Following United’s elimination from Champions League contention after a 1-1 draw against already-relegated Huddersfield, questions need to be asked of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
The latest chapter in Manchester United’s post-Sir Alex Ferguson disaster was etched on Sunday at Kirklees Stadium as the Red Devils were held to a draw against bottom side Huddersfield Town in a match they desperately needed to win in their faltering quest for a top-four finish.
United are now mathematically eliminated from participating in next season’s Champions League for the fourth time in the last six seasons, with serious dysfunction lingering over England’s biggest club. Manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, appointed following United’s upset Champions League victory over PSG, has overseen a horrendous run in which United have won just twice in their last eleven matches across all competitions, culminating in the Red Devils elimination from the top four race.
Solskajer’s unnecessary and premature appointment represented a physical manifestation of the behind-the-scenes dysfunction at the club. The former United striker was managing Molde in Norway before taking over at Old Trafford, without any clear record of top-level success (including a disastrous spell in charge of Cardiff City in the Premier League) or the typical CV required of a United manager. There was no need to appoint him on a permanent basis before the season’s end, and as the campaign comes to a close, it appears that United may have made a critical mistake.
The Swede’s initial run in charge was undoubtedly fantastic, liberating the players with the freedom of attacking football that harkened back to the glory days under Ferguson, but that stretch has proved to be little more than the so-called “new-manager bounce”. When faced with the same structural issues that plagued the club across its previous three managers, Solskjaer has withered under the pressure and does not appear to have the tactical acumen of his counterparts at the top of the English game.
With a massive transitional summer coming where the club will be expected to spend, building a team in Solskjaer’s image could be dangerous given his lack of experience and track record of building a winner from the ground up, especially when compared to top candidate Mauricio Pochettino’s work at Espanyol, Southampton, and Tottenham.
Nonetheless, the problems at United run far deeper than the manager position. Under chief executive Ed Woodward, while the club has been a massive success financially, there is no clear plan or direction on the pitch moving forward. The club has operated under the belief that putting together as many big-name players as possible would simply equal success because of the club’s stature.
The United job has been a poisoned chalice since Ferguson’s departure in 2013, with top coaches with a record of previous success such as David Moyes, Louis van Gaal, and José Mourinho all failing to bring United back to the summit of the Premier League.
The sides challenging for the Premier League title in 2018-19, Manchester City and Liverpool, were both built with a clear vision and a top-down belief in that direction under Pep Guardiola and Jürgen Klopp, respectively. United, on the other hand, do not have a director of football and have a very uncertain future heading into a Europa League-bound season.
With top players Paul Pogba and David de Gea potentially angling for an exit from Old Trafford, Solskjaer has a massive task ahead to rebuild a club that is in absolute shambles at the moment. Without a central direction from the board, however, it looks far more likely that he will be next in a ever-growing list of failing United managers rather than the one who brings the club back to the glory days of old.
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