Ole Gunnar Solskjaer made a point to sing off the same hymn sheet as his former boss Sir Alex Ferguson when he took over at Man United, but he’s since changed his tune
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Liverpool’s record 5-0 win at Man Utd: Solskjaer at ‘rock bottom’
Sir Alex Ferguson has done little to hide his feelings on the job Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is currently doing at Manchester United.
The Red Devils were battered 5-0 by bitter rivals Liverpool on the weekend, and Ferguson was spotted in the crowd looking distraught as he shook his head and blew out his cheeks.
Ferguson hasn’t spoken out on what the club should do going forward now that Solskjaer is under observation and faces being sacked if results don’t drastically improve.
He also avoided Solskjaer and the first team players when he visited Man United’s Carrington training ground two days after the Liverpool defeat, despite claims to the contrary.
But Ferguson has made his feelings clear in his own way.
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Ahead of the launch of his Amazon documentary ‘Sir Alex Ferguson: Never Give In’, back in May, the legendary Man United boss spoke out about Solskjaer and the job he was doing.
Ferguson told the BBC: “If you don’t get results there are questions to be asked. He is getting the results, he really has done very well.
“And what is really important for this club is to introduce young people, and he’s given young players a chance.
“That will always be the foundation of Manchester United, from Matt Busby, from Alex Ferguson and to what Ole is doing, the young guys, if they are good enough, play them. Never a problem at this club.”
Solskjaer had made a point to sing off the same hymn sheet as his former boss by offloading the superstars Jose Mourinho had stockpiled and replacing them with ‘players who possess the Man United DNA’.
This saw misfiring duo Alexis Sanchez and Romelu Lukaku leave and the likes of Daniel James and Aaron Wan-Bissaka sign.
And for a while, it appeared that Solskjaer was on to something.
In the same way Jurgen Klopp had prioritised signing team players to assemble a squad of champions, Solskjaer also appeared to be building a unified group with homegrown stars performing well alongside the world-beaters.
The problem with this approach, of course, is it takes time to click.
Klopp is regarded as one of the best managers in world football, from any generation, and he needed four years of fine-tuning before he was finally able to bring home the Champions League.
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And as Solskjaer felt the pressure to catch up with Klopp and Pep Guardiola he seemingly abandoned the approach.
Instead of focusing on signing the right player for a certain role in his system, he, like Mourinho before him, began targeting the quick-fix superstars like Edinson Cavani, Cristiano Ronaldo and Raphael Varane.
As standalone players, the trio are all world-class, but shoehorning them into a new team with a new system isn’t straight-forward.
And perhaps Solskjaer’s biggest problem now is he has a bloated team comprised of individual superstars all expecting game time.
Former Liverpool star John Barnes recently pointed this out in an interview with BonusCodeBets.co.uk.
Barnes said: “We saw which Manchester United turned up [against Liverpool] and it’s a Manchester United team that have been playing that way for quite a while now, just relying on individuals to win the game.”
If Solskjaer plays Ronaldo it means Cavani is watching from the bench; when Marcus Rashford and Mason Greenwood start, £75million summer-signing Jadon Sancho and Anthony Martial are looking on.
Solskjaer has done his best to chop and change his starting XI to try and make things fair, but all this has done is prevent the players from striking up partnerships with their teammates and project the feeling he doesn’t know his best team.
Solskjaer’s tinkering sparked an interesting reaction from Ferguson, who commented on the Norwegian’s unusual decision to drop Ronaldo for the draw against Everton.
UFC fighter Khabib Nurmagomedov was speaking to Ferguson in the Old Trafford directors’ lounge when the Scot said: “I also think that when they saw Ronaldo wasn’t playing.”
Ferguson was interrupted by Nurmagomedov, who replied: “He came on in the second half,” to which the 79-year-old interjected: “I know, but you should always start with your best players.”
In making the comment in full view of the camera, Ferguson made it clear he didn’t mind the world knowing he isn’t particularly impressed with Solskjaer’s management skills.
And his reaction to Man United’s defeat by Liverpool, as aforementioned, could have put the final nail in Solskjaer’s coffin.