Can he? He was awful for Cardiff by most accounts. He’s a club legend (a bit loose of an interpretation) but what managerial record shows he can cut it for a club that big?
He’s only there because he’s a club great and a club legend wanted him. Heck, he’s so deferential to SAF he wants to leave him a parking space. He wanted him to give the pregame talk. Those players won’t respond to that. The only people who will are the supporters and they won’t care if he can’t win.
His honeymoon was great. But now the rubber will meet the road, and I’m not sure he’s the one I would want to try and overhaul that club.
He got the caretaker job largely because of his past with the club, yes. He got the permanent job because United were on a run of form that had them beat two other top 6 clubs away in the FA cup, beat Spurs away in the league, advance past PSG in the CL (on a undeserved pen or not, they still did it), and during that stretch that lasted just over 1/3 of the season they had the most points in the league.
Will moving him from interim to full time end up being the right decision? We’ll see.
Him getting players for his system and having an actual training camp to get them into the tactics properly and in proper shape to sprint like he wants them will give a really good idea of that.