different challenges on the field.

Obv we both want to win the title this season, but I too would be ok with another season of progress if we were clearly building up to something. The problem is that the only thing that seems to be progressing is the squad building. In most other areas the progress is slow going. They're discussed at length on the site, but the lack of workrate, the unreliable defense, the lack of meaningful controlled possession in midfield, the susceptibility to a press, the lack of our own high press, the inability to handle a low block and so on. These have all been problems for a while. While we've gotten better at dealing with a low block, progress in most other areas has been, at best, slow. Which is why, if we end up finishing this season in more or less the same shape as last season, I don't think it qualifies as progress.

 

[tenpoless]

Every year it resets. Makes sense to me.

 

[Tom Cato]

I am not feeling as negative as the majority it seems, however I would add that it's not just 7 games. I think it's the context of those games in terms of who we played and the performance levels. That creates a definite sense of dread ahead of a highly demanding set of fixtures. If we don't improve substantially over the coming weeks we could be out of the game and that is a hugely disappointing prospect.

I don't get why people willingly do this to themselves. Take disappointment and let it fester before anything has even happened.

Genuinely, what does it achieve?

I MAY lose out on a great deal in a few weeks time and thats a bummer, I'll be unhappy about it starting now.

 

[9 Stone Elvis]

I don't get why people willingly do this to themselves. Take disappointment and let it fester before anything has even happened.

Genuinely, what does it achieve?

I MAY lose out on a great deal in a few weeks time and thats a bummer, I'll be unhappy about it starting now.

If you have a legitimate reason to think you will lose out on a deal in the future it would be a bit silly to crash on and be all surprised when it happens, no? In fact thinking now about the prospect of losing out on the deal may be what causes action to be taken to prevent it happening.

 

[Nash27]

Because we have some real idiots in the fanbase at the moment who lack patience. Does not help with toxic fan channels out there which drives narratives and flip-flop opinions depending on the weather. You cannot disregard the amount of damage Ole has undone caused by the previous 2 or 3 managers before him. People simply or conveniently forgot how sh*t it was under moyes,lvg and especially mourinho. Ole is certainly not an elite manager and I believe he is learning on the job. He needs quality players to succeed. He got his quality players but none in midfield and I believe that is costing him at the moment. He may or may not find a solution soon but lets give him more time shall we? not just 7 games. Even if he is sacked, he leaves the squad in a much better shape for the next manager unlike previous reigns.

For the people who argue, take away the name Ole gunnar Solskjaer(ex-player club legend) and he would not have gotten the job. Imagine Barca thought the same and never hired Pep? Imagine Real madrid thought the same and never hired Zidane?. My point is, it is a silly argument to beat Ole with.

 

[ReddBalls]

The mental gymnastics on this forum just to defend Ole. Good grief.

Not so much trying to defend. More trying to be hopeful and supportive, while putting together patterns that support it.

Players usually play worse when their stamina is down. There might be two reasons for that: They are in a really bad shape because of lack of fitness training, or they are doing a lot of fitness work between matches. I would be surprised if it is the former, and as I said in my post, there is a pattern here in starting the season badly. In Oles first full season people on here were certain United would be relegated. In his second full season people on here were certain United would not get top four. Now they are certain United can't mount a challenge.

It might be that Ole and this team has met their ceiling. It might be not. It is still too early to tell, but we will find out this season. There has been a steady improvement both in club culture, squad, results, league position, expectations from the fans, and the team is playing better, although lacking in some central areas.

 

[devilish]

Ole had spent 180m in defense and he still play with two defensive minded players in CM yet we haven't kept a clean sheet for the ninth consecutive home game. That's our worst record in fifty years. We're relying heavily on luck and individual brilliance. Even the staunchest Ole inners are now describing him as some sort of intern whose learning on the job and who need to be surrounded by top players in every position to succeed.

