Some are tired of hearing that “everything was so much better” at Manchester United with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, but now they can’t get away either: After following the development of the United team in the chaos with self-proclaimed world champion Ralf Rangnick, two and a half seasons with Erik ten Hag’s game after £615 million burned off on player purchases, and last but not least, Ruben Amorim’s rescue, who himself needs a rescue to stay above the relegation zone in the Premier League. Everything was actually better with Solskjaer at the reins.
When United brought in Solskjaer well into the preparations for Christmas celebrations 2018, it was to the great enthusiasm of Man United supporters, while the “experts” saw this as a “we bring in a coach who knows the club” scheme. In other words: Underqualified as a coach of one of the world’s biggest clubs.
Solskjaer put this group of doubters in their place with 26 points from the first 10 games. Better than any other manager in Premier League history. During his entire stay as United manager, Solskjaer averaged 1.81 points per Premier League game. No one else after Solskjaer has collected a greater average score, with Ruben Amorim with his 1.13 points per league game representing the bottom level so far.
Only Liverpool and Manchester City took more points in the Premier League while “Ole” led United. It was Solskjaer who led United to 29 away games in the league without defeat (between February 2020 and September 2021. BBC), the longest streak in the history of the English top flight.
Yes, there were no titles, but it was Solskjaer who led Manchester United to 3rd and 2nd place in the two full seasons in the Premier League. It was Solskjaer who was behind the stability for Manchester United.
When a crisis was blown and the United management sacked the Norwegian in November 2021, the club was in 7th place, 12 points away from the top. In the Champions League, United were in a good position.
In comparison, Ten Hag was down to 14th place when he was weighed too lightly, four months after he was singled out as the long-term coaching solution with 8th place in the Premier League. Ruben Amorim has not been able to lead Manchester United a single place higher in the table after almost four months.
If we turn our attention to the Turkish league, we see the same start for Solskjaer as Besiktas coach as from Christmas 2018 at Manchester United.
Having gone to school with Alex Ferguson, Solskjaer has less focus on formations and clearly defined style of play and more focus on attacking play at a high pace, with players gaining confidence and exploiting this creatively in the match arena.
Solskjaer’s smiling nature and backing of his players was seen in his last season as Manchester United manager as a weakness by many “experts”. After a few seasons of uncompromising and “I rule with an iron fist anyway” Ten Hag, more and more people see that Solskjaer’s leadership style gave the United players a much better basis for performing on matchday and throughout a long season.
Definitely time to rewrite the Manchester United story of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
