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After 101 matches and around £ 270m ($ A490m) in transfers, are Manchester United still moving forward with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer?
His tenure started off brilliantly, particularly those heady three months before he was named permanent manager.
He spoke with moving determination and passion of his goal to rediscover the identity of Manchester United, to return the famous club to those lofty heights it experienced as a player under the legendary Sir Alex Ferguson.
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But, like José Mourinho and Louis van Gaal before him, all the excitement surrounding Solskjaer’s initial impact seems to have been tempered by inconsistency and hard-hitting losses that took its toll in any decent way.
Now there have been two such painful back-to-back defeats, with the weekend’s league loss to Arsenal followed by a Champions League “reality check” to Istanbul Basaksehir, as Solskjaer called it.
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Solskjaer was supposed to bring a consistent style of play and strategy, an improved squad through transfers and the Club Academy, and (arguably most important) a renewed sense of focus and determination in his team.
In each of those areas, the Norwegian strategist can claim some successes. At times, their teams have played with vigor, creativity, and tactical flair. He has reinforced certain areas of the squad and brought out the best in some players. And his overall record is defensible, if not overwhelming.
He qualified for the Champions League with third place last season. United has also reached the FA Cup, Carabao Cup and Europa League semi-finals under his tenure.
However, the question remains: is United really moving forward or has the magic of Solskjaer faded?
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In the style of play, in the depth of the squad and in the attitude and form of its players, there are as many lingering concerns as there are grounds for optimism.
Tactically, Solskjaer has been mocked on key occasions – three semi-final losses tell the story, as does this weekend’s disappointing loss to Arsenal. The 1-0 scoreline was flattering for the Red Devils, who were outscored throughout the park and never saw their menacing prime.
In the second half against Arsenal, Solskjaer lined up with Matic, McTominay, Pogba and Van de Beek in a diamond midfield, after Bruno Fernandes and Fred struggled to make an impact in the first half.
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Gary Neville told Sky Sports: “You’re playing a diamond and your breadth comes from two players who really don’t play well in that position in the high, wide, right and left type of position. So everything looks a bit scruffy right now. Towards the end, I’m not even sure what system they were playing. There were players everywhere. It ended up being a disaster. “
Solskjaer’s approach, his “new United identity”, is typically based on counter-attacking football, using pace and range. However, in a great game he lined up with two open men on his diamond who are not true wingers. That is not to say that they cannot play well there, as Pogba certainly did in the same formation in the 5-0 Champions League win over RB Leipzig, it is simply to say that they are not specialists in the vein of their main transfer target. at the recent window, Jadon Sancho. More on that later.
Days after Pogba’s superb effort against Leipzig, he endured a torrid time against Arsenal. It’s that kind of individual inconsistency that has plagued Solskjaer’s tenure, something that coincides with general concerns about his team’s form.
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Solskjaer, in turn, has regularly played with formations to try to get the best out of his players. He started the season with a 4-2-3-1 formation (with James and Rashford on the wings). The line-up had performed well at the end of last season and delivered a promising streak of results at the start of the new campaign, only to be shattered by Tottenham in that 6-1 nightmare.
So Solskjaer switched to 5-3-2, strengthening his core and relying on wingers who bombarded forward. It worked against PSG with good results. But Aaron Wan-Bissaka is not the most talented attacking defender in world football, as talented on defense as he undoubtedly is. And Alex Telles is certainly an attacking threat, but he can be caught when pushing the field.
Solskjaer regained the 4-2-3-1, throwing Mata down the wing and promoting Rashford to center forward. The result was a limp and lifeless draw with Chelsea, with little pace and creativity.
Eventually, he moved on to that midfield diamond, which immediately paid off in Leipzig’s rout, only to immediately fall to pieces against Arsenal as the center of the park filled with people and United lost their composure and midfield form. .
At times, Solskjaer’s tweaks have seemed like a stroke of genius, against Leipzig, for example. And there have also been several optimistic examples against ‘Big Six’ rivals. But every time Solskjaer seems to have created some new magic in his lineup with a tactical change, he soon falls apart. Players like Mata, Matic, and McTominay have danced through the lineup and then dropped out of it due to poor form. Paul Pogba’s kind of almost superhuman, match-winning performances – the kind that got him to Old Trafford in the first place – remains a rare commodity.
Even Harry Maguire, that record-breaking arrival destined to turn the bottom line into an elite force, has been anything but a model of coherence.
Solskjaer is forced to shuffle the pieces in front of him, while dismissing the absence of pieces that he would have hoped to have at his disposal.
United’s transfer problems have been exposed time and again; I don’t need to remind the fans of the club’s repeated failure to achieve the best goals. Figures like Jadon Sancho, who boasts the kind of devastating attack firepower that would fit perfectly into Solskjaer’s game plan. Or Erling Haaland, who bet on Borussia Dortmund over Manchester United.
Instead, the Red Devils stuck with Odion Ighalo and Edinson Cavani as deadline signatures in back-to-back transfer windows, both good forwards, but neither of the kind of blockbuster name that could shake up the offense.
Donny van de Beek qualifies as one of the most promising players in the world. Still, Solskjaer is clearly struggling to find the best way to reorganize the midfield around his costly new signing.
United have been affected by the inability to execute in the transfer market. That’s not Solskjaer’s fault, although he bears the brunt of the dysfunctional club hierarchy, the same hierarchy that was quick to hand him the wheel of one of the best clubs in the world after just a few weeks of solid intermediate results.
Regarding his promise to deepen the team by better utilizing the depth of the club’s youth, Solskjaer has delivered. Rashford and Mason Greenwood clearly demonstrate their influence. Martial looks revitalized. But is this team really £ 270 million ($ A490 million) better than the one Solskjaer inherited? Barely.
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And the results don’t paint Solskjaer too kind. For the first time since the 1972-73 season, United have failed to win any of their first four home games in the league.
Before the Champions League embarrassment against Istanbul’s Basaksehir on Thursday morning (AEDT), Solskjaer had managed 100 games, a good number that we can compare with his predecessors.
In Solskjaer’s first 100 games, United won 55, drew 21 and lost 24, numbers that were significantly boosted by his strong start as interim manager.
José Mourinho’s record after 100 games, in January 2018, was 62 wins, 23 draws and 15 losses.
As for Louis Van Gaal, he won 52 of his first 100 games, with 25 draws and 23 losses, quite similar to Solskjaer.
Mourinho received a contract extension when he served a century of games in office, only for the Red Devils’ form to plummet: He won 22 of the next 44 games, including only six of his last 18. He was ousted, despite winning the EFL Cup, Community Shield and Europa League.
Van Gaal was sacked just three games after the 100-game milestone despite winning the FA Cup in his last game.
Solskjaer cannot rely on any of those successes. And while he has an unquestionable passion for the club and a desire to return United to the top of world football, the initial exuberance surrounding his ability to achieve that dream is fading.
And with every tactical failure, every major loss, the sense that United are on the rise takes another hit.
The question then is how many of those blows Solskjaer can take.
