SUNDAY’S meeting between Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United one of those games in which it perhaps doesn’t pay to think too deeply of the potential consequences.
Suppose Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, in his first major test as United manager, leads them to a sixth straight victory. Suppose this confirms the promise of those first five games had more substance than simply not being Jose Mourinho and playing teams from the lower half of the table (and in Reading’s case, the Championship). Suppose this is a staging post on a run of form that leads United into the top four and qualification for next season’s Champions league. Suppose United beat Arsenal in the FA Cup and go on to win the competition. Suppose they beat Paris Saint-Germain in the last 16 of the Champions League and go on to reach the semi-final or beyond. Does the United board still consider Solskjaer nothing more than a caretaker, a sorbet to cleanse the palate between Mourinho and the next proper course?
Solskjaer, clearly, will want to win. Mauricio Pochettino assuredly will as well, for reasons of self-respect and professional pride and to attempt to keep Tottenham in the pack that could yet win the Premier League. They are, after all, only six points back. A Tottenham win increases Pochettino’s chances of being offered the United job but equally means they’re less likely to be in the Champions League next season, making the job less attractive. Would defeat nudge him down the shortlist? Perhaps, but only if Solskjaer demonstrably tactically outwitted him. It’s unlikely Pochettino has considered any of that, but there are some strange incentives lurking below the surface here.
Even beyond that, though, the game has a fascination. Everything has been straightforward for Solskjaer so far. Although there has been an enhanced fluidity and sense of fun about United, a sense of the toxicity of the end of the Mourinho reign being sluiced away, this is his first test against another top six side. After an edgy first half, Tottenham outplayed United at Old Trafford in August and their 3-0 win was the first evidence that something was seriously wrong behind the scenes.
There is a baseline – albeit a low one – something with which to make a direct comparison. What difference has Solskjaer actually made? It may be that simply being cheerful and positive, kindling a belief and desire and sense of well-being in players can in itself make a significant difference. The coolness with which Marcus Rashford took his goal away at Newcastle suggested Solskjaer, who had observed before the game that the forward was snatching at chances, was making a practical difference. But still, playing Tottenham at Wembley will be a test of his tactical mettle.
Why United should wait until a Director of Football is hired before recruiting players in the transfer market. https://t.co/DUBFcOBJ3k #mufc
— United Xtra (@utdxtra) January 8, 2019
Can a defence that has looked shaky all-season handle Harry Kane? How will Paul Pogba play when he has significant defensive responsibility? How will Anthony Martial and whichever of Jesse Lingard or Juan Mata operates on the other flank fare when their job is not simply to link up with Rashford but to block in the opposing full-back?
For the first time since taking over, Solskjaer is facing an opponent he cannot expect to beat simply because his players are better. Not only that, not he is facing a manager in Pochettino who is as willing as any in the Premier League to make tactical changes, whether before or during games. It’s not simply a question of coming up with a good initial plan; if United are to prevail, Solskjaer will also have to think on his feet.
And yet it is a test too of Pochettino. Spurs on Tuesday looked weary.
They did not hammer Chelsea as they had in November. Harry Winks and Moussa Sissoko, so impressive recently, both seem fatigued on Tuesday.
For two months now, as they have dragged themselves through into the last 16 of the Champions League from unpromising beginnings and maintained themselves on the fringes of the title race, Tottenham have been at full tilt. With Son Heung-Min away at the Asian Cup, the strain is perhaps beginning to show.
This is a test of Solskjaer, but it is also a test of Pochettino. It’s not an audition for the role of Manchester United manager, still less a play-off, but Sunday’s game will say a lot about the suitability of both candidates for the position.
