Why new-look Manchester United must get up to their old tricks in Champions League decider at Leicester

You could say it’s handy for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer that in the same week as Manchester United’s most important game of the season, his predecessor gave him the blueprint on how to beat Leicester City.

United only need a point at the King Power on Sunday in order to secure a top-four finish and qualify for the Champions League, thanks in no small part to Leicester’s 3-0 defeat at the hands of Jose Mourinho last Sunday.

After the final whistle, the Tottenham manager was asked about the game plan which had allowed his side to take a three-goal lead and effectively kill off the contest within just 40 minutes. He was refreshingly candid with his answers.

“We decided to take away from them where they can hurt us, which is basically behind us,” Mourinho said.

“We took away from them our defensive depth by making our defensive block a little bit lower than we normally do. Then we gave the ball to them, to their back three because we wanted them to bring the ball and we wanted them to feel quite comfortable leaving their comfort zone, which is where they are not playing many matches.”

This was classic Mourinho: playing cautiously in a low block, luring the opponent into a false sense of security, then exposing the space they leave in behind to strike back with devastating effect. And if you ask Mourinho’s predecessor at United, he might say it’s also classic Solskjaer.

Just days before the Norwegian’s permanent appointment as United manager, while practically everyone at Old Trafford would say they were in thrall with the fast, front-foot style that he had restored, Louis van Gaal told BBC Sport: “People think we have only had fake news since Donald Trump became president. In football we have had it for 50 years.

“The coach after me [Mourinho] changed to park-the-bus tactics and played on the counter. Now there is another coach who parks the bus and plays on the counter. The main difference between Mourinho and Solskjaer is that Solskjaer is winning,” he claimed. “The way Manchester United are playing now is not the way Ferguson played. It is defensive, counter-attacking football.”

Van Gaal was right, certainly when it came to the signature wins of Solskjaer’s caretaker spell.

Beating Tottenham, Arsenal, Chelsea and Paris Saint-Germain all away from home required United to sit deep, soak up pressure and then counter-attack. Their average possession over those four games was 34%.

This quickly became a problem once opponents learned to let Solskjaer’s players have the ball. United had the majority of the possession in eight of the 12 games between that night in Paris and the end of the season. They won only one of them.

The problem persisted at the start of this season – United had won just four league games by December – and it lasted right up until the arrival of a risk-taking, adventurous creative midfielder in the form of Bruno Fernandes, which coincided with a resurgence in form.

One of the four early wins was against Leicester at Old Trafford. United took the lead through an early Marcus Rashford penalty and – other than a few moves on the break and set-pieces – that was the full extent of their attacking ambition. Leicester left Manchester having dominated the ball and with plaudits for their performance but they had played right into United’s hands, with Jamie Vardy having little space to break into.

That was a version of Solskjaer’s United we have rarely seen in the post-Fernandes era. Now, they tend to defend higher up the pitch and happily dominate possession knowing they have at least one player – and usually another, in Paul Pogba – who can create something with it. Some of their biggest wins of the restart have come with big shares of the ball. If you asked Van Gaal for his opinion on Solskjaer now, he would be hard pressed to say it is purely “defensive, counter-attacking” football.

Maybe this Sunday is a special case, though. When asked earlier this week whether he adapts his tactics to suit the opponent, Solskjaer said: “We stick to our principles and we want to play the way we want to play.

“We’ve had two solid formations. It’s still the same style that we want to play and when we think about the next game, its 90-10 ourselves but you have to pay respect to any opposition... For me I always pay respect ot the opposition but the majority of my thinking is of course how we’re going to play and stick to our style.”

But just as Mourinho demonstrated last Sunday, and as Solskjaer showed all the way back in September, every team to beat Leicester in the second half of this season bar Manchester City has let them dominate the ball. For United to have the best chance of confirming their place in next season’s Champions League on Sunday, they may need to get up to their old tricks.