Pressure On Solskjaer Grows
London: It was a disappointing return from the international break for Manchester United, who fell to 4-2 to Leicester City in the Premier League on Saturday.
This defeat means that the Red Devils have lost three, drawn one and won one of their past five, with the sole victory against Villarreal despite a poor performance. As such, pressure is mounting on Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
The coach has long had his critics at Old Trafford, but there is extra pressure on Solskjaer this season given the talented squad the club have assembled, having signed Jadon Sancho, Cristiano Ronaldo and Raphael Varane.
Many believe that another coach could do better with this group of players and it could be time for a change, given that Solskjaer has been in charge since December of 2018 and has failed to win a trophy so far.
The Norwegian has been backed in the media by several of his former Manchester United teammates, but that support won’t last forever.
Gary Neville discussed the coach’s position and gave his reasoning for why Solskjaer hasn’t yet been sacked by Manchester United.
“If Ole had been the manager in the post Sir Alex Ferguson slip stream he’d be gone by now,” Neville said on Sky Sports.
“But because of those bad experiences that United have had through getting rid of managers after a year, two years, eight months, they’re going to live with him and believe in the project for a longer period.
“I think probably it’s the right way to go because they’ve had bad experiences through changing managers. It costs more money sometimes to change.”
For the time being, then, Solskjaer remains in his post. But, patience is wearing thin and results need to follow soon.
After the loss, he has told his players they need to “look themselves in the mirror” after Manchester United’s horror run of form continued.
Turn things around
The Norwegian urged his squad to turn things around quickly when Atalanta visit Old Trafford in the Champions League on Wednesday.
“We all need to do better, we have to do better,” Solskjaer told a news conference.
“Every game in the Premier League and Champions League, they’re big games, all of them. Leicester is just as big a game as Atalanta. “We’ve got to dust ourselves off and make sure we come in again and look ourselves in the mirror. That’s the nature of football, you’ve got to respond to setbacks.”
Despite goals from Mason Greenwood and the returning Marcus Rashford, United were undone by a calamitous defensive display which saw Solskjaer’s team concede from a sloppy mistake from Harry Maguire, twice from set-pieces and once just 54 seconds after equalising to make it 2-2.
Afterwards Solskjaer was forced to defend his selection of Maguire, who was only able to return to training on Friday morning after three weeks out with a calf injury.
“It was my decision to play Harry,” he said. “He’s worked really hard on the rehab and he looked ready. He didn’t feel any after-effects after training.
“He’s a big, massive player for us, the captain, the leader. We want to bring him back as soon as we can because he’s been so influential in our play.
“We didn’t defend well enough and all of the goals were disappointing in how we conceded them.”