 

[GregM40]

Because we have some real idiots in the fanbase at the moment who lack patience. Does not help with toxic fan channels out there which drives narratives and flip-flop opinions depending on the weather. You cannot disregard the amount of damage Ole has undone caused by the previous 2 or 3 managers before him. People simply or conveniently forgot how sh*t it was under moyes,lvg and especially mourinho. Ole is certainly not an elite manager and I believe he is learning on the job. He needs quality players to succeed. He got his quality players but none in midfield and I believe that is costing him at the moment. He may or may not find a solution soon but lets give him more time shall we? not just 7 games. Even if he is sacked, he leaves the squad in a much better shape for the next manager unlike previous reigns.

For the people who argue, take away the name Ole gunnar Solskjaer(ex-player club legend) and he would not have gotten the job. Imagine Barca thought the same and never hired Pep? Imagine Real madrid thought the same and never hired Zidane?. My point is, it is a silly argument to beat Ole with.

This! It was so bad under Moyes/Van Gaal/Mourinho, utterly depressing. It feels like we have United back, whether or not the results have been as good as some wish for. He has gotten rid of a lot of deadwood and as previously mentioned undone so much damage, these things take time.

It's too early to tell if Ole will win anything this season, let's just all calm down a little.

 

[Jeppers7]

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.

Even this didn’t actually happen. Bruno’s goals and assists from open play fell off a cliff in our ‘title challenge’ second half of last season. I’m totally with you on Amad and Pellistri though and I’d add VDB too. What a waste of £80 mill

 

[Plant0x84]

I don't get why people willingly do this to themselves. Take disappointment and let it fester before anything has even happened.

Genuinely, what does it achieve?

This is pretty much how I feel. Football is my hobbie, it’s my recreation and leisure activity. Why would I want to get all screwed up about it?
I get bummed out by a defeat of course, I was raging on Saturday at the way we conceded Everton’s equaliser, but I get over it, and I can take the positives. Other teams are losing/drawing around us and we’re still in the fight, we’ve made our best start under Ole and if we keep it up we might even finish better than last year too, which would be nice.

 

[Abraxas]

I don't get why people willingly do this to themselves. Take disappointment and let it fester before anything has even happened.

Genuinely, what does it achieve?

I MAY lose out on a great deal in a few weeks time and thats a bummer, I'll be unhappy about it starting now.

Who said anything about festering on it?

It's a fairly obvious statement that our performances are not currently good enough to take an amount of points from the forthcoming fixtures that would keep us within touch. It's far better to have some foresight to prepare for that and then being happy if we win the games. It doesn't mean sitting there moping or currently being unhappy.

This also makes sense from a club perspective. Why should they walk around with a blindfold on?

 

[9 Stone Elvis]

For the people who argue, take away the name Ole gunnar Solskjaer(ex-player club legend) and he would not have gotten the job. Imagine Barca thought the same and never hired Pep? Imagine Real madrid thought the same and never hired Zidane?. My point is, it is a silly argument to beat Ole with.

And imagine Pep had gone three years with no trophy and no noticeable style of play (is that REALLY the example you want to use), imagine Zidane had gone three years without a trophy having spent £400m.

I agree its a silly argument to beat Ole with but given that he DID get the job he should be judged accordingly as those in your examples were.

 

[ReddBalls]

Ole had spent 180m in defense and he still play with two defensive minded players in CM yet we haven't kept a clean sheet for the ninth consecutive home game. That's our worst record in fifty years. We're relying heavily on luck and individual brilliance. Even the staunchest Ole inners are now describing him as some sort of intern whose learning on the job and who need to be surrounded by top players in every position to succeed.

You need defensive players in your CM when your fullbacks are pushing up. Klopp also plays a workman-like midfield with fullbacks pushing up. I can't see him getting any stick for it.

 

[Tom Cato]

Ole had spent 180m in defense and he still play with two defensive minded players in CM yet we haven't kept a clean sheet for the ninth consecutive home game. That's our worst record in fifty years. We're relying heavily on luck and individual brilliance. Even the staunchest Ole inners are now describing him as some sort of intern whose learning on the job and who need to be surrounded by top players in every position to succeed.

