Return To Glory : Manchester United

An interesting season ahead with further opportunities being handed to youth.

Fans might not be happy that Ed Woodward is still around, or that the Glazers are still making money off the club, but Huateng has restructured the front office and decisively appointed a Director Of Football. Woodward was immediately moved to the financial side of club management as the search for someone to rebuild the talent on hand got underway. Few will be surprised that a lot of names were tossed out by the media, most weren’t as insane as people might think as Huateng started right at the top with Borussia Dortmund’s Michael Zorc. As anyone would expect Zorc declined, at the moment United is not a particularly attractive club. Zorc was never going to leave, but with the ghost of Woodward still hanging over the organization it was going to be hard to draw a high end Director without being able to establish how things were going to operate under new ownership.

After Zorc declined offers were made to Andrea Berta (Atlético Madrid), Monchi (Sevilla), Ralph Rangnick (RB Leipzig / Brazil), Luís Campos (LOSC Lille), and fan favorite Edwin van der Sar (Ajax). Berta and Monchi turned out to have the same feelings as Zorc and Rangnick, a popular choice to replace Solskjaer last season, declined because he wanted to manage the team and recruitment. That left Campos and van der Sar as interested parties with Campos proving to be the easier target with a proven track record of turning clubs around after stints with AS Monaco and LOSC Lille. While fans were clamoring for van der Sar, the romance of hiring a United Legend to work with Solskjaer wasn’t enough when compared to his short executive career. Once things are more settled at United and with a few years of experience at Ajax under his belt van der Sar might be a good hire if Campos leaves.



The transfer budget started at £112M but increased to £233M with sales. Near the end of the window Solskjaer was sitting on £215M and everything the team was saying pointed to sitting on that cash and waiting to spend further down the road. With the team fairly set before pre-season games even started Solskjaer wasn’t looking to spend, and then Real Madrid came calling and Paul Pogba was listening. Inside reports indicate Real Madrid lodged a laughable offer for Pogba, thought to be about £52M, but it was enough to unsettle Pogba. Apparently Solskjaer and Campos discussed the issue and insisted he wouldn’t be sold for less than £100M, this made their rejection of an £89M bid from Real Madrid more palatable to Pogba. It looked like Real Madrid was willing to meet the price, but they turned their attention to Arsenal and bought Alexandre Lacazette for £79M. This apparently scared Solskjaer enough that they decided to dip into that £215M purse and make the big splashy move they were trying to avoid by buying Sergej Milinkovic-Savic from Lazio for a fairly reasonable £68M. This gives Pogba a world class midfield partner, in the hopes that he will want to stay, and provides a world class replacement if he still decides he wants to leave.

The transfer window was somewhat devoid of massive spending up until the very end, as Campos focused on young players who could develop into stars and players that can help rebuild a depleted youth system. United is now set as a 4-2-3-1 organization and Campos will work to recruit players that fit the club’s playing style and tactical needs. There was a decent amount of money spent on a new RW, LB and possible Pogba replacement, with the sale of a number of senior players there was now plenty of room to provide a serious upgrade over the departed Luke Shaw and someone to compete with Jesse Lingard and push Tahith Chong to the bench.

Senior / Major Transfers (Out)
Luke Shaw (LB, Chelsea) £50M
Fred (CM, Shanghai SIPG ) £45M
Daniel James (LW, Crystal Palace) £30M
Phil Jones (CB, Jiangsu Suning FC) £18.5M
Alexis Sánchez (LW, Jiangsu Suning FC) £18.5M
Chris Smalling (CB, Jiangsu Suning FC) £18M
Timothy Fosu-Mensah (CB, Nottingham Forest) £8M

Senior Transfers (In)
Sergej Milinkovic-Savic (CM, Lazio) £68M
Luca Pellegrini (LB, Juventus) £38M
Victor Tsygankov (RW, Dynamo Kyiv) £17M

