Manchester United laid down a marker on opening day, but can they win the Premier League under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer?

There was something about that fourth goal - the way the ball dropped to Bruno Fernandes from an old-school ping over the top, the way he thwacked it into the roof of the net - that felt so Manchester United.

Not the straining, sinewy United of the last decade but the one that dominated English football for two decades under Sir Alex Ferguson; the one that always seemed so brutal, so explosively direct.

A piercing long ball and a thumping half-volley: you can picture any one of Robin van Persie, Andy Cole, Teddy Sheringham, Wayne Rooney - and, of course, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer - scoring like that in front of the Stretford End.

The ‘United Way’

That’s not an accident. Solskjaer has consistently talked up the club’s DNA, an often spurious and shape-shifting word that in United’s case does (sort of) mean something: direct attacking football and goals scored through sheer force of will, waves of pressure, blunt-force trauma.

Two-and-a-half years into an often clumsy, sometimes formless tenure it looks as though Solskjaer has begun to channel some of that energy. The 5-1 victory over Leeds United on Saturday afternoon was a perfect team performance and yet, as the returning Old Trafford crowd roared through that flurry of second-half goals, it felt like more than just a big win. This felt like a coming-of-age moment.

It is premature to speak in grand narratives after the first game of the season, of course, and indeed there are notable caveats to temper the excitement. Leeds were a stereotype of a Marcelo Bielsa team. The exaggerated gaps in central midfield, the tired legs, the maddening forward rush that left defenders exposed; it was a seaside caricature.

Paul Pogba won’t often get that sort of space in which to swagger. The Leeds midfield emptied in pursuit of gut-busting breaks down the wings and whenever the ball was turned over, United countered through acres of open grass.

Solskjaer exposed Leeds midfield weakness

Pogba took full advantage, ghosting in on the blind side from the left wing to join Fernandes in the half-spaces in what was the game’s decisive tactical note.

A lot had been made in pre-season about Solskjaer’s expected shift to a 4-3-3 with Pogba and Fernandes operating as dual eights, but Solskjaer instead deployed his usual 4-2-3-1 - with a twist. Pogba barely spent any time on the left wing (a bit of a problem in the first half, when Luke Shaw looked exposed against Raphinha), instead weaving his magic in what became, at times, a four-on-one in the midfield battle.

Then again this was not so much a tactical victory for Man Utd as one of individual quality and flexing to entertain. In other words, it was the ‘United Way’ and a temporary vindication of Solskjaer’s methods.

For a long time Man Utd have been without a coherent plan to progress the ball or break down the opposition.

Can United win the Premier League under Solskjaer?

Solskjaer is a broad-strokes manager without the tactical detail of Pep Guardiola, Jurgen Klopp, or Thomas Tuchel.

He is unable to coach the automatisms that represent the frontier of elite coaching in the modern game, and it has always looked as though that deficiency would put a ceiling on his United project, preventing them from reaching 90+ points for lack of the intricate set-plays needed to pull apart deep defensive shells.

This might very well be the case. Beating Leeds, arguably the most open and inviting team in the Premier League, does nothing to answer that nagging question. They won the same fixture 6-2 last season, after all.

But football is as much about perception and momentum as it is tactics, and a resounding win on the opening day counts for more than a mid-season anomaly.

If the tactical sophistication is lacking, and if the plan is to revive the Fergie era with sheer individualism and force of character, then Man Utd will need huge reserves of self-confidence to power them through an exhausting nine-month campaign. They need a few 5-1s.

They clearly have the talent for it. Fernandes and Pogba were sensational, their link-up play frightening and instinctive, while the supporting movement of Mason Greenwood and later Jadon Sancho suggests there is enough intelligence in this forward line to do the hard work; to make us question if maybe all this coaching malarkey is overrated.

Now is not the time to get carried away

But again, this was a porous Leeds. A real measure of how optimistic fans can afford to be comes next weekend against a stubborn, compressed, and draining Southampton at St. Mary’s.

There were even some worrying signs in the first half against Leeds that familiar issues - sluggishness in midfield, ponderous possession - remain. Scott McTominay and Fred struggled to gain control of a ragged end-to-end game until the goals flew in.

Solskjaer is entering the defining year of his tenure. If he is to defy the odds and mount a title challenge then he will need performances like this, eight-minute three-goal blitzes like this, to become a habit rather than an exception. He will need his superstars to play in a bubble of self-importance, to buy wholeheartedly into the ‘this is Manchester United Football Club’ schtick.

Above all, he will need players like Pogba and Fernandes to channel Cole and Rooney and the rest of them, to swagger through matches and, when it comes down to it, forget about systems and just whack the ball into the back of the net.

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