Ole Gunnar’s legacy to shape man utd future

There is only one place to start when discussing Solskjaer’s legacy at Manchester United, and it is no slight on a fantastic career at Old Trafford that one goal stands out so far above all the rest.

Solskjaer had already developed a reputation as a super sub for United, but none of his 29 goals off the bench were more important than the one he scored in Barcelona on May 26, 1999.

Teddy Sheringham had just scored a scarcely-deserved injury-time equaliser against the dominant Bayern Munich, who had led since the sixth minute through Mario Basler’s goal.

Within 30 seconds, United had another corner. Sheringham nodded down David Beckham’s delivery, and Solskjaer stuck out a foot to volley it into the roof of the net from three yards out.

The most unlikely comeback was complete, and United were England’s first-ever treble winners.

Remarkably, Solskjaer was also key in another turnaround that season, adding a winner to Dwight Yorke’s 88th-minute equaliser against Liverpool in the fourth round of the FA Cup. The Merseysiders had led since the second minute.

 

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As Michael Cox relates in detail in his excellent book ‘The Mixer’, it was no accident that United seemed to benefit from late goals so often that we still refer to decisive injury-time strikes as occurring in ‘Fergie time’.

Solskjaer, and others like him in the United squad, were key to United’s dominance in that period, not despite starting irregularly, but precisely because they started irregularly.

Solskjaer started just nine league games that season and completed just four of those but still finished the season with 12 league goals.

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That wouldn’t have been possible if he hadn’t been a top-class striker, of course, but Ferguson was the first man to fully implement the kind of squad rotation that would later become commonplace.

He would not have been able to do that if he had not had selfless players in the team who were willing to do unglamorous jobs without kicking up a fuss: the likes of Brian McClair, Jesper Blomqvist, Darren Fletcher, and Park Ji-Sung.

Nobody epitomised that better than Solskjaer. The Norwegian would have been an automatic first choice at practically any other English club, with Ferguson saying: “He was a marvellous finisher, one of the best I have known.”

But such was the quality on offer at United at the time that Solskjaer found himself consistently overshadowed by other strikers throughout his United career: first by Cole and Yorke, then by Ruud Van Nistelrooy, and finally by Wayne Rooney.

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Yet he stayed loyal to United for 11 magical years, making 366 appearances – 150 as a substitute – and scoring 126 goals. 50 of those came in the last 30 minutes of games, and 33 of those were in the last 15 minutes.

He finally finished his Old Trafford career exactly how he had started it: scoring six minutes after coming off the bench against Blackburn – just perfect for a man whose whole career was built on being completely reliable.

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