Ole Gunnar Solskjaer bears the scars of office, thinning hair whitening by the hour, wrinkles gathering around the eyes and mouth. Throughout his term as Manchester United manager Solskjaer has borne the responsibility with a smile, despite the assault on his once boyish countenance, reflecting a remarkable capacity for maintaining perspective.
While the flow of opinion has often been negative, questioning his ability to manage a club at which he enjoyed a cult role as a player, Solskjaer has clung on to acquire, for the first time since his permanent appointment, the luxury of time.
His job is no longer the subject of febrile discussion, his future not conditional on the result of the next match. Which is just as well given the opponent is a Manchester City team seemingly restored to full power in the emphatic defeat of Chelsea.
As a player City were never the benchmark for Solskjaer. As a manager the gauche arrivistes have morphed into the ultimate reference point, Solskjaer’s regard for Pep Guardiola unabashed.
In the seven years since the departure of Sir Alex Ferguson the inversion of power in the city has become well established.
United are very much the development squad seeking to announce themselves, to set a mark that allows them to be talked of in the same breath.
The goalless draw played out at Old Trafford in the Premier League a month ago was seen by Solskjaer as a measure of United’s growth. That Guardiola should set up his team not to lose was viewed as a mark of respect.
Hitherto any successes engineered by United were of the ambush variety, counter thrusts as fragile as they were thrilling. Their Carabao Cup meeting reprises the contest of 12 months ago, where defeat was the first of three United would experience in cup semi-finals.
In those pre-Covid, pre-Bruno Fernandes days the EFL Cup semi-final was played over two legs. The contest was decided in the first at Old Trafford, where City enacted a vivid interrogation of Solskjaer’s coaching credentials with three goals in 38 ravishing minutes.
Though United pulled a goal back in the second half and flipped the result at the Etihad three weeks later with a narrow 1-0 win, the prevailing sense was of a club no nearer closing the deficit to City, neither on the park nor in the technical area.
The degree to which the apparent levelling up process is a result of the unprecedented circumstances imposed by Covid has yet to be determined or understood.
There is still a fragility about affairs at Old Trafford despite obvious improvements.
The Paul Pogba question remains unresolved on two fronts. Is he staying or going? Does he suit the Solskjaer vision or not? A season that started with successive home defeats to Crystal Palace and Spurs, aggregate score 2-9, is still only 16 matches old. City, for all their flat-footed start, have a points potential only one fewer than United, who are level with leaders Liverpool on points.
Hence the fascination of this encounter is as much about bellwethers as the Carabao Cup, what it tells us about United’s progress and the regeneration of City in the wake of Liverpool’s rise.
Liverpool’s gradual eclipse of City to win the Premier League last season ranks among the English game’s most significant achievements. Jurgen Klopp brought to their knees arguably the finest club side ever assembled in England, a no-expense spared enterprise led by a Pulitzer coach.
This semi-final falls at a critical juncture, a time when Liverpool’s shocking vulnerability has opened the season to any number of wild possibilities, not least that of Solskjaer lifting the Premier League trophy.
United sit level on points with a game in hand. Should they avoid defeat at Burnley next week, United will travel to their summit meeting at Anfield top the Premier League after 17 games, a station not held so deep into the season since Fergie’s hairdryer fell silent.
The sight of Ralph Hasenhuttl halved on the touchline in a teary response to Southampton’s victory demonstrates how valuable a win against Liverpool remains. Even in these anomalous times it is still a rare event. Liverpool’s almost total annexation of the ball in the second half showed, even when at half cock, the length opponents must go to land a blow.
This then is the context of Manchester’s Carabao Cup ding-dong, a meeting that will examine both the plausibility of United’s rise and City’s appetite for regaining the crown. Oh, and decide who goes to Wembley.
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