THIS WAS SEISMIC
. . . IT SHOULD BE THE END OF OLE
FOR Jurgen Klopp, there was a downside in what appeared to be a perfect day out in the Manchester rain. The Liverpool manager lost two midfield players to injury and it is highly possible that Manchester United may soon lose their manager.
The departures of James Milner and Naby Keita — the latter on a stretcher after Paul Pogba’s red card lunge — were no joke at Old Trafford. But among Liverpool followers, the future of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has long been one.
The consensus at the western end of the East Lancs Road is that, while United’s continuing wrestle with irrelevance is enduringly and hilariously welcome, nobody wants them to be quite this bad.
With Solskjaer at the wheel, United will surely never win the
Premier League. If he does fall through the ice that continues to weaken beneath his feet, then United may just start to look like a team again.
For now, Solskjaer stumbles blindly on but if the trend set during recent games against Everton, Leicester, Atalanta and now Liverpool continues, surely the Norwegian will not be allowed to do so much longer.
This was a surrender by Solskjaer’s team against a great rival that continues to set exemplary standards. Played out on the 10-year anniversary of their 6-1 defeat here by Manchester City, it felt worse even than that. That was a remarkable day but it’s worth noting that City only led 3-1 in the 90th minute. Roberto Mancini’s team scored three in stoppage time and eventually won their first Premier League title by goal difference from United on the season’s final day.
This game was all but done in the 38th minute when Mo Salah scored Liverpool’s third goal. There was to be no great comeback and as such United’s interest in the title, such as it was, is already extinguished.
United are seventh in the standings, a point ahead of
Wolves and two above Brentford. Worryingly for Solskjaer, he is now in David Moyes/Louis van Gaal/ Jose Mourinho territory.
The three managers who passed here before him had their teams in seventh, fifth and sixth when they were sacked and the pattern is not coincidental.
United’s owners, the Glazer family, claim to crave sporting success but what terrifies them more than anything is exclusion from the Champions League.
When shortcomings on the field point towards financial shortfalls, their take on the security of their manager begins to shift a little. So the threat to Solskjaer is now real. By rights, he should go.
He has been in charge of this United team for almost three years and is now overseeing a drift that threatens to become catastrophic.
Mourinho’s last game as United manager was against Liverpool, too, on December 16, 2018. That day at Anfield, United were disorganised, vulnerable and without spirit. They reeked of an inferiority complex.
Yesterday, all of that and more was in evidence once again. United — packed with attacking talent and with more sitting on
the bench — were in the game for about a quarter of an hour. They carried a latent threat whenever they managed to find a way through Liverpool’s midfield screen and their back four.
But when the magic didn’t arrive from the feet of Cristiano Ronaldo, Bruno Fernandes or Mason Greenwood, United were left to try to control the pale shirts swarming towards them at the other end with all the security and confidence of school children trying to hold on to sand.
At United, this is no longer a matter of personnel. Sure, they need a holding player and their best central defender is injured. But the porous manner in which this United team present when opponents have the ball in the middle third is alarming and fundamentally indicative of a desperate coaching problem.
It was the same at Leicester eight days earlier. At the King Power Stadium, Pogba and Nemanja Matic were the holding pair. The former is not mentally suited to the role and the latter no longer has the athleticism. United shipped four goals.
This time the job was handed to the Brazilian Fred and Scott McTominay but it made little difference. With United’s front four offering token assistance, Liverpool’s energy, intelligence and speed of thought saw them play forwards into dangerous areas with almost no resistance.
As a coach, it’s the kind of thing that you see happening and fix it. Solskjaer does not seem capable, neither between games nor during them. One wonders what happens at Carrington on a daily basis. Shooting practice, perhaps?
Up in the stands and indeed the directors’ box, the story of this seismic afternoon was being equally colourfully told.
‘Ole must stay’ they sang in the away section while in the posh seats Kenny Dalglish looked as though he had just made birdie down 18 at Royal Birkdale.
As for Sir Alex Ferguson, his favourite club is broken. Again.