Ole Gunnar Solskjaer needs to stop talking about Jurgen Klopp

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Ole Gunnar Solskjaer must stop talking about Jurgen Klopp – something he did on Friday. It wasn’t for the first time.

“Jurgen [Klopp] spent four years building his team and they’re doing well now,” said Solskjaer when talking of his Manchester United record (per the BBC).

“It’s not going be a quick fix.”

And that comes just a few days after this:

“[Klopp] did a rebuilding job and he started almost from scratch,” Solskjaer told United’s official site. “We’ve started something, we want to get back to challenging for the league. They are now challenging for the league, so well done.”

Solskjaer really needs to stop talking about Klopp like this – their situations aren’t comparable. In fact, he’s really doing Klopp a disservice by talking like that.

It undervalues Klopp’s work and makes it sound as though he ever went through a period like Solskjaer’s current one. For one thing, Solskjaer has already lost more Premier League games than Klopp has. Even if Klopp had time, the year-on-year improvements were always clear.

And these are two managers who didn’t have the same starting point, let alone the same starts. Klopp arrived as a Bundesliga-winning coach who had successfully rebuilt two German sides.

Solskjaer has absolutely nothing approaching those credentials. He appears to mainly have backing because he scored a winner in a Champions League final back in 1999.

Regardless, Klopp showed improvement in his very first season. It wasn’t even a full campaign for him but he led Liverpool to two cup finals. He lost both, sure, but making those finals was undoubtedly progress. Liverpool weren’t ‘back’ but they were heading in the right direction.

His first full season saw the Reds qualify for the Champions League again. This was without spending a world-record fee on a defender, a luxury Solskjaer did have.

The next season, a Champions League final. The year after that, Champions of Europe and 2nd place. Now Liverpool are coasting to the title.

So Solskjaer needs to stop comparing himself or his situation to Klopp. The Liverpool boss wasn’t awarded time for the sake of it. He consistently showed progress and direction, moving the club towards success year after year.