Rio Ferdinand says Manchester United are struggling for consistency as they don’t have a clear plan under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
The former United centre-back claims Solskjaer hasn’t implemented his own style at the club and is too eager to change his idealogy to suit the players in a “game by game situation”.
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Senior stars at Old Trafford have reportedly grown tired of the manager’s constant selection and tactical changes and Ferdinand agrees that the team would benefit from a more settled system.
He said: “I think Manchester United need to have a plan, a strategy of playing consistently, so that players can start to build relationships based off memory and knowing where people are going to be on the pitch.
“Until you do that you don’t have sustained success. You might have the odd result but you won’t have the consistency they are lacking.
“I don’t think Ole has come in and said, ‘This is the way we’re going to play, this is my style of football’.
“He’s just saying, ‘Right, I’m going to try to find something that suits the players I have here on a game by game situation’ and that’s not the answer.”
Paul Scholes echoed those views. “How could a director of football buy a player for Manchester United?” the former United midfielder said. “You don’t know if it’s going to be a [back] three, if it’s going to be two holding midfield players or one, you don’t know if they’re going to play a centre forward.
“You’re going into games with one day’s preparation at times. They went to three/five at the back [against Leipzig]. How can you possibly have time to work on it? There’s no time to work on it.
“I think Ole is trying to find an identity for the team. We’re coming here [against Leipzig] and none of us know how they’re going to play, what system they are going to do, how they’re going to do it – we’ve just no idea.”
Another former United midfielder, Owen Hargreaves, believes Solskjaer is still struggling to establish a clear playing identity. “With the top teams you often know how they are going to play – Bayern [Munich], Liverpool – and you pretty much know every player who is going to play,” Hargreaves said. “Ole is still trying to find something because he has a lot of pieces of the puzzle and not sure how they fit.”