Whats it like there in make believe land? Sunny?

 

[Pogue Mahone]

Even this didn’t actually happen. Bruno’s goals and assists from open play fell off a cliff in our ‘title challenge’ second half of last season. I’m totally with you on Amad and Pellistri though and I’d add VDB too. What a waste of £80 mill

Of course it happened. Read his post properly. “When we scored and won games”. We didn’t finish second based on our form in the last few weeks of the season.

 

[largelyworried]

Because we have some real idiots in the fanbase at the moment who lack patience. Does not help with toxic fan channels out there which drives narratives and flip-flop opinions depending on the weather. You cannot disregard the amount of damage Ole has undone caused by the previous 2 or 3 managers before him. People simply or conveniently forgot how sh*t it was under moyes,lvg and especially mourinho. Ole is certainly not an elite manager and I believe he is learning on the job. He needs quality players to succeed. He got his quality players but none in midfield and I believe that is costing him at the moment. He may or may not find a solution soon but lets give him more time shall we? not just 7 games. Even if he is sacked, he leaves the squad in a much better shape for the next manager unlike previous reigns.

While there's a debate to be had about whether we're progressing and how fast etc, lets not make out this is about 7 games. He's been in charge for 161 games.

For the people who argue, take away the name Ole gunnar Solskjaer(ex-player club legend) and he would not have gotten the job. Imagine Barca thought the same and never hired Pep? Imagine Real madrid thought the same and never hired Zidane?. My point is, it is a silly argument to beat Ole with.

Come on. Pep won 2 CLs and 3 La Ligas in his first three seasons, including a treble. Zidane won the league and 3 CLs. It does Ole no favours to compare him to those guys.

 

[devilish]

You need defensive players in your CM when your fullbacks are pushing up. Klopp also plays a workman-like midfield with fullbacks pushing up. I can't see him getting any stick for it.

That has nothing to do with that post. Manchester United has failed to keep a clean sheet for the ninth consecutive home game despite us spending 180m in defense + we play the Scottish mule and the Brazilian mule in CM. That's our worst record in fifty years. Even the staunchest of Ole ins believe that he's still on the job learning and he needs to be surrounded with world top top players in every position for him to succeed. Which is hilarious considering that they don't use the same yardstick regarding manager and coaches as well.

 

[Joeace2020]

It's 7 games for you but over 100 games for the rest of us. Perspectives and all.

 

[SER19]

Come on, I've been ole in for a very long time but to pretend we're 7 games in is madness. 150 games and huge personnel changes later and the problems are exactly the same as ever. Its absolutely right to start asking questions about whether solskjaer can actually change anything

 

[AndySmith1990]

Because we have some real idiots in the fanbase at the moment who lack patience. Does not help with toxic fan channels out there which drives narratives and flip-flop opinions depending on the weather. You cannot disregard the amount of damage Ole has undone caused by the previous 2 or 3 managers before him. People simply or conveniently forgot how sh*t it was under moyes,lvg and especially mourinho. Ole is certainly not an elite manager and I believe he is learning on the job. He needs quality players to succeed. He got his quality players but none in midfield and I believe that is costing him at the moment. He may or may not find a solution soon but lets give him more time shall we? not just 7 games. Even if he is sacked, he leaves the squad in a much better shape for the next manager unlike previous reigns.

For the people who argue, take away the name Ole gunnar Solskjaer(ex-player club legend) and he would not have gotten the job. Imagine Barca thought the same and never hired Pep? Imagine Real madrid thought the same and never hired Zidane?. My point is, it is a silly argument to beat Ole with.

Pep and Zidane didn't get Cardiff relegated prior to being hired. Also even if we accept its a silly argument to begin with, had Pep or Zidane spent hundreds of millions and failed to deliver any trophies they'd have been sacked. In fact they'd have not made it to 3 years if the results of their efforts and spending had been no noticeable improvement in performance.

