#OleOut — What’s going wrong for Solskjaer at United?
Manchester United had never lost to Arsenal at Old Trafford in the Premier League in 14 years. Fourteen long years. And it took only ninety minutes for the current crop of Red Devils to tarnish the reputation that their predecessors had left in the Theatre of Dreams. But this is the very side which earned two big wins against Paris Saint-Germain and RB Leipzig in the last two weeks. Then who is to blame? The answer is undisputedly — Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
The Norwegian coach, who had two short stints with his local club and with another Championship club in England, has seen life come at him in a full circle with the win in Paris two weeks ago. Apparently, it was an away win over Paris Saint-Germain a couple of years back in this very competition which secured his permanent role as the Manchester United manager in theory.
But since then, Ole has been a constant target of own as well as rival supporters blaming his lack of tactical knowledge and over-focus on motivational man-management for the results that the club has seen. Well, it’s not just the tactics and strategies that have been Ole’s biggest draw-back. Even the statistics point toward the same conclusion.
Solskjaer is actually the third most probable manager to be sacked by the end of the season, just behind Sheffield United’s Chris Wilder and West Brom’s Slaven Bilic when it comes to odds. This is shocking because while the other two teams are relegation candidates, Manchester United cannot afford to finish anything below a Champions League spot.
Today we take a look at the top four things that are going wrong for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer at Manchester United currently.
#4 Surprisingly large lack of consistency
For anyone who has been a United fan in the last two years, every week has been a very predictable story. First, the Red Devils achieve an expected victory, then they put up a shambolic show against an extremely inferior side, which leads to a hype for the next game which they lose in a disappointing fashion. And after all of this chaos, there comes an unexpected victory against a huge side which causes a stir in the red half of Manchester. This vicious cycle goes on and on.
It’s strange that amidst the plethora of problems that Ole is accused off, every week, nobody has actually pointed out his inconsistency of performances, and thus results. This lack of consistency stems from a fundamental problem that Solskjaer and United are dealing with — Non-existence of a method or a proper system.
The last two Champions of England, Liverpool and Manchester City have shown that the team needs to have a rigid playing style which has answers to most of the opposition’s questions on the field. Manchester City build the game right from the back with their defenders being the first attackers and midfielders dropping deep to collect the balls and start the offensive phase. Meanwhile, Liverpool heavily rely on their full-backs and wingers for their explosive and invincible playing style.
Not only the giants, but the smaller Premier League clubs like Burnley and Southampton also have their specific playing styles which get them the required results with lower quality personnel. While Burnley focus on using floated crosses in the box and set-pieces to cause problems for the opposition, Southampton have been playing some really quick-paced passing football which helps them get out of the pressure by their opponents.
These ideologies are a manager’s responsibility, which Solskjaer is failing to implement after two years at Old Trafford now.
#3 Financial backing from the Board
To give the Norwegian coach a benefit of doubt, it has not solely been his fault that Manchester United are sitting 15th in the points table as we speak. A lot of the problems have also been due to the pathetic management hierarchy that has been operating at the top-level at Manchester United.
It’s common knowledge that every club needs a link between the Chief Executive and the Manager. This link, known as a Footballing Director, usually creates harmony between the manager’s wishes for recruitment and the chief executive’s orders of keeping the finances strict — eventually leading to a perfect balance for on-field progress.
Since United’s legendary coach Sir Alex Ferguson left in 2013, the club was already in shambles. The lack of a Footballing Director caused even bigger issues in the red half of Manchester and the tremors of the same are felt even until today.
Ed Woodward, the CEO of Manchester United, has been dealing with all the transfer negotiations, budgeting and also with the contract situations — which means that he is actually reprising the role of both a Chief-Executive and a Football Director all at once.
But after all, Woodward is a part of the club management. He finds peace when the club can achieve results with least amount of monetary resources utilized. This is resulting in there being huge clashes of ideas between him and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
Manchester United had a high priority of bringing in English starlet Jadon Sancho from Borussia Dortmund this summer. But as the two club managements failed to reach an agreement with a difference of a meagre 20 million pounds, it only suggests how much United have fallen off the perch.
If things are to change at Manchester United, the club needs to spend as per the wishes of Solskjaer, and get him the required personnel that he needs to make his boyhood club relevant in English football, again.
#2 An imbalanced first-team
English football has evolved a lot in the last few years. After the arrival of Jurgen Klopp and Pep Guardiola, new playing systems have made their way to the Premier League. Now upon Leeds United’s promotion, Marcelo Bielsa is also in the game. Amidst these footballing geniuses trying to conquer the most watched soccer league in the world, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s Manchester United seems to be an ant amongst elephants.
The biggest evidence of this has been United’s imbalance starting eleven. Starting from the defence, United’s first-choice full-backs Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Luke Shaw seem very incompetent when compared to their peers in other clubs. While none of the English wider defenders can produce magic from the wings after overlapping runs, their lack of defensive vision has cost United lots of points recently.
Talking about the central defence, the Red Devils’ centre-back duo of Harry Maguire and Victor Lindelof are Fords against Ferraris. Very slow, not only physically but mentally too, they struggle in counter-attacks by the opposition — and this is in a league which thrives on teams playing counter-attacking football.
Coming to the midfield and the attack, most of the game for the Premier League giants has been about passing the ball to Marcus Rashford and letting him do the magic. While the Englishman has proved his worth by getting some goals under this strategy, this short-term plan cannot win trophies for the club, which is known for the titles they have won in the past.
Though the arrival of Bruno Fernandes has eased the pressure of Rashford a bit, the overall mantle of pressure on Fernandes and Rashford both has always been rising — resulting into both the stars being exhausted and overused.
Solskjaer needs to change his plan according to the opposition every week or find a spot-less system which flourishes against any team, as soon as possible. A manager who doesn’t know his perfect starting eleven usually has his days numbered in the Premier League.
#1 Sucking up to the stars in the team
The last and the most important talking point about Solskjaer’s repeated failures at Manchester United is the manager sticking to his star players despite the latter putting in worthless performances week-in week-out.
The biggest example of this has been Paul Pogba. After recovering from a long term injury which saw him miss most of the matches last season, Pogba has looked very ordinary in the heart of the United midfield this season. He has been played in various roles by Ole — a holding midfielder, a box-to-box midfielder and even recently as the left-part of a front-three. The Frenchman has been poor in each of these roles.
In spite of this repeated debacles by the club’s most expensive signing ever, Solskjaer has stuck to Pogba in the starting eleven. New club signing Donny van de Beek, who excited a hefty amount of supporters on his arrival, has been left on the bench lamenting his fate as he gets a meagre 15 minutes of game time — after watching the already established stars of the team put in shambolic performances for over an hour on the field.
A similar case happened last season when goal-keeper David De Gea hit his worst form of his career but was never dropped from the starting eleven. The club boasts a superb shot-stopper in the form of Sergio Romero, who has been clearly outcast by Ole and Co. which even recently led to Romero’s wife blasting the club management on social media.
Well, these are just four of the top problems from the pile of issues that the fortress of Old Trafford is going through. With most of them being fundamental fatalities, such situations usually end with the manager being sacked. Will Ole be sacked at the end of the season? Will he overturn the fortunes and guide United to a respectable finish? Will a respectable finish and another trophy-less season be enough to let him keep his job? Only time will tell.