Why Man Utd should stick with Solskjaer even if they lose to Tottenham

Stefan Bienkowski

• 29 Oct 2021 21:26 BST
• 3 min read

All eyes will be on the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Saturday evening when the London club play host to Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s under-fire Manchester United side.

After an embarrassing 5-0 defeat to Liverpool on Sunday, the Old Trafford club will know anything but a competent victory over Spurs will not be enough to keep the boos and criticism at bay.

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Should Man Utd lose the match to Nuno Espirito Santo’s team, Solskjaer will be widely expected to either step down or be sacked by the Man Utd board.

However, despite the obvious reasons behind such a call, the club should instead stick by the Man Utd manager for a little while longer. Even if he fails to pick up any points on Saturday.

There’s no point appointing a new manager now

For a start, there’s simply no point in bringing in a new manager to try and turn things around at Man Utd right now.

After Tottenham, the club then have to play Manchester City, Chelsea and Arsenal in their next five games. And there’s simply no way any self-respecting manager will want to pick up the reins ahead of that torturous run.

Instead, Man Utd should wait until mid-December, when they face Norwich, Brentford, Brighton, Newcastle, Burnley and then Wolves before heading into the January transfer window.

Not only would that be the perfect time for a new manager to fix holes in the team against lesser sides, but it would also give him time to prepare for the January window. Any sooner would simply be chaos.

They’ve already done the hard work in the Champions League

One potential downside to sticking with Solskjaer for the time being is that the club still have Champions League group stage games to play, with Atalanta away next week, followed by an away trip to Villarreal and then a home tie against Young Boys on December 8.

However, unlike the club’s Premier League campaign, Man Utd have managed to ride their luck in Europe and currently sit top of their group with six points. And another three or four points from those following three remaining games should be enough to qualify.

The Champions League is clearly an important competition for the Old Trafford club, but they’re hardly in jeopardy of getting knocked out.