With his back firmly against the wall, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer knew he had to change something going into Saturday’s crunch clash with Tottenham.
He knew speculation over his position had increased, making it somewhat ironic that it was his opposite number who was relieved of his duties in the days following.
Heading into Saturday’s timely 3-0 victory, it was above all else the defence that was the team’s most obvious frailty. The same was brutally exposed by Liverpool, though the writing had been on the wall for a number of weeks prior.
In the eight league matches before Saturday’s win, no side had accumulated a higher Expected Goals Against (xGA) total across the whole Premier League than United’s of 14.58.
What this indicated was that United had conceded more high-quality chances against than any other side in the league - a damning statistic for a side predicted to compete for the Premier League title just two months ago.
A large portion of that leakiness, particularly in more recent weeks, was being attributed to the omission of Raphael Varane. The French defender of course picked up an injury in last month’s international break.
He returned for the trip to Spurs, yet he’s not a cure-all for United issues and Solskaer wisely still felt a return to a defensive back three was a necessity.
It wasn’t the sort of tactical switch to get United fans excited, and indeed such a set-up hadn’t been seen since a 2-0 win over Manchester City 18 months ago. Yet short-term pragmatism availed and protecting the Reds goal became the priority.
Not only was Solskjaer’s usual 4-2-3-1 formation banished, but so was the focus on ball dominance and pressing, both of which had been traits growing in importance for the Norwegian.
The Reds recorded their second-lowest possession average of the season in the capital and were much more selective in the moments they pressed.
Whilst this approach was far from keeping with United's long-term ideologies, the major benefit was that the team looked much more robust, compact and tough to break down.
For the first time this season, a United opponent failed to register a single shot on goal. Furthermore, only Leeds United registered a lower xGA total than the Londoners (0.7).
Although it proved a success on Saturday, the back three isn’t the long-term solution to all United’s problems.
Yet, if it can provide the short-term fix to help secure positive results in the next two fixtures, then that should buy Solskjaer more time to focus on trying to implement more long-term strategies to get both this group, and his United career back on track.
