Ole

Of course there are times it’ll work. Most of the time it’ll work. It’s the risk vs reward that’s £#%&!ed up. You only have to get caught once, then, at best, it breeds immediate jitters, at worst a goal, and for what? To stretch a team that’s already stretched because they’re pressing high.

Arsenal won that other semi, and Arteta will be praised, but if anyone thinks that final stats of 20 shots vs 4 is a winning forula going forward then that’s a new one on me, and in the majority of instances, the way they were fuffling around on the ball in their penalty area for the first 15-20 mins would have led to them being 2 down. The goalkeeper and Mustafi were screaming at each other ffs. Combination of luck and Aubameyangs clinical finishing won them that game.

Yesterday was worst of all worlds, rusty players playing an odd system, as has been pointed out, we had Southampton worked out and should have scored more then the subs saw us come unstuck.

Yesterday we retreated into our worst trait of endless square balls across the back 4 / 5 and midfielders pinging the ball straight back and forth between each other without any movement at all, we've done it for the last 3 years and you always sit there watching it waiting for the ball that's too short or the overambitious diagonal wide that manages to leave a full back stranded up field after trying to control a ball at chest height as it crosses the touchline and only succeeding in keeping the ball in for the opposition.

Maybe we play less Futsal than every other team in the division, because our high press more often than not is Fernandes closing down a centre half pointing for Martial and Rashford to get tight to other players while Martial and Rashford realise why he's pointing as the full back who's five yards away from them receives the ball under no pressure.

Originally Posted by utd99

Of course there are times it’ll work. Most of the time it’ll work. It’s the risk vs reward that’s f***ed up. You only have to get caught once, then, at best, it breeds immediate jitters, at worst a goal, and for what? To stretch a team that’s already stretched because they’re pressing high.

Arsenal won that other semi, and Arteta will be praised, but if anyone thinks that final stats of 20 shots vs 4 is a winning forula going forward then that’s a new one on me, and in the majority of instances, the way they were fuffling around on the ball in their penalty area for the first 15-20 mins would have led to them being 2 down. The goalkeeper and Mustafi were screaming at each other ffs. Combination of luck and Aubameyangs clinical finishing won them that game.

Oh let's not get into the Arsenal game again

No, I take your point and I don't really disagree with you. It's a high risk, low reward strategy. I feel teams adopting it is something of a compliment and something we're still adapting to.

I equally don't want us to start lumping the ball up front the second we're pressed either. I think there's a happy medium in there somewhere.

You can see why he played Rashford/James to provide runners for a longer pass to bypass the press - the trouble is it needed Pogba or Fernandes to be doing the passing not Fred or Maguire.

He was always going to get pelters from the usual suspects if he didn't win the game last night.

If we started with our full strength line up and lost, then it would be that he's knackering out the first 11 before an important run in for fourth, and god forbid if one of those starting 11 got injured last night. "Run into the ground" all over the place.

If he changed things to rest players, then he should have started a full strength lineup etc etc.

Never mind that everything else he's done this season.

Turned a young inconsistent team into a team that went 19 games unbeaten racking up about 50 goals in the process.

Turned a front three with a combined age 64 into the most lethal strike-force in the league, two of whom a lot on here would have been happy to ship out of the club before he got into their ears.

Brought in some quality players.

He's getting the best out of an aging Matic and a big fat Shaw.

And there's a lot on here that are convinced we have the shittest backline in the world, despite us having one of the best defensive records in the league. Even if the mad Spaniard bastard is doing his best Jordan Pickford impressions too many times this season.

Lost defeat with a knackered line up in need of rotation for more important upcoming games, to a team with an extra 48 hours to rest and prepare, and the sky's falling in and questions needs to be asked.

Give over.

Originally Posted by Patty_b

He was always going to get pelters from the usual suspects if he didn't win the game last night.

If we started with our full strength line up and lost, then it would be that he's knackering out the first 11 before an important run in for fourth, and god forbid if one of those starting 11 got injured last night. "Run into the ground" all over the place.

If he changed things to rest players, then he should have started a full strength lineup etc etc.

Never mind that everything else he's done this season.

Turned a young inconsistent team into a team that went 19 games unbeaten racking up about 50 goals in the process.