Final Transfer List (Impact Signings)
John Allen (GK, Colorado Rush - USA) Free
Petre Draganja (CAM, None - Romania) Free
Edward Wessex (RB, Skeid Fotball - England) Free
Samuel Assalé (LW, Football College Abuja - Nigeria) £500
Lucianinho (CAM, Duque de Caxias - Brazil) £1K
Jaobinho (CM, Treze FC - Brazil) £60K
Byron Caicedo (LW, Clan Juvenil - Ecuador) £65K
Sócrates de Roberto (LB, São José - Brazil) £80K
Pedro Durán (CAM, Destroyers - Bolivia) £150K
Franck Ouattara (CM, ASEC Mimosas - South Africa) £200K
Siya Thobela (RW, Ajax Cape Town - South Africa) £250K
Patricio Calixte (LB, Cobreloa - Chile) £350K
Lusapho Sithole (LW, Cape Town City - South Africa) £425K
John Etebo (LW, Kano Pillars - Nigeria) £750K
Nicolás Velázquez (CM, Defensor Sporting - Uruguay) £1.3M
Enzo Marino (RB, IFK Göteborg - Italy) £1.5M
Albin Elmander (CB, IFK Göteborg - Sweden) £1.9M
Venâncio (RW, Palmeiras - Brazil) £2.8M
Luís Nazário (ST, SC Braga - Portugal) £3.5M
Manuel Nascimento (LW, Instituto ACC - Brazil) £3.8M

With new ownership in place and a mandate to revitalize the youth system United spent a decent amount of money on a lot of young players. Campos and scouts managed to root out a few players they could sign for free along with a few who basically came free. Purchases were made all over the world, a healthy chunk of them will be future transfers, but Campos has made an effort to rebuild the youth system with EU players. Most of the excitement centers around Portuguese forward Luís Nazário who has been (favorably) compared to Ronaldo, he certainly appears to have that kind of upside with the pace and ability to finish that should make Mason Greenwood worry about his place in the senior squad. Albin Elmander has also garnered plaudits and might split the season between the U-23 squad and the senior bench

A lot of young blood has been introduced to Old Trafford. Best of luck for the season ahead.

Man United will be back amongst the world elite in no time with these acquisitions and future plan in place.

A massive success last season securing the two big trophies in May and 3rd place in the league! A squad rebuild looks to have happened, let's see how the new lads do with the upcoming season!

Having a giant pile of cash is definitely a bit of an easy button in FM, especially for a Premier League team.

Having a good season apparently means being scheduled to start your season in a meat grinder. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s head was spinning right out of the gate with a slew of games against the best England has to offer. The season started with a tense win in the Community Shield against Arsenal. A 1-1 draw ended with a 5-3 Manchester United win on penalties, if you ask United fans the game should have been won 2-1 after a controversial VAR review overturned an Anthony Martial goal for offsides. They would open the Premier League with a solid 4-0 win at Bournemouth where Bruno Fernandes and new signing Sergej Milinkovic-Savic rated above 9.0 thanks to impressive performances.

Estádio do Dragão in Porto would be the site for the first United-Liverpool fixture this year, though the UEFA Super Cup wouldn’t be nearly as important as the league. Liverpool had a slow start to the season, which likely cost them a shot at the league, on their way to a second Champions League victory. Solskjaer managed to handle Liverpool last year, but the addition of Harry Kane and CB Rúben Dias point to a much harder time repeating that this year.

“We always want to beat them, it isn’t just the league” said Solskjaer when asked if this game was important “and silverware is always an honor.”

That honor certainly looked to be Liverpool’s through most of the first half as Kane was the clear beneficiary of Jürgen Klopp’s tactics. Eric Bailly and Harry Maguire had a terrible time with Kane, he was constantly finding ways to get beyond them with runs that made him look four strides offsides. Early on Kane broke free of Maguire and hit the post in what looked like a sure scoring chance, but Solskjaer’s luck held. Att 33’ Milinkovic-Savic headed in the opener thanks to a precise cross from Martial, who would be well on his way to an incredible game. It was at that point the game really started to tip in United’s favor, it wasn’t much but the pressing scheme was making it hard for Liverpool to build up play as they relied more and more on Route One tactics. Martial would pick out Rashford with a killer through ball to make it 2-0 at 70’ and that was enough to slam the door on Liverpool. Martial would really earn his PoM award in a game where only (4) players passed a 7.0 rating. His (4) chances created, (5) key passes, and (2) assists would fuel a 9.0 rating. With the season only a few games old Solskjaer would already have two pieces of silverware for the trophy case.



