Ole needs to focus on the details if he is to turn fortunes around for Red Devils
Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has been given a chance to turn things around at the club after the 5-0 hammering at home by Liverpool on 24 October.
Despite speculation that he was set to be replaced after nearly three years in the position, Solskjaer remains in his post for the time being.
United’s players and staff were back at their Carrington training ground two days after the Liverpool mauling, as the Norwegian manager began the task of dealing with the aftermath of their shocking performance against their old rivals and preparing for the trip to Tottenham Hotspur.
After the trip to Spurs, United will travel to Italy to face Serie A side Atalanta in the Champions League on 2 November. United are top of Group F at the halfway stage and are in a strong position to make it into the last 16 of the competition.
Those two games are followed by a home clash with Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City, when Solskjaer can ill-afford a repeat of the Liverpool debacle.
Sources close to the club said United did not want to make a knee-jerk decision and are now focused on fixing the problems with the team’s performances and results.
That loyalty is despite the intense pressure placed on 48-year-old Solskjaer after the Liverpool humiliation.
The media has reported that former Juventus and Chelsea manager Antonio Conte is “interested” in the job and there have been claims of dressing-room discontent.
But Solskjaer will know that any continuation of results and performances such as on Sunday will make his position untenable at the club, who have not won the Premier League since Alex Ferguson’s last season in charge in 2013.
United finished second in the Premier League last season and reached the final of the Europa League before bringing in French World Cup-winning defender Raphaël Varane, England winger Jadon Sancho and five-times Ballon d’Or winner Cristiano Ronaldo.
Those signings, particularly the return of Ronaldo, raised hopes that United could launch a title bid this season. But the team has won just one point from the past four games and looks well short of the standard required to compete with Chelsea, Manchester City and Liverpool for the top spot.
However, since Solskjaer took over from Jose Mourinho in December 2018, initially on a temporary basis, the club have been working to make a long-term shift to recapture the “culture” of the Ferguson years, which Solskjaer experienced as a player.
Gradual improvements earned Solskjaer a contract extension in July, meaning his deal runs until 2024, with an option for an additional year.
Assistant manager Mike Phelan was handed a similar extension this month.
Having made those commitments, United have been unwilling to jettison their plans on the basis of a sudden, albeit dramatic, slump in form. Solskjaer’s first priority now will surely be to tighten up a defence that was shambolic against Liverpool and in the 4-2 loss at Leicester City a week earlier.
The return of former Real Madrid centre-half Varane from injury could be a major help in that regard, but a change of shape and system, returning to the more compact, counter-attack focused approach from earlier in his reign, would also make sense.
But first Solskjaer will need to deal with a group of players still hurting from the mauling at the hands of their old rivals.
Out of control
Former Manchester United defender Phil Neville has said social media criticism of club managers is out of control. Debates about Solskjaer and ex-Newcastle United boss Steve Bruce have become sensationalist, he said.
Neville cited Manchester United’s form in October 1996 when they lost 6-3 at home to Southampton after a 5-0 defeat by Newcastle, but went on to win the league.
“I’ve played on United teams that lost 5-0,” Neville told the Miami Herald. “These things happen in football. I think the sensationalism of everything now is just out of control.
“United lost a game of football 5-0 to Liverpool. Yes, it hurts. Yes, it was probably a real sickening blow for everybody that’s ever played, supported, or been involved with Manchester United; but it’s not as if United has never lost 5-0 ever in history.
“This has happened and United bounced back and won things. I lost at St James’ Park 5-0. Philippe Albert chipped Peter Schmeichel and it felt no different.
“The only difference was there was not a billion people on Twitter thinking they knew best about this, that and the other.”
Neville said the opposition to Bruce from Newcastle fans, which apparently affected his family, had gone too far.
“The Steve Bruce case went beyond criticism; that was a form of bullying – disgusting behaviour, trolling, some of the most disgusting things I have ever read or seen in my whole life,” he said.
Neville’s brother Gary, also a former United player and now a Sky Sports pundit, was criticised on social media for not calling for Solskjaer to be sacked from his job.
But Neville said it was wrong to call for people to be fired.
“We live in an era where it’s seen as quite normal to ask people to be sacked, which I find absolutely incredible… Social media is an absolute cesspit for people that are just the lowest of the lowest. I think it’s out of control. People don’t probably realise that the things they are writing hurt families, hurt human beings, people that have problems in their lives, and nothing gets done about it.” Reuters/DM168