Only 6 wins from 10 league games, leaving Manchester United sixth in the Premier League table, five points behind leaders Tottenham with a game in hand constitute the damaging record to date of a flailing side.
It now looks like the Red Devils have made a habit of trailing behind in games before pressing pedal to the metal finally to wrench victory out of what appears to be early imminent defeat, including their past two league games at Southampton and West Ham.
This time, irredeemably, they were unable to recover, despite the best efforts of Bruno Fernandes and Paul Pogba as Ole’s boys repeated the routine on Tuesday, as if premeditatively rehearsed in advance, going down 2-0 inside 13 minutes to early goals from Angelino and Amadou Haidara, before Justin Kluivert scored the final third, nailing the nail to the casket, sealing United’s premature demise in their Champions League campaign this season.
No doubt this quick exit will further fuel the already escalating voices of dissension to Solskjaer’s incumbent position as manager, although ex-United defender Phil Neville was quick to jump to the defense of his former United team-mate.
“I think there is an awful narrative – the minute United lose a game it seems a disaster. It’s not a disaster, it’s a disappointment,” he told BBC Radio 5 Live.
“There are United teams in the past with better managers than Ole that have gone out at this stage and there are managers in the league that are below United that don’t get the same stick that Ole gets.
“The narrative inside the club is far different from outside where there seems to be a total witch-hunt to get this boy out of a job.”
To each his own, Nev, as there are yet many who would gladly beg to differ.
Just because ‘there are managers in the league that are below United that don’t get the same stick that Ole gets’, like you have opined, that certainly doesn’t mean one has to lower the standards just because other non-performers can’t make the grade. That’s a load of crap, buddy.
Separating the wheat from the chaff is how standards are continually maintained.
By the same token along similar lines of argument, just because ‘there are United teams in the past with better managers than Ole that have gone out at this stage …’ again as you have stated, does not necessarily mean that your former teammate should be accorded the privilege of maintaining his status quo at Old Trafford despite previous managers better than him having been forced to vacate their positions, by your own admission. This makes even far less sense than your previous assertion.
The latter is a perfect illustration of adulterating unleavened bread with leaven.
Just as in the case of Pogba, if there are others who just can’t cut it, be they players or manager, they’ve simply gotta go and give the opportunities for those who are better suited to tighten the slack.
United is already in a confused, cluster**** state of affairs without those wearing blinkers adding to the clutter.