Solskjaer, United’s players, and fans across the nation would walk into the Etihad with quite a grin. After taking the UEFA Supercup Solskjaer would use his second squad against Spurs so the first squad would be rested to face Manchester City, and the youngsters demolished Spurs 4-1. Perhaps it was the loss of Kane, but Spurs were done in by an avalanche of shots on target (21) which helped Mason Greenwood to a hat-trick. Ryan Gravenberch and Jesse Lingard would both suffer minor injuries, but they wouldn’t have been selected for this game anyway.

Fernandes came into this game as a fitness question after missing (3) days of practice, but he was included in the lineup at the last minute. This game turned out to be as most predicted, but almost immediately Manchester City would be hampered by injuries. Pep Guardiola would face a long line of questioning after the game regarding his management of injured players, primarily Raheem Sterling who would suffer a thigh injury by the 5’ mark but be left on until the second half (51’). Sergio Agüero would suffer a similar fate, playing the bulk of the first half with a calf injury that he wouldn’t be taken off for until 61’. Agüero’s injury would turn out to be fairly serious, a torn calf muscle would knock him out for a few months. Injuries and Solskjaer laying back to counter created a tight first half where City only managed (3) shots to United’s (5), this game looked rather suited to Serie A.

Raphaël Varane added his name to the list of walking wounded not long after Guardiola finally took off Sterling and Agüero, but like them he would be left on only to be vaguely responsible for the first goal of the game. Bailly would lob a ball forward to Marcus Rashford along City’s back line but Aymeric Laporte would get to it first and head the ball back to Ederson who came forward to collect the ball. The injured Varane could not react quickly enough and Rashford sprinted forward, catching Ederson between picking up the ball and playing it with his feet, and poked the ball past him for a 1-0 lead late. It was right about then when things really fell apart for Guardiola. At 79’ João Cancelo would injure his foot, this time he had to be helped off the pitch as a still injured Varane saw his chance to get subbed off vanish.

Paul Pogba, on his way to a PoM award, would foolishly trip Gabriel Jesus just on the edge of the box to put Fernandinho on the spot. The host’s chance to level the score went as quickly as it came with David De Gea firmly blocking the attempt, leaving Guardiola staring at the sky wondering what he did wrong. Fernandes would make it 2-0 in stoppage time as City’s injuries mounted and they looked weaker and weaker to United’s counter. Just to pour some salt in the wound, Kyle Walker would suffer a pulled groin at 96’ and limp off the pitch as the game came to a close with a ten-man City looking defeated. The win would solidify United’s place at the top of the league, a place Solskjaer would like to stay in.





Solskjaer was handed his marching orders twice in just a few days, first a draw against West Ham in the Carabao Cup and then the Champions League. Winning the Europa League was good, but everyone knows the Champions League is the competition that United needs to do well in. The new ownership group has regularly stated their desire to win Europe’s biggest club prize.

GROUP B
Atlético Madrid (Spain)
Manchester United (England)
Krasnodar (Russia)
Young Boys (Switzerland)

At first it looked like a difficult draw, United aren’t the favorites to win the group, but when viewed as a whole United may have been drawn in one of the easiest groups. Some of the other groups are quite difficult (D : Bayern Munich, PSG, Inter) and others are quite brutal (E : Real Madrid, Juventus, Ajax), but of all the English teams United have it easy. Arsenal (Group H) is stuck with Napoli and RB Leipzig while Liverpool (Group F) have Benfica, Shakhtar Donetsk, and Milan. The trip to Russia will likely be the hardest part of their group outside of the two games against Atlético Madrid, if United don’t advance to the next round Solskjaer might find himself out of a job.

