THEATRE OF BAD DREAMS
It’s a huge wake-up call for United.. and Ole needs to stir his dozy, unpredictable team as they now face two crucial games that could shape their season
OLE Gunnar Solskjaer’s head continues to spin like a top as he clings to his seat on Manchester United’s tra g i c roundabout.
The festive cheer at Old Trafford remains on hold and no one is popping the champagne corks just yet, because there is nothing to celebrate.
You win some and lose some in football – and no team personifies this old adage more than United.
In the space of just four days, Solskjaer has seen his side produce a thrilling comeback to be a t Southampton, before finding themselves on the wrong end of a trouncing by Paris Saint- Germain in the Champions League.
Just a few weeks ago United were in command of Group H and certainties to reach the knockout stages, but defeat at RB Leipzig next Tuesday could see them relegated to the backwaters of the Europa League.
A thumping 3- 1 win at Everton a month ago might just have saved Solskjaer from the sack but next time out United limped to a pitiful 1- 0 home triumph over relegation fodder in the shape of West Brom.
The genius of Albert Einstein would struggle to work out what is coming next from a United side that heads to in-form West Ham tomorrow night resembling a team that has mastered the art of inconsistency.
Having spent the first few months of the season languishing in the wrong half of the Premier League table, United have limped to the giddy heights of ninth.
The feeling inside the corridors of power at Old Trafford is Solskjaer remains more than capable of securing another top-four finish this season.
So what? These are not the standards United should be aspiring to. But while the domestic table can fluctuate and be misleading due to the se u n p re ced e n t ed times, there is nowhere to hide in the elite competition of the Champions League.
The Norwegian will be under the spotlight again when United go to Germany and midfielder Scott
McTominay insists they have to get the job done.
“You can’t just go there and play for a point.” said McTominay (left). “You have to go and approach it like you want to win that football match – and that’s definitely what we’re going to do. “Sometimes we start well, sometimes we don’t, but we have to cut out those early goals we concede before the
game’s even started. good enough.”
Wednesday’s loss to PSG exposed the fact United remain a reflection of their manager – someone who is still naive and inexperienced at the highest level, unable to solve his shortcomings despite being in charge for more than two years.
Despite needing a draw to reach the last 16, Solskjaer deployed a formation and tactics that left United exposed to the lethal counter-attacking threats of Neymar and Kylian Mbappe while his refusal to substitute Fred – a red card waiting to happen given his first-half display– was unfathomable.
Guess what? Fred was sent off. So Solskjaer finds himself having to deal with a mess of his own making, because failure in Leipzig is unthinkable for a club that should be measuring itself against Europe’s elite.
It’s not