Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer faces fresh scrutiny and pressure after Manchester City provided their latest Old Trafford humbling.
A fortnight on from the embarrassing 5-0 home humiliation at the hands of rivals Liverpool, the Red Devils fell to another one-sided defeat as they returned to the scene of the crime for the 186th Manchester derby. Pep Guardiola’s men cruised to a victory far more comfortable than the 2-0 scoreline suggested, but Eric Bailly’s own goal and a preventable Bernardo Silva effort was enough to ease past United.
Solskjaer had called the loss to Liverpool the darkest day of his near three-year reign and the manner of this loss to their neighbours will lead to renewed pressure during the international break. Roy Keane said he felt “sorry” for Manchester United’s players and questioned whether they had the personality to play for the club after they were beaten 2-0 by rivals Manchester City.
Speaking on Sky Sports after the match, former United captain Keane said Solskjaer must take “responsibility” for the defeat, while also launching a scathing attack on the United players for their performance.
“I’d like to go in hard on the United players but today I’m feeling sorry for them. I think some of them aren’t up to playing for Manchester United, particularly at home.
“This team doesn’t fight. I wouldn’t say they threw the towel in because that’s tough to square at any team, but they don’t have that desire and fight to stay in there.
“This team doesn’t have personality. There’s only one yellow card today, for Ronaldo. I’m not saying go and get seven or eight, because that doesn’t win you matches, but it is a derby game. You have to show some emotion.
“After watching them today, I understand why fans would want to leave after an hour.” ‘I’d like to go hard on them but today I just feel sorry for them, they don’t have what it takes to play for Manchester United’ Pep Guardiola, speaking to Sky Sports after his side beat Manchester United 2-0 at Old Trafford.
“I am so demanding, we are so demanding for ourselves but I am very pleased. This is the game we needed. They [Manchester United] are so dangerous. That is why we had a game with a lot of control. If you let them run at Old Trafford it is a little bit like Anfield. They are built for that."
"We played the game we needed today. You have to play quick, to move the ball and do the touches every player need but also try to put the ball in the pocket. The game was 2-0 and everything was comfortable"
“Right now Chelsea are unstoppable. We know we cannot drop much points to be close to them but against the big six we performed well.
"The most important thing is we came to Old Trafford and can say these guys played good. This is what I am happy the most after six years here. We tried to play our game."
Solskjaer added that his United side look a long way off Manchester City and being able to challenge for the Premier League title.
“At the moment we are but we have to get back to how we started to look like,” he added.
“We started to look like a proper team towards the end of last season and the start of this season. We have to get back to that.
“When they got the first goal, it was always going to be difficult anyway but being 1-0 down was hard. David kept us in the game with some god stops then they scored a goal they always score.
“They played well, they don’t give you opportunities to win the ball off them. We were not at our level or standards.
“We didn’t trust ourselves with the all, we didn’t pass as well as I know they can do and we didn’t find the angles. Sometimes that’s also the team you are playing against>” Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has come out firing after his side’s latest home defeat, and is looking ahead to the fixture against Watford that follows the international break.
“I have good communication with the club all the time which is up front and honest. I work for Man United, I want the best for Man United. As long as I am here I want to improve this,” he adds. Mark Critchley reports on a United approach which backfired in another damaging derby defeat, and one which piles the pressure on Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
“If Solskjaer’s tenure began as a glorious, nostalgia-fuelled throwback to 1999, the flux capacitor is now busted. The eight league and cup defeats at Old Trafford this calendar year is the most they suffered since 1989. United have now not kept a clean sheet at home for 14 games, their longest run since 1959. A club enamoured by its own history is repeating it, only in all the wrong ways.”
Credit: Independent.co.uk
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