Axe hovers over Ole Gunnar Solskjaer as familiar questions haunt Man Utd boss
It was a 3-1 loss to Liverpool that finally brought the chop for Jose Mourinho and opened the door for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer to return to Manchester United.
Mourinho went into that December 2018 game on a run of two wins in seven matches and amid a growing sense that, 31 months on from being anointed as manager, this wasn’t working out.
Solskjaer must now understand how his predecessor felt. With two wins in seven games, and 31 months after his permanent appointment, the guillotine is hovering.
United’s next Premier League match is already being billed as make-or-break for the Norwegian. The opponents? A supremely in-form Liverpool.
The vultures are circling Solskjaer following United’s 4-2 collapse at Leicester City on Saturday.
That was just the latest embarrassing setback in the club’s current slump, which has also included defeats to Young Boys, West Ham United and Aston Villa.
Even when United have won it has been by the skin of their teeth: both victories in that seven-game spell came from last-minute goals.
And the sense of doom has set in despite a strong start to the season in which they took 13 from a possible 15 points in the Premier League.
This is not entirely new for this club under this manager, who has never shaken off questions about his qualifications.
Every good run, it seems, is merely an interlude between periods of intense existential angst for United.
As United have found since Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement, finding the next man is no simple task, and it is not clear who ought to replace Solskjaer.
The four favourites in the betting are Brendan Rodgers, whose Leicester project has stalled a little, despite Saturday’s win; Antonio Conte, a winner but maybe not suited to the club’s more egotistical players; Mauricio Pochettino, who would be costly to extract from Paris Saint-Germain; and Zinedine Zidane, who looks well suited but has given few signs that he wants the job.
Just as big a question, perhaps, is whether there is appetite in the Old Trafford boardroom for more upheaval.
The Glazer family have reduced their majority shareholding from 78 per cent to 69 per cent in the last eight months, while Ed Woodward, who runs the club day-to-day is due to depart at the end of 2021. It is unclear who, if anyone, is mapping out the masterplan for United.
Solskjaer is not dead and buried yet, however. He has the chance to lift some of the gloom against Atalanta in the Champions League on Wednesday, and has had a happy knack of conjuring results when he has needed them most, from the away goals win over PSG that effectively sealed his promotion from caretaker manager to the 1-1 draw that denied Liverpool a record-equalling 18th successive league win two years ago.
United’s bitter rivals are in similarly ominous form ahead of this year’s visit. Solskjaer may need to pull another rabbit from his hat if he is to be around for next year’s.