Manchester United 0-2 Burnley: Ole Gunnar Solskjaer under pressure after latest Old Trafford defeat
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer said he had to “hold his hands up” and admit that Manchester United’s performance was not good enough in their poor loss to Burnley.
The Clarets earned their first win at Old Trafford since 1962 and were well worth the three points as United offered little in the second half in particular.
It means that Solskjaer has now lost more Premier League games than he’s won as permanent manager as the Red Devils endure their worst season for 30 years, sitting 11 points worse off than they were at this stage last year.
“We have to hold our hands up and say it wasn’t good enough,” Solskjaer told BT Sport after the game.
“The first half we created half openings but we weren’t sharp enough to take our chances and when you do that you can be punished, and they did that. They were clinical, they were efficient and then they defended well and we couldn’t open them up.”
Solskjaer, though, seems set to continue defending his players and believes they’re giving maximum effort despite the lowly returns they’ve brought with them.
“The boys are giving everything they’ve got,” Solskjaer added. “They’re experiencing this for the first time in their life some of them and it’s hard. The expectations are high here and it’s not easy for them.
“I’m going to back them and I’m going to help them to get through this.
“But right now we can’t do anything but hold our hands up and say this isn’t good enough for this club.
“You can talk about stats all day long and of course were disappointed with the points tally we have, I don’t want to hang on the fact we're fifth in the table but we are. We work every day with these boys to try and get us to play better than this.
“Days like this though do highlight how well some of these lads have done this season, some of the performances have been great. I thought we’d turned that corner but we haven’t today."
United are being frustrated in the transfer window so far, missing out on Erling Haaland and now struggling to agree a deal to sign Sporting Lisbon’s Bruno Fernandes, but Solskjsaer says they know their targets.
“We’re looking to improve, we know our targets. We’ve already started the clear out and we now need to get players in, of course it’s the transfer window and I’ll be answering these questions until it’s closed and we’re working on things.
“For me the more important thing is we have to perform on the pitch and today wasn’t good enough for a Man Utd team.”
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