OLE SHOOTS HIMSELF IN THE FOOT

United boss pays price for picking team with Premier League in mind

THIS was like watching the Manchester United that existed before the arrival of Bruno Fernandes and the emergence of Mason Greenwood.

Hesitant, one-paced and lacking creativity. How strange that this version of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s United should be allowed to show itself just when a corner towards a brighter, more recognisable future appeared to have been turned. The United manager played his own part in this enormous backward step.

He picked his team with the two remaining Premier League games in mind. Would Solskjaer have left out Greenwood, Anthony Martial and Paul Pogba had he known his club’s main rivals for the top four, Leicester City, were about to lose heavily at Tottenham just before this game kicked off?

It seems inconceivable that he would have, but the fact remains that he should not have selected this team anyway. His United side had been running hot on the back of consistency of selection and the sheer menace of his front three. To leave out two of them for this game was unnecessary.

In doing so he essentially took them back to where they were last autumn and for that folly Solskjaer paid a heavy price.

David de Gea’s personal horror show was fundamental to this defeat and it’s impossible not to feel sorry for a goalkeeper who should have left the club years ago. Chelsea’s first goal — superbly taken by Olivier Giroud — may have been a De Gea mistake. Their second, scored by Mason Mount, most certainly was and it’s hard to know who will feel worse this morning, De Gea or the Sheffield United manager Chris Wilder.

De Gea’s long-term replacement is Dean Henderson, currently on loan at Bramall Lane. Wilder will doubtless be preparing to spend this week with his phone turned off.

But this was a United no-show that had its roots in something much deeper than one man’s errors, namely that Solskjaer’s squad is not yet good enough to cope with the changes he forced upon them here.

Chelsea boss Frank Lampard must have received the United team sheet with enthusiasm and this was a game that his side dictated from the first moment.

Management can be complicated, but some things should not be. Pick your best team for the big games is one way of keeping things simple. It was because Sir Alex Ferguson used to do that so often that Solskjaer’s United career featured so many substitute appearances.

Here at Wembley, Solskjaer went back to players such as Daniel James, Eric Bailly and the midfielder Fred. James had started only one game since lockdown, Fred only one since Pogba was judged match fit, while Bailly has started only one Premier League game all season. So why play them in this semi-final? It made little sense at all and to have a chance in the game, United probably needed to score first.

That at least would have given them something to hold on to. This side was never going to dominate the ball against a Chelsea side who were technically superior. For Lampard’s team, Mount was impressive, while Giroud enjoyed himself in a competition he enjoys playing in.

But more importantly, Chelsea just looked like a team who knew what they were doing. There has been a straightforwardness about Lampard’s management this season that has been impressive. Unlike with previous bosses Maurizio Sarri and Antonio Conte, there has been nothing mysterious or overly clever about Lampard’s methods. Largely, he has picked players in their accustomed positions and adopted a system that suits them. It has not always been perfect but Chelsea have evolved slowly along a line that has been pretty clear from the outset of the season.

Now Lampard has a final as a reward and if that is accompanied by a place in the Champions League next season, he could not have asked for more from his first campaign as manager.

Chelsea’s players will have woken this morning surprised still at how simple United made it for them.

As for Solskjaer, he will be concerned with one salient fact. It’s West Ham at home on Wednesday.