A defining moment awaits Ole Gunnar Solskjær and Man United in the post-Ferguson era

When Solskjaer’s predecessor Jose Mourinho finished runner-up to Guardiola in 2018, by a mammoth 19 points, he famously described it as one of his “greatest achievements” and was sacked seven months later. The Norwegian, at least, is not making the same mistake

Tue, 25 May, 2021 - 21:00

Ian Whittell

It is somehow fitting that Ole Gunnar Solskjær sees this eventful Manchester United season end on Wednesday night in the Polish city of Gdansk, the birthplace of the Solidarity movement which proved one of the most seismic in 20th-century European history.

Solidarity is the very quality the United manager has brought to a club that has endured so many trials and tribulations, on and off the field, since his appointment in December 2018 and, particularly, in this Covid-afflicted campaign.

But as Solskjaer prepares for the Europa League final with Villarreal, and his first realistic shot at winning a trophy for the club, there is the feeling that the fallout could be every bit as significant, to United at least, as the political movement founded by Lech Walesa that helped bring about the fall of Communism.

Victory and Solskjaer can point to a season of qualified success, of European honours, and a second-placed finish for just the second time in the eight campaigns since Alex Ferguson retired.

Victory and United will enter a summer of team strengthening, in which Solskjaer has already outlined his not too subtle demand for “two or three” big signings, in buoyant mood and with pressure on the club’s American owners to spend.

Victory and the United glass will be very much half-full, the focus will be on the mood of positivity that Solskjaer has clearly brought to the dressing room and the exciting development of a host of young stars.

Victory and United supporters will be able to celebrate a fourth trophy in the last eight years, a modest return by Ferguson’s standards but at least something to stave off the sort of unrest that marred the final home games of this season.

But, after tasting defeat in five cup semi-finals over the past 15 months, Solskjaer is acutely aware that there is another outcome possible and a loss to a team that just finished seventh in La Liga will generate a very different range of responses.

The glass half empty side of this coin will see Solskjaer’s tactical acumen questioned, it will raise questions over key positions in his team, it will obviously put even greater pressure on the Glazer family to spend huge swathes of cash this summer and, above all, raise the issue over just how close United actually are to bridging the gap to Manchester City.

Solskjaer may have finished the season on auto-pilot in the league but so, too, did Pep Guardiola’s champions.

United finished 12 points behind City but, in reality, it felt like a lot more.

“The competition now is a lot harder than when I was a player,” said Solskjaer. “Three, four, maybe five teams that can challenge for the top two positions for the last few years, they have been taken by same two teams and for us to go into them and divide them it’s good, it’s a good performance but we can’t say it’s an achievement.

It’s not an achievement. We’ve taken steps as a team, we’re not where we want to be, we know we have some deficiencies as a group. There’s parts of the game that we need to improve on but I’ve felt we’ve made strides in most places and I’ve been very pleased with the players and I’ve got to say I’ve been impressed by them but we want to take the next step as well.”

But, if this is a pivotal moment for Solskjaer and United in the post-Ferguson era, then it is also appropriate to take a little accounting of the former United striker’s achievements — and failures — to date.

His greatest plus is, surely, the solidarity for which the good citizens of Gdansk were known. Solskjaer inherited an unhappy dressing room of under-achieving, over-paid players and successfully gutted it while improving the confidence of limited, but still functional players like Fred and Victor Lindelof.

Solskjaer’s man management — look at the way he handled teenager Mason Greenwood who appeared to have lost his way earlier this season — has harked back to the old school United ways of Ferguson.

In this nightmare season of Covid uncertainty clubs with strong leadership and a united dressing room have thrived — see West Ham, Leeds — those without it — see Everton — have floundered.

But Solskjaer’s detractors can also point, correctly, to the lack of a coherent tactical identity; a game plan which seems to depend on individuals rather than a collective pattern.

If the alarming number of set-piece goals that United concede points to poor quality coaching then a game plan which all too often seems to depend on counter-attacking and the individual brilliance of Bruno Fernandes is just as worrying. And then, of course, there is the unholy mess bequeathed by the Glazers’ role in the doomed European Super League and the supporter unrest that followed.

The Glazers’ meeting with supporters at the start of next month could be as important, in its own way, for the future of the club as anything that happens in the transfer market this summer, although fans’ groups are understandably concerned that the Americans will refuse to concede to any of their wishes about the club’s future.

The mood in that meeting, too, will be dictated by events in Poland.

There is so much instability at United currently — executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward needs to be replaced this summer for starters — that it is hard to imagine the manager coming under close scrutiny for many months to come.

But Solskjaer, surely, needs to deliver a trophy and close that gap to City — and Liverpool if, as expected, they return to former powers — over the next 12 months.

“It’s not about me, I’ve got enough self-belief, whatever circumstances I’ve been in, I’m quietly confident, as I’ve always said,” said Solskjaer on Tuesday.

“I trust these players, these players are ready for this and that’s the main thing, I’ve seen in them something grow inside of them, more and more confident, more robust, resilient, two setbacks and as a group I’m confident we’re ready for this now.

“I’m taking it in my stride but I’m used to everyone else judging how well or badly I do. It’s not up to me to rate myself.”

Events on the pitch in Gdansk will do that for him.