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Stuart Kavanagh
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Man Utd & Ole
Club Lurches From One Crisis To Another Under The Stewardship of Club Legend
Embattled Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer had another day to forget at Old Trafford as his insipid Manchester United side fell to a lackluster 2-0 defeat to local rivals Manchester City. Fans at the Stretford End were hoping for a response after their teams’ dire performance against bitter rivals Liverpool in their last home league match.
It didn’t materialize. Manchester United embarrassingly allowed Manchester City to complete 753 passes as the Citizens cruised to victory. The embarrassing stats were brutally exposed via social media by gleeful rival fans as things went from bad to worse at the legendary club.
Gary Neville and Roy Keane, two former Manchester United legends turned matchday pundits, have consistently defended their former teammates’ position as manager. This seems to have ended now. Roy Keane demanded the Manchester United board draw a line in the sand, whilst saying he’d give Ole one more match to save his job. Gary Neville was a little less brutal on his former teammate but was savage when assessing his former teams’ performance.
“They are 11 points off the top of the league if Chelsea wins today and this United squad should not be [so far] off the top. Nobody has expected this. Nobody would have expected United would sink so low at this point in the season”
A clearly dejected Solskjaer faced the media after the harrowing defeat. He had this to say to reporters when grilled on the performance against City and his overall job security after several poor performances.
"I have good communication with the club. I want the best for United and as long as I'm here I want to do everything I can to improve this,” Solskjaer told Sky Sports after going down 2-0 to City. We've been through this a few times and since the last home game, it's been a very difficult period. Systems or style we need to be on the front foot more. I can't look at myself and say this is how I want United to be. Can I turn United's season around? Definitely. And you're right, back to where we should be, for me it's about back to what we started to look like, we started to look a proper team, we started to look like a team I like to see. We've had three or four weeks now of a disappointing spell. The result and performance against Tottenham was good but it's not what we want to look like, to put it that way. We want to be on the front foot and more aggressive. But unfortunately, we've had to try and get a few good results. We got a couple against Atalanta and Tottenham but today was a big step back."
After the international break, United face Watford. They then go on to face current league leaders Chelsea, followed by a resurgent Arsenal after that.
Will Ole Survive The Season?
In my opinion, if he didn’t get the sack after the thrashing at the hands of Liverpool, he won’t lose his job now. Particularly when you consider that there isn’t a lot of options out there since Tottenham hired Antonio Conte. Zinedine Zidane has been a name thrown out there, but by all accounts, he has no interest in managing in the Premier League. They have, through their own indecision, found themselves stuck with Ole and it seems they are willing to ride it out until the end of the season. How much damage will be done to this great club in the meantime? On the latest evidence, it could be immeasurable.
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