The Manchester United of the day cannot match the one before the exit of Mourinho in as much as the squad is the same otherwise it has faced one of the poorest injury infestation that has not been reported yet they’re doing it great, the million dollar question remains to be what Solskjaer has done to the club
As United fans in their thousands cross the channel this week, by plane, ferry or train, they do so not in expectation, but in hope.
That is one of the sensations Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has bought back to their club since walking through the door at Old Trafford on December 19.
Mission impossible? That was a question put to United’s caretaker boss as he sat in the bowels of the Parc des Princes just over 24 hours before this second leg gets underway to speak to the media.
He didn’t leave the question to hang long enough for the iconic theme tune to come into his head. “Never mission impossible,” Solskjaer snapped back.
“A difficult task” was about as daunting as the Norwegian would put it, which makes it sound like trying to do your Christmas shopping at the Trafford Centre in December, not make European club football history against one of the most expensively assembled teams there has ever been. On 106 occasions in European Cup history the home team has lost the first leg 2-0. All 106 went out. “A difficult task,” indeed.
The fatalistic pessimism of the final days of the Jose Mourinho reign has gone, replaced by that swagger of old. This Champions League last-16 second leg trip looks a lost cause, but Solskjaer has injected hope into this place again. It’s an impossible task, surely? But United have been here before. Astonishing comebacks are part of the fabric of this club.
There was a theory before the first leg of the tie with Paris Saint-Germain that succeeding against the French giants would be crucial for Solskjaer’s chances of getting the job. So much has gone wrong for the Norwegian since the first whistle blew at Old Trafford that it feels unfair to judge him over these two games now – unless he pulls off a Parisian phenomenon, the sensation on the Seine.
Instead any judgements from this tie will most likely come from the way he has handled the misfortune thrown at him. In what he would have known was a crucial few weeks for his chances of getting his dream job on a permanent basis, he hasn’t complained, he hasn’t sulked. He’s smiled, as usual, and he’s accepted it all with a phlegmatic attitude, while refusing to ever accept defeat.
Those early stages in the first leg at Old Trafford when, to phrase it in boxing parlance, United were landing their jab on a more consistent basis, feel a lot longer than three weeks ago.
It began to go wrong towards the end of the first half back in Manchester. The loss of Jesse Lingard and Anthony Martial to injury opened the floodgates. Now there’s 10 first team players on the treatment table and Paul Pogba is suspended.
United’s resources are so ravished for the trip to Paris that debates amongst fans over what team you’d play barely lasted beyond check-in. Solskjaer has included five teenagers with a combined total of less than an hour’s first-team football in his squad of 17 outfield players and three goalkeepers. Four of them will make the bench, most likely James Garner, Tahith Chong, Angel Gomes and Mason Greenwood, with Brandon Williams a spare man.
It’s hard to see how Solskjaer can pick any team aside from David De Gea, Ashley Young, Victor Lindelof, Chris Smalling, Luke Shaw, Scott McTominay, Andreas Pereira, Fred, Diogo Dalot, Marcus Rashord and Romelu Lukaku.
United fielded a much stronger team than that XI against Derby in the Carabao Cup in September – and lost. It’s an entire second choice midfield. Before Christmas you’d have feared for this time against Plymouth, never Paris Saint-Germain.
But this isn’t the same United that were stumbling around in the first dark days of winter. They’ve come a hell of a long way in three months.
United would make history if they were to pull off the impossible. But look at that team. They can’t, can they? It would be a miracle, but all hope is not lost. Solskjaer simply won’t allow it.