Ole Gunnar Solskjaer Targets Top 4 and Trophy for Manchester United Next Season

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is already setting targets for next season for Manchester United, although challenging for the Premier League title is unlikely to be one of them.

Instead, Solskjaer is expecting his team to fight for a spot in the Premier League's top four and book a return to the UEFA Champions League. Additionally, Solskjaer expects a trophy:

The United boss spoke after watching his team lose 2-0 at home to already-relegated Cardiff City at Old Trafford on the season's final day. Defeat left the Red Devils sixth and a humbling 32 points behind champions Manchester City.

Solskjaer doesn't sound confident United will be able to make up that gap anytime soon:

It must be disappointing for United fans to hear the manager doubt his team's ability to challenge for the title next season before the current one has barely been consigned to history. The negative spin on United's prospects is part of a growing trend in Solskjaer's remarks.

He was effusive in his praise for what he inherited after taking over following Jose Mourinho's sacking back in December. Yet the sentiment has changed as defeats have mounted:

This double standard is somewhat understandable given how the fast start United made to life under Solskjaer has since reverted to the kind of dismal form common during the Mourinho era.

Similarities like those help explain why United have finished so far behind familiar rivals.

Seeing neighbours City retain the league crown, a fourth league title overall and third since United last won the prize back in 2013, must sting. Yet there are other telltale signs of United's regression.

It also won't be easy to see Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur contest the UEFA Champions League final in Madrid on Saturday, June 1. Two days prior, Arsenal and Chelsea will face off for the UEFA Europa League trophy in Baku.

United's absence from the trophy picture is telling, and Solskjaer is right to make winning silverware a priority next season. It didn't always work for Mourinho, who captured the Europa League and EFL Cup in 2017, before reaching the FA Cup final in 2018.

However, those accomplishments couldn't overshadow consistently stale performances in the league. Making United a force on both fronts eluded Mourinho, despite big money being spent on a host of underperforming stars.

Dave Thompson/Associated Press

Solskjaer is now left to sift through the mess, making some difficult decisions inevitable this summer. One of them will involve Paul Pogba, signed for a then-world-record fee by Mourinho in 2016.

The midfielder is a target for Real Madrid, according to Chris Wheeler of the Daily Mail. Fetching a fortune for Pogba would help fund a necessary rebuild of a disjointed strike force and a defence lacking composure and athleticism.

Yet selling Pogba would also remove one of the few creative match-winners at Solskjaer's disposal. Juggling all of the problems and their possible solutions merely underlines the task ahead of Solskjaer.

It's a challenge Cardiff manager Neil Warnock was blunt after seeing the Bluebirds brush aside the disappointing hosts:

Given the work ahead of him, Solskjaer is right to set modest targets for now, even though many supporters are unlikely to welcome his diminished expectations. United need to afford the man in the dugout patience, though, for what looks set to be a protracted period of rebuilding.