United in denial as Solskjaer defence continues to collapse
Hdespite a team bereft of identity lurching into yet another crisis, club seem no closer to firing manager
There were three arguments why Ole Gunnar Solskjaer deserved backing and time as Manchester United manager:
1. He took over a club and a team who felt traumatised – according to those working there – by the fractious Jose Mourinho regime, even if trophies were won.
2. The club required a reset – a “cultural reboot” as it became known – after trying different approaches following the retirement of Sir Alex Ferguson in 2013. They had lost their identity through the varying ways of David Moyes, Louis van Gaal and Mourinho. Solskjaer provided the link to what United believed in.
3. And the simplest of all: Despite lavish spending, the squad were not good enough to challenge for major trophies.
Unfortunately for Solskjaer, none of those arguments now work. The first? It is almost three years since Mourinho left and if the complaints were accurate then, they no longer apply. Three years is a lifetime in football.
Solskjaer has had plenty of time to improve harmony.
As a manager as experienced as Slaven Bilic once explained, sometimes bringing in any new manager can produce a short-term benefit because it can relieve the pressure; because something has to be done.
It is what happens after that initial burst that matters.
The second? United have restructured themselves.
On the pitch, they appeared to have moved towards targeting a younger squad. Off the pitch, they have overhauled their recruitment and technical departments and finally appointed a director of football in
John Murtough, with Darren Fletcher promoted to technical director. It is said that within this structure Solskjaer regards himself as more of a general manager than a head coach. And the third? Well, that is the most damning of all.
Since Solskjaer arrived, United have spent more than £400million and recouped around £110million of that.
In have come Cristiano Ronaldo, Edinson Cavani, Bruno Fernandes, Harry Maguire, Jadon Sancho, Aaron Wan-bissaka and Donny van de Beek. This has to be a squad fit for purpose; a squad capable of challenging for trophies and a squad with a discernible style of play. Right now none of those appear to apply.
Words as well as deeds are confusing and that hints at an underlying lack of certainty.
Before the shambolic defeat by Leicester City, Solskjaer, while trying to compliment Marcus Rashford for his off-field campaigning, suggested that now he was fully fit he should “prioritise football”. It was not meant to cause any harm, but was clumsy and earned unhelpful headlines.
Before that Ferguson was filmed suggesting it was wrong not to start Ronaldo against Everton, with the player then marching off down the tunnel muttering to himself after the draw at Old Trafford.
It is easy to guess what he was muttering about.
After the defeat by Leicester, Solskjaer said “something has to give,” while Paul Pogba said United “need to change something”. What could the “something” possibly be?
It does not smack of a manager in control,
and the the room is Solskjaer himself. United awarded him a new three-year contract, with the option of a further year, in July with executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward talking of “foundations” being in place “for long-term success”, which felt like another jam tomorrow statement from a club who should not be perennially waiting.
Yet, despite the stuttering start to the season, the message from United remains unequivocal: Solskjaer is 100 per cent backed.
The club even stressed that Pogba’s post-match comments should not be linked to the manager’s future. So what was that “something” that needs to change?
The most damning indictment is that there is no discernible style of play. It appears to depend on individual moments, while deploying different players leads to different approaches. They are not interchangeable.
Fundamentally they look under-coached, and that buck must stop with Solskjaer.
United have won two of their past seven matches, both of which were fortunate. Against West Ham in the league Mark Noble missed a last-minute penalty and against Villarreal at home in the Champions League, they were outplayed before Ronaldo’s 95th-minute goal. It could easily have been no wins in seven.
So what next? Their immediate run of games is Atalanta at home in the Champions League tomorrow, Liverpool at home on Sunday, Tottenham Hotspur away, Atalanta away, Manchester City at home. Such is the talent available that they could win them all and, in fairness to Solskjaer, he has pulled off big wins in adversity in the past.
But they could also lose them all. And that is the problem for United under
Solskjaer. There is no sense of what to expect and little sign of an identity. They still look like a club and a team in transition and lacking leadership.
This is not about sacking Solskjaer, but United do need a coach. Maybe, instead, it is about finding him a new role given his apparent interest in the wider aspects of the club. Meanwhile, the arguments in support of Solskjaer as manager are getting weaker and weaker as each game passes.
United look like a club in denial.