10:55 A.M. ET
Rob DawsonCorrespondent
LIVERPHOUL, England — It takes more than one victory in Everton to prove that Ole Gunnar Solski from before World War I is still the man who can revive Manchester United, but for now the bleeding will stop.
After reaching his usual press conference on Friday, Solskjær, who was under pressure after defeating Arsenal and Istanbul Basaksehir this week, won a well-deserved 3-1 in Goodison Park, giving him at least more time to back up his words with results.
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For the most pessimistic United fans it will be yet another indication of an already known cycle. Good games, then bad games and vice versa. Last but not least, Solskjaer has developed an incredible ability to achieve results when he needs them the most. He owes it to Bruno Fernandez, who scored twice in the first half after Bernard Everton set up the first Premier League game.
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It was Fernandez who took responsibility for following the instructions after a smooth opening and then took responsibility for repairing the ball; first with a powerful header from Luke Shaw in a box and then a shivering cross behind Markus Rashford in the back corner. In the final minutes he fought back into his penalty area against Abdulai Dukur on the far post to prevent Everton from levelling, then attacked the field to allow Edinson Kavani to score the first goal to challenge the game.
Solskiyar, who said his team was doomed to fail after being invited for lunch on Saturday after a long journey from Turkey, needs more players like him if he wants to end the whirlwind of speculation about his position and make the team a real contender for the Championship.
Bruno is the leader, Solskier said after the last whistle. The number of requests and reactions was high from all sides. I am very happy with the reaction to the week, the naked and impossible hour to start.
Fault! The file name is not specified. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, manager of Manchester United, escaped defeat in three games in one week and won Everton. Getty
When the mood at Old Trafford at least improved, Solskjaer had to score the three points he desperately needed after injuries to Shaw, Rashford and Victor Lindelof.
This doesn’t look good, Solskier said. Any injury, if serious, is not worth points, but the boys don’t give anyone a chance to subtract three points. They were so determined.
Whether the fans of United Solskier want to see or not, there may not be much to discuss whether the players are behind him.
The strange form is that the victory over Everton means that the club has a record of seven victories in the Premier League in 1993, while a defeat would have meant the lowest score after seven games in the high season, starting in the 1989-90 season. Everton did not help by defending in a way that made it easy to understand why, after seven club records in 1958, they had missed more than one goal in five consecutive top-flight home games for the first time, but Solskjaer also became a champion in the fight against rotting.
After a wretched defeat in Newcastle a year ago, United won the next three games just minutes after beating Liverpool. Sheffield United and Aston Villa were followed by surprising victories over Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester City. Two defeats four days before Liverpool and Bernley gave Solskier a glimpse of the beginning of the end in January before the undefeated run with 19 players in all leagues began. His life isn’t over yet, and this time it’s Everton after Arsenal and Istanbul Basaksehir. This is Schrödinger’s United Company, which is able to achieve both surprising and unsurprising results.
After the international break, Solskier’s team will be next in the battle against West Brome at Old Trafford, but you’ll find very few fans who can predict the outcome with any confidence. They don’t know what to expect from week to week, and the only thing that has been consistent during the 23 months that Solsker has been in power is his regular request for a term of office.
We want more consistency, Mr. Solskier said. We want to push, run and climb the table. My job is to make sure that the guard gets up every time and that we don’t think it will be easy. It was an extraordinary achievement after a difficult week.
Everyone wonders whether he is behind the kind of income that Solskjaer has already collected or whether he will have answered more questions about his work next month. U.S. Executive Vice President Ed Woodward, who sits just above the bench, can at least express a sigh of relief in the coming weeks, knowing that his next big decision can wait and that Mauricio Poccetino can no longer be on the phone. Perhaps over time this result will turn out to be the game that marked the beginning of the end of the pipeline calls. Or maybe not.
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