Ole Gunnar Solskjaer | W15 D2 L4

[MikeKing]

Naive tonight. He rotated too many players and tried to play Burnley at their own game. Should have stuck with pace and movement and these cannon fodder teams can't live with that.

Their own game? Surely you aren't talking about long balls and setting up to defend, or? I think we had too many crosses etc. But the reality is we were set up in a way that it was all up to our players to beat what Burnley put up in front of us. We had chances to kill the game off, but the players didn't all have it in them today. I certainly think we was supposed to play with more tempo, as we saw in a few instances, it just didn't happen enough due to our players. Ole knows that now, and it will surely effect some of the players later on.

Also we needed to rest players and not only that but we need all these players to play a part if we are to do anything serious this season.

 

[IrishGlen]

Mourinho would be banging the door down for a CB, its one of the reasons he was sacked before the window opened.

And who is this CB that’s realistically available? January is incredibly difficult to buy in regardless of whether doors are getting banged or otherwise.

The likes of Skriniar, Koulibaly, Alderweireld, etc just won’t happen in January. Look at Bayern Münich for example - every man and his dog know they want Pavard and Lucas Hernández now (offering extra cash in the case of the former and willing to meet the release clause in the case of the latter) but it’s so difficult to get those deals done in January!

 

[Ban]

I love Ole, but does anyone feel he panders to the fans abit too much with his comments? I’m not sure if its because I’m constantly seeing quotes from him on social media but how long can he keep saying “this is Manchester Utd” blah blah. It’ll be intresting to see how he responds to set back. I still feel we should wait to the end of season and make a decision then rather than rushing to one now. We can’t afford a 4th bad appointment.

Of all the things you can mention about him this is the silliest. We craved for someone like him. He gets it.

 

[Rozski]

Wow! Lots of harsh comments on here. I think Ole comes out of this game looking good still. Had to do some rotating with our schedule over the next few weeks and is also still learning about our players. Not a big surprise that the team didn’t play as well as when it’s the first choice eleven. He can’t help it that most of our squad doesn’t suit his playing style and many aren’t good enough to start with. Even so we still were unlucky not to win this game.

Burnley did what they do well by making it hard for us and got lucky with some chances. That’ll happen in the PL. I thought our players did well to keep fighting and Ole deserves some credit for that.

As long as he learns things from each game I’m not bothered. If he plays Mata and Lukaku together again in those roles then I would question that.

 

[Bola]

Didn't see the game tonight, but heard that Mata was played at RW*. Big black mark if so, there are Tivo boxes filled to the brim of warnings why that should not be done

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing......


* though I suspect he played centre most of the game and unbalanced out attack, while offering nothing out wide

 

[AndersB]

Tonight showed Ole's first real tactical mistakes, imo. Sure, one can criticize starting Pereira, and it certainly did not work, but I think the taking off of Lukaku at that specific point, especially whilst continuing to whip in pointless crosses to Tarkowski, Mee and co. from the right, made absolutely no sense. Sanchez was certainly not good, but he didn't have a role either. Would be better to put in Herrera and play a front 3+1 of Rashford, Pogba, Lingard and Lukako imo.

 

[the chameleon]

I'm glad with his performances. He has thin squad and there just isn't enough depth in most positions. Outside of De Gea, Lindelof, Pogba, Martial and Rashford, everyone can be replaced. We then have a second tier of players who are effective but could easily be upgraded - Shaw, Smalling, Herrera, Matic, Lukaku and Lingard. There are a few youngsters who are just too inexperienced such as Dalot, Gomes etc. A few elder statesmen who have seen their best days and can be liabilities in the play like Young, Mata, Sanchez and Valencia. Then you just have Phil Jones.

Based on the thin resources, he has done great job. Like we saw, one injury can have a big impact. Also, the players could burn out by April if he doesn't rest players. Today, is an example of having to rest players and not being able to field the best 11 every game.

 

[Rozski]

Tonight showed Ole's first real tactical mistakes, imo. Sure, one can criticize starting Pereira, and it certainly did not work, but I think the taking off of Lukaku at that specific point, especially whilst continuing to whip in pointless crosses to Tarkowski, Mee and co. from the right, made absolutely no sense. Sanchez was certainly not good, but he didn't have a role either. Would be better to put in Herrera and play a front 3+1 of Rashford, Pogba, Lingard and Lukako imo.

