Manchester United are set to keep faith with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. For at least one more game.
The Guardian report Solskjaer will stay on despite the 5-0 sacking at the hands of rivals Liverpool.
Solskjaer’s job has appeared untenable ever since the appointment.
Now it appears he will retain his role for Saturday’s game away at Tottenham Hotspur.
Playing into opposition hands
This decision to stick with Solskjaer is what Tottenham will want to hear.
It is a move all opposition fans want. Liverpool fans sung ‘Ole must stay’ and ‘Ole’s at the wheel’ during Sunday’s game.
Manchester United have a talented squad of players, a group capable of winning silverware.
Nothing scares opposing fans like the prospect of Manchester United getting a serious manager like Antonio Conte, a proven winner who has won the title in each of his last three jobs.
From the opposing view, it was a shame from our perspective when Chelsea fired Frank Lampard last year. He was doing a solid job of taking them towards mediocrity.
Thomas Tuchel has come in and turned them into winners immediately, and this season they top the league.
United’s owners currently have not shown the same ruthlessness Roman Abramovich did.
The decision to stick by Solskjaer is the one United’s rivals want to hear.
Tottenham are opponents this weekend. They tried to hire Antonio Conte in the summer before talks broke down.
Seeing Conte lead United out on their home ground would have been a painful reminder of what they missed out on. Instead United will rock up with a beleaguered Solskjaer in charge.
Tottenham in a bad place right now
So lets say Ole Gunnar Solskjaer goes to Tottenham and wins. What will it prove?
No supporter is going to be convinced. It will take a lot more than a good 90 minutes to make up for the horror show against Liverpool, and the three winless Premier League games which preceded it.
There will be a suspicion that a victory at Spurs would simply be delaying the inevitable.
Defeat away at Atalanta days later would set United back badly in the Champions League. It would likely drop us from first to third in the group with two games remaining.
And then there is the match at home to Manchester City the following Saturday.
If United play against City like we did against Liverpool, the result will be embarrassing, and it won’t matter what happens against Spurs.
The City result is the one which will have more of a bearing on Solskjaer’s future, if the Norwegian is fortunate enough to make it to then.
Tottenham are in a bad place themselves, losing at home to West Ham at th weekend without registering a shot on target.
Spurs fans are also dissatisfied with Nuno Santo and a United victory will say more about them than it will about Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
The overriding feeling is that if United do win, it will only delay the inevitable.
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