Pic 1: Last season's most used XI
Pic 2: Last season's best XI
Pic 3: Next season's possible 2nd XI
Our 2nd XI next season (w/o DDG, Rash, PP, Bruno, Linda, AWB, Matic) looks as good/better than our most used XI from last season.
Promoting Youth + Shrewd Buys = Progress
This is one reason why I urge fans to trust the process. A rebuild is a series of mostly incremental changes with sporadic massive changes.
The team we started last season with & the one we ended with are totally different although we bought just 1 new first team player.
That's due to Ole's focus on promoting youth and also making the players in the squad better.
Bruno was a massive change and Sancho will be another one.
The rest of the squad will incrementally improve thru the season and by the end of next season we'll have a much improved XI
In conclusion
We don't need wholesale changes
Like Ole said there is talent in this squad
Lets fill obvious holes while improving existing players for other spots
The process will take time but the result will be a squad who are all red thru & thru - which is most impt.
PS:
By 2nd XI I don't mean a completely rotated XI but an XI where you can rotate as many as possible w/o a huge drop off in quality esp against weaker/cup opposition.
With just VDB added we can already rest 7 & get a pretty solid 2nd XI. A few more faces & that'll go up.
Post PS bcs ppl obviously don't read
By putting someone in the 2nd XI it doesn't mean they don't start in the 1st.
Like I said a 2nd XI is about rotating as much as possible - Maguire will play every match be it 1st or 2nd XI. So can Martial for the lack of a better option.
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If your analysis of Ole's tenure ignores the work he's done off the field for the club's long term health, then you've fundamentally misunderstood his role.
He was DoF, TD & manager combined and now he leaves with a DoF & TD in place - all in 3 years. ⤵️
When Ole took over the fundamental issue with the club was the lack of a footballing project. This is what hampered the managers before him. Two world class managers couldn't flourish because there really is no way for a club to succeed in today's game on a managers talent alone.
The lack of football people handling footballing affairs led to messy recruitment. Different managers came in buying the players that fit their system. That's how it supposed to be. But if the ones at top hire vastly different managers it's easily a recipe for disaster.
Ole always talks about wanting us to get in behind defenses, he wants us to play over the block/press than through it.
I think it's smart bc it's simple, needs just a couple of good executions to work & is as low-risk/high-reward as it can get.
So what's happening? ⤵️
First time I noticed us doing it heavily was vs SHU last season when we tried it multiple times & failed until Rash connected and we scored. It felt like it suddenly clicked and 7 mins later Martial scored from a similar delivery from Pogba.
If you remember United in Ole's first full season and for the beginning of the 2nd season was all about trying to play through the press with intricate foot work and quick one twos.
We all remember those images of 5 of our players on the left wing trying to find an opening.
The sheer pace at which Ole has lifted #mufc from the rut to contention means many see the job he did as easy. He has steered a top to bottom revamp under constant scrutiny with 0 room for error.
Most managers fail if the situation isn't ideal. Ole's the opposite ⤵️
Ole has been our manager for just 2 full seasons now. The squad he took over was bloated and unbalanced. To make matters worse, many of them didn't want to be here and also were on ludicrous contracts.
But the issues at the club didn't stop with the squad alone.
United's famed academy had been neglected. There was no pipeline in place for academy talents to move to the first team.
The club had fallen behind in data analytics and had neglected the sports science department leading to us being the most unfit squad in the league.
I feel what Ole is trying to do is a contemporary take on the old school 4-4-2
The 4-2-3-1 and the 4-4-2 share a lot in common (one can be described as evolved from the other) and I feel Ole wants to mix the best of both at United.
A style I feel can be quite effective ⤵️
Ole describing our style of play:
"Fullbacks pushing high, front 4 interchanging and two in the middle to rotate and maintain tempo".
That doesn't sound like a 4-3-3. That's how a 4-2-3-1 works and it is very reminiscent of how some parts of the 4-4-2 worked too.
A few games don't make a player suddenly good/bad. Fans & esp analysts need to accept form isn't a myth.
And no it isn't just based on performance, it's more mental than technical — everything going on in their lives both on & off the field affects it.
Take any United player, Rash, Shaw, Maguire, Fred, Mason, Martial, Pogba, Lindelof, AWB, Dean, whoever. A good game & suddenly they're great & a bad game and suddenly they're terrible.
Such fluctuations in performance isn't a reflection of their ability but their form.
Ignoring it is in effect ignoring the human aspect and criticising them as if they're robots. None of us wake up everyday feeling the exact same way and none of us can go through everyday with the exact same levels of dedication, energy or enthusiasm.