Ole's been our manager for 1.5 seasons and 3 windows now. Ideally he should now be getting his 8-10th signing and the rebuild should be on its last stretch.
But the mess he took over was so huge that 3 windows in, he still has 7-8 unwanted players left to clear out.
Fans need to realise the sheer magnitude of the rebuild he took over. The solution was never going to be just buying players who he wants and likes.
Before he gets to do that, first he has to clear out the ones not needed and we had quite a few of them.
The wages of those players along with their absymal form means finding a buyer for most of them is difficult.
But even with those constraints, Ole is doing the best he can - loan them out with the hopes of getting a buyer later.
This may not be a perfect solution but the other option is keeping those players at the club, which not only affects the morale but also eats up the wage budget on players who will never play.
For Ole, the choice so far has always been between the lesser of two evils.
Even with all that in his first 2 windows he cleared out 9 such players
A few were on loan and in this window hopefully we get to move them on too
This should put into perspective just how bad our squad building & maintenance was over the last 7 years.
No manager before him came in and wanted to take responsibility for the clear out. Everyone just avoided these glaring issues & wanted to cover it up by buying more.
This isn't bcs those managers didn't know better.
They knew but they also knew the effort it required would mean sacrificing performance for a while and none of them wanted to risk that.
In turn with each new manager the squad for more and more unbalanced & bloated.
Ole is the first one to come in and take the risk knowing fully well the repercussions.
9 players leaving left huge holes and combined with the injuries meant we had a torrid first half last season.
But in between all this Ole also knew he could show what was possible.
The fans who understood the scale of the problems could see what he was trying to show.
But the fans who dont fail to realise the reality of the situation - Without such dead wood the rebuild would be well and truly on its way right now and we would be a far better team.
With each new signing it's getting better & easier to attract the next - that's proof enough.
Bruno & VDB for a combined 85m is fantastic business for any club. 2 years ago we would never make such deals
This is due to Ole being pragmatic and taking things one step at a time
To put it into perspective as @AbdelBeheri pointed out
Pep got 20 signings in his first 2 years
Klopp got 12 & Bielsa got 19
Ole in 3 windows so far have gotten 5
The other managers had the luxury of making mistakes in the market but Ole has to get every signing spot on
This is because every bad signing for us at this stage hurts our leverage in the market while also giving us 1 more unwanted player to try and sell.
I would highly recommend reading @AbdelBeheri thread which goes into detail about this:
The idea of this thread isn't to make excuses for the board or to justify our lack of signings.
It is simply to point out the challenges that Ole is facing with this rebuild and put into context the reason why our rebuild seems to be slow from the outside.
Hopefully by the end of the next window we will no longer have any unwanted players in the squad.
As of now Ole is rebuilding a house on one side while carefully demolishing the other side so he has to be slow.
One that demolition finishes, the pace of the rebuild will pick up.
When Ole came in he had 2 choices:
1. take his time to right the wrongs of the last 7 years by clearing out unwanted players & buying players who want to be here
Or
2. go the same route as the managers before him, ignore the deadwood & try and buy his way out of trouble
The first option entails initial struggles, drop in performance, slower signings & a longer process
But it also entails a longer lasting future & the opportunity to fix the issues for good
Ole took the difficult choice & as fans we should be grateful. I know I am
Back the man!
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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.