Analysing the similarities between Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Sir Alex Ferguson's managerial style

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has always emphasized the importance of Sir Alex Ferguson on his career. Under his watch, Solskjaer played 366 games plundering 126 goals becoming a fan favourite and a United legend in the process. During his time at United, he honed his craft under one of the best managers of all time.

Ole still calls Sir Alex as his boss as he did in the post-match conference after the 3-1 win against Huddersfield earlier in his tenure. Ahead of his first game against Cardiff City, Solskjaer explained that the Scott has been his role model in his formative years as manager. Ole would have done his former manager proud after a fine start to his managerial career at United has put him in the pole position to land the permanent job this summer. In this short but impressive reign, the Norwegian has shown glimpses of the knowledge he acquired under Sir Alex.

So here are 5 similarities between Solskjaer and Sir Alex’s managerial style.

#1 Giving Youth a chance

One of the most important aspects of United’s philosophy is giving the academy players a chance to shine on the biggest stage. On 30th October 1938, the club named an academy graduate in their matchday squad and ever since, they have fielded one in their squad every single game. Supporting the youth is a tradition that goes back to the days of the Busby Babes.

Since Sir Alex Ferguson joined United in 1986, he revolutionized the United youth setup which had grown stagnant and revamped the scouting system. This move paid dividends when the famous Class of 92 which included Ryan Giggs, David Beckham, Phil Neville, Gary Neville, Paul Scholes and Nicky Butt helped United win multiple titles and silverware in their illustrious time at the club. 20 years later, "the babyface assassin” as he is nicknamed by the United faithful is continuing the sacred tradition of promoting youth at United.

Solskjaer has been vocal about the importance of promoting youngsters at United in his press conferences and has stayed true to his word, handing out James Garner and Tahith Chong their Premier League debuts. Ole has shown real faith in the youngsters not only in the domestic competitions but also on the European stage.

In the second leg against PSG, he decided to bring Mason Greenwood and Tahith Chong on to provide some direct running and added attacking thrust. They eventually went on to win the game to create history courtesy of a goal by another academy graduate in Marcus Rashford who himself has been revitalized under Solskjaer. All these developments indicate to Solskjaer’s willingness to embrace the youth traditions at Manchester United.

#2 Man Management

The final days of Jose Mourinho’s reign were toxic, dull, gloomy coupled with tension and friction in the dressing room caused by a fallout with some of his players notably the enigmatic Frenchman Paul Pogba. When Solskjaer entered, he changed the mood at the club, bringing in a sense of positivity and instilling confidence back into the players.

This was a different approach from Jose’s approach of publicly rebuking, criticizing and ostracizing his players. Ole’s man management approach has brought the best out of Paul Pogba who has been firing on all cylinders albeit his two indifferent performances in the last two games against Wolves and Arsenal. The Norwegian has not only been able to get the best out of his star players but has also successfully managed to extract the best out of his fringe players whenever they are called into action.

One of the anecdotes from the class of 92 documentary, that Gary Neville shared was that Sir Alex comes to him on a Thursday morning and informs him that he isn’t going to play him on Saturday, and he needs him to be ready for a game on a Saturday two weeks from that fixture, adding that it is just the game for him.

So, Gary couldn’t decide whether he was told he was dropped for two weeks or the gaffer needed him specially for that game. Such was the brilliant man management of Sir Alex something that Solskjaer has picked up and is demonstrating in his managerial reign at United.

#3 Delegation with staff

In his time at United, Sir Alex always used to delegate the various club duties to his assistants and the staff, trusting them to carry out the tasks diligently. Many of his staff members thus went on to become managers like Brian Kidd, Carlos Queiroz, Steve Mcclaren etc.

One of the recurring sights, when you watch Manchester United play under Ole, is that whenever United score, the entire United staff on the bench come together and embrace each other indicating their togetherness and teamwork.

It is quite impressive and akin to Sir Alex that Solskjaer has delegated different tasks to his staff members preserving him to take the more important decisions. It was a masterstroke to get an experienced head like Mike Phelan back, who knows the club well and what is needed to be successful at this club. Phelan has been a vocal figure on the touchline shouting out instructions to the players.

Michael Carrick and Kieran Mckenna are two young coaches who work tirelessly to organize the training and also communicate with the academy lads since Mckenna was United’s under 18 coach thus has a close relationship with the youngsters.

Ole and Phelan are responsible for devising tactical plans to outwit the opponents. The Norwegian’s excellent delegation skills have helped him to concentrate on the more pressing issues on hand and could be the reason behind his successful stint thus far at United.

#4 Mentality

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s approach to the games epitomizes Sir Alex’s approach. Sir Alex was a master at shaping the psychology of his players developing a strong mentality and an attacking approach towards games. His teams had a never die attitude that enabled them to stage extraordinary comebacks and win games and titles from improbable positions.

Some of these famous comebacks include the 5-3 win against Tottenham Hotspurs when they were trailing 3-0 at half time and the win in the Champions League final when they scored two stoppage-time goals to stun the world.

Solskjaer goes into games planning how he could attack the opposition and exploit their weaknesses and not the other way round. He is predominantly a proactive manager who has shown that he can reshuffle and react to situations based on how the game is progressing. Solkjaer has brought a fear factor back to United that has eluded them in recent years. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer makes his team believe that every game is winnable.

The game against PSG perfectly encapsulates United’s siege mentality under Ole. After that 2-0 loss at Old Trafford, it would have been easy to give up on the second leg with the injury crisis leaving them to barebones but Ole set his team up perfectly to get a monumental result in Paris. Such a strong mentality will help the Red Devils against the mighty Barcelona in the quarterfinals of the Champions League.

#5 Counter attacking brand of football

Under Sir Alex, there was never a dull day at United. The games were enthralling, exciting with attractive football and the fans got their money’s worth when they left the stadium. There was a joke that you needed health insurance when you went to watch United play as their games were a rollercoaster ride leaving you awestruck and bewitched at the spectacle observed, asking for more at the end of every encounter. But since the legendary manager’s retirement, the team has served a mixture of slow, pedestrian, lacklustre style of football an antithesis of what United stands for.

Solskjaer has restored the brand of attacking football which has earned United praise and adoration around the globe. The Norwegian has used Anthony Martial, Marcus Rashford, Jesse Lingard as his front three and has been rewarded with some devasting football arising from their fluidity, interchanging of positions, pace combined with Pogba’s power, drive, technique, and guile acting as the creative force behind these electric wizards.

The full-backs are given license to bomb forward on their attacking ventures while the midfielders are urged to make late runs into the box. The number of forward passes has increased, replacing their sideways and backward passes which previously hampered their attack. This is a style of football that the United faithful were crying out for and Solkjaer has answered their prays winning games along with style just like the old times.

Edited by Kingshuk Kusari