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I've been an Ole....supporter is a strong word....but my view has been to give him a decent period of time to build a squad...but this season he absolutely had to produce results.

It's not happening at the moment, he's only got a handful of poor performance lives left and I'm sure he'll be out the door.

Hopefully there'll be a considered replacement, rather than a knee-jerk big name...
 
mid_gen said:
I've been an Ole....supporter is a strong word....but my view has been to give him a decent period of time to build a squad...but this season he absolutely had to produce results.
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Thats the one thing I think Ole has done really well but its been very obvious in my eyes that he has almost no talent as a coach or tactician. This was apparent in his first season in charge (half season I guess) and he has shown absolutely nothing at any point to suggest that he was improving or that it wasn't something he absolutely sucks at. Its why I had no idea why people thought he would come good. Any improvements to the team came 100% from recruitment and 0% from Ole as a manager or tactician.

mid_gen said:
Hopefully there'll be a considered replacement, rather than a knee-jerk big name...
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You know there won't be any measured response. They will sack him at a certain point and then stick their head out of the sand for a moment to look at whos available and then stick it back in.

The performances on the pitch are actually quite a good mirror of how the club is run. Reactionary and with no long plan or strategy.
 
adam cool dude said:
I think if anything there will be a coaching shake up if things continue to get worse.

Ole will still be here until the summer at least.
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Not so sure myself, after the Leicester game I think he is living on borrowed time. A win against Atalanta tomorrow and Liverpool on Sunday would help but not sure I can see it happening?
 
turbot1984 said:
Not so sure myself, after the Leicester game I think he is living on borrowed time. A win against Atalanta tomorrow and Liverpool on Sunday would help but not sure I can see it happening?
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The only thing that should keep Ole in a job is if he actually starts adding value to the team beyond improving the players at the club. There is a role for that and he could happily move into that role IMO. What he is not is a coach or a tactician. Our problems are also more related to beating smaller teams. In one-off games we are often OK as the players are up for it and he can play a more defensive setup which plays to his lack of system.
 
He's picking a team like I do with fantasy football.

It's so unbalanced..... But I don't see a fix without spending money in central / defensive midfield. As in two top end players.

Who's to blame, unclear. But Sancho over Rice was a massive mistake.

We have so many players that can play on the right or left attack / forward / midfield it was such a mistake to not address that central middle part of the team.

I fail to see how things will change over the next few games. Because Fred, Mctom or Matic will have to play and none of them are good enough.
 
This is the thing. A good coach would find a way to make it work much better than it currently is.

The solution isn't just to throw more and more money at the problem. People wanted a right winger and a centre back, we got both of those, yet here we are - going backwards. Add someone like Rice for £80m, we still won't get anywhere.
 
turbot1984 said:
Hope Ole is watching the City game overlaps, three and four phase moves, its good (ish) to watch as a Red. United are capable of the same, just not at the moment.
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I'm pretty convinced that most United fans never watch any games apart from England and United because if they did they wouldn't be happy with the crap being served up by Ole and it would be glaringly obvious just how deficient we are when it comes to tactics and cohesion. They wouldn't watch us get outplayed from front to back by middle of the road teams and come away from the game thinking "our issue is a single player, if we buy a good DM we will magically become Man City or Liverpool".

Watch Bayern, Dortmund, City, Liverpool etc and all their players on the pitch know their jobs and the jobs of the players around them. They aren't thinking "where will my next pass go". They are making micro adjustments moment to moment, not macro adjustments. Their attacks break down because of a missed pass or a low percentage option, not because there is no one available and no space and the attack just peters out.
 
_Jimlad_ said:
He's picking a team like I do with fantasy football.

It's so unbalanced.....
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I'm not sure if this is to his defence as he's ultimately responsible for the make up of the squad but it's very difficult to pick a balanced side from Utd's squad right now, not without making some big calls anyway. It might be a bit controversial but Fernandes gives Utd a lot of difficult decisions to make. He's been Utd's best player but to get the best out of him you've got to play 4-2-3-1 and I'm not sure that system suits many other players in Utd's squad. Rashford, Martial, Greenwood and Sancho are all far more suited to playing wide in a 4-3-3, where they've got freedom to play really high up the pitch because you have 3 midfielders behind them. Playing wide in a 4-2-3-1 either restricts them if they're more disciplined or leaves your midfield 2 really exposed if they're not. You then have the central midfield issue on top of that, where you're left picking between Fred & McTominay, who give you the work rate and discipline needed to play a 4-2-3-1 but don't have the quality on the ball or whether you play Pogba + 1 in there, leaving yourself really exposed in midfield.

Short of signing 2 top quality CM's that will give Utd the quality on the ball and defensive protection, plus signing a centre forward that will put a huge shift in from the front, I think Utd will struggle until they find a way to play 4-3-3. I think Utd could do a lot worse than to try Fernandes on the left of a front 3 with McTominay & Fred doing all the leg work for Pogba in a midfield 3.
 
Not knocking Utd but when you look at the work rate in the City game tonight, theres something missing. Cavani (when he is on) has got it, and Shaw works his socks off, but all 10 City players are in that zone tonight.
 
turbot1984 said:
Not knocking Utd but when you look at the work rate in the City game tonight, theres something missing. Cavani (when he is on) has got it, and Shaw works his socks off, but all 10 City players are in that zone tonight.
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You can't work your socks off when you don't know what you are working towards or for. Working harder would potentially just cause you more issues if its not directed. Players would tire more quickly, be further out of position and all for nothing. There is a good reason you don't bother pressing from the front unless the whole team is doing it. Its pointless.
 
fez said:
You can't work your socks off when you don't know what you are working towards or for. Working harder would potentially just cause you more issues if its not directed. Players would tire more quickly, be further out of position and all for nothing. There is a good reason you don't bother pressing from the front unless the whole team is doing it. Its pointless.
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Yep, fair point, and thats the issue. Pep, Jurgen, Moysey, Tuchel read the game better, thats why I don't think Ole is hanging around too long.
 
Ole will grind out a few results playing crap and a large portion of the fanbase will decide he should get to the end of the season again.
 
Shamikebab said:
So now it emerges that the club are considering taking Woodward on as a consultant when he leaves...******* Glazers.
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That depends on what for honestly. I don't think anyone could argue that Woodward hasn't done a fantastic job on the commercial side of things. He just shouldn't have been anywhere near the football facing side.

If he is consulting on purely commercial issues thats probably good for the club. You can't deny that anyone who can deliver our absolute mess on the pitch for 8 years and still turn out huge profits and commercial deals is a bit of a genius.
 
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