WHILE OLE IS UNDER PRESSURE, SUNDAY SHOULD HAve BEEN THE GLAZERS’ BIGGEST WAKE UP CALL
Friday 29th October by Tom Ball
Liverpool handed United their most embarrassing home defeat since the famous 6-1 at the hands of their ‘noisy neighbours’ a decade ago. A defeat that presents an inquest of unprecedented magnitude into Manchester United’s current state of affairs.
Many fans will point to Paul Scholes’ warning on BT Sport and many analysts and pundits will point to the desperately concerning performances over the last few weeks as precursors to a humiliation unlike many have seen in the Premier League since its inception.
Liverpool were not even good, they seemed to be in as much shock as every neutral sat in their living rooms at home when they raced into a 4-0 lead before half-time.
Many images stuck with the football world throughout the day. The tired, damaged expression of Sir Alex Ferguson, the beaming grin of Kenny Dalglish. However, the one most prominent had to have been the stream of supporters leaving Old Trafford and heading down Warwick Road at half-time and beyond.
They had seen enough, losing 4-0 at home to any team, including Liverpool, is a huge blow for Manchester United, so you cannot even begin to imagine what losing 4-0 at half-time could mean.
This is a day that will live long on the legacy of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer forever. His job is fragile and on the ropes. On the other hand, this loss is indicative of an issue. An issue in the attitude and professionalism existing at Old Trafford.
The Red Devils have blown their North-West rivals away in terms of wage and transfer expenditure over the last decade. The money invested in each team that was fielded on Sunday swung very heavily towards United’s side. So how on earth is there such a gaping chasm between both teams technically that completely subverts the purpose of each’s investment?
Without sounding anti-analytical - Why are Liverpool so much better than Manchester United without even going anywhere near the transfer or wage investment of their rivals? How have Liverpool managed to remain one of the best and most unbeatable sides in Europe for four years while United have been second best in all of their last several games?
United’s problems on Sunday primarily came from their lack of organisation and clear absence of any sort of plan. There are not many things more certain in football than how Liverpool are going to approach any game they are playing. So why was there no plan?
You can probably find numerous analysis videos and pieces on what went wrong for United on the pitch. Nevertheless, this game’s impact goes beyond the tactics board.
Since Sir Alex Ferguson departed his role as manager, this is the biggest and most alarming wake-up call to the club’s hierarchy. And the previous eight years have been poisonous at Old Trafford. They have lost games at home, missed out on Champions League qualification and watched their three biggest rivals bring in all but one of the Premier League titles since then. Despite all this, Sunday was the darkest day.
The Glazers (maybe) watched their club capitulate and dismantle at the hands of their great rivals. These rivals happened to be owned by the group that he worked with to get the Super League proposals off the ground just months ago.
What remained of the fans in Old Trafford booing the man they appointed to lead this team. A team that is being pinned down by them and their colleagues own selfishness and incompetence.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has become a shield, all eyes and blame sit on his and his players' door in the fallout from this game. However, you cannot help but admit that much of this result is a byproduct of the Glazers’ ownership.
This isn’t an avoidance of Solskjaer’s shortcomings as a manager. He is not up to the job, especially if they are expecting to win the league any time soon. On the other hand, why are he and much of his backroom staff being given bumper new contracts in the wake of a Europa League final loss to an average Villarreal team? Second in the league looks great on the surface but when Liverpool had an injury crisis and Chelsea win the Champions League it is hard to gain any relevant optimism from it.
This isn’t to say Ole should have lost his job then but the Glazers have tied themselves into a financial commitment that will cost them a lot of money to get out of. Furthermore, it will be followed by a world-class replacement who will likely be one of if not the highest paid in the world and have an army of backroom staff with them.
Adam Crafton of The Athletic raised another important point; United’s footballing mission has been led by coaches “learning on the job”. With Kieran McKenna and Michael Carrick being two of Ole’s most senior allies, two guys who were in their infancy when it came to coaching. Furthermore, Ole’s experience comes in a short and uninspiring spell at Cardiff City which saw him get relegated from the Premier League and many years at Norwegian side Molde.
Ole hardly boasts the managerial resume of his competitors nor those in line to possibly replace him, you have to bolster that coaching youth with world-class experience. Ole has proved a brilliant and promising man-manager, he is essentially everything Jose Mourinho was not for Manchester United and then it was exactly what the club needed. However, United have failed in almost every footballing facet to develop Solskjaer into the all-around package that is required for a team that has had over £1 billion spent on it over the last 10 years.
It is okay for a club like Manchester United, who had the best manager of all time at the helm for 25 years, to want a long-term project. However, that requires foundations around that coach to develop and foster the winning culture that they crave to get back.
It is known that Sir Alex would not take training sessions himself, leaving his coaching staff while he built winning relationships with United’s players. To surround Ole with coaches at the beginning of their careers stagnates any form of progress.
You begin to find some similarities with Frank Lampard’s situation at Chelsea. A man, with limited world-class experience in his coaching career, tasked with leading one of the biggest clubs in the world. A former player like Ole ran into a poor run of form and Chelsea had already had enough. The question to raise is, what did Chelsea expect? Lampard was never going to compete for a league title within a couple of years, their sacking showed the expectations that would come with an established, world-class manager, not someone “learning on the job”.
While Solskjaer boasts a much longer career in management, he had stepped nowhere near a job like Manchester United. Therefore, hiring inexperienced staff to support him is counterintuitive to what Solskjaer brings to the table, much like Chelsea’s flagrant impatience with Lampard.
Simon Jordan of talkSPORT has described the club’s board as “unfair” for keeping Solskjaer in a job that is out of his depth. While that can be seen as slightly passive-aggressive from a critic of the Norwegian like Jordan, it does rightfully shift some blame onto the incompetent board that United fans were happy to suspend a game with Liverpool over earlier this year.
While the result and performance on Sunday were embarrassing and pathetic enough for any manager to lose his job, the biggest positive for United fans would be it being the catalyst for change at the football club. The issues lie beyond Solskjaer.
The Red Devils turn their attention to Tottenham on Saturday. They have had a few days rest as many other teams, including their opponents, have taken part in the Round of 16 Carabao Cup matches. Solskjaer will be in charge of the game in North London and will take on another manager going through his own difficult set of circumstances and pressure in Nuno Espirito Santo.
Sunday felt like a pivotal day in Premier League history, 6-1, 8-2 now 5-0. United lost by 5 goals to Spurs last season, however, Sunday was a lot different, a lot more damning but a win on Sunday, while not fixing things, will scrape back some dignity that was depleted at Old Trafford.