On The BallOle Gunnar Solskjaer takes Alex Ferguson’s lead with bizarre ‘long ball’ Liverpool jibes, but they don’t stand up to scrutiny
- Man United manager Solskjaer called Klopp’s side ‘the most direct team in the league’
- The Norwegian’s side suffered two 0-2 defeats in a week, the second – at home to Burnley
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is losing games and the Manchester United dressing room. If results like this week’s back-to-back 2-0 defeats by Liverpool and Burnley continue, he will surely lose his job. He certainly appears to have lost his critical faculties.
The United manager’s comments after his team were shown up at Anfield were bizarre. Solskjaer talked about the home side’s “long ball” game and called Jurgen Klopp’s side “the most direct team in the league.” The implication was clear. It was a sly dig at Liverpool’s style of play.
Long-ball football is associated with the worst aspects of the English game. It evokes agricultural defenders who hoof the ball upfield to place opponents under aerial bombardment. This approach, known as “route one” was notoriously promoted in the 1980s by Charles Hughes, the director of coaching at the FA. It brings to mind thuggish, powerful forwards whose main role was to win headers and destabilise defensive players with physical contact. Solskjaer knew what images his words would summon up.
Bob Paisley, Liverpool most successful manager, laughed off the ideas espoused by Hughes. “It doesn’t matter whether it’s a long ball or a short ball as long as it’s the right ball,” said the man who won six league titles, three European Cups, a Uefa Cup and three League Cups in nine years in charge. Paisley would appreciate Klopp’s team.
Despite Solskjaer’s jibes, Liverpool’s methods are extremely sophisticated. Quick passes forward are not aimed at hulking big men but Mo Salah, Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mane, players whose pace and movement mean defenders are wary about leaving any space behind the back line. Many of the team’s lengthier passes are cross-field, from flank to flank, with Trent Alexander-Arnold and Andy Robertson adept at switching the point of attack in an instant. These are tactics designed to emphasise flair and control and keep rival teams on the back foot; it is far from the pub football suggested by Solskjaer’s dog-whistle.
For Solskjaer to disparage Liverpool’s excellence when he was part of the most stunning just-get-it-in-the-box-and-hope moments in European football smacks of breathtaking delusion