The Baby-faced Assassin returns

Following the sacking of marmite-manager Jose Mourinho on Tuesday morning, Manchester United appointed fan-favourite Ole Gunnar Solskjær to be the caretaker manager until the end of the 2018-19 season.

The surprise appointment of former Cardiff City boss has left United fans considering whether it was the right thing to do as either he’ll lead United to a successful end to the season or their problems will worsen. The main cause for concern is his past experience in the Premier League with Cardiff but all wasn’t as bad as it seems.

His spell at Cardiff: Solskjær was named Cardiff City manager on the 2nd of January 2014, less than a week after the sacking of much-loved boss Malky Mackay. His managerial stint at the bluebirds started with a 2-0 home defeat to West Ham and it took him till February to get his first points, a win over Norwich. During his time, he picked up 12 points from 18 games in charge at Premier League level scoring just 17 goals and conceding a whopping 41. So, at first glance, it looked to be a very depressing spell but when you dive a bit deeper it wasn’t as bad as many think.

When he was appointed the club environment was toxic following the sacking of Malky Mackay, the worst possible start to management going into such an environment. Not only was the atmosphere bad but the squad was sub-standard for the highest level in England. He inherited a squad with an ageing Chris Bellamy, Craig Noone and Mark Hudson who had only a handful of Premier League games to his name. The lack of experience in the squad was frightening. The team had 869 total appearances in the Premier League before the start of Solskjær’s reign, 453 of which were made up of Bellamy and Jones the latter being brought in by Solskjær.

A staggering 41 goals conceded in just 18 games is poor but when you realise the back line consisted of Fabio, Caulker, Cala, Theophile-Catherine and Declan John conceding goals is just accepted at that point.

United fans can expect to see goals as Solskjaer implements an attacking style but that didn’t work with his Cardiff players as they only notched 17 goals. Campbell, Bellamy and Jones as the strike force and the fact that only 5 goals came from forwards shows it may have been the lack of quality rather than Solskjær’s inability to manage at the Premier League level.

So, what can Red Devils fans expect? Goals and then some more goals. His Molde side have scored 223 goals since took charge again in 2015 and who knows how many United will score with the likes of Lukaku, Rashford and Martial attacking the leaky back lines of Huddersfield, Fulham and Southampton. There’s no better way for United start under Solskjær’s reign as they face Cardiff, Huddersfield, Bournemouth, Newcastle and Reading all winnable games for Ole.

The appointment has been made to play exciting football and reunite the players and fans once again as they look to find a permanent replacement. At the end of the season will Old Trafford be singing “Ole Ole Ole”?

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