Four days ago, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer sat down at the signature table at Besiktas. During the first day, he posted a video message to the supporters, where he understands the demanding situation, will work around the clock to turn it around and asks for support to implement the plan. On the first day of training with the Besiktas players, the former United manager gave “full Solskjaer treatment”, with smiles, laughter, seriousness and clear coaching in beautiful union. On Wednesday, the results were announced.
Besiktas have had a horrible start in the Europa League, down to 19th place in the table in the new format. On Wednesday, four days after Solskjaer put on his Besiktas tracksuit, Athletic (Bilbao) Club came to the witch’s cauldron in Istanbul. The La Liga club is level on points with Barcelona in the domestic league, in the Europa League the club was without a loss.
This was before they met Solskjaer.
1-1 after the first half, Solskjaer made some tactical moves, with Besiktas squeezing in three goals for a crushing 4-1 victory.
Turkish media called it a tactical stroke of genius by Solskjaer, Norwegian media “a dream start”. We call it Not surprising. We saw it at Manchester United in 2018 when calm Solskjaer arrived in a United squad full of stress and uncertainty after Mourinho’s final months. The first thing Solskjaer did was to bring out the smile, the laughter, the joy of playing – and the belief in himself and a new game plan. The results came immediately and gave United a streak without defeat that saved the season.
Now the United legend uses the same method at Besiktas. No wonder there was a victory in the first game!
Everything you need to know about Solskjaer’s next games
