How Ole Gunnar Solskjaer can save his job at Manchester United

Manchester United have given their full backing to Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. Paul Pogba suggested that something needs to change at the club after Saturday's troubling 4-2 defeat to Leicester.

So, in what areas does the United manager need to breathe fresh life life into their stuttering season? And what alterations can be made to get his stewardship of the club back on track?

Stop indulging Ronaldo, Fernandes and Pogba

The first couple of months of the season have only hardened the belief among Manchester United’s rivals that Ole Gunnar Solskjaer would struggle to accommodate Cristiano Ronaldo, Bruno Fernandes and Paul Pogba in the same team. While Old Trafford was getting drunk with giddiness at the news of Ronaldo’s return in August, Premier League counterparts were wondering who would be doing the hard yards in that team and were encouraged, rather than fazed, by the prospect of that trio lining up together. Solskjaer must stop indulging the egos, get tough and abandon the experiment. It is incompatible and there is little hope of pressing opponents decisively and cohesively with those three.

Ronaldo is a different beast now to the player from his first spell at United but, even then, Sir Alex Ferguson recognised he needed players around the Portuguese who would do his running and bidding for him, something the likes of Wayne Rooney, Carlos Tevez and Park Ji Sung did to excellent effect. Not only do Fernandes and Pogba not do that and have a half-hearted approach to contesting 50-50s, they are both guilty of giving the ball away too readily, creating a damaging imbalance between risk and reward, and United do not have the cohesion or defensive shape to compensate when possession is squandered in dangerous areas. One clean sheet in the past 19 matches dating back to last season should tell Solskjaer the present set-up is not working.

Play Jesse Lingard

Lingard has looked bright whenever called upon and is the sort of player who can knit midfield and attack together with intelligent running and movement at the same time as providing legs, intensity and energy that are crucial to a coordinated press. Yet the England forward, outstanding on loan at West Ham during the second half of last season, continues to be overlooked by a manager in thrall to star names and unsure how to utilise the big squad he demanded.

The return of Marcus Rashford gives Solskjaer another attacking player who is prepared to do the dirty work and Edinson Cavani’s willingness to chase down balls would not go amiss right now. But Donny van de Beek remains an outcast and Scott McTominay - at his best as a classic No 8 style box-to-box midfielder in the Georginio Wijnaldum or Jordan Henderson mould - has never been given a sustained run out in the role.

As Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher highlighted on Sky Sports’ Monday Night Football programme, you could draw a straight line between United’s front five and the five outfield players behind them in Saturday's defeat to Leicester. The disconnect, apparent all season, could not have been more glaring and it was reminiscent of Ossie Ardiles’s hopelessly conceived “famous five” at Tottenham in the early to mid Nineties.

Sort out set-piece vulnerability

United recruited the former Chelsea Under-23 coach Eric Ramsay in the summer as a set-piece and individual development coach. But they still look vulnerable from dead ball situations, which have cost them dearly in the recent defeats to Aston Villa and Leicester. Kortney Hause got across Cavani too easily to score a late winner at Old Trafford; Victor Lindelof and Harry Maguire made a mess of clearing their lines for Caglar Soyuncu’s goal from a corner on Saturday and Pogba should have dealt with Youri Tielemans' free-kick to the front post in the lead up to Leicester’s fourth goal by Patson Daka. The lack of aggression, urgency and organisation at corners and free-kicks remains a problem.

Players and manager need to wise up

Too many of the goals United have conceded stem from avoidable individual errors (think Lingard against Young Boys, Maguire against Leicester) or naivety and poor game management. Examples are Fred for Everton’s goal on the counter-attack, Maguire needlessly lunging in on Miguel Almiron in the lead up to Newcastle’s goal on the break, Wan-Bissaka failing to shackle Timothy Castagne before Jamie Vardy scored for Leicester.

At the same time, Solskjaer often seems slow to react on the bench when games are getting away from his team. The Villarreal game was the perfect example with the manager doing little in the first half to address the ease with which veteran playmaker Dani Parejo succeeded in isolating Diogo Dalot one on one against Arnaut Danjuma.

Own the technical area

United’s problems run a lot deeper than Solskjaer spending the majority of games with his arms and legs folded in the dugout and a frown on his face as he consults an iPad, only occasionally venturing from his seat. But if you did not know better it would be hard to discern who was the United manager on a matchday. Whereas Jürgen Klopp, Pep Guardiola, Thomas Tuchel - the coaches he is trying to hunt down - are front and centre and are metaphorically screaming ‘I’m in charge here’, Solskjaer is a reluctant figurehead whose management by committee approach does little to promote an air of authority at a time when his players look like they need to know who is boss.