Turned a front three with a combined age 64 into the most lethal strike-force in the league, two of whom a lot on here would have been happy to ship out of the club before he got into their ears.

Brought in some quality players.

He's getting the best out of an aging Matic and a big fat Shaw.

And there's a lot on here that are convinced we have the shittest backline in the world, despite us having one of the best defensive records in the league. Even if the mad Spaniard bastard is doing his best Jordan Pickford impressions too many times this season.

Lost defeat with a knackered line up in need of rotation for more important upcoming games, to a team with an extra 48 hours to rest and prepare, and the sky's falling in and questions needs to be asked.

Give over.

I think you are being a bit dramatic here.

I don't think many people are slagging Ole off, I certainly haven't, with many of the digs coming at the players. My only complaint was he picked the wrong side and formation - which Ole then said himself.

The manager should be able to make 3-4 changes in a cup tie without it turning into an utter car crash.

The fringe players yet again really let themselves down yesterday. Any time Bailly starts theres at least a 60% chance either him or someone else is getting stretchered off. For a £50m quid footballer Fred is staggeringly limited. James looks woefully out of his depth. Which leaves all the responsibility yet again on the shoulders of Bruno and Rashford who still hasn't got back up to speed after a broken back.

On top of all that ,then the goalkeeper decides to throw two soft as £#%&! goals in which basically destroys whatever game plan you might have had.

Whatever he says infront of camera you know Ole will be £#%&!ing seething about the performance.

Originally Posted by Sparky***

The manager should be able to make 3-4 changes in a cup tie without it turning into an utter car crash.

The fringe players yet again really let themselves down yesterday. Any time Bailly starts theres at least a 60% chance either him or someone else is getting stretchered off. For a £50m quid footballer Fred is staggeringly limited. James looks woefully out of his depth. Which leaves all the responsibility yet again on the shoulders of Bruno and Rashford who still hasn't got back up to speed after a broken back.

On top of all that ,then the goalkeeper decides to throw two soft as £#%&! goals in which basically destroys whatever game plan you might have had.

Whatever he says infront of camera you know Ole will be £#%&!ing seething about the performance.

Yep. The Scottish Player and Fred just haven’t returned from lockdown tbh (The Scottish Player was only just back from 2 months out when lockdown began as well), you really don’t want to see him picking any of Jones, Bailly, Lingard, Pereira, Mata, James or Dalot at the moment. He doesn’t seem to want to give Ighalo a start either, so we’re rather thin on the ground in terms of options. We’re desperate for 4 or 5 new players if we want to maintain top 4 next season imo. Everyone else will improve.

Originally Posted by Sparky***

The manager should be able to make 3-4 changes in a cup tie without it turning into an utter car crash.

The fringe players yet again really let themselves down yesterday. Any time Bailly starts theres at least a 60% chance either him or someone else is getting stretchered off. For a £50m quid footballer Fred is staggeringly limited. James looks woefully out of his depth. Which leaves all the responsibility yet again on the shoulders of Bruno and Rashford who still hasn't got back up to speed after a broken back.

On top of all that ,then the goalkeeper decides to throw two soft as £#%&! goals in which basically destroys whatever game plan you might have had.

Whatever he says infront of camera you know Ole will be £#%&!ing seething about the performance.

Agreed.

We'd still be looking at giving Lingard or Pereira minutes if anything happens to Fernandes

Originally Posted by Sparky***

The manager should be able to make 3-4 changes in a cup tie without it turning into an utter car crash.

The fringe players yet again really let themselves down yesterday. Any time Bailly starts theres at least a 60% chance either him or someone else is getting stretchered off. For a £50m quid footballer Fred is staggeringly limited. James looks woefully out of his depth. Which leaves all the responsibility yet again on the shoulders of Bruno and Rashford who still hasn't got back up to speed after a broken back.

On top of all that ,then the goalkeeper decides to throw two soft as f*** goals in which basically destroys whatever game plan you might have had.

Whatever he says infront of camera you know Ole will be f***ing seething about the performance.

Yep. Can't argue with any of that.

The buck stops with Ole, but we have to show a degree of faith in fringe players and they let us down.

