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Former Manchester United coach, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, has laid bare his time at the club in an interview with former teammates Gary Neville and Roy Keane.
The United legend enjoyed initial success at his former side but then had a rollercoaster time of it. However he did finish in third and second place in his two full seasons in charge.
However, like Jose Mourinho before him, the wheels really began to fall off in his third season and he was promptly sacked in November 2021.
Speaking to Sky Sports The Overlap YouTube channel he spoke out on his time as manager and speculated on what went wrong during his time at the club.
Highlighting two games in the autumn of 2021 which sealed the Norwegian’s fate, he admitted mistakes were probably made but did not apologise for his rationale for his tactical choices.
United were blown away 0-5 at home to Liverpool and lost 0-2 at Old Trafford to Manchester City but the gulf in class was much more evident that that.
Speaking on his mindset entering those games Solskjaer claimed, “we need to be Man Utd, try to be Man Utd. Don’t defend, don’t be counter-attacking…go toe-to-toe with them. If not, there’s no point being at Man Utd.”
“If those two games were away, you’d be much more comfortable sitting in”.
Elaborating on the pressure he felt to attack and try to match United’s biggest rivals he claimed, “Old Trafford, we’ve just signed Cristiano, Raphael Varane, Jadon Sancho. We went 4-2-3-1, 5-3-2 against City, should have switched them two over. You look at it now and that’s what you think”.
“Those two are two of the best teams in the world the last four or five years, top teams, the chances are you’re going to lose anyway. If you lose without having a go, it’s like, what’s the point?”
The Norwegian also asserted that his players shared the same philosophy.
“The players also felt, maybe wrongly so, we are a better team than just defending”.
However, the former striker had built previous years’ success on being a lethal counter attacking side who would play very well away from home, in fact breaking an English record for 29 top-flight away games unbeaten.
The man from Kristiansund believes his players were best set up to hit on the counter.
“We had Andreas Pereira, Dan James, Jessie Lingard, players that could run all day for you. It’s easier to set up a team” like that.
However, he felt that the team and himself needed to prove they were more than just a transition side.
“At United you have a responsibility for the fans to enjoy the game, you don’t just go and get a result. It was time to see where we were at. Are we ready to move to the next step?”.
Counter-history is always impossible to judge but it would be an interesting thought exercise to imagine: if Solskjaer had stuck to the values of high pressing, sitting in and being lethal on the counter, would he have managed to stay in the job he coveted so much any longer than he did?
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