Solskjær must get rid of Manchester United chintz or Ole years are doomed | Soccer

OAt the half-time, Lionel Messi did something terrible, but also very funny, for Phil Jones. Messi had spent the previous 45 minutes picking up the ball in half spaces and running a series of revenge rehearsals at Jones and Chris Smalling.

This time, Messi took the ball just past the center circle. He saw the space in front of him. He also saw Jones in front of him. While the United man was coming back on his way, there was a nutmeg so sweet that she was almost in love.

Camp Nou let out a roar. Jones jumped back, but could only watch as Messi snuck in the other direction, teasing him about how you could tease an adorable, adorable old family dog ​​with a paper cone on his head and a good eye.

Messi shot on goal, looking for a hat trick in the first half, but the ball hit David de Gea in the chest and squirted. Moments later, the halftime whistle sounded. United led 2-0 and already looked like a team that, for now, has come to the end of something.

It was that kind of night. At a noisy and windy Camp Nou, the United Champions League campaign and even the opening act of the Ole years revealed that he had no longer any distance to go.

It's probably for the better. The goodwill, the human qualities of United under Solskjær – the simple fact of not being José, the king of pain – gave United fans a warm memory to remember this season.

But even in their winning streak, United seemed unusually floating, like a fun and colorful flying machine made of nailed boards and pieces of old bike, riding the currents over the ravine.

There is no reason why Solskjær can not hope to generate this energy again. But if any moment captures the required work, the underlying structure of the structure beneath it may be the image here of Smalling and Jones captured in the pure white sheen of Messi's brilliance.

Smalling and Jones: as a defensive partnership, there have been good times. But he has also become a kind of clbadic gallows humor, a formidable double-man of the post-Fergie years.

Jones in particular has been strangely persistent, a legacy handed down from manager to manager, like a chipped mahogany sideboard that no one can get rid of. It may seem imposing, badured, powerful, uncontrollable, confused, euphoric, panicked – often at the same time.

Photo: Chesnot / Getty Images Europe

Here, Jones took the field optimistically dressed with a white-head bandage, preserved from the heroic center. At his side, United has set up a team composed of mixed and matched defensive games. Four of the last five have been brought to the club by Sir Alex Ferguson, who, despite all the nods and sighs, has been gone for a long time now.

The first goal came after 16 minutes. Young gave Messi the ball in the right position – probably the worst thing a footballer can do. From there, Messi did something much less terrible for Fred, chased him out of his way, then wrapped an elegant little shot of his left foot in the corner.

Four minutes later, it was two o'clock. This time, Jones faced Messi at the edge of the box and forced him to stay on his weaker foot. Unfortunately, United had the Spanish model De Gea in goal. He collapsed horribly on the balloon and watched him sink into the goal.

United was ready, rowing for the end with 70 minutes to play. The submarines have appeared: Romelu Lukaku, inefficient and disconcerting, and finally the black hole Alexis Sánchez, recipient of 35 million pounds sterling wages to date and a presence still strange at the edge of things , a suction energy and good vibrations to get out work in progress.

What is this team supposed to be anyway? What does Fred do? Does United try to flirt with a team of hungry local talent or has he become a half-cooked superstar, China's Premier League, a home of convalescence for golden stars spoiled by their own wages?

Watching all this, Ed Woodward must surely feel some embarrbadment at the fruits of his work. Look at my works, you mighty and … well, scratch your head and look confused.

The structure around him has failed. A man distracted by other tasks, plus a series of big-ego managers at work do not make for a consistent football club.

Someone must take a scalpel to all of this. Without the will and the means to rebuild this team and put a brake on the losses of recent years, a quarterfinal of the Champions League could become the highlight of the Ole years.

It's time to restart, but this time, the time is right to get out of the chintz. Solskjaer can definitely see it, just like United fans. The question is whether anyone above him in this great leadership void does not want to do anything about it.