COLOGNE – Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is starting to look and sound like a Manchester United manager.
He has shaken the demeanor of a man who woke up every day thinking he was the luckiest man alive to be doing the job of his dreams, to now look the part, with results on the pitch proof the apprentice is quickly learning his trade.
Saying the right things is all well and good, but United managers are expected to bring success, or else. The end-of-season revival that saw United finish in the top four and seal a return to Champions League football for next season is but the first step. Next up is something that United managers, new and old, are expected to bring home as a bare minimum – a trophy. Even David Moyes won the Community Shield.
While Louis van Gaal’s football was at times eye-bleedingly turgid, he was at least able to plonk the FA Cup down on the desk in what became his final press conference, defiant that he had, he felt, done what was required of a United manager. Jose Mourinho too was able to hold three fingers aloft when people doubted the job he was doing at United, with those three trophies in one season as good as it has got for United in the post-Sir Alex Ferguson era.
The problem Solskjaer has now as he prepares his team for their Europa League quarter-final clash with FC Copenhagen is that Manchester expects. Making United such an exciting side to watch again is only going to remind fans of glories of yesteryear, and in those glory days, trophies were plentiful.
A decent number of United fans have made their way over to the sweltering city of Cologne, with gazing upon the glorious gothic architecture of Cologne’s cathedral not exactly top of the agenda. Good job, as it is covered in scaffolding anyway.
They will not be able to get in, or even near the stadium on Monday night, but they are expecting to be in the city when their side put the seal on as fine a season as can be expected for a team very much still in transition.
Copenhagen will be no pushovers, that has to be said. They dismantled Turkish champions Istanbul Basaksehir at times in midweek to book a first-ever European quarter-final, with Solskjaer’s great friend and compatriot – Copenhagen coach Stale Solbakken – possessing plenty of tricks up his sleeve.
And, of course, in the incongruous surroundings of an empty stadium in Cologne, against a team relatively unknown to United, anything can happen in one match, on the night, be it a David de Gea error here, or another Rasmus Falk wondergoal there.
But this United incumbent should have too much. Just as they should have too much for Wolves – a team United have struggled against in the last two seasons – or Sevilla in a potential one-off semi-final next weekend.
Even a possible final against the team second favourites to win the Europa League – Inter Milan – a side complete with several former United players who will certainly be doing their upmost to prove a point – should not represent an insurmountable challenge to United. Well, this version of United anyway.
Such a change in how United are viewed, in the space of six months, is partly Solskjaer’s own doing.
Most teams, when they go on a run of one defeat in 23 games like United have been on, garner so much belief from a run of such fine form, but at Manchester United, such form generates downright expectation, with United fans born anytime later than 1985 having become so used to success in the Ferguson years they now feel entitled to it.
“We are in strange times but we’ve got to make the most of it,” Solskjaer said ahead of the Copenhagen clash. “It would mean a lot to the players, the club and supporters if we reached the final.
“We have developed throughout the season, but one loss in 23 games is one too many.”
Spoken like a true Manchester United manager. Talking the talk continues, but walking the walk has to be with trophies in your hands at United. Given the opposition to come for United in Germany, and with a near-fully fit, in-form squad at his disposal, Solskjaer could not ask for a better opportunity to get his trophy haul up and running.
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