THREAD

OLE'S SQUAD BUILDING

When Ole said there's a lot of talent in our team everyone thought he was being diplomatic

But by adding just 3 first team names he's managed to freshen up the entire squad

Ole's squad building is meticulous & carefully planned

Let me remind you

Before I go into detail, let's look at the core philosophical changes that Ole brought in:

Before Ole (After SAF)
- focus on big name signings
- focus on instant results

Ole
- focus on x factor
- focus on mentality
- focus on personality
- focus on workrate
- focus on youth

This shift looks straightforward but it took 7 seasons of mismanagement & the foresight of a manager who knows the club to materialize.

United had accumuled an unbalanced squad with vastly contrasting personalities.

Ole understood that a rebuild begins with a cleanup.

To begin with, here's the squad Ole inherited from Mou

GK: DDG/Romero
CB: Lindelof/Bailly/Jones/Smalling/Rojo
LB: Luke Shaw
RB: Valencia/Young/Dalot/Darmian
DM: Matic/Fred/Fellaini
CM: Pogba/Herrera/McT
AM: Mata/Lingard/Periera
LW: Sanchez/Rashford/Martial
RW: ?
CF: Lukaku

This squad had glaring issues

- too many CB's yet no quality
- same case at RB
- too few LB's
- too many defensive minded MFs
- too many starting LW's
- not one RW
- too little creativity

& Most importantly:

- only 6 U23 players
- 11/26 players were 28+

Ole understood there are too many holes & too many stagnating players in this squad - this rebuild can't be finished in 1 or 2 windows.

So instead of looking at bringing in more players the first thing he set about to do was looking at who all to keep & who all to be moved on.

Even in this bloated, unbalanced squad Ole knew he had a great spine to start a rebuild with.

Ole chose - Pogba, Rashford & Martial

3 players who had lost faith under Mou to build his team around

In Luke Shaw, Lindelof & Matic he found 3 other starters to speed up the process.

This is evident if you see the starting XI for Jose's last game vs LFC to Ole's first vs Cardiff.

Ole came in & immediately reinstated Rashford, Martial, Pogba & Shaw into the starting XI.

Now would be a good time to point out these 4 are among our best players right now.

Now with a clear picture of the spine it was time to start unloading some players.

Players Ole moved on:

1. Fellaini, 31
2. Lukaku, 26
3. Smalling, 29
4. Darmian, 29
5. Valencia, 33
6. Herrera, 29
7. Sanchez, 30

Winter:
8. Rojo: 29
9. Young: 34

Avg Age of the above: 30

Losing 9 players is tough no matter how bloated the squad is. But this is where the man's quote speaks for itself:

"I would rather have holes in the squad than assholes"

Before looking at the players coming in let's take a look at what the squad looked like minus these players

Squad that Ole didn't sell/loan:

GK: DDG/Romero
CB: Lindelof/Bailly/Jones
LB: Shaw
RB: Dalot
DM: Matic/Fred
CM: Pogba/McT
AM: Mata/Lingard/Periera
LW: Rashford/Martial
RW: ?
CF: ?

It's evident which all spots need filling/improvement. Let's take a look at how he went about it

Like I always say Ole is the first manager since SAF to look into the squad for improvement than outside it.

A case in point is how one of the first decisions he made was attending our u18 & u23 matches to get a clear idea on how good our youngsters were.

Seeing the talent in Mason & knowing the talent in Rashford & Martial, Ole knew the attack has potential if coached & backed right.

So before buying anyone he did a little reshuffling.

- Rashford was given LW permanently
- Martial was given the 9
- Mason & Brandon were promoted

Next up was to look at the squad and decide who can step up from a squad role to a first team role.

Fred had bought for 50m the season before after superb performances but was unwanted by Mourinho

McT had been tried in a variety of positions and was very promising.

Promoted from Rotation to Regular
1. Rashford, 21
2. Martial, 23
3. Fred, 26
4. McT, 22

Promoted from Academy to Rotation
1. Brandon, 19
2. Mason, 17

Avg age of players promoted from within: 21.3

Age breakdown (Inc Bruno, Ighalo)
- 9 U23 players excl youth
- Only 6/25 are 28+

Avg age of players moved on: 30
Avg age of players promoted from within: 21.3

After this reshuffling the problem areas are quite apparent:

1. Defense
2. RW

This is where Ole had a tricky choice. To invest in the wings or the defense.

He chose the defense for 2 key reasons:

1. The attack comprising of Martial & Rashford supported by Mata, Lingard & Pereira although nowhere near complete still had goals in them.

2. The defense on the other hand had just Lindelof & Shaw as first choices and had just conceded 54 goals in a season.

Having a solid foundation is imperative to grinding out results in a rebuild season.

So he bought 2 defenders
1. Harry Maguire, 26 (CB)
2. AWB, 21(RB)

These 2 additions with Shaw & Lindelof meant he had a solid back 4 to start the rebuild on.

After these two acquisitions the bill had already reached 130m and he knew he had to be prudent

So for the other problem position RW, he bought

Daniel James, 21 (RW/LW)

A risk free long term project who offered depth on both wings & had great fitness & work rate

Now the squad is:

GK: DDG/Romero
CB: Maguire/Lindelof/Bailly/Jones
LB: Shaw
RB: AWB/Young/Dalot
DM: Matic/Fred
CM: Pogba/McT
AM: Periera/Jesse/Mata
LW: Rashford/James
RW: Mata/Jesse/James
CF: Martial

This was a wafer thin squad but Ole risked it bcs https://twitter.com/SensibleUtd/status/1263449111321120770?s=19

To recap:

Ole had moved on 9 players, bought 3 and promoted 6.

9 in 9 out.

Avg age of a players sold/loaned: 30
Avg age of the three new signings: 22.6
Avg age of all players promoted from within: 21.3

Also we went from 6 U23 talents to 9 and
11 over 28 ones to just 6.

Come January the team had gone thru a tough half season but the progress was evident for those who looked

- Marcus & Martial were scoring
- Maguire & AWB were solid
- James was doing more than what was asked
- Fred/McT pivot was working

Now he could look to the next step: BRUNO

I'm not going to detail the impact Bruno has had as it's quite evident for all to see.

With Bruno as his 4th signing:

No of players moved on: 9
No to players bought: 4
Avg age of players moved on: 30
Avg age of players bought: 23.25

The first round of the rebuild was over.

With Bruno added & Pogba coming back there was another minor reshuffling this time a few players were rightly demoted from rotation to fringe

Rotation to Fringe
1. Mata
2. Pereira
3. Lingard

Scott & Fred were demoted from first team to rotations

Ole's rebuild comes full circle

Ole is building this team brick by brick focusing on long term gains while taking on short term pains.

He's building a team that enjoys playing for Utd & for each other. They're young, hungry, eager to learn & succeed.

I can't wait to see "Rebuild: Round 2"

Let's back the man!