Same Old United, Same Old Solskjaer

Same Old United, Same Old Solskjaer

Manchester United played out another disappointing performance on Saturday against Southampton, drawing the game 1-1 despite playing against a side with key injuries and playing 20 minutes of the game with 10 men.

It means United sit 8th in the table on 5 points, which after four very winnable games, serves as a bitter pill to swallow. The game against Southampton was typical of how United have been over the last few years, simply not good enough. You certainly wouldn’t put it past them to finish outside of the top 4 this season if you made a bet on sportsbetting24.

Marcus Rashford was missing throughout the game, and Paul Pogba’s first half was arguably his worst performance in a United shirt. Defender Victor Lindelof also once again showed signs of weakness, allowing Vestergaard to equalise after a tame attempt at defending a cross. But these poor performances were highlighted due to there not being much positivity to celebrate, besides Daniel James’ third goal of the season which was a great strike.


Once again, it was a case of United just not being good enough. They lack that certain spark in midfield that all top teams have, and in attack they looked bang average.

After the game, it was an all too familiar Solskjaer response. The Norwegian insisted United were the better team and deserved to win, with them making clear progression at heading in the right direction.

“The last three games, we deserved to win all three of them but that doesn’t give us any comfort on the table,” he said via the Mirror.

“But it does give us comfort that we’re doing the right things, we’re on the right track. With the players we’ve got here now, and what’s happening on the training ground, preparation before the games, every single thing is spot on.

“So that’s it and we’ll get the results we deserve in the end. [The players] can feel what they’re doing themselves, they can feel what they’re doing, they can feel [in] the last two games we’re a team that dominates games.

“Wolverhampton, we’re a team that dominates games. The Chelsea one, the first one is classic attacking football against a very good Chelsea side but the last three, we need to learn to win games like this and the boys want to learn how to win these games.

“I would have been really worried if we conceded chance after chance after chance. Palace had two last week, scored two. Southampton had one, well there was one instance in 10 seconds where they created two chances, the corner and the next cross. Those were the two chances we conceded.

“I would be very concerned if we kept on conceding chances and I can’t do much about the quality of the other teams because they’ve finished them off well.”

While it would be wrong of Ole to signal alarm bells this early in the season and show signs of discontent, it has to be said that many fans are starting to see just how incapable the team is nowadays.

What Solskjaer says about conceding goals is true, United have been unlucky with letting in goals during their opposition’s rare attacks. However, going forward, the Red Devils have failed to show any real ability other than in the Chelsea game. Former United defender Rio Ferdinand was quoted after the game saying how the team aren’t clinical enough under Ole, and it shows.

Solskjaer’s optimism at the end of games is beginning to fall on deaf ears now, whether it is his fault that the results have been poor or not. It is clear United as a team are the worst they have been in a long time, but it would be nice to see the manager recognise this by giving some of the younger, more hungry players a go,