Red Alert With Steve Shanyaski

A United-City derby match is always considered a test nowadays, but we didn’t expect the test would be to try and stay awake during 90 painfully uneventful minutes.

Although nothing happened, the positive to take from the game is that we are still ahead of City in the league and the Premier League itself threw up some strange score returns over the weekend that help our situation further.

Burnley beat Arsenal, Liverpool drew against Fulham, Everton beat Chelsea and Spurs drew against Palace. This leaves us in the position that winning our game in hand will put us fifth. Not bad at all, all things considered.

As a fan, I’ve been struggling with the ups and downs of watching our performances since the season started. I find myself frustrated about team selections week after week. The ongoing saga around Ole refusing to pick Van De Beek as a regular starter is completely perplexing. 

Pogba is making waves around not wanting to be at United, but then starts against City. The shocking decision by Ole to leave Fred on during the PSG game, and the poor tactics against Leipzig combined to cost us the place in the Champions League knockouts. All these faults can be pinned directly on Solskjaer's tail, and because of all this I’ve found myself this week finally joining the debate of whether Ole is worthy as a United manager.

Sacking a manager should always be the last resort, and all other options need to be investigated. If you look at the irony of what United’s situation could be if we were to sack Ole and employ Pochettino, by which I mean taking on the manager that Spurs sacked to employ the manager we sacked, then it’s insane to consider it. Spurs now sit at the top of the league, and Mourinho has got Son and Kane working together like a single-minded organism.

As Roy Keane pointed out last season, the problem must surely lie with our players attitude and spirit rather than the manager’s error. Mourinho’s success with an alternative Premier League has proved this. After all, it was Fred that mindlessly headbutted a player during the PSG game with hundreds of high-resolution cameras watching. It was the players that failed to execute Ole’s defensive formation during the Leipzig game that left us so disastrously open at the wings for the first two goals against us.

The players will quite happily let Ole take all the blame, as they did with Mourinho, rather than look internally and admit their ineptitude. I feel for Ole, I really do. He’s in a nightmare situation because of his previous track record with relegating Cardiff. After a run of form, it only takes one bad game to start the rumours of Pochettino talks.  However, when you take a step back and look at the position in the league we are – and well within chance of climbing further up the table, there should be nothing to moan about.

If we were to win that game in hand, we would be sitting two points off the top of the league. Only two points. No fan in their right mind would complain about that after the undulating start to the season we’ve had. We face Sheffield United this Thursday and the dreaded Leeds United on Sunday. If we win both matches, which we are quite within our rights to expect of our team, then the pressure is placed on other managers shoulders before Christmas, not Ole’s.

Do I think Ole is the man for the job? I’ve decided to calm down and give him until the end of the season, after all we are in a great position in the league – if our players can be relied upon to execute the manager's wishes properly.