Firstly I'm not saying Ole is a master tactician and will go on to be as good as Pep for example, we don't have enough information for that. I do however feel his tactical awareness is being somewhat underrated.
For the previous games and news conferences we have seen a clear identity that Ole wants to implement. A high tempo, high press against what are considered some of the weaker teams in the league. Many of us questioned if this would work vs Spurs and he did what a lot of us thought he had to do...change.
It was clear from the offset we had set up differently to the previous games. The two forwards were wide and Lingard playing slightly deeper in the middle. It exploited the positioning of their full backs, and we got in behind them quite regularly. Bit of a myth as well that we just sat back to counter them, we did at times win the ball quite high up. It was as good a 45 mins of an away performance as I have seen for a long time from us.
Of course the second half will be of concern. They had their chances, and we had to hang on a little bit, but we also had our own chances. At the end of the day we were away to a very good side with a very good manager, who needed to win to keep faint hopes of a title challenge alive. They threw everything at us, and we held on. But make no mistakes, Ole's tactics played as big a role in that 3 points as DDG.
On a side note, absolutely love theses last few weeks of football.
Ole's tactics being underestimated
posted on 15/1/19
comment by Kung Fu Cantona 🙏🏼 🇵🇸 (U18082)
posted 8 minutes ago
I agree, the full backs were to blame for a lot as well, the entire back line was dreadful.
This needs to be fixed asap, I think it will hold until Liverpool at home though.
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The whole Defence has been an issue for far too long, old converted wingers are now fullbacks, Jones, Rojo (£16m plus Nani for the season) Smalling, Bailly not good enough except for Arsenal, then there’s Matic who was bought to play the holding midfielder role as a result against Spurs Herrera did the job of two players as far as I was concerned
Still Ole doing a cracking job so far
posted on 15/1/19
comment by Ed The King Woodward (U10026)
posted 8 hours, 41 minutes ago
Cb’s weren’t the biggest problem in the defence against Spurs yesterday. It was the full backs, especially Shaw.
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Shaw was diabolical at times. We cannot play him and Martial on the left against the better sides.
posted on 15/1/19
Im happier when Smalling plays, for all his detractors on here hes always delivered and been part of our best defensive pairings since LvG to date.
Hos distribution is not great but he doea what i expect defenders to do first and that is defend.
posted on 15/1/19
According to reports Ed Woodward is now convinced Solskjaer is the right man for the job after our win againsst Spurs and tactics and work in Dubai and probably how he has transformed us. Add in the fact it will be a lot cheaper to get Solskjaer in compared to Poch. I think we should give Solskjaer a 3 year deal.
posted on 15/1/19
Solskjaer prefers Rashford to mobility of Lukaku claims pundit.
https://www.dailystar.co.uk/sport/football/753520/Man-Utd-News-Paul-Pogba-Ole-Gunnar-Solskjaer
Seems we were working on that ball to Rashford a lot in training. No wonder the coaching staff were so pleased.
posted on 15/1/19
“Throughout the training session in Dubai he’s been practising his finishing with the manager,” Lingard said. “It’s prepared him for big games and moments like that.”
posted on 15/1/19
comment by Robb Ferguson (U21234)
posted 13 hours, 39 minutes ago
Spurs away win - Lindelof
Juventus away win - Lindelof
Arsenal away win - Lindelof
Works both ways and that’s literally just the first 3 I can think of
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None of the 3 were particularly good defensive performances... Spurs and arsenal are the two most saves a keeper has made in a Premier league game...
Every single one we have would benefit playing alongside a commanding cb
posted on 15/1/19
comment by Shugs (U14253)
posted 3 minutes ago
comment by Robb Ferguson (U21234)
posted 13 hours, 39 minutes ago
Spurs away win - Lindelof
Juventus away win - Lindelof
Arsenal away win - Lindelof
Works both ways and that’s literally just the first 3 I can think of
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None of the 3 were particularly good defensive performances... Spurs and arsenal are the two most saves a keeper has made in a Premier league game...
Every single one we have would benefit playing alongside a commanding cb
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But in both the Arsenal away and Spurs away games many football journos and websites praised Lindelof for his performance.
A lot of the time CBs get blamed for the lack of protection from full backs and DMs and they’re easy targets
posted on 15/1/19
comment by Robb Ferguson (U21234)
posted 6 hours, 14 minutes ago
comment by Shugs (U14253)
posted 3 minutes ago
comment by Robb Ferguson (U21234)
posted 13 hours, 39 minutes ago
Spurs away win - Lindelof
Juventus away win - Lindelof
Arsenal away win - Lindelof
Works both ways and that’s literally just the first 3 I can think of
----------------------------------------------------------------------
None of the 3 were particularly good defensive performances... Spurs and arsenal are the two most saves a keeper has made in a Premier league game...
Every single one we have would benefit playing alongside a commanding cb
----------------------------------------------------------------------
But in both the Arsenal away and Spurs away games many football journos and websites praised Lindelof for his performance.
A lot of the time CBs get blamed for the lack of protection from full backs and DMs and they’re easy targets
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Don't remember him being praised for the arsenal game... And that can't be blamed on full backs because we played a shambolic 3 at the back
Unless Lindelof can grow or get better in the air he'll always be a bit of a risk
As you may have noticed I'm not a huge fan... But he's improving... And looks far better on the ball under ole than he did under jose, obv with the rest of the team having more freedom he has space and options
posted on 15/1/19
Lindelof did get quite a lot of praise for the Arsenal game, not sure why the defence was a shambles.
His weaknesses in the air is weird, looked good for Sweden in the air when I’ve seen him for them.
The problem we face is that we need a lot of investment in the back four, but it’s not quite as simple as just signing an entirely new back four - even if it’s what we need.