Tweet

EBL

Follow @EBL2017

16 Oct, 11 tweets, 3 min read

https://twitter.com/asimmm786/status/1449458978010845184

My views have been articulated on a number of occasions. Solskjaer shot himself in the foot by signing Ronaldo which created unrealistic short-term expectations and in turn mass pressure on himself to win now when this team aren't ready to do so.

https://twitter.com/asimmm786/status/1449458978010845184

The Ronaldo signing also created more problems in the sense that the team now has two luxury players, one of which also being Pogba, and there's few teams who press well with 1 luxury player, let alone two, so they're easy to keep the ball against which is a *MAJOR* problem.

Solskjaer may get sacked as a result of the Ronaldo signing which has seen this team being regarded as title challengers when they're simply not as complete as the likes of LFC & City. The structure is good yet the balance within it is not, but that's Ole's fault for signing CR7.

As I said at the time of the deal, the Ronaldo signing on an individual level was sensational, as was the Varane and Sancho signing, but Utd's biggest requirement was replacing Pogba in that central midfield, and they didn't address it. Now they have that issue + 2 luxury players

United's best XI can win the league - I'm sure of it. The structure is good enough to do so as is the balance and player quality, but it's not as simple as that. United's best XI doesn't include Pogba, and that causes harmony issues.

So, there's a clear step Solskjaer can take to bring this team to the title, and that's by getting rid of Pogba for a top class central midfielder, but it might be too little too late. The pressure is so, so fierce with all these stars demanding to win, & he assembled this squad.

Overall, United are majorly flawed and the solution is also one that could cost Ole his job. He has put himself in a situation where he has 2 mega stars but only 1 can play for the team to be successful. As such, squad harmony, issues in CM, or results could cost him his job.

If he drops Pogba the likes of Bruno, CR7, etc may (and probably will) turn on him. If he doesn't the results will continue to be poor. However, even if he does abolish Pogba and the players are fine with that, the squad need McT + Fred to be fit every week, but that won't happen

I'm Solskjaer's biggest fan, but he has fallen at the final hurdle. I predicted before the season started that 1) he will come under severe scrutiny yet again because of the signings he's made when the team needed a midfielder and 2) they're too incomplete to win the league.

Solskjaer has done an unbelievable job of building Manchester Utd back to where they belong, but I think signing Ronaldo, (and/or) not getting rid of Pogba along with not signing a central midfielder causes too many balance, harmony & tactical issues for him to come out unscathed

There's always been unfathomable pressure in his job, and Solskjaer has dealt with it like no other man could dream of, but unfortunately the pressure this time around is matched with expectation & those expectations cannot be met with the plethora of issues at the football club.

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

More from @EBL2017

EBL

@EBL2017

16 Oct

Rodgers tactically outwitted Solskjaer today. Previously, United-Leicester fixtures consisted of head-to-head 4-2-3-1 vs 4-2-3-1 match ups so it was essentially a battle all over the park. However, today, Leicester implemented a 3-2 build-up shape which destroyed United's press.

Below we can see last seasons fixture where both teams built and pressed way in the same way so tactically neither team had the edge (Evans and Justin out of picture in the second picture). It was all about individual player quality on the day.

However, this season, Rodgers created an overload in the build-up against United's pressing line. Partey was the third CB in possession so this completely discombobulated United's pressing structure. Sancho/Greenwood didn't know whether to press the outside CB or the wingbacks.

Read 10 tweets

EBL

@EBL2017

16 Oct

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer rebuilt Manchester United to a recognised superpower once again with elite expectations when they haven't had that since Sir Alex left. He was well on his way to continuing that until he signed Ronaldo which increased expectations but collapsed his rebuild.

Solskjaer is still trying to implement his system, but no system is effective when there's 2 luxury players. At least with just Ronaldo United could work really hard elsewhere around that but with Ronaldo *and* Pogba the system collapses and they're easy to keep the ball against.

When you're easy to keep the ball against then you will be punished. No top team in world football is reliably easy to keep the ball against. Pressing high is a feature of every single top team in football in 2021. The structure is fine, but the individuals are not - Ole's fault.

Read 4 tweets

EBL

@EBL2017

16 Oct

Klopp said he can't predict Watford's team & although he can't be absolutely sure I reckon he's confident it's a typical Ranieri 4-4-2. If that's the case, then Watford will play direct from goal kicks & in general to make the game a battle in MF whilst blocking space deep.

That seems to be the case here, although it could also be a back 5.

Either way, the plan will be the same - block space in a deep compact block, play direct football to make the game a battle, and use outlets like Sarr/Dennis to get up the pitch.

https://twitter.com/WatfordFC/status/1449321721694068745?t=F_6ADnyz7QJtjBPjI6j4tQ&s=19

Liverpool are used to this type of match up although are hampered by the weakened ability of Hendo compared to Fabinho in aerial and ground duels, so the likes of Keita, Milner & Hendo himself will need to step up physically to gain control of this game.

https://twitter.com/LFC/status/1449321728262479876?t=trrBXlbqNBst6hALXn5IEw&s=19

Read 5 tweets

EBL

@EBL2017

13 Oct

In the midst of Newcastle becoming the richest club in the world (to the extent that they are 10x richer than the filthy rich Man City), there's been lots of talk about which players the club should sign. This is normal for fans, but the club shouldn't think like this.

THREAD.

In the short-term, the objective is to keep the club in the league, because there's no guarantee they do stay in the league. To maximise their chances they'll need to sign another outlet to complement ASM, and that's with or without Steve Bruce (probably without).

The team is limited in the sense that with Bruce they are only capable of playing a 5-3-2 block due to his managerial deficiencies and this plan is fine and will probably see the team stay up with two high quality outlets up front (ASM, Wilson, new signing) but it’s v. defensive.

Read 22 tweets

EBL

@EBL2017

10 Oct

A criticism attributed towards managers such as Solskjaer and Arteta at the beginning of their rebuilds at their respective clubs centered around the fact that 'smaller' teams played more attractive and dangerous football than them, but this line of thinking is linear.

THREAD.

Firstly, these super clubs get managed and judged under a microscopic lens on a weekly basis by the fans and media. Mid-table teams quite simply don't receive that level of scrutiny from the masses.

For example, Brentford beat West Ham away on the weekend and I didn't see anything about it on social media apart from Brentford praise. if that was Arsenal or Manchester United, we'd never hear the end of it and fans would be calling for the managers head.

Read 25 tweets

EBL

@EBL2017

4 Oct

Arteta is a phenomenal tactician but Arsenal having just over 40% of the ball against Brighton is not good enough. Below, I analyse his flawed tactics against 3 at the back teams and why Arsenal cannot keep the ball in those games before ultimately getting dominated.

THREAD.

Interestingly, Arsenal had 71% of the ball after the first 10 minutes - they didn't just play out from the back - they partook in a combination of both direct and short play and were successful with both thanks to their good technical quality and Ramsdale's long kicking.

Ramsdale's kicking enabled Arsenal to win second balls in areas deep in Brighton's, which is good. This is a position of control and strength for Arsenal because they're winning the ball back high as opposed to losing it in their own third and being forced to recover.