MANCHESTER UNITED TALK: The Good And The Interesting Situation That Faces Ole Gunner Solskjaer

 

                                                                                                           Original  picture from Manchester Evening News

Can Manchester United actually operate successfully with a di diamond midfield composed of Bruno Fernandes, Donny van de Beak, Nemanja Matic, and Paul Pogba all in a starting XI team?  

 

 

 

On paper, the idea of a diamond center midfield that includes three of the current most creative midfielders in the Manchester United squad appears to be an easy choice for current Manchester United manager Ole Gunner Solskjaer to make. A starting midfield composed of Paul Pogba, Donny van de Beak, and Bruno Fernandes is in fact a dream combination and any football manager will jump at the chance of having all three players starting every match for his or her team. So why is Manchester United manager Ole Gunner Solskjaer taking the opportunity to put the midfield trio of Donny van de Beak, Paul Pogba, and Bruno Fernandes all in the starting lineup at the same time for Manchester United? Well, all shining objects are not always gold. Here is what that means when football is concerned:  

 

 

Manchester United currently have three top-class creative center midfielders in their squad and on paper, the idea of playing all three top-class midfielders of Donny van der Beak, Bruno Fernandes and Paul Pogba all at the same appear to be the dream midfield pairing but looking at what a diamond midfield that is composed of all three attacking midfielders rather than a three-man center midfield that consists of one or two defensive midfielders, the probability of Manchester United leaving themselves open to a flood of counter-attacks from the opponents for major periods during a match. That right there points out the reason why the three current players Nemanja Matic, Fred Rodrigues, and Scott McTominar are so vital in Manchester United’s starting XI because when one or two of these three players are involved in Manchester United starting XI, they provide attack-minded players such as Fernandes, Pogba and Van de Beak the confidence to press the opponents further up the pitch. 

 

 

Today's article once again reintroduces the topic of game time management and how Manchester United faces a difficult mountain to climb on their way to winning major trophies across Europe if manager Ole Gunner Solskjaer ignores the issue of equal match minute distribution head-on. At the moment, David De Gea, Marcus Rashford, Bruno Fernandes, Fred Rodrigues, and Scott McTominar have been handed an estimated 75% of the match minutes available this season while players such as Paul Pogba, Donny van de Beak, Daniel James, Brandon Williams, and even Nemanja Matic struggle to secure equal match minutes in the starting XI for Manchester United. A problem that fails to bolster the healthy level of unity needed within any successful club. 

 

 

At the moment, Manchester United has shown no signs that suggest the club will be operating with a diamond midfield that is composed of the three main attacking mi8dfielders Bruno Fernandes, Paul Pogba, and Donny van der Beak. This might suggest that manager Ole Gunner Solskjaer lays more emphasis on the defensive side of the game rather than placing more emphasis on Manchester United’s offense. As a result of Ole Gunner Solskjaer’s decision to operate with a two-man defense-minded midfield, the decision has limited the level of vulnerability found in Manchester United’s defense.  

 

 

 

A flaw that might have been exploited by the various opponents Manchester United has faced so far this season if Ole Gunner Solskjaer had not decided to add a few more defensive reassurances in his midfield. What does this mean for creative midfielders such as Paul Pogba and Donny van de Beak? At the moment, the French and Dutch midfielder appear to be receiving the bulk of their chances to start games for Manchester United primarily from this season's UEFA Champions League competition which mean that Manchester United will need to make a deep run in this season’s UEFA Champions League competition if Ole Gunner Solskjaer is to have a reprieve from bearing the blame for not speeding equal match minutes amongst all Manchester United’s midfielders. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Manchester United manager Ole Gunner Solskjaer has already talked about the issue of lack of match minutes afforded to Manchester United’s newest recruits with Donny van de Beak, Edinson Cavani and Alex Telles taking center stage on how the current management plans to utilize all the immense talent found the current Manchester United squad and here is what Ole Gunner Solskjaer had to say when asked how he plans to provide equal match minutes for all the players found in the current Manchester United roaster: 

 

Donny is going to play a big, big part this year,' said the United boss. 'At the moment, I realize the topic is Donny van de Beek and it's nice for some players or commentators to have a little go. 

 

'I know you're short for the time when you're on the telly and you have to put your points across very quickly, but you have to know that you don't have to start the first three games to be a very important player in the squad. 

'I'd be disappointed if some of my team-mates said I wasn't important at Man United, but I didn't start many games. So, Donny's going to be very important for us, don't worry about that. 

'When Donny has played, he's played really well. I think it says a lot about our depth of quality in the squad that we don't have to use him every single game because we have other players as well. 

'I also think it says everything about our ambitions. We want to push on, we want to challenge for trophies this season.'  

        (Chris Weller-Ole Gunner Solskjaer, Daily mail.uk. 27, Oct 2020) 

 

 

 

The current fact facing Manchester United manager Ole Gunner Solskjaer at the moment is that Manchester United have a roster filled with twenty footballers who have every reason to knock on the manager’s door asking questions regarding match minutes. At the moment, Ole Gunner Solskjaer is really struggling to answer these questions. The good side of having multiple quality players in your camp is the various options available to be used in unlocking the defense of the opposition.  

 

 

 

 

                                                                                                                                                           ORIGINAL  PICTURE  FROM  Football365.com

The negative side of having multiple quality players in your camp is that should Solskjaer fail to handle the distribution of match minutes even, Manchester United might experience disharmony within the team which will not only affect the club’s target for the season but might also lead to various players leaving next January. 

A month where Manchester United are once again not preparing to break the bank for the transfer window.