JUST NOT GOOD ENOUGH
Pressure piling on Ole as woeful Reds beaten
OLE Gunnar Solskjaer insists United are working to reinforce their squad before transfer deadline day next week amid an ongoing clear-out.
The Reds suffered their eighth Premier League defeat of the campaign in a 2-0 home defeat to Burnley – who won at Old Trafford for the first time since 1962 – and are just four points off 14th place.
Marcus Rashford is sidelined for two months with a double stress fracture to the back and United are without Scott McTominay (knee) and Paul Pogba (ankle) until mid-February at the earliest. United players have been told the club is trying to sign a midfielder and a striker before the January 31 deadline.
The Reds are interested in Birmingham City’s 16-year-old midfielder Jude Bellingham and Sporting Lisbon captain Bruno Fernandes.
“That’s the thing with football – it’s dynamic,” Solskjaer said. “It’s always players who can surprise you, in a good and in a bad way. So it’s up to the players to understand we’re representing and are privileged to represent the biggest and best club in the world.
“And it’s a duty every single day, on and off the pitch. So I can’t really give another answer other than it’s an ongoing thing.
“We are working to improve and get players in. I think everybody can see these players are being stretched and I’ve got absolutely no complaints on any of them because they give absolutely everything they’ve got.
“I’m responsible for what’s happening on the pitch and, of course, we’re looking to strengthen. We know we have to strengthen, and we took that decision that some of these players, we let them go, because we needed to start afresh with a clear sight on target in front of us and that means a certain type of player in the squad.
“We are looking to improve, we have got our targets. This is our second defeat at home and first since August. I thought we had turned that corner.
“We have started a clear-out and now I am going to be answering these questions until it [transfer window] closes. We are working on things.”
Chris Wood and Jay Rodriguez struck either side of half-time to inflict a second successive loss on United. Solskjaer took full responsibility. He said: “I’m in charge of [the players], so it’s down to me to get these boys going.
“It’s a difficult period, a hard period for them, 10 or 12 games some of them have had. Brandon [Williams] has been
fantastic, Aaron [Wan-Bissaka] has been fantastic, we expect a lot from them, because they’ve got the potential.
“There are players we do have, leaders who pull their finger out, but there’s no point pointing out others. We as a group, collectively, didn’t perform well enough and they deserved to win.
“I can’t do anything but hold my hands up and say that’s not good enough for Man United. But that’s where we’re at at the moment, it’s not like we’ve got players to play and rotate.”