1.) 04 Sep 2019
04 Sep 2019 08:09:45
He's done pretty much everything most people wanted him to do. Get rid of surplus players, promote youth, change the style of play. Is it perfect yet? Are the results good enough? Absolutely not. But to not give him at least a couple of years before judging is uncharitable to say the least. The next three windows should see three or four top class players come in to bolster the youthful options. I'm excited to see what happens.

2.) 04 Sep 2019
04 Sep 2019 08:38:20
Ole promotes the youth in his press conferences. Has that transpired onto the pitch? I'd say no. We've been drawing or losing in the last 3 games and Ole has given Greenwood 30 odd minutes. McT had already played a host of games so he's not exactly new to the first team. Lingard has been atrocious. No Gomes. Mata comes into the team. No Chong. Our "best finisher at the club" gets the last few minutes when we're chasing a game. Granted it is early in the season, but when the results don't go our way over the next few months, Ole will play the old pro's and not turn to youth.

Before every window we make a dreamlist of players to improve our team. What makes you think over the next 3 or 4 Windows we will do the right business? Our record in the transfer market recently makes for terrible reading.

Hypothetically if we do revamp the squad with the quality of players we need to start consistently moving up the table. Is Ole a good enough coach to get the best out of a group of players? I'm very worried that our managers ability to effect games from the bench. Which brings it into a wider point, that he doesn't know how to bounce back after a poor result, mirroring his inability to effect change.

The biggest problem is though that we don't have 2 or 3 years to let Ole learn on the job. We already have players from Spurs turning us down (no disrespect). Eriksson would rather stay at Spurs than join Man Utd. Our stock in the football world is falling. There a newer modern stadiums being built every year. Better managers with more standing in the game. Younger players won't dream of playing for United, sponsors won't pay as much.

We will always be a behemoth of a club. But there are huge clubs that have spent decades in the wilderness and we are not above that.

3.) 04 Sep 2019
04 Sep 2019 10:04:00
RWWD that's all well and good but what if we were to finish 6th,7th,8th or lower would the top class players needed to bolster the youthful options want to come. I'm not certain they would as the top players want to compete for the top honours. They may come if we throw money at them but we've all seen the problems with that. I'm hope for a couple of top class editions in January to help push us on for a top 4 finish but that's a hard market with teams no wanting to part with their better players and also not sure the board will deliver.
I really hope that the board do give ole all the help he wants with additions but fear they won't knowing he'll toe the line basically hanging him out to dry.

4.) 04 Sep 2019
04 Sep 2019 10:04:29
im with mumbles on the youth policy, ole has sang there praises but given only greenwood game time. gomes in particular should be getting some minutes under his belt especially considering how poor lingard has performed. garner hasn't even made match day squads yet but anyone watching the u23,s cannot fail to be impressed with his work rate, goals and hitting 60-70yd passes on a sixpence. as we have seen right across the premier league young up and coming stars are in a hurry to play 1st team football and we've seen a mass exodus of all the prems top team starlets moving abroad to achieve this especially to the bundesliga. chongs agent already has had overtures from big european clubs, so its a problem we and other clubs will face if there good enough play them or lose them.

5.) 04 Sep 2019
04 Sep 2019 10:48:22
There's a big jump from U23 games to the first team. I'm sure the coaches know how close they are to the first team. Sometimes players have to be eased in.

6.) 04 Sep 2019
04 Sep 2019 11:23:40
We've had the youngest team in the PL, the opening game was the youngest ever team, yet some will say he's not giving youth a chance. I think the young players mentioned need to be slowly embedded, with Butt working alongside them to aid their transitioning.

James, AWB, McTominay have all been given big roles, Greenwood is slowly being introduced. Martial and Rashford are still young, but I can see Rashford being phased out if he doesn't develop a better end product. Martial has looked good in the 9 position so far, shame he picked up that injury, but he's far more clinical than Rashford.

Another point is that Ole has made Tuanzebe third choice CB, this has allowed Smaling to leave, with Jones and Rojo seemingly on the sidelines. Can't see them having a future, especially once Bailly returns.

I think this season is all about patience. And hopefully by the end of next summer, the likes of Jones, Rojo, Matic, Mata, Young and Lingard will have moved on.

7.) 04 Sep 2019
04 Sep 2019 11:37:32
I completely agree with all of that Ludwig. My point is that Ole is getting praised for his promotion of youth yet the facts show he's quite reluctant to play them. I would like to see them coming on when we need a lift. I don't think anyone is expecting them to be starters.

Chong should have went out on loan. He isn't going to rack up many minutes. Hopefully Gomes gets games because we are crying out for some guile and creativity up forward.

I'm not knocking Ole for not putting kids into the team. But he shouldn't be lauded for it either.

8.) 04 Sep 2019
04 Sep 2019 19:09:07
Nellym. To answer your question: money. ;)

Good points from all and nice discussion.

I think time will tell if he’s serious about blooding the youth but they are certainly more prominent members of the squad than in the last six years.

Looking forward to spanking Leicester.

9.) 04 Sep 2019
04 Sep 2019 20:18:43
Good post Ludwig 👍🏼.

10.) 04 Sep 2019
04 Sep 2019 20:28:58
They will get plenty of game time once we have two games a week.

11.) 04 Sep 2019
04 Sep 2019 21:38:39
Klopp used to get heavily criticised for his use of subs. The reality was that he didn't think they were ready and so was sparing in the minutes they got. i'd think you should give Ole a chance to ease the youngsters in. He will be watching them in training to see if they are ready (and some might never be) but throwing them in before they are ready won't necessarily help their development.

12.) 05 Sep 2019
05 Sep 2019 09:00:18
Good point Phil.

13.) 05 Sep 2019
05 Sep 2019 12:36:54
Good point Phil. I think there are a lot of parallels with our current situation and yourselves a few years ago.