A very pleasing start to the season and certainly one of the most kind groups you could have been drawn into.

Good start! Not easy on my eyes personally but nonetheless you're doing well! Fairly easy group too

New ownership comes with new problems, the season has barely started and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is being eaten alive by fans and the media. Many outlets are reporting that Solskjaer will be sacked short of the “real” treble and every tiny move he makes is constantly scrutinized. A 4-0 win over West Ham to finish August, plus all of the prior victories, seemed to be wiped out by a 2-1 loss at Southamton to start September. A late corner would put Southampton ahead against a ten man United, thanks to Axel Tuanzebe getting booked twice, and many reacted as though it was proof Solskjaer needed to go. Hosting Young Boys did little to quell the criticism, but this is how things go at United.

“I’m not concerned, I’m focused on Young Boys” responded Solskjaer when asked about his job security.

The whispers won’t go away, especially with Mauricio Pochettino still unemployed, but a visit from Young Boys did a lot to quiet some of his detractors. One of the issues circling Solskjaer’s head is Paul Pogba, who had an underrated 2019-20 season, but the Frenchman helped unlock Young Boys with an absolutely gorgeous pass to Bruno Fernandes for the opening goal at 4’. Pogba stopped on the ball in United’s third and picked out Fernandes making a run down the right center and sent a perfectly aimed pass just over everyone and onto Fernandes’ foot for an easy one-on-one with David Von Ballmoos. That pretty much set the tone for a game the Swiss side were never prepared to win, Jorge would score along with a Marcus Rashford double in the first half to rush out to a 4-0 lead. One of Rashford’s goals would earn David De Gea a rare assist, and Harry Maguire topped off the scoring to close out the first half 5-0.

Yes, people were quick to point out that United failed to expand on their lead in the second half but a 5-0 win is still a solid victory. Things got even better for Solskjaer after the game when a nine man Krasnodar somehow managed to hold Atlético Madrid to a scoreless draw. Games against Atlético Madrid would still determine the group, but having them drop points would be a big help.



Solskjaer would find himself in a bind not long after the debacle with Southampton, with Atlético Madrid and Liverpool back-to-back later in the month he would need to start juggling lineups to have the first squad fresh for two brutal games in one week. Another loss with the second squad would make Solskjaer look bad, especially with the league suddenly in range of United’s grasp. Everton would have a prime opportunity to upset the hosts with a back line that would have Solskjaer sweating, Eric Bailly would be coming off a recent injury and wonderkid Albin Elmander would get getting his first Premier League start. Axel Tuanzebe would be suspended and Armel Bella-Kotchap, who should be playing instead of Elmander, was being rested after international duty with Germany.

Things started off poorly for Elmander as one of the first things he did was blow his assignment and let Sandro run free on goal. Luckily for the teenager De Gea was on it and stopped the Everton striker from scoring, after that hiccup Elmander settled down and had a rather solid game. United were in control of the game, but could not convert that into goals as Everton struggled to move the ball out of their own half. Adding to the tension was Diogo Dalot going off with a bruised shin right at halftime, Solskjaer’s only replacement was Aaron Wan-Bissaka and he needed to be fresh for their next game.

The second half started with the break United needed and a nightmare manager Scott Parker could have gone without. Jean Phillipe-Gbamin would put a hard tackle on Luca Pellegrini at 50’ and Mike Dean came over to book him, Phillipe-Gbamin did not take his pending booking well and proceeded to yell in Dean’s face despite Yerry Mina’s passive attempt to pull him away. At that point it seems that Dean’s hand had been forced and he produced a red card, although the foul likely deserved one, now Everton were facing most of the second half down a man. It wasn’t a coincidence that Antonio Marin would break the stalemate at 56’ on a wonderful goal, knocking in a Jesse Lingard cross that had Jordan Pickford spinning around. It was at this point the Theater of Dreams turned into a Theater of Nightmares for Parker as Everton started to suffer an unfortunate series of injuries, starting with Sandro and Richarlson going off with pulled muscles. Lucas Digne was next and just as Layvin Kurzawa came on for him Ryan Gravenberch would make it 2-0. Greenwood would make it 3-0 not long after, but Parker’s bad outing wasn’t over. Well into stoppage time Fabian Delph would go down with an ankle injury and have to literally roll off the pitch, with all three subs used Everton had to finish out the game with (9) men. It’s somewhat ironic how many Everton players ended up hurt as they out-fouled United 15-5 in a desperate attempt to slow down the hosts.





