Manchester United vs Arsenal, Waiting for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s Tactics

DBasia.news – Manchester United are starting to return to their streak of winning streaks of the season.  Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is considered a key figure behind the rise of the Red Devils.

Solskjaer was hit by criticism when Manchester United fell 1-6 to Tottenham Hotspur in the fourth week of the 2020-2021 Premier League.  His quality as a manager of a big team is starting to be questioned.

Rumors of dismissal had even reached Solskjaer.  Manchester United officials are said to have prepared Mauricio Pochettino as a replacement.

Solskjaer was again criticized after signing Edinson Cavani on the final day of the summer transfer window.  The Uruguayan striker is considered to have run out and could hinder the development of Anthony Martial and Marcus Rashford.

Not only that, Solskjaer was also criticized for rarely playing Donny van de Beek.  Even though the Dutch midfielder was brought off at a high price.

Solskjaer responded well to these criticisms.  Manchester United are now unbeaten in the last four matches after losing to Tottenham.

Even though the opponents that Manchester United face are not just any team.  They were able to beat Paris Saint Germain (PSG) and RB Leipzig who were finalists and semifinalists of the Champions League last season.

Two matches against PSG and Leipzig prove Solskjaer’s quality as a manager.  He shows the rich variety of tactics he has to maximize the strength of Manchester United.

In the match against PSG, Solskjaer used a 5-3-2 formation which could change to 3-5-2 when attacking.  This strategy proved to be successful in reducing the speed of Les Parisiens’ front line so that Manchester United won 2-1 at the end of the match.

A different scheme was again revealed by Solskjaer when he hosted RB Leipzig at Old Trafford, in the middle of last week.  He surprisingly used a 4-4-2 diamond formation and put Donny van de Beek as a starter.

The result, Manchester United won with a score of 5-0.  Even though the opponent he faced was the top of the Bundesliga standings.

Even so, the rise of Manchester United feels incomplete because his performances have not been consistent in the Premier League.  After winning over Newcastle United, Paul Pogba and his friends only played a goalless draw with Chelsea.

In these two matches, Solskjaer also returned to implementing his flagship 4-2-3-1 formation.  This scheme seems to have been well understood by their opponents in the Premier League.

It is interesting to see what scheme Solskjaer will play when Manchester United host Arsenal in the Premier League continued on Sunday (1/11).  The Norwegian national man’s courage in implementing a variety of tactics was tested in this match.