Ole won’t pay attention to derby odds...
IT is widely accepted that Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is tactically inferior to Pep Guardiola.
The United manager’s head-tohead record against Guardiola actually suggests that popular belief isn’t true, though.
While City have won countless major honours to no response from United during Solskjaer’s almost three-year tenure, the Manchester derby has a clear tendency to bring the best out of the Norwegian for the all-important bragging rights.
Solskjaer has encountered Guardiola in eight games during his United reign – and he’s won four of those and drawn one.
Every one of those wins that United have secured against City under Solskjaer’s leadership have been underpinned by ruthless counter-attacking football and the Reds’ average possession from those Manchester derby triumphs is just 32 per cent.
Regardless of statistics, in games of such magnitude, the result is the only thing that matters and that perfectly suits Solskjaer.
Solskjaer has had to face the uncomfortable truth that he’s been unable to implement cohesive, fluid attacking football this season – that’s down to his own tactical failures.
United have world-class players and quality in abundance all over the pitch and yet Solskjaer’s vision has looked as effective as the UK government’s incompetent plan to tackle the pandemic at the start of the crisis last year.
United looked transformed at the weekend in the Premier League when playing five at the back, albeit against an awful Tottenham side led by the ill-fated Nuno Espirito Santo, however, that system allows the opposition to enjoy the majority of possession.
That wasn’t particularly evident against a poor Tottenham, but against Atalanta – who are a good side in comparison – it certainly was. When considering this and that Guardiola’s teams are synonymous with retaining the ball, it seems inevitable that United will work mostly out of possession on Saturday afternoon when welcoming City to Old Trafford, although that will be by design to some extent. While history has shown that United can hurt City on the counter-attack and that’s exactly what they’ll intend to do, there is one potential problem – it seems that Solskjaer could be forced to revert to the 4-2-3-1 formation that has been tragically porous. With Raphael Varane out and Victor Lindelof having sustained a knock, Solskjaer might have to play four at the back again and, while that may seem disastrous at first glance, every cloud has a silver lining, as the old adage goes.
That’s because the 4-2-3-1 formation could allow certain personnel to return to the starting line-up that will offer pace to swiftly transition that might have otherwise been left on the sidelines, namely Marcus Rashford, Mason Greenwood or Jadon Sancho.
Whatever formation that Solskjaer uses on the day, the plan will obviously be to counter-attack Guardiola’s side. The odds have been stacked against United in similar circumstances and they’ve prevailed against City – it might just work again.
Solskjaer has won four and drawn one of eight derbies against Guardiola
Steven Railston