Best laid plans tend to go awry, and Solskjaer certainly found himself in a less than ideal position coming into a brutal game at the Wanda Metropolitano. United would beat West Ham 2-0 in the Carabao Cup but it would cost Wan-Bissaka over a week with an ankle injury that forced youngster Enzo Marino into action. Marino played well enough to earn a regular place on the bench with Dalot and Bissaka constantly dealing with injuries, but ideally Solskjaer would like to keep him on the bench. A 3-0 win over Crystal Palace by the second squad would help Solskjaer head into this game with some momentum, but Atlético would be a whole different level of challenge.

What happens when two counter attacking teams face off against each other in a game neither wants to lose? The first 75’ of this game is what you get. United enjoyed possession deep in their third and controlled the midfield, especially between Pogba and Sergej Milinkovic-Savic, which helped drive their possession advantage. Once they moved the ball forward Atlético turned into a brick wall, Bruno Fernandes ended up looking around and passing back into the double pivot over and over with no avenues through Atlético’s defense. It wasn’t until the 75’ when a United attack resulted in a textbook Route One attack as Atlético moved the ball from deep in their third to Álvaro Morata in two passes to break the deadlock.

Both teams seemed to find some life after that, with Solskjaer frantically waving for United to push forward on the attack. At 83’ Rashford struck back with an absolute killer goal. Wan-Bissaka found Rashford with a long diagonal pass from the right wing and he burst past José Giménez, with the ball on his right foot an Jan Oblak bearing down on him near the right post he shot the ball across his body between Oblak and Giménez to slot it in the far side of the net. Wan-Bissaka must have been a little too proud of supplying the pass for that one as Atlético put on another Route One clinic literally off the ensuing kickoff. Giménez, the man who just got burned by Rashford, would boot the ball from the box all the way into United’s third for a streaking Thomas Lemar who left Wan-Bissaka in the dust. A diagonal shot from him found the left side of the goal as De Gea dove for it, popped back up and gave Wan-Bissaka an earful. The loss would be disappointing, but they were still in the hunt for a ticket to the knockout stages and 1st in the group.

A good set of results to recover from the initial disappointment of losing to Southampton. Although a loss to Atletico isn't ideal, the away leg was never a game you would have been eyeing-up as a game you should be winning. As long as you finish alongside them after six games, that's all that matters.

Say what you will about the UEFA Supercup, this was the game United fans have been waiting for. Old Trafford was beyond packed for this game, a win for Manchester United would put them even on points but well clear on goal differential for 1st. The media and fans, on both sides, have desperately wanted this game to mean something and both managers had to admit it.

“This always means something to the fans, especially the players, but now we are in a position to draw national attention again” said Ole Gunnar Solskjaer when asked about the feel for this game “it means something to the league again, and that is something I’m proud of.”

While Jürgen Klopp was a little more conservative about the importance of this game, stressing it was only one game in a long season, even he had to admit the atmosphere was different with 1st in the league on the line. It’s a good thing that Klopp didn’t make the game out into an all-or-nothing affair as things went south for them really quickly. As anyone would have expected, Liverpool game out running on all cylinders and United sat back ready to absorb the pressure and find openings for a counterattack, so the first few minutes were spent watching Liverpool crash against United’s back line. An attack down the left side of United, where Mohamed Salah was being played onto his weaker foot again, resulted in a hard back pass bouncing off Jorge’s shin and flying back up field to nobody near the sidelines. A foot race between Anthony Martial and Joël Matip ended with Martial just barely chipping the ball forward, keeping it in bounds and away from Matip, and opening the field to Martial with only Rúben Dias in the middle of the field between him and goal. Martial showed his speed, bringing the ball right to the edge of the goal area before sneaking it between Alisson and the near post for a 1-0 lead just 8’ into the game.

