Ole Gunnar Solksjaer may be fast approaching the end of his tenure as Manchester United’s manager after yet another disappointing performance.
A 29-game unbeaten streak away from Old Trafford, which had been the pride of the Solksjaer era, came crashing to an end at Leicester City’s King Power Stadium amid a number of questionable managerial decisions from the United boss.
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Central to those was the selection of skipper Harry Maguire, who proved to be well off the pace having come into the game under a significant injury cloud.
“I pick the team, Harry Maguire showed no reaction and I hold my hand up if that does not work out,” Solksjaer said after the match. “If we concede four, I probably made a bad decision.”
“Lately we have not been in great form, lost too many points and that is something we have to look at. We might have to change, do we need more legs in there? What do we need?
“I have got many good players. Fred, Edinson Cavani, you miss them. I am not making excuses for the team I put out there, they are top footballers and we have not produced.”
While a report from The Athletic stated that Solksjaer is not likely to get the sack any time soon due to “a lot of credit in the bank at board level”, patience is slowly beginning to wear thin.
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“United’s manager looked lost at times in his technical area as Leicester, back to their best, swarmed all over a team assembled at vast expense but one lacking organisation and leadership, panicking and creaking under pressure all afternoon,” wrote Phil McNulty, the BBC’s Chief Football Writer.
“Is Solskjaer the right man to take Manchester United forward? It is cruel but it cannot be dodged. And the evidence so far is not favourable.”
“Nostalgia cannot save Solskjaer for ever,” wrote The Guardian’s Jonathan Wilson. “At some point, defeats must overwhelm the goodwill and fond memories.”
“How long can this drift be allowed to go on? How long can nostalgia insulate against the recognition of mediocrity? How long can the same problems be allowed to keep recurring?
“There is no sense of organisation or coherence and that is as true of United in the attacking phase as the defensive. The only plan seems to be to wait for one of their many brilliant players to do something brilliant.”
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United indeed aren’t a team bereft of match-winners, boasting a wealth of attacking talent with the likes of Bruno Fernandes, Marcus Rashford, $135M summer signing Jadon Sancho and of course Cristiano Ronaldo.
“If that’s Man City or that’s Liverpool or that’s Chelsea, Ole’s gone,” prominent United presenter Mark Goldbridge said on his show The United Stand. “Not under this ownership, not under this regime because they are protected by Ole.”
“They like Ole because Ole’s that ex-United player where fans get their heads messed up. He’s a crap manager, but because he played for the club we just can’t turn on him, we’ve got to sing songs about him, we’ve got to back him because he’s one of us.
“[Manchester United owners] The Glazers love that because you still buy the shirts, you still stay happy and they get protected. If we had decent owners, we wouldn’t have to say Ole in or out because they’d do what they have to do.”
Solksjaer’s managerial performance in the 4-2 loss to Leicester was described as “a sackable offence” by The Daily Mirror’s Andy Dunn.
“To produce a display as downright scruffy and as error-strewn as this one takes some doing but, despite the vast array of talent, United managed it with truly incompetent ease.
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“And we all know the buck stops with the manager, which, in a way, is a shame because he is a thoroughly decent character. United, almost to a man, were startlingly abysmal.”
Despite his struggles, former teammates Gary Neville and Rio Ferdinand, who have continually backed Solksjaer, refused once again to put the blame on the Norwegian.
Instead of placing the blame solely on his friend, Neville instead pointed to a lack of balance in United’s star-studded squad.
“It’s scrappy and scruffy to watch,” he told Sky Sports.
“When you play a team with a clear organisation and a methodology, you’re going to get pulled apart and that’s what happened here. They were pulled apart by Villa, pulled apart by Everton and pulled apart by Villarreal.
“We’ve seen a team picked today with Marcus Greenwood, Jadon Sancho, Cristiano Ronaldo, Paul Pogba and Bruno Fernandes starting. Five of them, so I wouldn’t want to be a defender in that team.
“I love them as players those five, but having them all in the same team there’s not enough work horses. There’s a reason that Darren Fletcher, John O’Shea, Nicky Butt, Tom Cleverley, Park Ji-sung and Owen Hargreaves got a game at United over the years.
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“Manchester United at this moment in time are imbalanced. The performances are now getting what they deserve in terms of the results. It needs to change. The performances need to be a lot better and today was no surprise.”
Having already dropped 10 points in this English Premier League campaign, Solksjaer now faces a gauntlet of tough fixtures, starting with a match-up against bitter rivals Liverpool, who are fresh off a commanding 5-0 win.
Solksjaer has proven throughout his three years in charge that he has been able to get results with his back to the wall.
He needs yet another Houdini act to be able to see out the remainder of this season.