Matic: Solskjaer deserved more time after United sacking

Nemanja Matic says Ole Gunnar Solskjaer didn't deserve to be sacked by Manchester United, arguing the club had been moving in the right direction before the decision in November 2021. The former United midfielder, who played under four managers at Old Trafford—Jose Mourinho, Solskjaer, Michael Carrick and Ralf Rangnick—reflected on his time with the club and suggested Solskjaer was beginning to implement a plan that could have delivered long-term improvements.

"We finished second and third under him," Matic told FourFourTwo. "There was an atmosphere in the team that we weren't happy finishing second, but when you see the results now, we did amazingly." He added: "I think Ole deserved more time - and when I say Ole, I also want to mention his staff, like Michael Carrick and Kieran McKenna. They were going the right way to bring United back." He also said: "Of course, they made the decision to sack Ole based on his final couple of results, but he was an amazing person with the right profile for the club. He and his assistants understood football - training was perfect and had every little detail ready for us." "I felt sorry because Ole was a great guy and we were on the way to doing something big. I wasn't his first choice in the midfield and never liked a coach when I didn't play - I'd fight with them. But Ole was the first coach I didn't fight with. He brought the players who weren't in the starting XI together. He knew the club and the fans loved him."

Solskjaer was sacked in November 2021 after a seven-game Premier League winless run, including a demoralising 5-0 defeat at home to Liverpool. Matic's reflections come as United have struggled to sustain the progress he associates with Solskjaer’s early years in charge. Under Solskjaer, United finished third in the 2019-20 season and runner-up in 2020-21, and they reached the Europa League final in May 2021.

Since Solskjaer's departure, United have not matched his highest league finish, with sixth in 2021-22, third in 2022-23, eighth in 2023-24 and 15th in the 2024-25 campaign. The former midfielder said the staff around Solskjaer—Carrick and Kieran McKenna among them—were integral to the approach he believed could have delivered long-term gains for the club.

Matic's remarks were shared in conversations with FourFourTwo and have been echoed in reporting surrounding United’s managerial era since Solskjaer, a figure both lauded by fans and scrutinized by rivals. There was no immediate public response from Manchester United to requests for comment at the time of publication.