Manchester United lost another opportunity to win a silverware as they were knocked out of the FA Cup by Leicester City this weekend. And according to pundit Gary Neville, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer should take a lot of blame for it.
The manager chose to make significant changes to his usual starting XI and this forced Man United to play some really poor football for the first 45 minutes. And by the time players like Fernandes and Luke Shaw came on, it was already too late.
Neville believes Solskjaer should have stuck with his usual players and by making such abrupt changes, Manchester United have lost a golden chance to catch up with Manchester City.
“Been a good week, not surprising they go to Milan and do what they did because they are good away from home,” he said on his Gary Neville podcast with Sky Sports, as per Daily Star.
“Beating West Ham last week, and then I’m surprised that the team has been rotated so much. I know he has been doing that, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, but this was a real chance. You think about the semi final draw that occurred at half time in that game, which meant the winner played Southampton.
“It’s not a gimme against Southampton in the semi final by any stretch of the imagination but what an opportunity. And I do believe that group of players need to win a trophy under Solskjaer.
“Yes, of course, finishing second would be the priority at the start of the season and winning a trophy will now be the priority with that, they only have the Europa League left but that was a real good one today.
“They have a decent record at Leicester and I was in the car listening to the game, get back from behind and think ‘here we go’ not surprised with United away from home — but then that second and third goes in and it’s a massive missed opportunity.
“I am demoralised a little bit tonight as a United fan because I do feel that was a really good one to go for this season. If you want to catch Manchester City, you’ve got to beat them. Got to beat them in the big game and a big competition. You can’t rely on other teams to stop them if you are the second best team in the country. If you have a half decent record against City, which United under Solskjaer have, then you’ve got to be the ones to stop them.”
Man United were really poor on Sunday and players like Van de Beek and Fred really did not help Solskjaer’s cause one bit. The manager looked awfully calm after the loss but deep down, even he knows that he will have to win a silverware pretty soon or else all this good brand of football will be worthless.
Manchester United are still alive in the Europa League but they will have to really sweat it out if they wish to win European glory. And to do that, while making sure they finish in the top-four of the Premier League table, could be a real uphill battle.