Maybe you are right but I feel like you are putting forth two conflicting points here. So we shouldn’t have kept putting in crosses, but should have kept our largest forward on to get under those crosses that shouldn’t be coming in? I’d assume that the idea of keeping Mata on and taking Lukaku off was to try to instigate more movement and creativity than we were getting and that all the crossing wasn’t a tactical approach from Ole but really just Young being Young and doing what he has done his whole career.

 

[el3mel]

Maybe you are right but I feel like you are putting forth two conflicting points here. So we shouldn’t have kept putting in crosses, but should have kept our largest forward on to get under those crosses that shouldn’t be coming in? I’d assume that the idea of keeping Mata on and taking Lukaku off was to try to instigate more movement and creativity than we were getting and that all the crossing wasn’t a tactical approach from Ole but really just Young being Young and doing what he has done his whole career.

I agree that's not a a tactical problem. We had seen this game several times before. Start lax, jogging around, concede, panic and start putting loads of crossing. How many times has this happened for us ? Crossins is a sign of desperation and panic, not a tactical option.

 

[LARulz]

I blame the change in title from the original to "eight wins out of eight" or something. The moment I saw the change I knew we were fecked

 

[Casanova85]

Still undefeated.

 

[Rozski]

I agree that's not a a tactical problem. We had seen this game several times before. Start lax, jogging around, concede, panic and start putting loads of crossing. How many times has this happened for us ? Crossins is a sign of desperation and panic, not a tactical option.

Yeah that’s very true. Hadn’t seen it under Ole yet but I think a lot of that is more of a personelle problem than a tactical one. He said himself after the game that not playing quickly enough was the main problem today.

 

[Edgar Allan Pillow]

"Eight wins out of nine" Who the feck updates these titles? It should be "Unbeaten streak extends to 9 now"

 

[Edgar Allan Pillow]

I agree that's not a a tactical problem. We had seen this game several times before. Start lax, jogging around, concede, panic and start putting loads of crossing. How many times has this happened for us ? Crossins is a sign of desperation and panic, not a tactical option.

28 shots with 9 on target....how many times have you seen that before? We just lacked composure to finish. Couple of easy chances wasted too. And Burnley were throwing their bodies on the line.

Looks like Lukaku through the middle seems to be put to bed for all time now. Perhaps a bit of complacency, but this should be a good wake up call. Still better than most we had under Mou.

 

[RedMilo]

I love Ole, but does anyone feel he panders to the fans abit too much with his comments? I’m not sure if its because I’m constantly seeing quotes from him on social media but how long can he keep saying “this is Manchester Utd” blah blah. It’ll be intresting to see how he responds to set back. I still feel we should wait to the end of season and make a decision then rather than rushing to one now. We can’t afford a 4th bad appointment.

This is him at his best, Ole inspires confidence. Moyes was we will try our best, Van Gaal was crazy, and Jose was never happy and alienated his players - Mark my words Ole will get us back to the top. You will also notice he calls us 'We' very important..

 

[tenpoless]

We were on a 8 games winning streak, it had to end somewhere. To expect us to win all games is not realistic considering the state We were in just two months ago.

Now, He's shown if his team can do a comeback as well. That is very important. He's passed all the test for me, only how He deals in transfer windows remain a question. Unfortunately We may never see that happens.

 

[el3mel]

28 shots with 9 on target....how many times have you seen that before? We just lacked composure to finish. Couple of easy chances wasted too. And Burnley were throwing their bodies on the line.

Looks like Lukaku through the middle seems to be put to bed for all time now. Perhaps a bit of complacency, but this should be a good wake up call. Still better than most we had under Mou.

Ironically the Burnley game the season before the last one was nearly similar or even more disgusting.

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/37737710

These cnuts seem to have a number on us at OT unfortunately.

However the panic of crossing had happened several times for us though. We need to keep our shape and don't panic when we concede.

 

[tieunhilang]

I love Ole, but does anyone feel he panders to the fans abit too much with his comments? I’m not sure if its because I’m constantly seeing quotes from him on social media but how long can he keep saying “this is Manchester Utd” blah blah. It’ll be intresting to see how he responds to set back. I still feel we should wait to the end of season and make a decision then rather than rushing to one now. We can’t afford a 4th bad appointment.

You got your wish. We had a setback against Burnley when we desperately needed points. Good job!

 

[Laphroaig]

Wasn't Smalling fit to play today? I've no idea why he opted for Jones, who predictably lost pretty much all his duels. (And set up two-three half chances for Burnley.) Perfect game to bring Smalling back into it.

