Ole Gunnar Solskjaer Tactic

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer – professional football player, hero of Manchester United, turned football manager and relieved of his duties at Old Trafford in an infamous way.

It might seem like the summary of a movie, but in fact, this is Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s career, summarized.

Born in Kristiansund, at the age of seven, he joined the local football club Clausenengen who were in the 3rd division at the time.

Maybe incredibly, but he supported Liverpool as a child. However, life would put him on a path leading to their fiercest rivals.

He scored 31 goals in 42 appearances for Molde, before he was bought by Manchester United in July 1996.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer played 235 games for Manchester United and scored 91 goals. Out of those 91 goals, one stands apart from the rest.

The one that made the Bayern München players cry.

Following his retirement as a player, in 2007, he took on the manager role, initially at Manchester United Reserves, before joining Molde in January 2011.

And following another move to Molde, in December 2018, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer took over from Jose Mourinho as the manager of Manchester United.

This period may be regarded as a success or a failure. Both can describe his time as a manager at Old Trafford.

However, in my opinion, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has helped stabilizing the club, creating the base on which other managers like Ralf Rangnick or Erik Ten Hag stepped on.

His tactical setup at Old Trafford has often seen a 4-2-3-1 formation, one that could turn into a 3-3-4 when in possession.

I will not hide the fact that I struggled in making this tactic work in my save. But not really because of the principles that it is based on, but because my save was in a point of transforming the team. Which often leads to struggles understanding the tactical setup.

We have a sweeper keeper on support duty in goal. This is not really necessary, a goalkeeper on defend would do the job, but in modern football, the goalkeeper must be able to sweep up loose balls, so just to get you covered.

The back four is made of two wing backs on support and two central defenders on defend duty.

The wind backs go up gradually when the team is in possession, helping each are of the pitch to progress the ball.

Cross less often as player instruction for both.

The two defensive midfielders are a defensive midfielder on defend duty and a deep lying playmaker on support.

The defensive midfielder is important as he is tasked with screening the defence. While the playmaker is the engine of the tactic, being the focal point of the team, springing passes for the attackers.

Close down more and tackle harder for both.

The wingers are a winger on attack and an inverted winger on support duty. The winger is told to cut inside while the left-sided one will do it naturally.

This setup keeps the opposition on their toes, helping to unbalance the opposition’s defensive shape.

The attacking midfielder is an advanced playmaker, while the striker is a deep lying forward on attack duty.

All four attackers are told to mark tighter, since Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s tactic focused also on pressing the opposition, not giving them time on the ball.

As mentality I chose positive.

In possession, fairly wide attacking width, pass into space and play out of defence. If you are facing an opposition which drops deep to defend, turn off pass into space, as there wouldn’t be any space to pass the ball into.

This, way, your team will focus on positional play, looking for the mistake and creating goalscoring opportunities.

Shorter passing directness and a slightly higher tempo. And play for set pieces.

In transition, counter-press, counter and distribute the ball to the defence, through short kicks.

And out of possession, high press and a standard defensive line. Trigger press more often, prevent the goalkeeper short distribution and trap outside.

I remember seeing Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s Manchester United aggressively trying to recover the ball once it was lost.

But if that did not happen quickly, they would settle in the defensive position’s compacting the shape and forcing the opposition to make a mistake in their build up.

As said, I had mixed results using this tactic, but it led us to results like a draw in the UEFA Super Cup against Real Madrid or high scoring games in the league.

Even researching this video, I had again the feeling that Ole Gunnar Solskjaer deserved more throughout his managerial career so far and I hope that he will find success one day.