As Manchester United make a trip to Wales, the Reds will have Ole Solskjaer in the hot seat. Early this week, Manchester United sacked Jose Mourinho after being in the hot seat for 2.5 years. It was expected one after United made the worse start of 3 decades but given the culture at United, most of us expected it to happen after the end of the season. With Mourinho gone, United has appointed Solskjaer as a caretaker till the end of the season. The permanent Manager will be announced after the end of this season.
Solskjaer is United's legendary player and it is his dream come true to be the manager of the club where he spent most of his career as a player. He is currently a manager at FC Molde where he will return in the summer. And more interestingly, his debut match as manager of United will be against the club which he managed previously. Back in 2014, he was appointed as manager of Cardiff City but he failed to save Cardiff from relegation. He was able to collect just 12 points from the 18 matches as Cardiff went down being at the bottom of the table. Later he was sacked by Cardiff after failing to impress in Championship. But we all hope, it would not be the case with him at United because he knows the club, and above all everyone in the club would support him.
It is going to be an easy outing for Ole as United has pretty easy fixtures going forward. After losing to Liverpool last weekend, United don't have to play any team from the top half till mid-January when they will travel to Wembley to face Spurs. Again, they have decent fixture till the end of February where they will welcome Liverpool at the theater of dreams.
The injury was the biggest problem Jose faced in the recent weeks, and Ole can't get away from it. It will be interesting to see how Ole will line United up with so many injury concerns. Lindelof and Baily are brave to return to face Liverpool although they weren't fully fit. The list goes one as the other players who chose to play although being in bad health were Dalot, Darmian, and Martial. With a busy schedule ahead, Ole needs to be cautious about how he uses his players. Smalling, Rojo, Sanchez, and McTominay are still out injured.
The biggest news comes from Lukaku who is set to miss his trip to Cardiff because of his personal reason. Thus, Rashford or Martial will lead the line against Cardiff. Also, we should see Pogba getting out of that bench. Pogba and Jose had a problem going on because of which he was limited to the bench in the recent United matches. Ole's other big task is to get the best out of Pogba, the most expensive player in the squad. Ole coached Pogba when he was in reserve team during 2008/09 and appreciated the potential of Pogba.
Cardiff has played some good football recently and they took themselves out of relegation after winning 3 of last 7 matches. They defeated Southampton, Wolves, and Brighton in the process. They are 2 points above the relegation and would look to continue their fine form. Last week they fought hard against Watford but was unfortunate to pull the late equalizers. But the word of worry is they are a better team at home. They won last 3 games at home and only lost once in last 5 home games which could be warning for United as they travel.
To conclude, Ole would have a short stay at United but he would be looking to make a big impact. He heart lies with United and fans love him. He came off the bench to score the injury-time winner in the Champions League final and complete the treble for United that season. It is a tough task to sit at United's hot seat but with easy upcoming fixtures, he would taste some sweet victories including this one against Cardiff.
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