Ole's playing a blinder, at least off the pitch. Can't be underestimated. Carrying his "baby-faced assassin" tag to management. All sweet & nicey nicey in conferences, meetings, check ins with Woodward & Glazers, etc. but orchestrating the media against them for personal gains.

If his choice of recruitment/signings are good, he'll put the club in a great position in ~18-20 months. Has strong transfer leverage to get what he wants. Question is, do we trust his entire recruitment plan/vision? Early pieces of work have been good, but let's see..

I like his general idea of signing with young, hungry, talented British players with an upside, but I think that criteria should only be seriously considered when looking at ATT & DEF. MF's an area that always requires culture, imo.

Historically, England consistently produce strong, commanding leader-like defenders + flair-filled, talented attackers with a physical edge - so I'm fine with that being a criteria.

Get the Wan-Bissaka's & Maguire's, go for Sancho.

However, they rarely produce a Paul Scholes, & when they do, they haven't got a clue what to do with him. Convinced there's a machine at the FA that creates duplicates of Jordan Henderson's, Eric Dier's, etc. Better served skipping the British criteria for MF.

They can field an all-English back 4 (AWB, Tuanzebe, Maguire, Shaw), you have Rashford & James who you'd imagine will be heavily involved over a ssn, then the likes of Lingard, Greenwood etc. in the fringes. McTominay will be getting mins. Pogba's virtually Manc.

The "British culture core" he's seeking is already there, but the British culture core will only do so much; they'll contest duels, they'll be intense, they'll press, they'll run, they'll be expressive in an attacking sense, but British culture won't control football matches.

British culture core won't outpass teams or be technically superior to anyone in the middle third in Europe. United were beyond blessed to have two absolute anomalies in Scholes & Carrick at the same time; complete historical outliers to what England produce. Pure fortune.

They need to stop trying to find the next British passport holding Carrick or Scholes. Longstaff would flopp painfully. Closest out there right now is Winks, who's physically deficient & would be vulnerable in a double pivot (given Ole's a keen user of 4-2-3-1).

Think a mix of:

-Hard, British-dominant back 4 with a leader/communicator

-Cultured, passing MF with athleticism/physical edge

-Quick, dynamic attackers

Is a decent blueprint to strive for.

& if he wants the entire 11 to be Brit dominated (5-6+) it's going to have to be in ATT where you strive for that, as you can find British players of the above final third description (add Sancho or Zaha to Greenwood/Rashford/James), but you struggle to do so with the MF one.

Rice is probably the closest to ticking all boxes, all things considered (young, physically good, quite technically clean, mentally strong) but the jury's out a little on his 1st+2nd phase qualities at a higher level, and I think United's new DM needs to have that in abundance.

Would like Rice's all-roundedness with Winks 1st/2nd phase qualities. That ability to show for it, keep things ticking, consistently progress it/find higher 8s & ATTS between the lines. Basically, Thomas Partey. If only he was English & played for Bournemouth

Used this the other day to highlight UTD's non-existent right-wing and ATT, asymmetrical imbalance - but compare City's #8 & #6 zones to ours. Our left #8 zone only looks semi-respectable because of Pogba.

Run-of-the-mill, British MF's aren't changing this. Utd need class.

Not sure how, but it's even worse this season. Central creation/between the lines COMPLETELY non existent without Pogba. Flanks the only way United have been able to consistently progress it, without having suitable players to do so with - AWB-zone been the go-to. He's not TAA.

Look at the CF/10 zone, lol. Not even talk about right-halfspace, *cough Sancho*

@Tacticsplatform is it possible to get a United touch-zone map for the first 3 games of the season (Chelsea, Wolves & Palace)? The period Shaw, Pogba & Martial shared the pitch together.