*someone becomes available

Funny thing is, for those who thought City and Liverpool would break away again (eg, everyone)... Nothing has really changed now "the dust has settled".

Us, Spurs, Chelsea and Arsenal will all likely be inconsistent and in a fight for 4th all season.

I would recommend dealing back the anger and just accept that this season will be problematic, but could still bring plenty of fun. Save the tears for if it really does go bad.

Allegri/the next available big name would be another massive shift in direction though. I get what you are saying, and frankly it's dependent on what has been agreed by the board regarding expectations, unless they are literally the stupidest people that has ever ran a huge sporting company (which is possible - although they have made lots of money out of it) then Ole's targets will have to be less than previous managers. We are in a completely different situation from the Moyes LVG and Jose eras. There has been a deliberate cull of the dead wood and no replacements, how anyone will be expected to challenge for say 4 with that in mind is crazy. Patience is required from all involved. I hope Ole gets it.

I think the owners of UTD and probably several other clubs are looking at City and thinking "We're not competing here, let's take a couple of years to figure our sh**t out".

This would perhaps explain why we are shipping out deadwood, but seemingly not buying up replacements if nothing exceptional is out there.

comment by Ji Sung Park's Cousin - Ole's joy squids (U2958)
posted 1 hour, 11 minutes ago
UTD fans:

Let's give him some time, the team needs some major work and this rebuild will take years and several transfer windows, especially with Ed doing the deals.

Also UTD fans:

When I said give him some time, I meant one window and then four games to get it right
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Nothing wrong with giving him time if the signs are there if development but when you’re starting players like Lingard and Pereira week in week out when he could have shipped both in the summer, and persisting with Pogba in a midfield 2 in 4-2-3-1 it is showing how much he hasn’t got a clue and isn’t a top level manager

Well when you say week week out you mean four games. He's got enough grief shifting the players he has, imagine in those twp had gone as well, and no replacement.
He may or may not do well, but as a poster you haven't a clue.

Didn't he drop Lingard just this week?

Hasn't Perriera started one game so far, this season?

You can't even focus on what you are supposed to be angry about.

comment by manusince52 (U9692)
posted 2 minutes ago
Well when you say week week out you mean four games. He's got enough grief shifting the players he has, imagine in those twp had gone as well, and no replacement.
He may or may not do well, but as a poster you haven't a clue.

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Who handed Andreas a long term contract over the summer? Anyone can see Lingard that hasn’t scored or assisted in 2019 is a waste of a place. Yes he was dropped last game but it’s obvious that he is an integral part of Solskjærs plans.

Fair play for clearing some of the dead wood, but 5 wins in 25 is horrendous regardless of how you want to dress it up

I would dress it up as 16 wins out of 36. Or we could just look at this season.
If the most expensive player in the world, plus our striker could score penalties we would be third. There are somethings out of the managers control.

And three very good buys to his credit.

While we don't quite have a rhythm to our play yet I think people are only analyzing the results and not the whole game.
——————————

Not sure I agree with this. The results are what they are and if you spread them over a season will happen to everyone save a couple of teams. But I’ve watched all four games and we’ve been very, very average. I hear a lot of “if penalties had been scored” etc, but it works both ways: were it not for Dan James we’d have had virtually no attacking threat since the Chelsea second half. And I wouldn’t worry too much even about performances at this early stage, except that there is nobody in the squad who I look at and think: “He could be the difference.” Of course, someone might come in and surprise us but we are relying largely on unknown quantities.

If Chelsea hadn’t hit the post twice we may have lost that game is we’re using the ‘if’ logic.

I understand certain well meaning fellow United supporters wanting the best for Ole but the vast majority of the footballing world think things like this about Ole...


“Every week another indictment of Manchester United’s dismal mismanagement appears. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer looked to the bench in search of game-changers with the score at 1-1. His first two options were Nemanja Matic, a defensive midfielder who runs as if he is covered in PVA glue, and Jesse Lingard, the attacking midfielder who doesn’t score or assist goals. Colour everyone surprised that United promptly struggled to break down Southampton’s deep defence.

Solskjaer may concede that he made a mistake. Mason Greenwood looked bright when he came on and, having been talked up so much by Solskjaer, would surely have been a better option than Lingard to freshen up the attack. At worst, Greenwood should have been introduced within seconds of Kevin Danso’s sending off. Delaying that call for ten minutes might have cost United the chance of three points.

But there is a general lack of oomph in Manchester United’s performances, and they are becoming masters of ceding impetus. They were dominant against Wolves and allowed their opponents back into the match, and the same applied against Southampton on Saturday lunchtime.

Is this not the one thing that we might have assumed to be Solskjaer’s strongest suit? There were doubts about the tactical nous and coaching ability, but the 1999-inspired motivational bluster at least suggested that United would put faith in young players on an ASAP basis and inspire some evident hunger and desire.

Instead we have witnessed sluggish, insipid football as standard. The summer break has not improved my opinion of Solskjaer. He’s a boy in a man’s world. Upcoming fixtures against West Ham, Leicester and Arsenal will help to determine where realistic expectations lie”

Anyone who didn't think we were going to be inconsistent and frustrating this season only has themselves to blame. We're fielding the youngest team in the league whilst we offload a lot of players who fans have wanted home for a long time. We can't have our cake and eat it, we've been calling to get rid of certain players and play some of the academy group for a long time but it's going to have its problems in the short term (and potentially long term of it doesn't work out but there's a risk associated with however we decide to move forward).

I prefer us not to be making knee jerk signings to try and fight with City and Liverpool and have said for a whole that we need to target 18 months/2 years down the line, when both teams are potentially transitioning from players and managers. We need to be in a position to step up. You don't bridge the gap between us in a window.

