After sacking Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Manchester United are considering candidates to take charge of the team, including Zinedine Zidane and Mauricio Pochettino, per multiple reports. However, other names such as Erik ten Hag, Luis Enrique and Brendan Rodgers have been thrown in the table.
Solskjaer, who last month celebrated his three-year anniversary as United manager, lost his job after Saturday’s 4-1 defeat against Watford. He left the club after a run of five defeats in seven Premier League matches, leaving them in eighth place in the table and 12 points behind leaders Chelsea.
For now, Michael Carrick, who was part of Solskjaer’s coaching staff, will take charge of Tuesday’s Champions League match against Villarreal and will likely continue until someone else is found. The club doesn’t have a specific timeframe for the task, per reports.
Pochettino and Zidane, two main candidates for Manchester United
Per Sky Sports, PSG coach Mauricio Pochettino is the main candidate for the job. While the Argentinian, who United considered in 2019 when he was free agent, isn’t keen to leave Paris mid-season but it could be an option for next summer. According to the reports, he has never played down his interest in United.
On the other hand, Zinedine Zidane is also a strong option for United. However it’s unclear if the Frenchman, with a better CV than Pochettino with three consecutive Champions League titles and two La Liga titles with Real Madrid, has an interest in working in England. For now, he has only stated that he would only work with France or PSG.
Meanwhile, regarding the other candidates, Luis Enrique already talked about the possibility on Sunday with TV channel La Sexta. “Is it Día de los Inocentes [Spain’s April Fool’s Day]?” he said. “I’m at the biggest team in Spain: the selección. There are 5,000 players, I have all the players I could wish for. Bigger than that, what is there?,” he added. While Ten Hag, with a renewed contract with Ajax, and Rodgers, who is with Leicester City, also seem unclear options for now.
