Man United are unlikely to beat the likes of Manchester City and Liverpool to the Premier League title this season, simply cause Solskjaer’s side do not have that ‘champions mentality’ just yet.
According to Gary Neville, both Man City and Liverpool have the winning aura and belief amongst the first-team players which turns out to be a key factor during many crunch matches. And until Ole’s men can generate that kind of self-belief, Neville does not see them surpassing two of their biggest rivals.
“I think it’s a disappointment over the three games – Liverpool, Sheffield United and Arsenal – the fact that there’s two points out of those three matches,” he told Sky Sports.
“The Liverpool and Arsenal games they were there for the taking and I had this debate, I saw Roy [Keane] and Jamie [Carragher]’s piece last night, why didn’t you show more belief?
“They haven’t got it yet. They haven’t got the mentality of a champion team. It’s difficult to have that from being eight weeks ago thinking the manager’s in trouble after the defeat to RB Leipzig and going out of the Champions League, to all of a sudden eight weeks later transferring that mindset to ‘we’re a champion team’.
“They’re not like Liverpool. They haven’t won the title with all those players. They’re not like Manchester City, they haven’t got titles in the bank. They haven’t got that experience to be able to draw upon.
“I get the bit where you would say ‘okay, you’re there, go for it, take it, it’s a strange season’, but they just haven’t got it.
“We didn’t think that 10 weeks ago, we didn’t think it 10 days ago. When we’re seeing them in games not quite going for it it’s disappointing, and I share that disappointment but it’s not surprising.
“It’s not surprising to any of us because we didn’t think they could do it, so when they don’t do it, let’s not be shocked.
“It’s just disappointing that they’re not quite there yet, but I accept it that they’re not quite there. I wanted at the start of the season as a Manchester United fan for them to get close to Liverpool and City.
“If you could say to me in another two to three months they’d be sat between Liverpool and City I’d be absolutely delighted, because that is big progression.”
We can’t help but agree with Neville on this since no one really expected the Man United side to perform so brilliantly after they had been knocked out of the Champions League in December.
But we think Solskjaer’s side have run out of steam in this season’s Premier League title challenge whereas both Liverpool and Man City still have one more gear-shift left in them.
And this final push is exactly what the Sky Sports pundit is talking about. Something which only comes from a true champion side.
We fear that Man United might slump to a few more defeats in the coming months which, if happens, will certainly end their surprise title challenge this season.
