Well, Rash likely out against Pool because Ole decided to throw him on in a cup game while he was already nursing an injury. I get that a new coach is going to make mistakes but when the hell is he going to learn from them? He ran the team into the ground in 3 months last season and is already risking the same this year. I get that we dont have much depth but in cup games you have to rotate and play kids. We're not deep enough to compete in multiple competitions right now. Recognize it and adjust.
he did not run the team into the ground last season. why is this constantly perpetuated? we had a half season of the lowest stats for intensity sprints and ground covered in the league. it was a poor fitness job from the previous regime from the start more than anything else. i don't buy that you're asked to press or add tempo or train harder and all of a sudden in no time everyone is burnt out. we simply had bad injuries at inopportune times. that's been the case since SAF days. you have to wonder about our medical department when it comes to that. it's not like we play significantly more games than any other top sides
Its being perpetuated because he's gambled on out players fitness at least twice during his regime. Once with Rashford, once with Lingard. He has also struggled with rotation. Edit: I almost forgot about playing Pogba in a useless cup game. This isnt just being unlucky.
Us getting too many injuries well pre-dates Ole. Maybe 10% on Ole for the mistakes mentioned, but mostly having eff all depth in the squad during this “rebuild” (ahem dividend enabling cost-cutting). His choice at D is often Jones (and we know how that turns out) or in attack burning out a young attacker (because we sent one that Ole would have kept out on loan). Midfield - well that is just fragments as it is. He wants to win every game and has sometimes gone too far selecting players who should be rested. A manager who wants to win every game is mostly a good thing
He does not rotate properly. Which is why Rashford and Maguire are wasting their legs in the league and FC cup. All the tempo and pressing is fine, as long as you don't push the players past their limits.
A good manager is a good thing. The issue is Ole isn't. He seems to think winning a cup no one cares about is a big deal and will help him in terms of keeping the job.
but that's the point i've always made. blame him for those things that he's gotten wrong but don't invent stuff. the Pogba one i get to give him mins to build fitness. the Rashford and Lingard ones were just no-nos. however if we're really saying he ran them into the ground after 3 months then we have far bigger problems than him being tactically inept and an idiot. we're basically saying we have a squad that can only sustain minimum efforts without falling apart. again i don't know why the previous regime is being left largely blameless for this. especially considering we weren't gegn pressing or rabid in our ball chasing and recovery when he first took over. it's not unheard of for a new coach to up intensity to try to change the form of a team. besides you have these dudes that grind every minute of the season in the championship at high intensity. which again maybe points to frail players which is not good for us. lastly, the intensity is less this season so if anything he IS learning from his mistakes. this is what i was afraid of with the lack of recruits that we'd be forced to take normally unnecessary risks. not saying that's necessarily the case now but i worry it might be later on
you keep saying that and i'll keep saying what i always say. look at the winners of the no one cares cups over the last 25 years. it's almost exclusively the top 4/6 clubs so clearly the players and managers care about it whether you or i like it or not. winning something can never hurt keeping a manager in his job
You're wrong, just flat out wrong. You think it was just a coincidence that the guys Ole was failing to rotate all came down with injuries around the same time after logging too many minutes? Ole came in and barely rotated the squad for months. This led to our entire front line being injured. He also (and continues to) play guys with too many minutes under their belt, or with nagging injuries, or fresh back from an injury in games that dont matter or they arent needed. If you disagree with that, you arent paying attention. He also changed our playing style a ton which involved a lot of full speed counters and a lot more pressing (especially with the front 3). You can say that was the previous regimes fault that the fitness levels were low and thats a valid argument. But as a manager, shouldn't Ole recognize that as something that needs to be changed and work slowly to build up fitness levels to play his style? Or should he just say, hey we're playing like this now so tough it out?
Winning these cups as a top 4 side is a by product of squad quality and depth. They rotate and mix and match. There is no realm that winning these cups can compare to finishing top 4 or winning the EL for us this season. We need to be in the CL. We can talk about what the owners will or won't do, but it will be a lot harder with less money. Especially if we fall behind financially. And we will fall behind Liverpool and City if we aren't in the CL net season.
