Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s Manchester United built for the Champions League over the Premier League

Even as Ole Gunnar Solskjaer basked in the glow of the night that to this day defines his tenure as Manchester United manager, there must have been an acceptance on some level that it had been a fluke. That on any other night Paris Saint-Germain, with a 2-0 lead after the first leg at Old Trafford, would have slipped into the 2018/19 Champions League quarter-finals.

It was this victory that effectively earned Solskjaer the United spot permanently, and good fortune quickly began to wear off thereafter, with his team winning just two of the nine Premier League matches played between victory in the French capital and the end of the season.

However, in hindsight, what we saw in the final stages of that season was not good fortune, but rather an indication of the type of team Manchester United would be under Solskjaer. Whether by design or by fault, the Norwegian has built a team that is better suited to the Champions League with consistent Premier League form that still dodges them.

The contrast between United’s fortunes at home and on the continent so far this season couldn’t be more stark. While Solskjaer’s team plummeted to 15th in the Premier League table with just two wins in six games, they are atop Group H in the Champions League with two wins out of two.

United even repeated their trick at the Parc des Prince in their first group stage game this year, as if to show that what happened there two years ago was no accident. This time there was more structure and more logic to explain an away win over PSG, but it was nonetheless a result that underlined the qualities of the Solskjaer team.

At its core, Manchester United are a reactive team under their current manager, with Solskjaer proven to deliver great results against big teams looking to outplay their opponents. This lends itself to the Champions League, where United face more ‘big teams’ than in the Premier League.

Solskjaer may be tactically limited, but that’s not the same as being tactically inept. He has shown more than once that when faced with a clear task, he is capable of devising an effective game plan: see the three behind against PSG or the midfield diamond against RB Leipzig. It is against fellow reactive teams and managers that Solskjaer has lacked the conviction to impose his own identity.

Of course, Solskjaer’s United wouldn’t be the first team to feel more at home on the continent. Rafa Benítez’s Liverpool, for example, was always much stronger in Europe than in the country, winning the 2005 Champions League at the same time that it finished fifth in the Premier League. They finished third in the season in which they reached the final of the Champions League in 2007, they also reached the semi-finals in 2008 and the quarter-finals in 2009.

Stylistically, there are obvious differences between Liverpool who made it to Europe 15 years ago and Solskjaer’s Manchester United, but there are similarities in the way both teams looked stronger in the Champions League, changing the natural order that generally defines them. national players and continental competition.

The irony of United’s start to the season is that while Solskjaer’s side have been vulnerable at the rear in their Premier League games, the defense has performed well in the Champions League. Had it not been for an own goal by Anthony Martial, Manchester United would have had two clean sheets in two games.

Their reactivity may only lead them so far into this season’s Champions League, but there is enough evidence at hand to suggest that the competition presents United with their best chances of success. The victory over PSG in February 2019 was a sign of things to come, but not in the way many saw it at the time.