sport news Ole Gunnar Solskjaer tears into his Manchester United squad

View
comments

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer spent a full six seconds deliberating how best to answer whether these Manchester United players care enough.

'I don't know,' he replied with a resigned puff of the cheeks and shake of the head. 'I don't know. You've got to ask them. I've asked them.

'You're not going to get the answer from me but if you want to play for this club, it has to mean more.'

Solskjaer visibly shrunk in his chair after one of United's worst days of their continued malaise since Sir Alex Ferguson's retirement. Even one of the Premier League's brightest, openly-optimistic managers refused to offer any sort of positivity.

The Norwegian — who has now lost six of his last eight matches — said sorry to the club's travelling fans at full-time, walking over to salute their unwavering support, and followed that up with a formal apology.

'We have got to apologise to the fans because they were absolutely fantastic,' he said. 'That performance is not good enough for a Manchester United team, from me down to players.

'We let the fans down, we let the club down. That performance is difficult to describe because it was so bad.'

The 48 league goals United have now conceded is the most of any season in 40 years and, more gallingly for Solskjaer, his players are being out-run and out-fought.

Everton ran 8.03 kilometres further than their visitors at Goodison Park and United have covered less ground than 15 of their 17 league opponents under Solskjaer.