I love Ole, but does anyone feel he panders to the fans abit too much with his comments? I’m not sure if its because I’m constantly seeing quotes from him on social media but how long can he keep saying “this is Manchester Utd” blah blah. It’ll be intresting to see how he responds to set back. I still feel we should wait to the end of season and make a decision then rather than rushing to one now. We can’t afford a 4th bad appointment.

Nah. I think it's his indirect way of telling his players what's expected of a United player. It's not directed at the fans.

 

[amolbhatia50k]

Ole will learn from this result. That Periera isn't good enough. That Lukaku is good in moments but as your main CF he's not ideal. That we need a threat from the right even if it's Lingard or Rashford for now. He needs to rotate, sadly, it's a squad game now. But hopefully we get stronger from these type of results not to mention the boost from the comeback.

 

[WR10]

One of those games where it’s 20 minutes in you’ve realized you’ve made a big mistake with selection but don’t want to devestate a player taking him off. Hope he’s learned his lesson about mata today. Mata is a sub for when you’ve won the game from 70th on or desperate for a goal with no other option

 

[Gator Nate]

Nevermind that Burnley were playing to stay out of the relegation zone. Their defense was playing very well.

United controlled the ball 74% of the match. 28 shots, 9 on goal. For 2 scores? That's not bad tactics, that's lack of execution.

Two defensive lapses led to two scores for Burnley. Lack of execution.

On the other hand, they showed enough fight at the end to pull back up to a draw. That's heart.

I think what Ole did was give a few guys enough rope to hang themselves. They won't be getting much opportunity after this. They failed the audition.

 

[Tony247]

Didn't see the game tonight, but heard that Mata was played at RW*. Big black mark if so, there are Tivo boxes filled to the brim of warnings why that should not be done

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing......


* though I suspect he played centre most of the game and unbalanced out attack, while offering nothing out wide

You are absolutely right. And see you don't need to be a football manager to realize that. How Ole made same mistake twice is beyond me. What these guys see in mata and give him that role which we audience can't see?

RW completely non existence. Young was hoofing hopelessly. Heck, the entire team was hoofing to lukaku. Rash on left, shite as ever. Why all this screw up? just because Martial became unavailable!?

It's like Ole turned the time back and made us watch jose's football once again.

The good takeaway was that burnley this time were scared of us. we dominated the entire match.

 

[Sweet Square]

Meh can't win them all. Team did well to come back.

 

[Tony247]

We were on a 8 games winning streak, it had to end somewhere. To expect us to win all games is not realistic considering the state We were in just two months ago.

I agree, one day it had to end. But yesterday it seems like Ole decided himself it had to end and not by some devine destiny.

 

[Class of 63]

Got his team selection, tactics and substitutions badly wrong last night, but still think we should offer him the job, it just feels right.

 

[Tony247]

In the first interview of united manager Ole candidly said that at cardiff he made too many changes and he has learned from that mistake.

Such an irony.

 

[Tony247]

Got his team selection, tactics and substitutions badly wrong last night, but still think we should offer him the job, it just feels right.

He is the man. No doubt about it. People sometimes make mistakes.

 

[Ibi Dreams]

I agree, one day it had to end. But yesterday it seems like Ole decided himself it had to end and not by some devine destiny.

I only watched the highlights, but it seems like we were the better team for most of the match and should have been up by a goal or two in the first half. A bad mistake from Pereira gave them a good chance and it was well taken, and then we were struggling.

 

[bosnian_red]

Got his team selection, tactics and substitutions badly wrong last night, but still think we should offer him the job, it just feels right.

Did he? We created loads. We just werent clinical. 1 individual mistake from a youngish player that he was giving a chance to when rotating costed us, it happens. You live and you learn. You dont not give players these chances because they might make mistakes. The second we stop doing that is when we abandon the values that Sir Matt built this club on.

Not sure he got the subs wrong? Sanchez and Lingard both had positive impacts IMO.

People act as if Sir Alex had a perfect record at United and now go into hyper detail the second we drop points. We can drop points without it being a bad decision from the manager. We need to rotate, now was a good game for it. Didnt work out. Move on.

 

[The Man Himself]

People blaming Ole for rotation probably haven't read Ole mentioning "few niggles" yesterday, while explaining changes. There are lots of matches and we can't play same XI every game. Burnley home is a match where you would want to rotate rather than Leicester away. We didn't play well but in the end had done enough to win. It is not going to be all rosy and hopefully matches like yesterday will help Ole to understand squad better.

