From a 1-0 lead to a 1-2 loss against Gaziantep with a player sent off. Then a 1-0 loss against bottom club, this one with two players sent off by the opponent. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has had two tough games after a flying start as Besiktas manager, but now Besiktas are showing themselves as before Solskjaer’s arrival. Again, it is the club’s highest paid who is subjected to stinging criticism.
Ciro Immobile, the superstar of Serie A with 201 goals in 353 games, 17 goals in 57 games in the Italian national team. Besiktas secured the precision signing in the summer of 2024, since then Immobile has 15 goals in 33 games. Then Solskjaer came along and the 34-year-old has experienced less playing time. A Turkish journalist already thought at the beginning of February that it is only a matter of time before the Italian disappears, the former Serie A star simply struggled with the pace of Solskjaer football.
After the bitter loss to the bottom team at the weekend, Solskjaer went out and apologized to the Besiktas supporters. He had never experienced anything like it. The reactions after the game are not against Solskjaer, but against the players, especially Ciro Immobile and former Liverpool player Oxlade-Chamberlain.
“Besiktas needed replacements before Solskjaer came in. In the beginning, he got a lot out of the players he has, but now we see that replacements are needed. An example is players like Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Ciro Immobile,” says journalist Karataş.
“Players like Oxlade-Chamberlain, Immobile and Joao Mario should be banned from the squad. I can’t think of any other solution, writes Sinan Vardar at Fotomac.
Record journalist Karataş goes further, he believes Besiktas must dump Immobile this summer, one year before the end of his contract.
“He has to discard players like Immobile, who are not effective enough, and instead focus on young players. The team is still fighting in the Turkish Cup. He has to give us hope for the coming season. The game he has built around Joao Mario has now been seen through by the opponents. He has to develop a slightly different strategy, the Turkish journalist believes.