I'm not sure Ole is the correct, long term guy but he knows the club, loves the club and is going about the squad overhaul in the right way. If he ends up handing over a young, healthy, hard working squad to someone who can then get away with bringing in one or two stars to take it up another level, he's done a good job.

The club has been a huge part of his life, he will be as disappointed as any of us right now but he's going about the changes well in terms of the dynamic of the squad. I've considered we need to take a step backwards in order to move forward for a while now and we seem to have long term vision rather than short term which I'm comfortable with as an approach. We'll be able to better judge how it's all gone in a couple of years.

“Every week another indictment of Manchester United’s dismal mismanagement appears. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer looked to the bench in search of game-changers with the score at 1-1. His first two options were Nemanja Matic, a defensive midfielder who runs as if he is covered in PVA glue, and Jesse Lingard, the attacking midfielder who doesn’t score or assist goals. Colour everyone surprised that United promptly struggled to break down Southampton’s deep defence.”

Don’t know where you got that quote from Robb, but the part I’ve copied is a load of bollocks.

We retook control of the game and almost instantly looked far more threatening as soon as those subs were made and Pogba moved up the pitch.

Prior to the subs, we’d been outshot in the second half 5-2.

After the subs we had three shots even before the red card, and we prevented Soton having a single one for the rest of the game.

Before the subs Soton had shaded the second half in terms of possession. After the subs we had about two thirds of possession even before the red card and for the rest of the game.

A very optimistic view of the game

We had more possession because we got lucky as Saints had no choice but to sit back after stupidly going down to 10 men. But that possession didn’t really lead to a whole lot of threat. Some curled shots that the keeper saved but not bringing on Greenwood earlier probably did cost us. No point at all bringing on Lingard and without Saints sitting back there was no point in bringing on Matic. We really didn’t need him on the pitch for Pogba to play further forward. We had McT on the pitch

Why not take off Pereira off and bring on Greenwood the second the sending off happens? Push Pogba up as Saints have stopped pressing?

Bringing Matic and Lingard on was the kind of thinking that have people doubting whether Ole has the right idea

Instead we have witnessed sluggish, insipid football as standard.

.....

Sorry but the football has been better to watch than the $hite the last two managers served up.

Cant blame Ole at all when his 'star player' has given the ball away more times this season than any other p[layer in the PL.

comment by RB&W 'The Judge' (U21434)
posted 8 minutes ago
Cant blame Ole at all when his 'star player' has given the ball away more times this season than any other p[layer in the PL.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

You can when he keeps playing him so far back it hurts the team.

I am not sure why some of you guys are surprised with his results. They were awful at cardiff and even at Molde apparently his teams were never defensively sound. He had that new manager bounce and got the job on perm basis but he is no way good enough to manage united. There is a reason why all your rivals were celebrating when he git the job on a perm basis.

comment by The Goofy One (U16087)
posted 21 minutes ago
There is a reason why all your rivals were celebrating when he git the job on a perm basis.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Must be heartbreaking watching their own teams being equally inconsistent then.

comment by Robb - Steve Smith = Legend 🏏🏆 (U21234)
posted 15 hours, 32 minutes ago
A very optimistic view of the game

We had more possession because we got lucky as Saints had no choice but to sit back after stupidly going down to 10 men. But that possession didn’t really lead to a whole lot of threat. Some curled shots that the keeper saved but not bringing on Greenwood earlier probably did cost us. No point at all bringing on Lingard and without Saints sitting back there was no point in bringing on Matic. We really didn’t need him on the pitch for Pogba to play further forward. We had McT on the pitch

Why not take off Pereira off and bring on Greenwood the second the sending off happens? Push Pogba up as Saints have stopped pressing?

Bringing Matic and Lingard on was the kind of thinking that have people doubting whether Ole has the right idea
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Watch it again, Robb.

We took back control of the game after the subs and started creating chances again. That happened before the sending off.

We didn’t create gilt-edged chances (although Pogba and Rashford created two very decent ones) or make the most of them, as Ole said after the game; but the shift to three in midfield along with the subs changed the game.

The real mistake was playing for two thirds of the game with a midfield two including Pogba.

The sending off happened just 4 mins after the subs so hard to tell if the subs would have stopped Saints being so dangerous

We waited 10 mins after the sending off to bring Greenwood on which was silly. Why bring on Lingard when he did? The guy who doesn’t score or assist.

If Ole was as brave as we’ve been led to believe he was he would have brought Matic and Greenwood on and gone for it. Surely you can see he got it wrong?

And it’s fine if he gets it wrong. Everyone does. Even Saint Jose but if he keeps getting it wrong as he has surely you can see why people doubt he has what it takes and doesn’t have some amazing CV to fall back upon in the ‘faith’ stakes

You’re talking about him not getting the tyre pressure quite right when he’s put a bike tyre on his Lamborghini Robb.

The mistake was the formation and tactical approach from the start. That was the really big error.

Then not changing things more quickly after half time when we completely lost control of possession and were handing them chances.

I’m not defending Ole; quite the opposite.

I said at the start of the season that if he plays Pogba in a two every week - if he tries to *change* Pogba like Mourinho did - he will fail, and I won’t have the least bit of sympathy for him. I am not remotely surprised about what we’re watching at the moment.

But the fact of the matter is that we improved after the subs, and we did so because of the change of shape, the control of midfield, and the shift in Pogba’s position.

But you also have to accept the sending off was a big part of that. Once Danso was sent off Saints gave up and sat back. It was obvious to everyone but why it took 10 mins for Ole to see that and wait before sending on a striker was a huge mistake imo.