03 Oct 2021 08:48:11
I've defended the retention of Ole as at the best United have available to them, the club having consistently missed out on better managers when available. Now, I'm beginning to believe a change might be required. What concerns me though is that the club has no one in its ranks who could recognize the right person for the job even if they came knocking at the door. Would you even trust SAF? It was he who started this run of relative failure when he handpicked David Moyes.

The best clubs are teams, from the ownership to the coaching staff. United is a club that still seems to be searching for the balance both on and off the field. It's hard to be convinced that there's a long term plan other than to throw as much money at the situation out of desperation as can be afforded. It's frustrating to watch these big transfers take place and the same imbalances continue to exist.

You can blame Ole for our desultory performances, and for his input into the transfer choices, but the buck has to stop at the top, with those who run the club. They have to be able to hire the right coach, coaching staff and the footballing brains required to find the right players to meet an overall football philosophy. The current ownership has done nothing to inspire confidence. For this reason it's hard to see United scaling Everest while they are at the helm, whether we keep Ole or not.

1.) 03 Oct 2021
03 Oct 2021 08:57:22
Spot on Shaw.

2.) 03 Oct 2021
03 Oct 2021 09:28:09
I’ve been an advocate of OGS for a while, but even fans like me have turned. He’s nowhere near the best available for a club like Man Utd.

I don’t know a single Premier League Club that would swap managers with us right now - not even Arsenal ?.

3.) 03 Oct 2021
03 Oct 2021 10:05:35
I’ve been willing to for him a chance up to now also.

However, despite the fact that he’s gone a brilliant job rebuilding United to the point where we’re only a player or to away from a title challenging squad, his coaching deficiencies are now becoming more obvious.

You can only take them so far with being everyone’s friend - they now owe proper tactical awareness, coaching and even micromanaging n tbe pitch - look at Benetez sending on Davies to stick close to Pogba beyond everything else.

Just don’t think Ole has that next level of shrewd and astute coaching about him - he seems to just send out a team and hope they produce something. Basically mot a team but a hope that someone will produce a bit of magic

Thus, despite all the good he’s done, he now needs to pass the project over to a more experienced and tactically aware manager - and who is a better coach primarily - to take us to the next level.

You can only wonder how a coach like Koop, Guardioka or Naglsmsn would improve the players, the team unit and the tactical nous.

(Also think Pogba is an albatross around his neck and we limited ourselves by picking Ronaldo so often, given his lack of pressing etc. Sjhoujd be regularly rotated with Cavani)

4.) 03 Oct 2021
03 Oct 2021 10:41:37
The Pogba albatross must also be laid squarely at the feet of club management, that is assuming they could have got rid. A cut your losses price would have been better than no price and the cost of the wages.

But, actually, Pogba has shown himself to be a quality player this year when played in the right position. But he is not an effective DM. If you play him higher up then which forwards are you going to drop. Given that his limitations, if you have decided to keep him, why buy VDB? When you have just given Martial an enhanced contract, and you have Rashford, Greenwood, Cavani and now Ronaldo, why buy Sancho when the glaring deficiency in the team is DM?

Given the money spent on acquisitions - transfer fees + wages - we should be doing better. In the early Glazer days it was the failure to invest in quality replacements because "there was no value" in the market, more recently it is the incompetent squandering of the club's resources. It's not just irksome, it's an insult to the fan base who have to struggle through life on modest wages.