As did most the senior players tbf.

Blame to be thrown all round.

But... these performances are a sober reminder of how far we still need to go and the players that aren't coming along have just made it easier to part with them in the near future.

Ole isn't daft.

He knows what he wants and where we're up to. So far he has more or less identified all the weaknesses we have and is gradually addressing them, as much as our budget will allow.

In time, the likes of Bailly, lindelof, fred, James, perera, Jones, de Gea will be marginalised or gone as their value becomes clearer and clearer.

For now, we had better dust ourselves off because we still sit on the cusp of a good season.

In the interview Rubberknecker linked to a few pages back Ole mentions that he likes to give people a chance BUT if people don't do what he wants he slowly pushes them out of his thought process and in turn the club.

He will know who he can trust and who he cant and performances like yesterday wont go unnoticed and those who he thinks let him down wont get many other chances.

Originally Posted by Parlabane

In the interview Rubberknecker linked to a few pages back Ole mentions that he likes to give people a chance BUT if people don't do what he wants he slowly pushes them out of his thought process and in turn the club.

He will know who he can trust and who he cant and performances like yesterday wont go unnoticed and those who he thinks let him down wont get many other chances.

I’d say there are 6-8 players he’s pushed out at the moment.

Yep - and now that he has a proper 1st 11 - he can start weeding out those who aren't good enough to be back up

Originally Posted by Parlabane

Yep - and now that he has a proper 1st 11 - he can start weeding out those who aren't good enough to be back up

That’s not going to take long

Originally Posted by dunk

That’s not going to take long

Originally Posted by NedKelly

‘I have 10 envelopes and the names in those envelopes aren’t going to be here next season...’

Originally Posted by Parlabane

Yep - and now that he has a proper 1st 11 - he can start weeding out those who aren't good enough to be back up

We don't have a 'proper' first 11 or anything near it.

We have a mute goalkeeper who throws a goal in every other game. An 85 million quid centre back without one decent partner to put next to him, so we have to choose between:

A swede who gets bullied by his own shadow
Phil Jones
The black Phil Jones


Our two first choice full backs who cost a combined 78 million have panic attacks if they cross the halfway line

We've got an £89m quid midfielder who wouldn't be here if there wasn't a pandemic, a 31 year serbian with the mobility of a £#%&!ing dalek next to him

We have Bruno who at the moment is doing the work of about 3 players and the forwards who have hit top form.

What happens when a couple of the forwards have a dry spell or get injured?

Originally Posted by Sparky***

We don't have a 'proper' first 11 or anything near it.

We have a mute goalkeeper who throws a goal in every other game. An 85 million quid centre back without one decent partner to put next to him, so we have to choose between:

A swede who gets bullied by his own shadow
Phil Jones
The black Phil Jones


Our two first choice full backs who cost a combined 78 million have panic attacks if they cross the halfway line

We've got an £89m quid midfielder who wouldn't be here if there wasn't a pandemic, a 31 year serbian with the mobility of a £#%&!ing dalek next to him

We have Bruno who at the moment is doing the work of about 3 players and the forwards who have hit top form.

What happens when a couple of the forwards have a dry spell or get injured?

When you look at it like that it's no wonder we are facing relegation

Originally Posted by rubbernecker

When you look at it like that it's no wonder we are facing relegation

In pre-expanded CL I wouldn't be surprised if that was the case. Blackburn got relegated in 1999 four years after winning EPL.

Originally Posted by Sparky***

We don't have a 'proper' first 11 or anything near it.

We have a mute goalkeeper who throws a goal in every other game. An 85 million quid centre back without one decent partner to put next to him, so we have to choose between:

A swede who gets bullied by his own shadow
Phil Jones
The black Phil Jones


Our two first choice full backs who cost a combined 78 million have panic attacks if they cross the halfway line

We've got an £89m quid midfielder who wouldn't be here if there wasn't a pandemic, a 31 year serbian with the mobility of a £#%&!ing dalek next to him

We have Bruno who at the moment is doing the work of about 3 players and the forwards who have hit top form.

What happens when a couple of the forwards have a dry spell or get injured?

£#%&!ing hell Sparky - it was one game man.