Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer made a rather worrying claim after his side’s latest defeat in the Premier League yesterday afternoon.
The Red Devils lost 1-0 away to Newcastle to continue their awful start to the season, and Solskjaer was quoted afterwards as saying he found it ‘impossible’ to get his message across to his players to help prevent the Newcastle goal from Matty Longstaff.
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The youngster scored a well-taken winner at St James’ Park, but the Daily Mirror suggest Solskjaer tried to tell Fred and Scott McTominay how to get back and prevent the strike.
The Norwegian tactician is quoted, however, as saying he could not get his message across to his players, though he doesn’t explain why in much detail.
“We weren’t set up for the counter-attack,” Solskjaer is quoted by the Mirror.
“And that shouldn’t happen and with the pace we’ve got, we should lock that corner down.
“But it’s impossible to get the message across, because we gave the Newcastle fans something to cheer today, we gave them a game that they wanted, end-to-end at times.
“We conceded at least two goals – Everton away Wolves away – from our own corners, maybe two against Everton in one game.
“We gave them too many counter-attacks, lifted their crowd, you could see they were behind their team, behind [Steve] Brucey and it was impossible for me to put one or two players where they should have been.
“There are players that try to organise it but couldn’t and when that happens, six or seven back in our own box, but we couldn’t defend that ball.
“There were two attempts to tackle, from Dan [James] and Fred. We’re trying but lacking in that composure and that organiser there.”
Man Utd fans certainly won’t be too pleased to hear this from their manager, who should surely be able to get a better performance than that out of his team against a side like Newcastle.