Ole's signings
Maguire, James, Wan Bissaka, Fernandes, Ighalo.
Already look better than some of the previous managers??
The FA CUP Fifth Round ** Spoilers ** [2nd - 5th March 2020]
- Thread starter Cosimo
- Start date
Maguire, James, Wan Bissaka, Fernandes, Ighalo.
Already look better than some of the previous managers??
Shame he’s an average manager really.
Caporegime
- Joined
- 22 Oct 2002
- Posts
- 28,272
- Location
- Boston, Lincolnshire
When are you guys going to give Ole a break. If we win this weekend he would have done the double on Pep this season.
When he shows the qualities of a top manager. Things like creating an attractive and effective style of football. Not just sticking 11 players on the pitch and asking them to win the game. The fact that Fernandes has us looking 10x better than before tells you that we rely on individuals massively to decide games.
When I don’t watch us play in 70% of games and think that the other team are better coached and organised. We beat teams because we have better players, not because we are better coached, set up or tactically astute.
When we don’t get turned over by the weakest teams in the league the week after beating one of the top teams. We would be in a **** league position this season were it not for Arsenal, Tottenham and Chelsea being so crap. He has literally kept his job because the direct competition has been so bad as to make the job he is doing look ok.
It all comes down to a simple question for me. Is he doing as good a job as every other top class manager with the players he has and are there better managers available.
I don't think you can expect him to. We never took him on as a top class manager because he isn't one. He's still learning the ropes.
Sure we won stuff with previous 'top class' managers but we also wasted a lot of money and also played some poor quality football.
Closest you can compare him to is Lampard I guess. Even Lampard inherited a more stable squad and a better run club (to some extent).
Being a manager at a top club is not something that you can learn as you go. You can have weaknesses in your management style but you can't be completely lacking in a number of really important areas. He has done well with recruitment so far but coaching and tactics wise he is woefully under-qualified. The truth is that for all the strength of the PL, you can have a good squad that is badly coached and managed and do pretty well. You can also have an alright set of players that are coached really well and do quite well. There are a number of managers that fit into the 2nd bracket. Those are good managers.
I wonder whether there's the discussion to be had that he'd be a decent fit as a DOF.
His vision for the club seems decent, he seems to have a style of play he sees as exciting, he's recruited well, and has great hopes for the club. He's just not quite the person to coach the players to perform in the way he wants.
His vision for the club seems decent, he seems to have a style of play he sees as exciting, he's recruited well, and has great hopes for the club. He's just not quite the person to coach the players to perform in the way he wants.
Caporegime
- Joined
- 22 Oct 2002
- Posts
- 28,272
- Location
- Boston, Lincolnshire
I understand the point you are making and you are correct there are managers currently better than him. He has also punched way above his weight on several occasions. My point always is do you want a top class manager for a two to three year period or take the risk on someone who could become a stalwart for the next decade at least. Ole is United through and through and I see the potential of him to succeed. Guardiola for example couldn't care less about City but only his ego to become the greatest manager ever. Sure it will bring you trophies etc but City will go back to squalor in a season or two when he leaves.
The attitude and culture Ferguson installed at United cannot be lost and I see people like Solskjaer to keep that going.
I am more than likely on cloud 9 but if we end up in Champions league position, Europa League and FA cup by the end of the season it will be considered a monumental feat by an average manager. I guess we need to wait till the end of the season before we judge. Even two out of three of those will be a success in my mind.
Guardiola has elevated City but they were winning competitions and league titles before he came along and will probably do so afterwards. If Ole was a bit rough around the edges I would agree with you but at the elite level in any profession there is a damn good reason you don't hire people based on their cultural fit alone and ignore their technical shortcomings. Ole hasn't really punched above his weight on many occasions and has been found out by much weaker teams/clubs on far more occasions. City have had a very mixed season this year and beating them a couple of times isn't an indication of much. They have lost 6 times in the league already this season.
Some of that needs to remain but times have changed. Fergie was very much squeezing the last ounces of performance from the squad before he retired and he was facing a very good City side and a decent sides in Chelsea. Times have changed. Footballers have changed. The league has changed. What worked then wouldn't work now. I would like to see Solksjaer remain at the club. Perhaps in a DoF type role as his recruitment has generally been sound.
Cl positions are a funny one because only 3 sides are set for CL football, exclude City and you have a load of teams that are fighting for 2 spots and none of the teams going for those 2 spots have been any good. If this was 9/10 other seasons we would be mid table with our points total and with no hope of CL via the league. You can't judge a season on whether we get CL football. The EL is generally full of dross until the quarter finals and beyond and even then you can play some **** teams.
I will judge Ole based on what I see happening on the pitch, week in week out and not on whether we scrape into the CL through massive amounts of luck.
All thia talk of Ole recruiting well...has he? The better players cost an absolute fortune and even then, in my opinion, they are nothing more then average. Bruno looks talented but its still very early days and James seems have caught the Lingard disease.
Id look good at recruitment if you let me spend 80 mil on an international cb...
Id look good at recruitment if you let me spend 80 mil on an international cb...
Caporegime
- Joined
- 22 Oct 2002
- Posts
- 28,272
- Location
- Boston, Lincolnshire
Get rid of Pogba and bring in Grealish and Sancho. That front line of Martial, Rashford and Sancho would make me wet.
Isn't that bad now, I guess... it has been pretty shoddy though and still is fairly weak as far as experience goes.
I just think there's no magic wand to cure the ills of the club. Replacing Ole might be the right thing to do at some point but again, there are lot of issues that also need addressing.