This feels like rock bottom for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer at Manchester United – if Sunday’s result doesn’t signal the end of his three-year tenure at Old Trafford then we’re not sure what will.
United was absolutely humiliated 5-0 by its most hated rival Liverpool on its home turf as Solskjaer’s expensively-assembled squad totally fell apart.
Defensively naive and offensively impotent, United were powerless as EPL top scorer favorite Mo Salah scored three times in a famous Liverpool success.
United playing like amateurs
Some of the mistakes, and the overall performance, were cringeworthy as United looked like total amateurs. They are eight points off the top of the table at this early stage of the season, and have just one point from their last four games.
Solskjaer, whose managerial experience previously was in charge of Norwegian club Molde and Welsh team Cardiff City, has come under heavy fire in recent months.
So far every time the Norwegian appears to be heading for the employment line, he pulls out a big result to save him. It happened midweek as United recovered from 2-0 down to beat Atalanta in the Champions League.
This is different though, this was Liverpool and it was a total embarrassment. Surely United’s owners the Glazer family (who also own the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers) must sit up and take notice now.
The return of Cristiano Ronaldo in the summer was seen as the Glazers doing for United what they did for Tampa when they lured Tom Brady to the Bucs. But the results could not be more different.
CR7 return is no Brady copy
Brady brought a Super Bowl trophy to Florida, but Ronaldo looks frustrated as he struggles in an under-achieving United team.
It is worth remembering that Jose Mourinho’s last game in charge at United was a 3-1 defeat by Liverpool back in 2018. Right now we’d bet on a loss to the Reds being the final assignment for Solskjaer too.
Perhaps the biggest indictment of all for United right now comes in the odds from online sportsbooks to win the English Premier League title in 2021-22. Just nine games in and United – eight points off the top – is now available at +6600 (bet $100 to win $6600). That means no chance people. How is all that cash United spent looking?
Manchester City remains the -110 favorite to grab another championship this season – adding more insult to injury for the red half of the town. Things cannot get much worse.
We expect Solskjaer to be relieved of his duties this week – like we said anything else will be a dereliction of duty from the higher-ups at Old Trafford.
As for replacements, there are not many options on the open market. Former Real Madrid chief Zinedine Zidane and former Chelsea boss Antonio Conte are sure to be in the running.
United of course could look to buy a manager out of his existing contract at a club. Highly-rated Leicester boss Brendan Rodgers could be an interesting player in that category.