Manchester United have sacked Jose Mourinho, and replaced him with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, but that in itself may not be enough to arrest the slide at a club that is currently in sixth place in the Premier League.
United are 11 points off of the top four and 19 behind league leaders Liverpool, and face Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League Round of 16. Solskjaer has a huge task on his hands to turn things around this season.
The same holds true for the club as a whole, as the latter stages of Mourinho’s reign revealed some glaring deficiencies at Old Trafford. If England’s most successful club are to return to competing for football’s biggest prizes, there needs to be a drastic change.
Here’s a look at the key issues for Manchester United to address.
THE NEW MANAGER
Solskjaer has come in at until the end of the season, joined by former United assistant coach Mike Phelan with current assistants Michael Carrick and Brian McKenna being retained.
The short-term nature of the appointment is slightly confusing, given that everything suggests that United will go after a big name in the summer. While it’s understandable that the club’s rumoured top target, such as Mauricio Pochettino, would be much harder to get in the middle of the season, that United are actively planning to make another appointment in six months makes little sense.
What about the January transfer window? Solskjaer may decide over the next couple of weeks that the team needs reinforcements, and pick players accordingly – and then a new manager will have to decide whether the signings are of any use to him six months later.
The logical assumption should be that though Solskjaer is an interim manager, the rest of the season will serve as an audition for the club legend. If he can win the FA Cup, restore United to the top four, and take the club far in the Champions League, won’t he have earned the permanent job?
Roberto di Matteo’s time at Chelsea serves as a counter, as the Blues legend won the Champions League in 2012 as an interim manager and thus made himself un-sack-able, only to fail to sustain his success the next season. So perhaps that would be a cautionary tale against hiring Solskjaer permanently even if he does succeed over the next few months.
Regardless, getting the managerial decision right will be the most important thing for United next summer.
Is it against the rules to suggest Mauricio Pochettino might look at the control he has at Spurs, the current state of the squads and the farce of the last few years at Manchester United and think he is better off where he is?
— Phil McNulty (@philmcnulty) December 18, 2018
DIRECTOR OF FOOTBALL
United have been mooting a switch to a more modern structure for a while, and frankly it seems remarkable that it hasn’t already happened. Javier Ribalta was brought on as chief scout in 2017 only to leave this summer to become Zenit St. Petersburg’s sporting director – a switch that should have sent alarm bells ringing at Old Trafford, and possibly did.
Reports over the summer suggested that when Mourinho drew up a list of transfer targets, not one player matched the list Ribalta had made himself. That there was such a disconnect is galling – a situation that cannot be repeated again.
Paul Mitchell is reportedly being lined up as United’s first director of football, having held lead recruitment roles at Southampton and Tottenham – where he built up a strong relationship with Pochettino – before taking on a similar role at RB Leipzig earlier this year.
Hiring Mitchell may put United on the inside track to landing Pochettino, or it may not. What is more important is that the director of football is in place before next summer, so that when a new manager is being hired, the director will have a say in the decision, and then the two figures can work in lockstep from that point on.
Have Manchester United finally found their sporting director? Highly rated Paul Mitchell (RB Leipzig head of recruitment and development) has reportedly secured the role. This is exactly what we need.
— Josh (@ManUnitedMedia) December 15, 2018
TRANSFERS
Mourinho spent close to £360million during his tenure, but at the moment it’s hard to see how many of those players are long-term United prospects. Romelu Lukaku‘s confidence looks shot – and he was a Mourinho loyalist. What’s going to happen with players like Paul Pogba, Fred, and Alexis Sanchez?
More importantly, however, Ed Woodward and the board – or whoever’s in charge of signings, which, at the moment, is up in the air – has to get its next few signings right. Eric Bailly and Victor Lindelof were Mourinho purchases and have shown promise at times, but United desperately need a more imposing centre-back, a senior man who can lead the back-line and ease the pressure on Bailly, Lindelof, and the rest of United’s defenders. Napoli’s Kalidou Koulibaly is a sensible target, though he could cost upwards of £75million.
For a team supposedly in crisis, it seems remarkable that the defence is the only area where the need for recruitment is obvious. In midfield, simply restoring the confidence of Pogba and Fred should spark an improvement, and the same should happen up front, where Anthony Martial and Marcus Rashford are finding form, and Lukaku can possibly coaxed back to his best, as well.
So getting the right defender is key. And it has to happen next month, in order to help salvage the season.
Napoli president De Laurentiis:”We develop and keep high caliber players. When £95 million are offered for a central defender like Koulibaly it means he’s a top player”
— David Amoyal (@DavidAmoyal) December 19, 2018
SCOUTING
Ribalta’s departure after a year as chief scout was a blow to United, but perhaps the scouting system needs a much deeper overhaul.
Mourinho believed the club were doing a poor job of identifying talent. After United’s loss to West Ham in September, he praised West Ham scouts for finding Issa Diop, the 21-year-old defender who had a commanding performance on the day.
He also wondered how United hadn’t spotted Harry Maguire before the Leicester centre-back became a player with a £75million price tag, believing that the defender should have been identified when he was making his way at Hull.
The former United manager would come to conclude that the club’s scouting system was bloated, with too many scouts not finding the right players, according to a Telegraph report earlier this month. Mourinho did approve the signing of 19-year-old right-back Diogo Dalot, and both Bailly and Lindelof were 22 when he signed them, but it does seem like United’s knack of finding the best young talent has disappeared. That needs to change.
Source close to Mourinho: “They (the board) are not working on selling players, they are not working on buying players- and they have 58 scouts and three scouting bosses. It is ridiculous. José believes this is not the best way to rule a football club.” #mulive [telegraph]
— utdreport (@utdreport) December 13, 2018
PAUL POGBA
Pogba has become one of those players who’s nearly as big as the club itself. His rift with Mourinho seemed to spill over to other players as well, and though the former manager’s exit may give him cause to celebrate, Pogba has to take a long, hard look at himself, as well.
He may play with more freedom under Solskjaer, but as a World Cup winner and now senior figure in this side, Pogba needs to embrace the responsibility that comes with his influence. The Frenchman is a great talent, but too often he can drift in games and fail to have any impact, and not all of that is down to Mourinho.
Hopefully for United, Mourinho’s departure should quell any talk of selling Pogba. But if this crisis did end up boiling down to Mourinho vs Pogba, the player has to show exactly why the club picked him over one of football’s most successful managers.
