Ole Gunnar Solskjaer had a great start to his Manchester United managerial career. The Reds were unbeaten in the Norwegians first 12 Premier League games as intern manager – winning ten of those. These early results resulted in the former United player to become the full-time manager.
However, the Red Devils have also looked very poor under Solskjaer at times, with a lack of ideas and patterns in their play. Although they recently have been in solid form, people still wonder, will Ole Gunnar Solskjaer be successful at Manchester United?
Will Ole Gunnar Solskjaer Be Successful At Manchester United?
Man Management
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s man-management of the team has been good; in contrast to how former United manager Jose Mourinho worked. Solskjaer completely backs his players publicly. For example, earlier in the season after losing to Liverpool 2-0 Solskjaer said the following:
“We’ve lost to Liverpool, a team that you all say are fantastic and we’ve been in the game until the last kick of the ball, for me, that’s strides forward.”
“Of course we’re disappointed losing the game, we don’t want to be behind them in the league, but there were signs that we’re on the right track.”
Quotes like this will frustrate many fans, but the United manager is not scapegoating anyone in his side, even if he does know that they probably aren’t good enough. Unlike when Jose Mourinho had said:
“In Sevilla, there are many players who would play in my team.” after being knocked out by Sevilla in the Champions League.
This public backing of the players have clearly got the squad behind the manager, with multiple players such as Marcus Rashford coming out and showing public support back for their manager. A successful side will need this kind of relationship with their manager.
Tactical Side Of The Game
Solskjaer has been questioned to whether he is a good enough coach for United and whether he can implement a style of play. He has been the manager for over a year now and still, the side has barely shown progression tactically against ‘lesser sides’.
But the Norwegian has a great big game record, winning 17 points against the ‘top six’ this season. He shows his tactical ability in those games but it needs to develop against the teams with a deeper block. The team is also slowly adapting to the intensity the manager wants them to play at.
The manager can obviously improve in the tactical aspect of the game, but he might not necessarily need to.
Bringing in players with quality like that of new signing Bruno Fernandes will mask Solskjaer’s team’s lack of patterns and build-up play, as the team struggle to break a low block. It will allow Solskjaer to focus on his big game and man management, as he excels at them.
Will He Be Successful?
The manager clearly has faults, and may not be the best man for the job. However, he can most definitely be successful as a manager at United.
Solskjaer is a solid man-manager and can clearly win a tactical battle in the important games. As long as United continue to support him with more quality signings like Fernandes so he can beat the low blocks, there is no reason that he cannot have success at the football club as a manager.
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