Man Utd 4-1 Bournemouth | How Solskjaer Won Battle of the Baby Faced Manager’s

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s reign as Manchester United manager keeps gaining momentum with each passing week as he becomes only the third United manager to win their first 3 matches in charge. And to complete his victories with such convincing scorelines only brews more excitement among the United faithful.

Before kick off Solskjaer set the platform for United players demanding a high tempo game at Old Trafford. And boy did the players respond to their managers expectations. United pressed on from the first whistle and got their reward in the 4th minute thanks to some outrageous foot work from Marcus Rashford. The No. 10 left two Bournemouth defenders for dead with some Ronaldinho ish trickery and set it up on a plate for Paul Pogba to tap in.

Paul Pogba is given a new lease under the current management who clearly wants him to play further forward and bomb into the box as much as possible. His driving run from the half way line in the 33rd minute ended up with a thumping header giving Man United a two goal cushion and Pogba’s second of the night.

United got a third goal right at the stroke of half time with a beautiful through ball from Matic opening up Martial to run down the flanks and provide a cross for Rashford to open his account for the night. United players were mentally already in the dressing room by then, which gave Bournemouth a chance to score a goal in the dying seconds of first half. Solskjaer face was fuming with anger for taking the foot off the pedal and failing to keep a clean sheet yet again.

The match was truly over by half time and the second half resulted in some tidy possession football from United and a consolation goal for Lukaku after he came on for Rashford.

Eddie Howe was pinned to the wall with injuries going into the game, having only 18 fit players in the club to name in their 18 match day squad. Bournemouth started the match with a 3-5-2 formation with Jordan Ibe and Diego Rice playing make shift wing backs. Their plan to play two up front to occupy both United’s center halves did not work out with United bossing the possession. Switching to a 4-4-2 in the second half helped them regain more possession after the break but they lacked the zip in play to breach United’s defense.

Solskjaer seems to have tweaked more of the players mindset rather than United’s game play. Offensively Pogba is given the license to go forward more resulting in United shaping into a 4-2-3-1 with the ball and without the ball into a 4-3-3. Players are more interchangeable and are given the freedom to roam into spaces rather than stick to designated positions or carry out defensive duties.  With the game put to bed and United a man down, the 90th minute run by Nemanja Matic carrying the ball from the center circle to the final third ghosting past players rather than playing it back echoes the expressive freedom given to players by the current manager.

Eddie Howe is bookies fourth favorite to become Manchester United manager next summer with Solskjaer second. Both managers lack of titles are against them from claiming the seat. If at all there is a title for the best ‘Baby Faced Manager’ in Premier League then Solskjaer can definitely add it to his résumé.