(Photo by Daily Mail)
This seems to be a recurring theme of Ole Gunnar Solskjær’s tenure as manager of Manchester United; the team drop silly points and his back is against the wall, only for him to miraculously survive the chop during a difficult run of fixtures after being bailed out by his star performers. As a Manchester United fan, this pattern cannot be allowed to keep repeating itself if we want to get back to where we are supposed to be. You rarely see Manchester City, Liverpool or Chelsea having these problems. Saturday’s emphatic 3-0 win over Tottenham Hotspurs could have resulted in the sacking of either manager if the result didn’t go their way, with Nuno Espirito Santo’s short reign at Spurs coming to an end on the Monday, with Antonio Conte already being appointed as the new manager of the North London Club. You can only imagine that the shoe surely would have been on the other foot if the result was reversed and United were well and truly beaten again following their 5-0 home thumping by Liverpool the week before, but Ole lives another day.
A desperate change in personal and formation was crucial in securing the win for The Red Devils at Tottenham, with the traditional 4-2-3-1 being replaced with what appeared to be a 3-5-2, with Cristiano Ronaldo and Edinson Cavani spearheading the attack to a resounding success, with Ronaldo scoring and assisting and Cavani getting his first Premier League goal of the season in a display that showed that class absolutely is permanent. A strike force with the combined age of 70 showed more fire and desire than nearly any other display this season, with Solskjær’s experiment working out in this instance. The three centre backs managed to nullify Spurs’ wonky attack, with Harry Kane being virtually non-existent throughout the game and the only real threat to United’s defence being Heung-Min Son. However, despite this change in formation, there was one very frustrating remaining fixture in my opinion, with the partnership of Scott McTominay and Fred still surviving in the midfield. McTominay put in a decent performance in all fairness, but I am still baffled as to what Fred offers the team, as he runs around much like a headless chicken and is lacklustre in his passing and tackling ability. He had a very decent long-range effort in the first half to be fair to him, but I think that playing either Donny Van de Beek or Nemanja Matic instead would solidify that midfield and give the defence a little more relief in their duties. A performance I noticed that I wanted to draw attention to was the performance of Raphael Varane, who marshalled that defence into a much better shape, with United’s defensive positioning coming under a lot of flak recently, the French international showed why he is one of the most decorated defenders in the game right now, despite not being fully fit and this game could have reaggravated his injury (which we will get to later), and kept Spurs’ attack at bay. Spurs had a few chances including one disallowed goal but overall, it was a comfortable performance from United, with all eyes off Solskjær for the time being, but how long will that last? After this game, a crucial European tie loomed away at Atalanta, with Cristiano Ronaldo sparing Solskjær’s blushes after a terrible home performance in their last meeting at home still resulting with a 3-2 win for The Red Devils after an incredible performance by the record-breaking Portuguese star and his late leap to secure the winner. I wonder how this is going to go a second time around.
Well, wouldn’t you know it! Solskjær was spared his blushes, AGAIN, in the Champions League thanks to Cristiano Ronaldo, with another late goal saving United from a bad result away at Atalanta, with a loss meaning that United could have been eliminated from the group stage next match week at Villereal. Ronaldo smartly tucked away a volley into the bottom left corner to give The Red Devils a 2-2 draw that keeps them at the top of their group, only needing 3 points from their last 2 games to ensure qualification to the knockout stage. These scenarios are becoming scarily regular for Solskjær, with a lacklustre performance being salvaged by an individual performance. His line up on paper looked quite nice, with him finally dropping Fred whilst playing Eric Bailly after an injury to Victor Lindelöf ruled him out. Bailly was United’s standout player with Ronaldo, again reminding us that when he is fit, he is an incredibly agile and fearless defender, the sort of player that United need at the back right now, especially after Solskjær’s decision to play a not fully fit Varane and Maguire, leading to another injury to Varane shortly after returning. This leaves United without the French international for their crucial upcoming match against Manchester City, a game that could see United get themselves level on points with Guardiola’s side, with a tricky run continuing after the upcoming international break. These are scary hours. I think now with Antonio Conte being whisked away by Spurs, that Solskjær will keep his job now until the end of the season at the very least, with my gut feeling being that the board are going to stick with Ole for the foreseeable future.
With Spurs’ quick acquisition of Antonio Conte, the options for United to replace Solskjær are even more limited than before. If they do take the decision to get rid of Solskjær, (which I still believe that they should), they need a manager with a pedigree of success and that plays attractive, attacking football, which are traits that are quite hard to find in managers nowadays, let alone managers that are available to take over Manchester United right now. Conte would have been the choice I would have made, as I think Solskjær should have been dismissed after the Liverpool thrashing. A manager with experience in success, leading multiple sides to glory including Juventus and Chelsea, with his time with Juventus being one that got the best out of Paul Pogba during his time there, maybe Conte was the key that could have unlocked the potential that Pogba is fully able to show at Manchester United. His 3-4-3/3-5-2 formation seems to have been working during Solskjær’s last throw of the dice so far, allowing more coverage for in front of David De Gea and allowing Luke Shaw to attack without him needing to be back as urgently. But alas, that option is off the table, so who could be the contenders to take over from Solskjær if the board come to their senses. A lot of talk is about Zinedine Zidane right now, a manager that has quite an impressive CV for his relatively short time as a manager, winning the Champions League three times and winning La Liga twice in his two short reigns at Madrid. Whilst it is an impressive feat, I cannot help but think that with the squad that Madrid had during those years, you’d have been considered an utter failure if you didn’t manage to win the Champions League during that time, with stars like Ronaldo, Ramos, Varane, Modric, Kroos, Benzema and many, many more at the top of their game. Whilst United have a relatively strong squad, I think Zidane may struggle to get this current crop of players to get to the heights where they once were under Sir Alex Ferguson, and like we saw during Mourinho’s tenure at Old Trafford, the board weren’t willing to get him the players that he needed to strengthen the squad. The board will keep Solskjær for as long as they can because they can control him, whereas a manager like Zidane or Conte knows their worth and know exactly who they need. A manager I really admire right now is the current Ajax manager Erik ten Hag, a manager that doesn’t necessarily have that winning pedigree that a United manager perhaps should have on his CV, still winning the Eredivisie twice with Ajax in his four years. But the most impressive aspect of ten Hag is how he manages to get the best out of his players, not just in the domestic stage but on a European one as well. I remember watching his team sail through the Champions League in the 2018/19 season, beating Real Madrid and Juventus on their way to a Semi Final defeat to Tottenham Hotspurs. His team got ripped apart in the following season, with De Jong, De Ligt and Van de Beek being three high profile departures, but with his input and his scouts, he was able to source replacements that are developing into fine prospects such as Gravenberch, Timber and Antony just to name a few. He has managed to get the best out of players that were seen as having past their best years or that disappointed in major leagues such as Tadic, Haller and Blind, playing an incredibly attractive and free flowing attacking style that is mesmerising to watch. I think he would be a very interesting appointment at Old Trafford, but my worries immediately go towards whether he would be allowed to get the players in and out that he wants to and whether the board back him or try to control him. Only time would tell, and time doesn’t seem to be a commodity that is given to managers as much these days.
But for now, it seems like Ole is very much at the wheel for the foreseeable future, but that could all change with a run of bad results, especially if our Portuguese stars doesn’t bail him out as much as they have been over the last few years. Whilst tactically I think the man is limited at best, I hope that this reign at the helms doesn’t tarnish his reputation as a hero around Old Trafford, a man that scored an incredibly important goal in United’s history and a consummate professional with an eye for goal.
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