 

[tenpoless]

If we won those games against teams with worse players at home then I'd be a very happy man. The fact that he got outsmarted by those managers did raise concerns although I refuse to belittle the work he has done for United both as a player and a manager. Can't wait for the next match honestly to see the improvements. Surely this is the worst we can get this season performance wise?

 

[Sky1981]

Genuine questions: when can we start complaining?

In 3 more years?
When ole got a totally new xi?
When rashford is 28?
Another 500m spend?

Englighten us @UnitedSofa

 

[glazed]

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.

I think this is an over simplification. Ask yourself why Klopp went to Anfield when he could have come here.

 

[We need an rvn]

That's really not the case though. Hyperbolic over reacting.

ok, I'll give the ""diabolical" is over reacting a little.

But I still stand by my point that with the squad we had last season, plus the 3 signings this summer, the results and performances in a lot of the games is not good enough bar far.

Even our win against Villareal was a bit fluky as we were outplayed, at home, like we were against Villa.

 

[Champ]

ok, I'll give the ""diabolical" is over reacting a little.

But I still stand by my point that with the squad we had last season, plus the 3 signings this summer, the results and performances in a lot of the games is not good enough bar far.

Even our win against Villareal was a bit fluky as we were outplayed, at home, like we were against Villa.

I can't argue that some of the performances havent been great, but some have been good.

The run of games in October and November will go a long way as to how the rest of our season goes.

The simple fact is right now we are two points from top in the league and qualification from the Champions League group is very much in our own hands. Not perfect but a shed load better than previous seasons, didn't we have something like 7 points at this stage last season, so not sure the extreme negativity needs to come out just yet!

 

[King Azaz the Unabridged]

Name checks out

Well played, sir \m/

 

[hammerfadl]

Not perfect but a shed load better than previous seasons, didn't we have something like 7 points at this stage last season, so not sure the extreme negativity needs to come out just yet!

Another way of looking at it is that the 7 fixtures last year against the same opponents yielded 7 points more, so thats 7 points needing to be gained from somewhere else this year.
Also with 18% of the league done, we are enroute to 76 points, hardly setting the world a light.

 

[Siorac]

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.

As @FatTails keeps pointing out, Ole's points-per-game ratio is still slightly worse than Mourinho's, and so is the average goal difference under him. So this 'improvement on the pitch' is mostly in the intangibles: you can say our games are more entertaining because we score more and concede more but that's about it.

Pretty much everyone seems to agree that our squad is much better now than it was three years ago. It's high time that we start seeing some evidence of that on the pitch, too.

 

[We need an rvn]

I can't argue that some of the performances havent been great, but some have been good.

The run of games in October and November will go a long way as to how the rest of our season goes.

The simple fact is right now we are two points from top in the league and qualification from the Champions League group is very much in our own hands. Not perfect but a shed load better than previous seasons, didn't we have something like 7 points at this stage last season, so not sure the extreme negativity needs to come out just yet!

I agree there is some extreme negativity out there, which is an over reaction.

But it just has a feeling that this will be the same thing as the last 2 years where we fell short when it matters, and a lot of that does come down to management decision making which doesn't appear to have improved.

Hence you need to answer the question (I'm not asking you in particular), how many years can we keep saying "give him one more year" when you look at who we've played and the players at his disposal we should be top.

 

[Piratesoup]

Another outsider's opinion:

When Ole became your interim manager, I thought he'd last a couple of months given the seeming dysfunctionality at the club behind the scenes. But after the years long clusterfeck that was the Moyes-LVG-Mourinho-era he managed to somewhat steady the ship, which I never thought he'd manage.
However, he's just been "alright" for 3 years now. And by "alright" I mean: He didn't completely feck up by alienating the squad and all of the fans. But on the pitch the team's just plodding along. I loved watching United under SAF, there was so much energy and pride on display. Nowadays it's just boring.

If I was a United fan, I'd be clamoring for his head as well because while he hasn't been a catastrophe he certainly doesn't look like a proper top manager to me. If he was, the team would play way better football than it currently does after Ole was allowed to spend all that money.