Talk of who should be Manchester United manager has ramped up exponentially over the past week. Ever since the loss to North West rivals Liverpool, current manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has been on borrowed time.
Even though the Manchester Evening News understands that Solskjaer will be in charge of the game against Tottenham on Saturday, United are playing a dangerous game right now.
Currently sitting 7th in the Premier League table, United are eight points off the top, three points off top four, but also worryingly, are closer to 17th than first place this season.
Caught in the middle of the pack with the likes of Leicester City, Arsenal, Everton, Wolves, and even Brentford, one bad result could send United hurtling down the table.
If rumours are to be believed that Solskjaer has the job until the international break, the Norwegian will be in charge for three more games. The aforementioned Tottenham game, an away game in the UEFA Champions League against Atalanta, and the Manchester Derby at Old Trafford on the 6th of November.
These three games are must-wins not just for Solskjaer, but for United’s chances this season. Even though they are top of their group in the Champions League, one loss could put them third in the group with a mountain to climb.
So if United are ready to pull the plug on Solskjaer, then why are they giving him these games when the writing is already on the wall?
According to many fans, it would be to give the new manager an easy run to start off his managerial tenure at United. But this point doesn’t make much sense. Of course, the new manager would start against Watford, but then would face a gauntlet of Villarreal away, Chelsea away, then Arsenal at home. Three hard games for any manager, especially when just taking over a new club.
According to the MEN, Antonio Conte is ready to take over Manchester United when he gets the call to do so. If this is the case, why not just give it to him now, if not straight after the Tottenham game?
(Image: (Photo by Emilio Andreoli/Getty Images))
Conte would be the perfect manager for this current United team, and the longer it goes without the Italian at the helm, the deeper the pit United see themselves in.
The rhetoric surrounding Conte is incredibly easy to put down and when you delve deeper into the former Chelsea manager, you can tell he would be the right fit for Manchester United.
The comparisons to Jose Mourinho are lazy, if anything, Conte is closer to Louis van Gaal when it comes to the defensive side of football. His teams have never received too much trouble on the defensive side due to their structured build-up from defence and his wide players. Something we see very often in Pep Guardiola’s system.
The notion of him ‘parking the bus’ because his teams have never been part of the modern, insane high-pressing trend is also another part of the rhetoric that can easily be disputed. His teams do press, albeit at key moments and against selected opposition. On average his team play with a mid-block in comparison to Mourinho’s low-block, or Guardiola’s high-block.
His “brashness and aggression” to players, media and his team’s board has also, to an extent, become satirical. Conte demands respect from his players and you can see he is more like an Army sergeant, but there are no games behind it. There isn’t any ulterior motive like Mourinho used to play upon players to get the best out of them, albeit would wind up horribly at times.
But even though it is easy to destroy the notion of Conte being a Mourinho clone, there’s one thing Conte does to this day that Mourinho can’t do anymore; win.
The Italian has been able to create title-winning teams wherever he has been without spending Man City-esque money, instead, he wrings out all the talent possible from the squad he inherits then tries to add stars after to reduce complacency kicking in. Something Sir Alex Ferguson was famous for and has gone into great depths about the importance of such.
Manchester United are currently in a ditch of despair, worry, and fear. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer did right the ship to an extent, but the board need to rip the plaster off fast.
If United stopped living in the past and worrying about finding the next Sir Alex Ferguson, and instead hired a manager who is seen as a short-term manager who could easily turn long-term (as did Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp did for Man City and Liverpool respectively), then United could see themselves back where they belong.
But until then, United will have to worry, if not suffer these painful weeks waiting for a new manager, and hoping it can be someone who has gone toe-to-toe with Klopp, has won a Premier League, and has received very kind words from Guardiola in the past.
From his biography in 2016, Pep Guardiola: the Evolution, Guardiola says his greatest challengers were Conte and Thomas Tuchel. With Pep going on to say that he sees a lot of himself in Conte: “His passing, his aggression, work ethic and determination to have the ball as much as possible, the intensity of his game and his competitive drive.
“Conte plays positional football too. It’s very different from my own but it’s a game of position and he does it very, very well.’
Antonio Conte is the right man for Manchester United and the board need to stop delaying the inevitable, bring the Italian in as soon as possible.
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