Reminder that Solskjaer still holds a crazily impressive Man United record – why did they sack him again?



Manchester United fans may be looking forward to the arrival of Ruben Amorim as their new manager, but Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is still surely the best boss they’ve had since the retirement of Sir Alex Ferguson.

Yes, it ended badly for Solskjaer at Old Trafford, with fans unlikely to forget that 5-0 defeat at home to rivals Liverpool any time soon, in what was a dark day in the club’s recent history.

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Still, the Norwegian tactician inherited a side that was also doing badly and looking very unhappy under his predecessor Jose Mourinho, while Louis van Gaal and David Moyes were also pretty disastrous, and Erik ten Hag not much better.

Solskjaer at least brought some joy to Man United again, and some stylish football, even if it was sometimes a bit tactically naive in comparison to what we’ve seen from the likes of Pep Guardiola, Jurgen Klopp and Mikel Arteta in the Premier League recent times.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer during his time as Manchester United manager (Photo by Michael Regan/Getty Images)

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s surprising Manchester United record

Also, it’s easy to forget, and indeed it does feel like it has been forgotten, that Solskjaer is one of only two Premier League managers to ever go an entire season unbeaten away from home…

Manchester United didn’t lose a single Premier League away game in 2020/2021. It’s just the fourth time a team has gone unbeaten away in English top-flight history:

? Man Utd —2020/2021

? Preston — 1888/1889

? Arsenal — 2001/2002

? Arsenal — 2003/2004

Outstanding. ??? pic.twitter.com/6DaEHP0BFp

— Statman Dave (@StatmanDave) May 23, 2021

Perhaps on its own that doesn’t mean much, but given what else we’ve seen go wrong at United under a number of other managers, it seems like there were ways in which Solskjaer was quite underrated.


 

This is a pretty remarkable achievement that shouldn’t have been taken too lightly, even if there were obviously ways Solskjaer also still needed to improve. A bit more time and patience might well have seen him go on to do a better job eventually, in comparison to what we’ve seen from a United team that has gone backwards under Ten Hag in the last couple of years.