i said that to say you cannot apply your mindset to his thinking. because the cups still mean something to the players and managers maybe he sees it as his best shot to win something this year. who knows. we're not exactly favourites in the UEL this time around. as for it just being squad depth and quality that's too simple an argument. if clubs really didn't care they'd do what we did in 2000. forfeit your place. it's not illegal. as much as most fans belittle the domestic cups the reality is they still matter to the players. i am not even sure how this came about. whether it's some elitist mindset or whatever i don't know
We have priorities. We can't hear about how thin the squad is every week, and then watch it run into the ground for stuff that is even on our list or priorities. There are trophies players really care about. Trophies that can make a player transfer to a club or stay at it. The Shield FAC and LC are not those. The clubs don't forfeit the spots because they still make match day revenue. Beyond that, we are not winning the FAC or LC this season. Also how much do fans care, really? Not a league game and it’s a replay no one wanted but still quite striking how sparse the stadium is tonight. Wolves didn’t want their 15% allocation, either (pic doesn’t do it justice) #mufc pic.twitter.com/2yob94Om3d— Samuel Luckhurst (@samuelluckhurst) January 15, 2020
mhm sure. except people like you that complain about it also don't want to see Jones Rojo Mata Matić Lingard and Young play either. seemingly not realising they are the rotation options we have. so he played the main team to try and get into the CL after the massive handicap José left him with and he gets shit for it. had he continued the dead pace same level play he'd have been crucified. he had to change something to correct an 11 point gap to fourth at the time. then this season he keeps those i just mentioned out of the team and since he "doesn't learn" and rotates and Jones comes in and shits the bed at Sheffield United "he deserves to lose for playing Jones". remember that? dude can't win. not like Tuanzebe has been fit either but i guess he's been run into the ground too. and lord knows Rojo and Jones aren't acceptable in the 11 as well. worse this year he has a smaller squad where we already significantly rely on youth just to make up numbers much less give any of the senior players a rest. and then there is the Garner/Levitt thing that i am sure will come as a rebuttal. no one knows how good they actually are and i rather not rush them in and possibly crush them if they can't perform. loans are fine. i love the pretending Rashford Martial and the rest of the front line weren't injury prone before he came too. not Rodwell levels of bad but always had knocks. likewise Herrera Pogba and a few others that went down. some of you need to pick a side and stick to it. at the start everyone was fine with a throwaway season. yea right... truth is, whether people want to admit it or not, most still want top 4 and good performances regardless of circumstances in the throwaway season with squad that they say isn't good enough anyway and hasn't been for seasons now and is smaller than usual. maybe even smaller than what's required. i want top 4 too. i just don't expect an uninterrupted upward trend with no bumps along the road. we've tried enough quick fixes. give a long term plan a try. we're 5th for now and in the latter stage of the UEL. bearing in mind he's only been allowed to add a good defensive RB and an average overpriced Matić in defence and a prospect winger. i mean Greenwood with no senior xp is our next in line forward lol quite frankly i think there is too much nitpicking of what's gone wrong and Solskjær's mistakes with very little mention of the things he has gotten right. he's not faultless but some of you are almost on a witch hunt for whatever reason. even if the opinion is he's bad don't invent stuff to criticise him for. there is enough stuff to lay at his feet but it can't all be his fault
what? not sure what you're getting at. i know the fans don't care. i was saying the players and managers do. and fair if you don't like the domestic cups and all that. as long as you're totally OK with the results the youth and the fringe players are or aren't going to get
Sorry, for some reason I read fan. My fault. It isn't that I don't like the FA Cup. I do. I like winning it. But to me, we are not in a position to spend the first 3 rounds running guys out there, we need for other matches. Especially with how thin our squad is. Every injury right now is compounded, and we keep getting injured playing twice a week, like we are in the Championship or something. I do not really care about the League Cup, unless it is a rivalry. And honestly, I don't think it should exist. Even France is getting rid of their league cup. Only England of the top 5 leagues now have one.
Latest injury update. https://www.manchestereveningnews.c...shford-manchester-united-injury-news-17590356 Really wouldn't be surprising to see Rashford back tomorrow, despite what Ole said. Let's hope that if he does, he's actually able to contribute (and not just be there). And more importantly, that he doesn't aggravate his current injury further. Way too important atm to lose him for any extended period of time.
Rashford is believed to be out for a few weeks now, as relayed by Ole. Talk about possibly being in deep right now, missing 3 of our best players in the squad... Solskjær says Rashford will be out "for weeks" with a back injury #mulive [sky]— utdreport (@utdreport) January 19, 2020
Apparently Rash has a double stress-fracture in his back and will be out for months (source Henry Winter from The Times). Rashford was carrying a single stress fracture in his back, now has a double stress fracture after Wolves game. Expected to be out for 2-3 months. Also has piece of floating bone in his ankle requiring non-intrusive surgery to remove. Been playing thru immense pain to help #mufc— Henry Winter (@henrywinter) January 19, 2020
Rashford done potentially for the remainder of the season, for all intents and purposes, is just very disconcerting news. All our attackers (and that includes Lingard and Greenwood) will have to step up, if we're to have any hope of making up for his absence. It's not like we're going to get a (much needed already) replacement for him anyhow... On the plus side for Ole, he's got absolutely nothing to worry about now. Our injuries are bailing him out, no matter what now.
Yep - that was big-time stupid. With this depth of squad were always going to be a lot of casualties (and will be more going forward I am sure). However Ole has made it worse by overplaying some key players.
i am going to call out the medical team here. it is their job to diagnose players properly. with all the technology and science available to determine whether a player is in the yellow or red zone they should be able to see these things. worse a stress fracture? how did that get missed AND how was Rashford passed fit to play? as much as people want to blame Solskjær it isn't his job to find fractures and things of that nature. missing that kind of injury is criminal. you really have to wonder what kind of advice the team is giving. or how far behind the tech and science is at Carrington
You think they missed the injury? Lol They knew about the first one, and a combination of playing on it, along with that challenge during the Wolves game probably created the 2nd. Im sure Rashford also made the decision to play on. If he said he didnt feel up to it, they would not play him. Athletes play with stress fractures frequently. At all levels.
No doubt in my mind they not only identified the injury, but also how severe it was and the potential risks. Unfortunately in this day and age the manager and player can override the medical professionals. All parties probably at fault in some regard.
i find it incredible they risked it and i am not actually convinced they did find it. maybe they hid the type of injury on purpose. playing on with a stress fracture of the back? why would anyone do that? if Rashford knew about it and wanted to keep playing on... well that's when you drop him from the squad completely. you'd really hope that wasn't the case even if we only have 3 forwards