Ole at the wheel
Somehow, Ole’s still at the wheel. If it wasn’t apparent to those making the decisions at Man United—whoever they might be—before the start of the season, the last few weeks have been a damning indictment of Solskjaer’s coaching. United have been poor throughout the season, even on the rare occasions when they’ve managed to eke out victories due to the pure force of their attacking talents.
Against Liverpool last evening they were abject. Everything about the performance symbolised the club’s present state of affairs. Defenders—all big money signings—who have forgotten how to defend both one-on-one and as a team, a midfield of Fred and Scott Mctominay, who for all their industry, aren’t anywhere near a partnership capable of lending control to a team, and a strike force led by Cristiano Ronaldo, who, as much as he’s rescued his team at times this season, has weakened them as a collective.
Consider a few of the failings:
(1) Man United went into the season thinking what they needed was Jadon Sancho for 80 million pounds when they didn’t have a single player in their squad who was capable of controlling the midfield. The deficiencies in Fred, Mctominay and Matic, and Pogba’s inability to play without the support of more defensively minded partners, was apparent to even a casual observer of the game.
(2) Mason Greenwood, who’s offered the rarest ray of hope, has been played off the right wing, when Sancho was signed apparently to do just that. Given how well Greenwood had played last season, to see the signing of Sancho as a priority defies logic, especially when that money could have been used more efficiently elsewhere.
(3) Ronaldo’s signing has meant that Edison Cavani, even when fit, has had to start on the bench. Cavani works twice as hard as Ronaldo does, and gives a coherence to the team that is otherwise absent.
(4) Jesse Lingard, who had a great time on loan last season at West Ham, and who’s played well almost every time he’s come on for United (bar the one mistake that he made in the Champions League against FC Young Boys) has strangely been cast aside. To start Ronaldo, Greenwood, Fernandes and Rashford together and to add Pogba to that mix (as United did from the start against Leicester City and for the second half against Liverpool) is to ask for trouble.
(5) It’s years into Solskjaer’s term, and it’s still unclear how he wants his team to play. The best teams in Europe have a defined way of playing with the ball. United’s plan is to try and get it to Fernandes, Ronaldo or Rashford and hope that they’ll conjure magic. This works, on occasion, as we saw against Atalanta in the second half of the Champions League tie, but it’s not a sustainable strategy.
None of this means that Solskjaer’s time at United has been an unmitigated disaster. It’s fair to say that he’s done a good job, in undoing some of the terrible consequences of Jose Mourinho’s reign. But it’s also fair to say that ultimately he isn’t good enough for this level. United needs someone who can coach the team into playing with a defined style, who can use Sancho, Rashford and Greenwood’s pace and energy, who can teach the team how to play both with and without the ball.
There aren’t many obvious candidates around. The temptation would be to look at Conte or Zidane, but if the management has the best interests of the club in mind they’ll look beyond those names, they’ll look at the likes of Erik ten Hag, Julen Lopetegui, Marco Rose, or even Brendan Rodgers.