How do Manchester United go about turning around their current predicament? While the mood around the club was immediately lifted when Ole Gunnar Solskjaer arrived last December, it has slowly been dipping over the past few months.
Doubts have emerged about Solskjaer's credentials to lead the club in the long term, and many of the problems that plagued the tail end of the Jose Mourinho have now resurfaced.
So what does Solskjaer need to do to get the best out of this faltering group of players? According to former United captain Wayne Rooney, the Norwegian manager needs his players to fear him in order to turn their fortunes around (h/t ITV):
It's a tough one because to watch Manchester United struggle is always tough.
When Ole came in, he did a fantastic job and you could see the players were given that bit of freedom and you could see they loved it and they earned the right to win game with how they were playing.
But then all of a sudden, I don't know whether it's players being linked to other teams or players down tooling... I don't think it is that but for some reason they just didn't perform the last seven, eight games of the season, which has cost them."
I think the players need to fear someone.
They need to fear Ole Gunnar, they need to fear Michael Carrick - they need to respect them but fear them also.
This answer is definitely a throwback to the Alex Ferguson era at United. The Scot ruled the dressing room with an iron fist during his time at Old Trafford, and his players certainly did fear their manager.
The game has moved on somewhat since then however. Some of the most successful managers in the game have a much more welcoming persona now, and ruling via fear doesn't work all that well in the modern game. Just ask Jose Mourinho.
If United are to make up some ground on other clubs in the Premier League, attempting to return to certain aspects of the Ferguson era may not be the best way to do.
