Solskjaer must be sacked NOW after Liverpool humiliation
Paul Macdonald
- Updated: 24 Oct 2021 18:25 BST
- 4 min read
On the 10th anniversary of their 6-1 defeat to Manchester City, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s Manchester United side somehow produced a performance infinitely worse.
Whilst that game was in the balance for a while, this one wasn’t in doubt after Naby Keita coolly rolled home the opening goal on eight minutes. And the most galling thing for United fans, some of whom streamed from the stadium at half-time and 4-0 down, was just how easy it was for their eternal rivals.
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It’s one thing being defeated by a far superior team - which Liverpool are - but it’s quite another when that team doesn’t even need to excel to achieve spectacular results.
Salah, at spells in the first half, was playing at testimonial pace, flicking the ball around and barely even celebrating the second of his goals, swept into the corner just before half-time. The Egyptians finishing, scoring for a record 10th game in a row in all competitions, was typically perfect; even when taking a heavy touch for his hat-trick goal he was still able to cutely dink into the net. He, quite frankly, toyed with United.
Mohamed Salah is the first player in Premier League history to score a hat-trick against Man Utd at Old Trafford.
THIS. IS. UNREAL.— Squawka Football (@Squawka) October 24, 2021
United are directionless, tacticless, and it’s a team very much in the coach’s image. Solskjaer is a featherweight trying to go head-to-head intellectually with the likes of Jurgen Klopp, Thomas Tuchel and Pep Guardiola and the gulf in class, in every aspect, is becoming an embarrassment for all concerned.
His friends in the media, the cabal of ex-United sympathisers, can have no answer to a biblically bad performance such as this. The team pressed as individuals, attacked as individuals and defended as individuals. There was no collective attempt to do anything, other than to lose. Even Edinson Cavani, taking a futile glance at notes provided to him by an assistant with the scoring reading 5-0, felt like denying reality.
But it can’t be denied for much longer, particularly when looking at the talent on the field. United are not a bad team. They have a collection of excellent footballers but they have an amateur chaperoning them, a man so out of his depth it permeates through everything he does and says.
Will Solskjaer be sacked?
The capitulation witnessed at Old Trafford will live long in the memory of both supports, as will what happens next. Imagine the response if David Moyes or even Jose Mourinho had oversaw such an inept display - they would have been asked to clear out their desks before the final whistle had blown.
But even the stubbornness of the United board in their staunch support of the Norwegian surely cannot stand firm in the face of such a miserable afternoon. The sight of Paul Pogba, red carded 15 minutes after coming on, strolling from the field helped to set the scene for something that cannot be tolerated at the world’s biggest club.
He was given Jadon Sancho, and chooses not to use him. He was also given Raphael Varane and Cristiano Ronaldo, to add to the selection of stars he already had. He has been backed, supported, stood by, and this disaster is the end result.
If Ole lasts another week in the Manchester United dugout, it suggests to fans that onfield achievement is a secondary concern to commercial revenue or audience growth. He has made not only his own position untenable, but the entire ethos of the club. What happens next could define what happens to United in the medium term, too.
