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Solskjaer is always a couple of games away from a crisis | The Football Show

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is always a crisis waiting to happen, according to Dan McDonnell.



Solskjaer is always a couple o...
Soccer

Solskjaer is always a couple of games away from a crisis | The Football Show

Journalist Dan McDonnell joined The Football Show on Wednesday to discuss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer will be the Manchester United manager for the foreseeable future, according to Andy Mitten.

Mitten joined The Football Show on Tuesday to cast his eye over the aftermath of the Liverpool game.

It's not a surprise. The Manchester United board have stuck by Solskjaer for a long time.

And since there is no immediate, perfect option, it's easier for them to hold steady. Mauricio Pochettino, Antonio Conte and Erik Ten Hag are all considered potential replacements. Pochettino is with PSG, Ten Hag is Ajax's manager and Conte is a controversial choice because of the way in which he runs his teams.

Manchester United managers always deal with huge pressure but Solskjaer is now under more pressure than he's ever been under.

So the upcoming games are crucial. If Solskjaer suffers a similar defeat to the one he just had, and that seems likely, it's hard to see him holding on. It's a matter of when not if that defeat comes.

Dan McDonnell joined Joe Molloy on Wednesday's The Football Show and diagnosed Solskjaer as a crisis-in-waiting.

"I've always felt he was a couple of games away from a crisis," McDonnell said.

"You need to win your way out of that. You need to win a big trophy to get yourself out of that situation. But now I don't know how you recover from it. It's more the point even that the trashings are not random events in games. You can have bad luck...there are mad games where things happen, but it's more the sustained issues and all of that feeding into what happened.

"Where do you escape from that? You don't."

McDonnell notes that Paul Scholes even predicted Liverpool's 5-0 win over Solskjaer's team. Mitten described that loss as the worst possible result for any Manchester United fan. He didn't mean on the season and he didn't mean for this manager. He meant ever. It was a literal nightmare scenario that came to life and yet it wasn't enough to cost Solskjaer his job.

A loss to Tottenham this weekend or a loss to Atalanta next week could be the end for Solskjaer. If not, then that derby with Manchester City looms inevitable and Pep Guardiola will want to match what Jurgen Klopp's team did. Regardless of who delivers the final blow, McDonnell believes it's only a matter of time before United suffer that loss and the board are forced to make a change.

"You're living game to game until your next big defeat and then you're gone."

"Clearly most of this is on the manager" | Andy Mitten

 

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