Ole Gunnar Solskjaer called Manchester United's 5-0 thrashing by Liverpool his "darkest day" as manager of the club, but with his job under pressure, remained adamant his squad are close to success.
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Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer admitted that his team’s 5-0 thrashing in a Premier League encounter against Liverpool on Sunday, marked his “darkest day” as manager of the club. However, Solskjaer remained adamant that his squad is close to success, despite his job being under pressure. It has been a dismal recent run of results in the Premier League for United. Sunday’s defeat left them winless in four top-flight matches.
“It’s not easy to say something, apart from it’s the darkest day I’ve had leading these players. We weren’t good enough individually or as a team. You can’t give a team like Liverpool those chances and unfortunately, we did. The whole performance wasn’t good enough, that’s for sure. We have created openings, they have had chances, they have been clinical and we did not take our chances early on. Then the third goal is the one that decided the game. It’s mine [responsibly for the loss] – that’s it. The coaching staff are brilliant and I choose the way we approach the game and today, we weren’t clinical enough going forward. There were spaces for both teams and when you give good players spaces, they score,” said Solskjaer in an interaction with Sky Sports.
“You can look back at last season when we lost 6-1 to Spurs – this is miles worse. The opposition as well, that makes it miles worse for me as a Manchester lad and we have to get over this as quick as we can and move on,” he added.
Sunday’s 5-0 loss was Manchester United’s third-largest home defeat in the Premier League. However, Solskjaer continues to believe that he is the right man to lead the team.
“We’ve come too far as a group and we’re too close to give up now. I’ve heard nothing else [about a potential departure], and I’m still thinking about tomorrow’s work, of course. We’re all low. I can’t say now that I’ve felt any worse than this. This is the lowest I’ve been. But as I’ve said, I accept the responsibility, and that is mine today. It’s mine going forward. I do believe in myself, I do believe that I am getting close to what I want with the club, I think what we’ve done, what I’ve seen, the development, of course, the results lately haven’t been good enough. But I’ve got to keep strong and I do believe in what we’ve been doing, the coaching staff and the players,” stated the Manchester United manager.
Solskjaer will have to astutely pick his squad and staff ahead of Manchester United’s trip to Tottenham next weekend.
“The only way I know how to approach life is to wake up tomorrow morning, look forward, of course evaluate what has gone on and do my very, very best and be determined to come through difficult times. This is the worst feeling, you feel rock bottom, after the feeling we have had that we are getting to where we want to be has been there, but the last few weeks we have hit a brick wall. Results have not come, the performances have not come, and we have conceded too many easy goals. That’s a concern,” stated the Manchester United manager.
