What the hell has Ole been playing at with Lingard?
Robin Bairner
- 19 Nov 2021 11:30 CST
- 3 min read
Jesse Lingard was wanted at Ole Gunnar Solskjaer at Manchester United this season. At least, that the what the manager claimed.
After a stellar back end of 2020/21 with West Ham, the forward returned to Old Trafford a player who suddenly had a reputation to defend.
Lingard enjoyed his best spell as a professional under David Moyes, scoring nine goals and creating five more in just 16 Premier League appearances.
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He might have gone back to West Ham, too, had Solskjaer not been so insistent about keeping him.
Speaking in September, Ole said: “We really what to see the best of Jesse this season and we hope to see him, we support him, and we hope to keep him here with us.
“He's a red through and through.”
How is Lingard playing for Man Utd?
And when Lingard has been on the field – aside from one huge aberration against Young Boys – he has delivered.
All seemed to be forgiven for that mistake in Switzerland when he scored five days later in a 2-1 win over West Ham. He had also netted in the 4-1 rout against Newcastle following the September international break.
Since then, he has played only 19 minutes of Premier League and Champions League football. Nevertheless, during that time, he still managed to create Cristiano Ronaldo’s late, late winner in a critical fixture against Villarreal.
No matter what you think of Lingard’s qualities as a player, two goals and one assist in 79 minutes of top-level football is surely the type of form that at least merits more game time.
Yet Ole, who was allegedly so desperate to keep Lingard on the books, has been sitting on his hands with the England attacker. Some may argue that arrive of Cristiano Ronaldo changed the scenario for the 28-year-old. While it stacked the deck further against him, he had only played four minutes before the Portuguese’s dramatic arrival late in August.
So why exactly did Solskjaer push so hard to keep Lingard when he seems hell bent on keeping him on the bench? Was he stockpiling him because he’s scared of West Ham?
It's little wonder he's starting to become disgruntled. His decision to drop a picture of himself celebrating in West Ham colours on his Instagram stories on Friday certainly comes across as a not-so-subtle hint to the Old Trafford hierarchy.
Lingard’s plight is far from the most dramatic at Man Utd this season, but in many ways it typifies how the meritocracy at Old Trafford has collapsed – and with it the team’s chances of a first Premier League title in close to a decade.
