Manchester United after the "honeymoon"

To be fair, MU under Solskjaer is much more worth watching than under coach Jose Mourinho. Still the same players, but Solskjaer has fundamentally changed the football philosophy to lean towards attack based on a structured, tight system, MU players must quickly switch from attack to defense, from defense to attack.

Since Solskjaer took over, Man United have earned the most points, scored the most goals and conceded the fewest goals in the Premier League. Among these statistics, the number of goals MU scored in the domestic competition under Solskjaer is 23. Everything is as beautiful as the honeymoon.

Fire tests gold

The Champions League is the most watched arena in world football. It is not a place for "apprentice" coaches and Solskjaer is no exception. PSG's owners understand that better than anyone else, so they chose Thomas Tuchel to replace coach Unai Emery.

Before coming to PSG, Tuchel also successfully led Mainz 05 and Dortmund in the Bundesliga and was considered a talented, experienced coach with many top matches. Before coming to PSG, he also led Mainz 05 and Dortmund in the Bundesliga. Meanwhile, Solskjaer only started his coaching career with the MU youth team, led Molde in the Norwegian league and was fired by Cardiff.

Without Cavani and Neymar, PSG's two biggest stars, coach Thomas Tuchel's starting 11 players have played 589 Champions League matches, more than double MU's 255. Of which, striker Kylian Mbappe has contributed to 14 goals (10 goals, 4 assists) after 11 Champions League matches - equal to Ronaldo's record.

Compared to coach Thomas Tuchel, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's combat experience is far behind. Photo: MU Club

PSG deployed a tight defensive system, with just one small adjustment to push 35-year-old defender Daniel Alves to play as a right midfielder in a 4-4-1-1 formation, PSG locked down the left wing of the home team MU. The top-level playing experience of this Brazilian player made Martial and P. Pogba "turn off the lights", even world champion Pogba received a red card.

PSG also knew how to proactively concede the game, holding the ball, slowly deploying the game and waiting for the right moment to attack, always putting goalkeeper De Gea in an alarming position.

Because they were too busy pressing high and wanting to attack, MU's central midfielders left too many gaps in the back. Meanwhile, PSG had many players who handled the tight spaces well and escaped the pressing impressively, so it was like MU was inviting the French team to attack them.

Playing as a left midfielder, Di Maria, on his return to Old Trafford, proved that MU was wrong to let him go with 2 assists. The two central midfielders Verratti and Marquinhos made Pogba, Matic, and Ander Herrera know what it means to attack in the middle. MU's 4-3-3 formation only "made waves" on the English pitch, it was not enough to put pressure on the big teams in Europe.

Solskjaer's attacking style is still too simple. It is shown through statistics: Man United only had exactly... 1 shot on target against PSG. This is the lowest number of shots on target of the Red Devils in a home match in the Champions League since 2005. As Solskjaer admitted at the post-match press conference: "Man United's current level is clearly below the level of the top teams in the continent".

Back to Earth

For the first time in history, MU lost 2-0 at home and faced elimination from this year's Champions League. It was only when facing an opponent that required the talent of the coach and the strangeness of the players on the field that we saw that Solskjaer's Man United still had too many limitations. The "Theatre of Dreams" was extinguished right in the first match, requiring Man United and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer to go beyond the Premier League level.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and his players have gone undefeated after 53 days in charge. Photo: MU Club

In fact, in the post-Sir Alex era, only David Moyes has helped MU get 1 victory in the Champions League knockout round. MU's recent performance at Old Trafford in the Champions League has not been good either, they lost 2, drew 1 and won only 1.

Therefore, losing 0-2 to PSG is not a big deal. Even saying goodbye to the Champions League early might be a good thing for MU players to focus all their efforts on the task of maintaining their position in the Top 4 of the Premier League. If he is appointed as the official head coach by the Man United Board of Directors and given money to go shopping in the next summer transfer window, Man United will return to the Champions League with a new look next season.