For a while it looked like Liverpool might pull even, with Salah being shut out of the game again the addition of Harry Kane in the summer was starting to look like a sound investment. Again and again he managed to be the target of deep passes in a Route One fashion that gave his solid shots on goal. A counterattack down the right put Aaron Wan-Bissaka on the endline where he could send a cross into the box, Marcus Rashford got to the near post before anyone else and headed it in for a 2-0 lead that suddenly looked very solid. Klopp would have a real headache on his hands with Liverpool threatening but failing to break through, then at 31’ Victor Tsygangov started to write his name in United lore. Twice, at 31’ and 38’, Tsygangov would score a nearly identical goal served up by Bruno Fernandes, first from the left then from the right. His double would set up a 4-0 lead that was looking insurmountable, Liverpool wasn’t playing that poorly they just couldn’t seem to stop United.

Just after the half Liverpool did get an opening when a bad Harry Maguire slide tackle on Kane resulted in a penalty and a booking. Liverpool, primarily Klopp, were furious that it didn’t result in a straight red but the ref would have none of it. Klopp stormed around the technical area after David De Gea blocked the penalty, sending Old Trafford into a frenzy. Sergej Milinkovic-Savic capped things off by nabbing the ball from Dias and finding Rashford in stoppage time to close out the game 5-0. Everys single United player rated 8.0 or above, with (6) at 9.0 or above. Even De Gea got into it with an 8.9, Tsygankov pipped Rashford for PoM thanks to his (3) key passes. An impressive demolition of Liverpool would put United in 1st and give Solskjaer a boost in the race to keep his job.





With Solskjaer’s roster gamble paying off against Liverpool it was time to turn their attention to the Champions League. The second squad followed up the Liverpool win with a 2-0 win against Fulham at Craven Cottage, a solid result with tired players coming off an international break. The Krasnodar game would be overshadowed by Rashford suffering a lower back stress fracture in practice, he would be sent to a specialist and ruled out for 6-8 weeks. For obvious reasons the media would be heavily focused on this issue, Rashford has (14) goals in (10) games so replacing him will be difficult.

“We will miss him, but I’m confident that Mason [Greenwood] will be able to fill in.” said Solskjaer prior to the game. He spent more time answering questions about Rashford than he did about the game.

This was a great game to bring Greenwood into the senior fold as Krasnodar put up about as much resistance as a wet tissue. Rémy Cabella earned a straight red for a dangerous tackle on Diogo Dalot that would come back to haunt Solskjaer later. Krasnodar’s only shot in the first half was laughable as it sailed over the goal and into the stands, on some level it was obvious why United enjoyed a 68-32 possession advantage in the first half.

At 66’ Dalot, who was already looking like he needed a sub, started limping and had to be taken off for Enzo Marino. That limp, the result of the Cabella tackle in the first half, turned out to be pulled knee ligaments and he would be out 2-3 weeks. In the end, and to be fair Krasnodar was down a man, Greenwood would have a hat trick and (2) assists on his way to a near perfect game and a PoM award. Greenwood has already shown an edge on Rashford in terms of creating chances for others, perhaps his squad promotion will perfectly fill in for Rashford.



The final game of October would put a nice exclamation point on a mostly solid month that would be highlighted by an outstanding individual performance. A 3-0 win against Norwich would feature a Martial double and the assist on Greenwood’s goal, the win would mark the 4th straight shoutout across all competitions. The problem would come in the Carabao Cup as all of Solskjaer’s job security problems came roaring back in a 1-0 loss to Bournemouth. It didn’t seem to matter to fans or the media that United’s ownership are aiming much higher than the Carabao Cup, or that youngsters Enzo Marino and Luís Nazário were starting due to injuries, many took it as proof that Solskjaer was on his way out.

