We’re about to find out what Solskjaer has really changed at Manchester United

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has started well at Manchester United, but faces his first real test on Sunday, against the man who is favorite to replace him.

If Mauricio Pochettino were in a mischievous mood this weekend, he’d slip one line into his pre-match team talk with a smirk: “Lads, it’s Man United.” The Argentinian is an avid follower of Sir Alex Ferguson, after all. He’ll have heard about the time the legendary Scot once sparked his United players into life by reminding them of their superiority over Spurs. Since then, however, the dynamic between the two clubs has flipped.

Indeed, while Manchester United are scrambling to save their season, still slumped in sixth place in the Premier League table despite a four-game winning streak since the sacking of Jose Mourinho, Spurs are peripheral challengers to Liverpool and Manchester City for the title. Nobody says “lads, it’s Spurs” anymore.

It certainly wouldn’t be Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s style to say something quite so arrogant ahead of Sunday’s game. It’s just not in the Norwegian’s manner. But as interim United manager until the end of the season, he has been installed to restore some of the swagger that has been lost from the club’s stride in recent years. Some arrogance might do his side good.

Sunday’s trip to Wembley to face Pochettino’s Spurs presents Solskjaer’s first real test as United boss. Until now, his induction into life in the Old Trafford hot seat has been a somewhat forgiving one, with the Red Devils yet to face a team in the top half of the table since Mourinho’s exit. This weekend will be a step up in everything: opposition, environment, pressure.

We’ll all learn something about Solskjaer this weekend. The Norwegian’s time at Cardiff was never a true gauge of his ability as a manager, but nonetheless he ended up tossed on to the English soccer managerial scrapheap. Through unique circumstances, Solskjaer has been given another chance to prove himself at the top level, but his capacity for such a standard is still unknown.

In some ways, Solskjaer has restored United. Or at least, he’s restored a semblance of their former identity. Their attacking players look liberated, although it’s not clear how much of that is down to Solskjaer’s appointment and how much is down to Mourinho’s sacking. Whatever it is, it’s certainly true that United now look to be a team aligned with the fabled “United Way” — a philosophy that demands fast and furious, attacking soccer.

Both managers on the touchline at Wembley this weekend will be faced with a vision of what might be, what could become. Pochettino remains the favorite to be handed the United job on a permanent basis this summer. He’s believed to be Ed Woodward’s top target and so far the Spurs boss has refused to refute speculation linking him with Old Trafford.

But for Solskjaer too, Sunday’s game presents him with a sliding doors moment. Victory over a team as good as Spurs would give the Norwegian a platform, not just on which to build United’s top four challenge, but his own claim for the job. A handful of big results against big teams, like Spurs, a top four finish and a cup run could be enough to force the United board’s hand.

Spurs are, in many ways, the team United want to be. They’re dynamic, exciting to watch, largely homegrown and, of course, successful. Pochettino is also the manager United, as things stand, want as their own. For years, decades, Spurs looked up to the Old Trafford outfit. Now, it’s the other way round.

Solskjaer probably won’t deride Spurs in his team talk, as Ferguson famously did all those years ago, but he might just remind his men of what is expected of them as United players, of their standing over their north London opponents. “Lads, we’re Man United.”