That magical night in Paris!
As any Manchester United fan would attest, the last five years have been a hard watch. Right before their eyes, everything the club stood for was being torn away piece by piece. Two legendary managers, Sir Alex Ferguson and Sir Matt Busby, gave their heart and soul, their lives to the club and built the foundations of the Manchester United way of football.
United fans were dreading the day, when the great man, Sir Alex would decide to walk into the sunset. Hard act to follow, eh? Only the greatest manager ever in the history of club football. The epitome of Manchester United.
A hopeful punt on David Moyes making a gigantic leap from playing pragmatic reactionary football with Everton to succeeding Sir Alex at Manchester United went disastrously. Louis van Gaal had a much better CV but failed to bring his version of possession heavy football to fruition and the result was a style of football that was the antithesis of United’s way of playing at a high tempo and taking risks.
The Special One
Jose Mourinho - the kind of character that fans hate when he isn’t on their side and love when he is on their side. Maybe love is too strong a word, accept? He is a prat, but he is our prat now, is the attitude with which United fans justified his appointment. For his first two seasons, his reign was just as eccentric as him.
The football in his first season was good to watch, because it was a far cry from the sleep-inducing possession football of Louis van Gaal. Two cups were won in the first season and lot of hope was placed into his second season.
He always wins the title in his second season, right? Well, not quite. In a bright start to the season where, albeit against teams that United are expected to beat, they became 4-0 FC. The team looked to be making some progress, solid at the back while defending as a unit, quick lethal counter attacks.
But this is Jose, and he always reverts to type, to what he knows best. Nullifying the opposition’s strengths always more important than exploiting their weaknesses. Keeping it tight at the back, even if that means his own team’s high-quality attackers must spend more time defending than attacking. In a strange season where Manchester City were head and shoulders above everyone else, United finished as possibly the worst second placed team ever.
Although United fans were divided about this, it wasn’t uncommon to hear many of them feel that Jose’s third season syndrome had already started after the loss to Sevilla in the champions league, and more importantly his rant that followed the defeat. Blaming everyone but his own tactics, downplaying the defeat saying United have lost at this stage before, and basically dismissing everything United stood for and its legacy. But his tactics of deflecting blame worked, and everyone associated with the club gave him more time, more in blind hope than any logical reason.
What can be said about the start of the 2018-09 season, that hasn’t already been said before? Jose’s third season meltdown was in full flow. Falling out with the team’s most talented players like Pogba and Martial, questioning the quality of everyone else while bemoaning the lack of transfers. Astonishingly defensive tactics even against teams like Southampton! Typical Jose, self-destructing and just sucking the life out of the club. Those five months of the season under him were the most pessimistic and unenthusiastic United fans had possibly ever been about their club.
Ole is at the wheel!
Enter Ole Gunnar Solskjaer! A legend, seeped in the history of the club, scorer of many important goals. The benefit of being Manchester United is that there are several United legends the club could have called on for this role, but it was Ole, the true protege of Sir Alex!
There’s something about him that always connected him with the fans. Possibly the most likable guy on the planet? Scored the most iconic goal in the history of the club to win the treble. Someone whose true love for the club and devotion to Sir Alex was there for everyone to see throughout his career. As a player he bailed United out in many games with important goals and never let the club down. He was back to do the same as a manager this time.
In his own words, “football is easy when you have such good players”. That was a refreshing thing to hear after many months of being told the players are the problem. It was never about him. He was here to facilitate and help the players achieve their potential and show their quality.
He wasted no time in getting the team to play a much better brand of football, more forward thinking, playing with freedom and the obvious quality of players like Pogba, Martial and Rashford was shining.
There was still that air of caution when talking about him though, bigger tests await, right? Win over Tottenham and Arsenal away showing some good tactical acumen? No, bigger tests await. Unbeaten in the league for more than 10 games? Bigger tests await. Bigger tests like Paris Saint German in the champions league.
That night in Paris!
When the draw for this game against Paris Saint German was made and Jose was still in charge, the fans were dreading this game and contemplating whether watching defensive football for 180 minutes, to get beaten anyway, was worth it. In the space of a few weeks, the team under Ole made enough progress to get the fans excited and hopeful for this game. The first leg did not go to plan at all, the team never got going in attack and losing two key players to injuries did not help.
In the lead up to the second leg, United lost more players to injuries. Coming into the second leg with injuries to more than 10 players, against a top-notch PSG side, nobody gave United a chance. But Ole believed. He got the team to believe! Mountains are there to be climbed, he said.
Why was it such a special night? It wasn’t a vintage performance by any measure, United didn’t batter PSG with attack after attack. Quite the opposite. The reason it was such a special night is due to the mitigating circumstances.
Missing the entire first choice midfield and important attackers, the players had to dig deep. Back up midfielders like McTominay and Andreas stepped up. Fred showed glimpses of the talent for which he was bought and had perhaps his best performance for United.
The defence stood solid, despite having to absorb a lot of pressure. It was a triumph of grit and determination, of concentration, of team spirit and everyone working their socks off. Eighteen young men (Along with Ashley Young) who had the crazy guts to even believe this was possible.
What about that penalty by Marcus Rashford? The moment which had millions of fans praying and crossing their fingers, in expectation and hope. But Rashford, taking his first penalty for United, up against one of the best keepers to have played the game, calm and collected, smashing the ball into the net in typical Rashford fashion.
Five minutes of nervous extra time minutes later, United had done it! A staggeringly high number of Onions were cut that day and grown men and women were left blaming those onions for their tears. That’s how much this win meant for the fans who had been starved of nights like these for more than 5 years.
Exciting times ahead!
No matter what happens going ahead this season, whether Ole Solskjaer stays beyond this season or not, no United fan will ever forget these six months when a club legend like Ole came in, pulled United out of the dire state it was in and put a smile on the faces of everyone associated with United and made football enjoyable again.
Along with being a great man manager, there is also good tactical acumen in Ole and the tactics are getting the best out of the players available. He has assembled a great coaching staff with complementary skill sets and together they have managed to, in a short space of time, improve the performance of every player.
Most importantly, he has embraced the traditions and legacy of United, which was never in doubt because he was part of it himself and will continue doing so. There is a lot of work yet to do, to bring United back to the level of being an elite team in Europe. But, with Ole at the wheel, anything is possible, and fans can be confident that he will do everything in his power to bring glory back to United. Exciting times ahead!