Hornets pile the misery on United as

WATFORD 4

King (28), Sarr (44), Pedro (90+2) Dennis (90+5)

MANCHESTER UNITED 1

Van de Beek (50)

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer admitted he was “embarrassed” by Manchester United’s current run, but refused to be drawn on his future as the pressure mounted following a hammering away at Watford.

United travelled to Vicarage Road having lost four of their past six Premier League games before the international break and this heavy defeat only piled more misery on the beleaguered Norwegian.

Solskjaer, who revealed he went over to apologise to the travelling fans after the game, said: “I feel for the fans. I feel the same as them – we’re embarrassed by losing the way we do.

“We know we are in a very bad run and a bad situation, but that’s football and I know they’ll support whoever is on the pitch, and sometimes you’ve got to say sorry.”

The Hornets could have taken a sixth-minute lead, but Ismaila Sarr, who had to retake his first penalty after Kiko Femenia was ruled by VAR to have been in the box when fouled, had his second spot-kick saved by David De Gea.

But Josh King tapped home to give the home side a deserved lead in the 28th minute, before Sarr followed up with a low drive of his own just before the half-time break.

Despite substitute Donny van de Beek pulling one back with a header in the 50th minute, United were unable to find go the equaliser, with Joao Pedro and Emmanuel Dennis adding to the home side’s tally in stoppage time.

It was a poor performance from United, which was compounded when Harry Maguire was shown a red card with 21 minutes remaining.

Solskjaer shrugged off the inevitable speculation about his future, adding: “I’m working for and with the club and I’ve done that for 18 years.

“We’ve got a good communication and if the club were thinking about doing something that is between me and the club.

“The results are not good enough, we know that. We’ve gone 30 games unbeaten away from home and now we’ve lost two on the bounce and conceded four goals in both of them, so of course something’s wrong.”

United improved after the break as the rarely-used Van de Beek and Anthony Martial were thrown on at the interval, but Solskjaer admitted his side’s mentality had to be questioned.

“The first half was very, very poor. We need to get the players in a better frame of mind to start the game because in the second half when it seemed like they had nothing to lose, they played well,” he added.

“In the second half when we had nothing to lose they played fantastically and scored a good goal but of course it wasn’t enough.”

Watford manager Claudio Ranieri urged the United board to be calm and give Solskjaer time. He said: “I think he must be calm, also the chairman must be calm because football is up and down. I understand United can’t do up and down, but he must have time to build his actions as a team.”

The Italian added: “All my players played very well.

“I am also very happy with Sarr because after two penalty misses, he scored the goal and I think he is a little less sad today.”