SOLSKJAER’s
by Silvio Scicluna
I
t has now been over two years since Ole Gunnar Solskjaer took over the reins as Manchester United manager. In this time he has analysed the players he had at his disposal when he first took over, bought new players in transfer windows as well as moved a few players on that were not in his future plans. Throughout this time, fans and pundits alike have debated as to what the manager’s best XI is and I feel that now, two years plus into the job, a line-up which one can say with a degree of confidence that is Solskjaer’s best XI is clearly beginning to emerge. When settling on a final best XI, first and foremost a manger has to ultimately decide on what the best tactical shape he wants his team to play in. Solskjaer has tried various formations throughout his tenure but the majority of matches are played in his preferred 4-2-3-1 formation. We have seen other tactical deployments such as the 3-4-1-2 or 3-5-2 with three central defenders, mostly used against the big six in England or against top teams in Europe. There were also instances when we have seen a diamond midfield in a 4-4-2 formation. Both these setups have been fairly successful when used but, as
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Solskjaer himself recently admitted, they were used mainly as an adaptation to limit our opponent’s strengths rather than focusing on our threats and expressing how we want to play. Having said that, there is nothing wrong with adopting a ‘horses for courses’ selection at times. For sure it manifests a manager’s tactical adaptability. But, as we have been seeing in United’s recent run of good form (at the time of writing we are second in the league, within reasonable distance of the leaders), when the team plays in a 4-2-3-1 setup, it tends to favour our players’ strengths to the maximum. And sure enough we are now seeing a more consistent selection of players that seems to indicate that the boss is slowly discovering his best XI. From what we are seeing, the following are Solskjaer’s current favourites: Goalkeeper: David De Gea For the first time in his career at United, De Gea now has serious competition in Dean Henderson. The latter had a stellar season on loan at Sheffield United last campaign. He has broken into the England squad and is not short of confidence. De Gea is still in possession of the no.1 jersey but if Deano stays patient
and professional, a permanent changing of the guard might not be too far away. Defence: Aaron Wan-Bissaka, Victor Lindelöf, Harry Maguire, Luke Shaw Most will agree with me that Wan-Bissaka, Maguire and Shaw are nailed on first choices. Probably the biggest debate is Lindelöf. There have been instances lately when he came into the side that Eric Bailly has shone and there are some who will argue that he is better than Lindelöf. He is however very injury prone and that seems to work against him. Lindelöf, on the other hand tends to suffer against tall strong target men and gets bullied at times. But as things stand, if Lindelöf manages to shake off his chronic back problems, he seems to be Solskjaer’s preferred partner to Maguire and Ole tends to prefer a settled centre back partnership. As for the full backs, Wan-Bissaka doesn’t seem to have any serious competition at the moment. Dalot has gone out on loan and FosuMensah has left so his understudy is Brandon Williams. Some might argue that United should go out and buy another right back to offer stiffer competition to Aaron and force him to up his
