Solskjaer’s reluctance to make timely substitutions highlights his trust issues and lack of depth

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer turned to his bench reluctantly and rather too late after Luuk De Jong scored the winner to knock Manchester United out of the Europa League last night. De Jong himself came off the bench to win the game for Sevilla.

Sevilla boss’ Julen Lopetegui’s shrewd game management won them the game. On the other hand, it was as if Solskjaer accepted that he already played his best hand. The Norwegian couldn’t find answers through substitutions as his Spanish counterpart.

United did play some scintillating football especially in the opening 10 minutes of the second half when Sevilla survived a wave of attacks courtesy of their goalkeeper Yassine Bounou.

Lopetegui took off Lucas Ocampos and Youssef En-Nesyri before the game hit the hour mark. Taking off Ocampos, their top scorer, and introducing De Jong, who hadn’t scored in the previous 11 appearances, in place of En-Nesyri certainly raised a few eyebrows. Then, with 75 minutes gone, Suso – who scored the equalising goal – came off for Franco Vazquez. Meanwhile, Solskjaer still chose to stick with his starting XI. 

Three minutes later, two of the three players introduced by Lopetegui were involved in the winning goal. Vazquez fed the ball to Jesus Navas who delivered a cross in the box which De Jong converted.

United kept on trying but all their efforts proved futile. Perhaps that wouldn’t have been the case if Solskjaer had reacted earlier. But this hasn’t happened for the first time. Solskjaer has been reluctant to make changes since the past few weeks and one could easily suggest that how little the Norwegian trusts his fringe players. It wasn’t until the 87th minute when Solskjaer turned to his bench and make changes.

“You know, at times in games like this when you create so many chances and openings it’s difficult to take players with goals in them out of the pitch, Mason, Marcus, Anthony, Bruno – they’re all goalscorers – and they’ve been fantastic for us. They created enough today to score. Yeah, we looked a little tired towards the end but we’ve done excellent and I made the decisions I made.” said Solskjaer after the game.

It’s clear what he’s implying here – the players who could change the game or provide the goals were all already on the field since the start of the game. Naming the same starting XI for weeks and reluctance to turn towards the bench indicates that United lack squad depth. 

OGS has done a brilliant job clearing out the deadwood since he arrived at Old Trafford. However, he’s signed only four players until now. Youngsters like Mason Greenwood and Brandon Williams have had their breakout seasons but United need more.

Solskjaer pointed out the same in his post-match conference saying – “We need to strengthen the squad depth because it’s going to be a long season. We’re going to keep pushing and keep demanding more of the players that we have, but still, we’re looking to improve and it’s a strange one. The league starts very quickly, but then the market is open for so long. So we’ve got to be both good, smart and clever.”

At a club like United, who are set to play two games per week from next season, quality on the bench is certainly a bare minimum. There is not a single player United could bet on to make an instant impact. And who better than Solskjaer would know that how having trustworthy players can prove to be decisive.