Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has been too nice to certain players as Manchester United boss unlike Sir Alex - Paul Parker
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Published 26/10/2021 at 14:34 GMT
Former Manchester United and England defender Paul Parker says Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has been too nice with his team selections this season and believes Edinson Cavani and Donny van de Beek have not been given opportunities to prove themselves. He also believes Solskjaer needs better coaches around him and that Antonio Conte may not be what United are looking for as a replacement.
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You have to accept when you are a manager that you may not be liked by people, but if you are doing a job in a certain way right, you will be respected because you are the manager. Did Sir Alex Ferguson care if people didn't like him? Of course he didn't.
He knew that was part of the job. He did not want to be everybody's mate. But the majority of the players who played for Sir Alex always respected him because of the way he did his job and how he man managed people. That's the difference.
Ole wants to be a friend and does not want to upset people. He's a nice person. Successful people in general are not nice people and there is a reason to why they got to where they are. Sometimes you have to be cruel to be kind.
I'm taking guesses but I think he's been too nice to certain people. There has been too much sentiment in the teams he has been picking when there are players who need games.
When you are spending over £70m on a footballer [Jadon Sancho] and you're making it obvious to the press how much you want a player, that lad has to get a run in the team. Marcus Rashford has come straight back from a long injury into the team ahead of four other players, including Sancho, who he is saying "will take time".
Harry Maguire has returned to the starting XI when he was not fully fit. Donny van De Beek, if Solskjaer bought him, why is he not getting a run in the team and playing in the big games? His pedigree says he can deal with the pressure but he hasn't been given a run.
Edinson Cavani signs a new contract and everything is going well and he's developing a relationship with Mason Greenwood up front because of his unselfish movement. All of a sudden the PR-friendly player comes in [Cristiano Ronaldo] and Cavani is out of the team.
Everything they had up front last season when it looked like it was going somewhere, for the first time in years they had a forward in Cavani who knew how to go forward, a top quality player is there and Solskjaer does not play him. United lose what they have and play Ronaldo there who does not really want to be played as the striker.
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Solskjaer signs autographs and poses with fans after 5-0 thumping to Liverpool
Solskjaer needs better coaches around him
Sir Alex had no qualms in changing his coach to go to the next level. Having someone next to him on the bench who could threaten him for his job maybe, he was not scared to do that because he believed in his own ability as a manager and wanted to improve his team and improve himself as a manager to listen and learn from someone else who had different ideas about doing things. Ole lacks that.
I don't know what role Mike Phelan has been given but he needs someone else. The other two with him [Michael Carrick and Kieran McKenna] are not ready to be at that level and help Solskjaer in this moment in time.
Given the players Manchester United are going to sign, a coach's presence is very important. Because of the way Ole is he needed a big personality as an assistant. Is he big enough to go and ask for that?
But as we all know fortunes could change, everything would point to a change in coach and the question would then be asked 'do you even need Ole?'.
Conte may not suit what Man Utd want
There is no one suitable out there to come straight in. Antonio Conte could make a difference now and step a few players up. He would lose a few players because some would sulk as Conte would tell them exactly how he feels about them when he asks them to do the mental hard work.
If he came in to do the job now he would think to himself 'I could maybe still win this league'. But in January he would want to spend. We've seen already with United and the Glazers that they do not go and do that.
Conte is going to want his own backroom staff and his own players who he knows can do what he wants them to do. You can't argue with that as his record in the past three or four seasons is that he delivers. But everyone knows he is hard work. To man manage Conte as a chairman is hard work. Perhaps [Tottenham chairman] Daniel Levy did not want Conte in his face all the time because he would give him problems.
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