Solskjaer’s biggest challenge is player sales
For many Manchester United fans this has been a good season – and it could yet be a great one. There is one more semifinal to come, against Sevilla in the UEFA Europa League on Sunday, which is the third of the season after the League Cup and FA Cup.
While both of those ended in disappointment, thanks to Manchester City and Chelsea, the pressure is off behind closed doors in Germany and they have unfinished business with Sevilla, who knocked the club out of the UEFA Champions League in the 2017-18 season knockouts.
Jose Mourinho’s United were shocking over two legs, only trying to progress in the final 10 minutes of the return game at Old Trafford, when Romelu Lukaku’s 84th-minute goal gave fans the briefest of hopes.
Now, under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, hope is in abundance for United fans. While the winner of the Europa League earns a place in the Champions League, United do not need it having already secured a return to Europe’s top table after missing out this past season.
They did that by finishing third in the English Premier League, up from sixth the season before. That finish came via a run of form, following the home defeat to Burnley, that was the best in the top flight. While that is not quite the same as challenging for the title it is evidence that former stirker Solskjaer has done something right in his first full season in charge.
Despite criticism of the Norwegian at times, he has changed the fortunes of the team while installing his own players. New signing Bruno Fernandes revolutionized the team since his arrival in January with the only question mark about the Portuguese playmaket why he was not signed last summer.
Those players who did arrive 12 months ago – Harry Maguire and Aaron Wan-Bissaka – have been criticized in some quarters – Maguire largely on account of not being Liverpool’s Virgil van Dijk but costing more than the Dutchman, Wan-Bissaka for his lack of assists in comparison to the Liverpool pair Trent Alexander-Arnold and Andrew Robertson. Criticism aside, the pair have been key to United conceding just 36 goals in the 38-game Premier League season.
That was good enough to give them the third-best defensive record in the top flight, behind only the teams above them – champions Liverpool and Manchester City. It was also 18 goals fewer conceded than the season before.
Somewhat counter-intuitively, the attacking element of the team, particularly the trio of Anthony Martial, Marcus Rashford and Mason Greenwood at its tip, have been widely praised but United’s 66 goals in the 2019-20 Premier League season was only one more than the 65 scored the season before.
In fairness, the post-lockdown return of football saw Rashford return to fitness and a stronger-looking Greenwood join him and Martial in a settled starting lineup. That period also set a Premier League record for consecutive victories by three or more goals.
What the numbers do reflect is that Solskjaer got it right in choosing to offload Romelu Lukaku to Inter Milan, despite the Belgian’s 15 goals in all competitions being second only to top scorer Paul Pogba. Lukaku had scored 27 in all under Mourniho the season before and questions were asked of Solskjaer. His front three have answered them in the form of 62 goals between them, including personal best season hauls in their careers.
Meanwhile, Greenwood’s 17 goals, in his debut season, match the best by a United teenager, tying George Best and Brian Kidd while eclipsing Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney.
United could yet face Inter in the Europa League final, provided they can negotiate competition stalwarts Sevilla in the semifinal on Sunday. If they do meet Antonio Conte’s side then the former manager and his leading scorer will not be the only familiar faces.
Alexis Sanchez, a player whose swap deal from under the noses of Manchester City was meant to represent a coup but whose time at Old Trafford has become the shorthand for profligacy, has joined the San Siro side full time after making his loan move permanent. Former United captain Ashley Young is also at the Nerazzuri.
There are several other current United players that some supporters hope Solskjaer can offload to the Milan side and once again it is his selling of players that is perhaps most important this summer in building the side in his own image.
Only a handful of Alex Ferguson’s signings remain at the club, but the club is still paying for players brought in or handed new contracts by his successors David Moyes, Louis van Gaal and Mourinho.
The steely-eyed Solskjaer has been ruthless so far – through the door have gone the Inter Milan trio, another former captain Antonio Valencia, Ander Herrera and Matteo Darmian among several youth teamers, including the high-profile pair of Angel Gomes, the club’s youngest debutant since Duncan Edwards, and Largie Ramazani.
Gomes and Ramazani may come to be seen in the same way as Pogba, a former youth-teamer who returned as the most expensive player in the world, but Solskjaer has not limited the opportunities for youngsters, which could not be said of Ferguson’s midfield when Pogba left for Juventus.
Instead it is the older elements of the squad that the Norwegian needs to trim. Jesse Lingard, the Peter Pan of playmakers with precious few goals or assists, is 27 and the club are reportedly willing to listen to offers. Inter Milan have already been linked.
Chris Smalling, who spent the past season impressing at Roma, can also go. As can his former defensive partner Phil Jones. Marcos Rojo, who has played in a World Cup final and been on loan at Estudiantes, can also leave, with Andreas Pereira, now 24, and Diogo Dalot also available for the right price.
These are not bad players, as Smalling and Sanchez proved in Italy this season, some have served the club well over the years but there is a time to say goodbye as Solskjaer well knows.
Jesse Lingard Photo: VCG
