The sage prophets of Three Dog Night once uttered the mantra “One is the loneliest number that you’ll ever do.”
They were certainly talking about leading football clubs, since manager is one the most thankless jobs in existence, right up there with grocery store cashiers and whoever updates Wikipedia articles.
Sometimes they make it too easy though to rile up a fanbase…
El Clásico: Barcelona Set Up To Fail
Not to take anything from Real Madrid — they have all the bragging rights following Sunday’s 2-1 victory — but Los Blancos simply took what Barca gave them tactically. And it wasn’t hard. Ronald Koeman almost made it too easy.
Barcelona’s toes are two feet away from a ledge and looking out, getting that uneasy feeling you are high up and have a long, long way to fall. The club is precariously perched, and not just in the financial way that has been well publicized. The on-field product is a puzzle with no immediate, blanket answer.
Vinicius Jr. was given a fork and knife with which he feasted on the lefhand side of the pitch. Lacking options on their left side, Koeman continued his recent trend of starting Sergiño Dest at right wing instead of right back — leaving Sergi Roberto and Oscar Mingueza as the only other options even remotely worthy of starting at right back against Real. Koeman went with Mingueza, and Vini had a field day, but honestly it would not have mattered which he went with. Mingueza and Roberto are both lead-footed players. Vinicius probably should have scored — the only real knock to his performance was that he took too many touches trying to be shifty in and around the penlty area — but on the counterattack, Mingueza was left on an island.
Barca’s entire setup drastically simplified Real’s gameplan. The team played such a high line and spent so much time in real’s half that a turnover and a simple outlet pass normally gave Real’s transition the juice required to cause a scare. It was most apparent in the opener. Barcelona only ever had Gerard Pique and Eric Garcia consistently stationed in their own half. Mingueza hung back more early on in the first half, which coincidentally when he was strongest against Vinicius on the right, but as the match wore on he pushed higher and higher up — leaving Barcelona more exposed and Mingueza forced to chase opponents surging toward his own goal rather than keep them in front. He attempted to win the ball from Vini high up, but the Brazlian struck a long ball to Rodrygo on the other side of the pitch, who eventually hit it to David Alaba wide open in the space Mingueza left behind. A pinpoint finish later, and Barca were up 1-0.
That passage of play was a microcosm of Barcelona’s flawed setup — and their key flaw as a whole. The match was there to win. They largely lived in Real’s half and did generate a fair share of goalscoring opportunities which could have easily put them on the scoresheet earlier than the 96th minute: a wide open Dest shot in the middle of the box sent into orbit, a Pique header that missed by inches, another Dest effort later in the match which gave Thibaut Courtois something to think about. For all the near-moments of glory though, they were fleeting because Barca’s defense would then be easily carved apart by the counter.
And it’s not an overnight fix. Reviving FC Barcelona will be the project to end all projects. A near-bankrupt club. Being forced to rely on youngsters because of the wage structure. Koeman being one of the few managers willing to tolerate the project. Be prepared for possibly a long sequence of diappointing El Clásico results.
Manchester United-Liverpool: Not Enough For A Sacking… Somehow
As of writing, Ole Gunnar Solskjær still has a job according to Fabrizio Romano, despite the wishes of many who saw what happened on Sunday against Liverpool. Any other manager, particularly any other non-club legend manager would have received marching orders by now after a frankly sad display.
The opinion of Ole is somehow still divided though. There are the vocal “Ole Out” crew obviously, but there is still a faction clinging to the former super sub, calling on more time for his talented, yet underachieving squad to keep plugging away.
That’s not to say Ole is an objectively bad manager. He’s certainly not perfect, but he has his positives. While United going down to opposing sides has become common in matches, Ole has shown an ability to make proper second half adjustments to get a result, particularly in the 2020/21 Premier League season when they recovered 31 points from losing positions. He’s also vastly improved the overall quality of the squad since he came on board.
United weren’t just beaten by Liverpool though. They were overrun — marked by some overall garbage performances from key players. To sum up the problem: There’s little cohesion team feels like a bunch of individuals thrown together. While the squad produces moments of magic, it seems like Ole fails to get the best out of his squad’s obvious talent each week. Harry Maguire continued his tailspin of defensive positioning. Fred and Scott McTominay again were asked to cover far too much space in the middle of the park because all the attackers were far upfield, and the double pivot became overwhelmed. Paul Pogba both entered and was expelled from the match in the time it takes to watch a single episode of Big Bang Theory — and watching his performance was just as painful.
Aaron Wan-Bissaka, Mason Greenwood, Marcus Rashford, and Cristiano Ronaldo‘s efffort and/or intensity of pressing drew even more ire from the public. The team consistently got dragged out of position because of sluggish reactions in where and how to press Liverpool — which was especially apparent on the match’s first goal. What resulted was AWB brazenly pushed up to press Andrew Robertson (who was already covered by Greenwood, leaving Diogo Jota open on the wing. Victor Lindelöf, Maguire, and Luke Shaw all had to then shift the entire defensive line to the United’s right side, which laid the groundwork for Naby Keita to tuck the ball home.
United are just so easily forced into making mistakes. Part of that is on the players, but when your side’s structure is so easily thrown out of whack, that’s on the manager as well. Individual players often makes decisions on their own that put the structure in peril, i.e. AWB pushing up when he really did not need to. It doesn’t feel like Ole has control of the team, or more accurately, the individual players of the team. It’s easy for me to say as someone who is not in the dressing room, but that’s just how it appears.
Ultimately though, Ole has actually made the best of a situation where he was was set up to fail by the club’s higher ups. He should not have been hired in more than a caretaker capacity. Solskjær just doesn’t have the managerial experience, and he was thrown into leading one of the biggest clubs in the world after only ever managing Molde and Cardiff City. It’s not really his fault, he’s just a bit out of his depth.
But now, circling back to where we currently stand, Solskjær is assured to manage Saturday against Tottenham.. And you know what? They very well could win. They struggle against methodically well-disciplined sides, and Spurs have been spotty at best in that area. If they win, those faithful to Solskjær will see the victory as being proven correct that this recent run of form was just a rough patch, but it won’t assuage the problems. Go ahead. Ignore them, but they still exist. ◙
Three Yellow Cards 