Solskjaer juggled some injury issues in this game, Dalot was forced to start after just coming back from his knee injury against Krasnodar because Wan-Bissaka was suspended on cards. The only real point of interest in this game would be Angel Gomes’ stunning goal to put United up 2-0. On for Martial, Gomes would get the ball well above the arc after Nottingham Forest was pushing up off a corner, his shot powered into the upper right corner and left Ørjan Nyland stunned.

Aside from the Carabao Cup exit the team is on a real run of good form. Martial should get a lot of credit for this stretch as he has (4) goals in (4) games and has averaged an 8.2 rating. With the purchase of Jadon Sancho hanging over his head Martial has been playing some of the best football of his career.

Some absolutely amazing results there. Terrific stuff, even with the exit in the Carabao Cup.

After a few months of getting slammed with fixtures November would offer a bit of respite with the easiest teams in their Champions League group and Wolves as the most difficult league fixture. The travel arrangements to Krasnodar and Young Boys would probably be more stressful than the actual games, but big wins would help quiet people still doubting Ole Gunnar Solskjaer as the long term answer at United.

To put it bluntly this game was a one sided beating paced by a Mason Greenwood double. The second squad made short work of the hosts on their way to being eliminated from the next round. Diogo Dalot went off looking tired and was replaced by Enzo Marino, who is starting to look like an even better prospect than previously thought. Everyone but Dalot (8.4) and Axel Tuanzebe (8.7) rated above 9.0, it’s no secret why Krasnodar lost so badly. Atlético Madrid would also win, clinching a place in the next round, United would only need a single point in their last two games to eliminate Young Boys.



The Football Gods would not make things easy on Solskjaer, a trip to Krasnodar was topped by a snowy game day in Bern. The temperature did little to keep the home fans out as the stadium was absolutely packed, things didn’t look good for the hosts but their fans didn’t seem to care. The weather didn’t do much to dampen Solskjaer’s spirits either, a 2-0 win against Brighton Hove & Albion and a 1-0 win at Watford had United cruising.

Things weren’t quite as bad as the Krasnodar game, but United dismantled Young Boys rather quickly and never looked back. Eric Bailly (13’) and Andreas Periera (15’) scored early and never really looked like they were going to surrender. The bigger drama came at 31’ when Aaron Wan-Bissaka limped off injured after just 31’ and Marino needed to step in. Wan-Bissaka was just back from a week out after pulling his hamstring against Brighton Hove & Albion. Wan-Bissaka and Dalot are starting to pull a health yo-yo act, constantly off and on, they might be getting a little too familiar with Eva Carneiro. If Young Boys ever had a solid opening it came late in the game, already down 2-0, Marino pulled up limping at 71’ and Solskjaer suddenly found himself taking off his last RB. A wide eyed Scott McTominay was warmed up and sent out to generally occupy the right wingback area of the field. Greenwood would score late and Solskjaer would escape his RB emergency unscathed, but he would need to figure out something quick with Wolves and Arsenal approaching.





Unfortunately for Solskjaer the answer to his RB problem was to rely on two guys who can’t stay healthy, not something fans wanted to hear. Marino would be ruled out for 2-3 weeks with a pulled calf muscle so Wan-Bissaka would be on the bench as an emergency sub for Dalot, who also had his own issues. Renato Leônidas, a LB, would also make his first appearance on the bench as a last ditch option who has been very impressive for the U-23 squad. If Leônidas saw the field today Solskjaer would have more problems than beating Wolves.

Aside from being incredibly accurate with their shots, Wolves didn’t post much of a threat outside of breaking United’s streak of shutouts. Leander Dendoncker scored just after the half to pull the visitors level at 1-1, but then just a few minutes later Tuanzebe scored his second goal off a corner and that was about all Wolves had to offer. The most exciting thing about this game was Luís Nazário getting his first senior goal for United, and Leônidas did come on to spell Luca Pellegrini and did really well. Solskjaer was blessed with a surprise performance from two of his best youth prospects, now if he could just get someone to stay healthy as RB.

Great work. Tuanzebe bagging a brace, that's something you won't see too often!