 

[Tony247]

I only watched the highlights, but it seems like we were the better team for most of the match and should have been up by a goal or two in the first half. A bad mistake from Pereira gave them a good chance and it was well taken, and then we were struggling.

we were better team no doubt. We were winning the midfield, defense was good, burnley sporadically attacking but mostly giving up the possession.

It was our final third that was hopelessly useless.

 

[Tony247]

If you want to win, you got to select a team with teeth that can bite. You can run like cheetah, you can park like bus, you can jump like kangaroo or wriggle like snake, but at the end in final third if you can't bite, its all useless.

 

[Abhinav]

I am just baffled by the criticism Ole is getting on this board and outside. He took a calculated risk and it didn’t pay off but he has to manage the minutes for the first team. The issue lies in our strength in depth in midfield and lack of defensive stability. Even still, rescuing a point after being 2 down is not a bad result. Its not his fault that the team had dropped so many points before he was appointed and anyone expecting him to miraculously win all the remaining games is in for disappointment.

 

[Ducklegs]

Did he? We created loads. We just werent clinical. 1 individual mistake from a youngish player that he was giving a chance to when rotating costed us, it happens. You live and you learn. You dont not give players these chances because they might make mistakes. The second we stop doing that is when we abandon the values that Sir Matt built this club on.

Not sure he got the subs wrong? Sanchez and Lingard both had positive impacts IMO.

People act as if Sir Alex had a perfect record at United and now go into hyper detail the second we drop points. We can drop points without it being a bad decision from the manager. We need to rotate, now was a good game for it. Didnt work out. Move on.

Its almost as if people cant remember the annual losing to the bottom of table club we had under fergie.

Or the multiple shit on a stick draws against a team of cloggers.

It happened then, it happens now.

 

[Kapardin]

I love Ole, but does anyone feel he panders to the fans abit too much with his comments? I’m not sure if its because I’m constantly seeing quotes from him on social media but how long can he keep saying “this is Manchester Utd” blah blah. It’ll be intresting to see how he responds to set back. I still feel we should wait to the end of season and make a decision then rather than rushing to one now. We can’t afford a 4th bad appointment.

What is he supposed to say then? It's not like he keeps grinning and saying, "United!!11!!" all the time. He also talks intelligently about managing the players, the ambition and so on. Just because he intersperses his comments with some praises about the club, fans etc doesn't mean his statements are devoid of substance.

On the other side of the spectrum, you had LvG saying fans need to lower expectations and Jose yammering constantly about his own greatness and our "heritage". I know which I prefer.

 

[NoPace]

Only thing I'd really ding Ole for in this game is bringing on Lingard against a team sitting back, where he rarely makes an impact, would have just kept Lukaku on and let Sanchez play up front while we were chasing.

-----------------Lukaku-Sanchez
Rashford--Pogba-------Mata-----
---------------------Matic------------Young

instead of Sanchez wide left where he cuts in and hits terrible passes. His movement off the ball is now his best quality, can't really play out wide anymore.

 

[Joseunited]

You are absolutely right. And see you don't need to be a football manager to realize that. How Ole made same mistake twice is beyond me. What these guys see in mata and give him that role which we audience can't see?

RW completely non existence. Young was hoofing hopelessly. Heck, the entire team was hoofing to lukaku. Rash on left, shite as ever. Why all this screw up? just because Martial became unavailable!?

It's like Ole turned the time back and made us watch jose's football once again.

The good takeaway was that burnley this time were scared of us. we dominated the entire match.

For Gods sake,after all that moaning,

 

[kouroux]

I am just baffled by the criticism Ole is getting on this board and outside. He took a calculated risk and it didn’t pay off but he has to manage the minutes for the first team. The issue lies in our strength in depth in midfield and lack of defensive stability. Even still, rescuing a point after being 2 down is not a bad result. Its not his fault that the team had dropped so many points before he was appointed and anyone expecting him to miraculously win all the remaining games is in for disappointment.

It wasn't really a risk tbh. We all knew it wasn't gonna work. Rashford is one of our most in-form players, why would you disrupt that by playing him on the left? Lukaku down the middle doesn't work but here were are trying it again.

 

[Hisha]

To be fair our last manager left him with Valencia and Young as fullbacks. Lukaku as a CF and Fred and Fellaini.. We need to rotate we are playing 6 games in the next 4 weeks.. We need to ship out 8 or 9 players and sign some really good ones instead.

My goodness!!!!