[ad_1]
-
Rob dawsonCorrespondent
LEICESTER, England – Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has made no secret of his desire to win more important competitions than the FA Cup, but Manchester United’s 3-1 defeat to Leicester in the quarter-final stage on Sunday will remind the Norwegian that, in Ultimately you need something better. players to get you where you want to be.
United’s last hope of finishing this season with the silver medal is in the Europa League, but it is the Premier League and Champions League title that Solskjaer really wants. To win those, the most prestigious awards on offer, it takes a team to match the best in the world and United, who lost away from home to a national rival for the first time in 14 months, fall short in that department.
Leicester, without James Maddison, Harvey Barnes and their two first-choice full-backs, were by far the better team and Brendan Rodgers, for whom this game was the 100th in charge at King Power Stadium, imagines the chances that your team progress. to the final after drawing against Southampton in the last four. Manchester City and Chelsea will play the other semi-final.
– Stream ESPN FC daily on ESPN + (US only)
– ESPN + Spectator Guide: Bundesliga, Serie A, MLS, FA Cup, more
Solskjaer, meanwhile, sees United enter the international break with a disappointing loss after a long string of matches that caught up with them.
“We didn’t get the spark tonight, but it’s understandable,” he said. “This team has been fantastic in the last three or four months. We play every three days and we’ve had a great streak. It just caught up with us, every game and every trip.”
Solskjaer said the Europa League trip to Milan on Thursday night “cost us a lot physically”, causing a lack of “energy, authority and confidence” against Leicester.
“We try to get on our feet and start well, because sometimes you can get that boost of adrenaline and confidence if you score a goal and that can take you over the line,” he said. “We have too many players who have played too many games and too many who haven’t really had a lot of football. We didn’t have enough against a tough team.”
Solskjaer has set the standard for his players by stating that while the success of the FA Cup and the Europa League would be a useful stepping stone, his focus is on building a team capable of winning a first Premier League title since 2013.
In two years as a permanent manager, he has worked hard to change what he calls “the culture” at Old Trafford, but it is only part of the puzzle. A close locker room is one thing, but the best teams have the best players and this latest exhibition showed further evidence that it is difficult to argue for some of the Solskjaer regulars.
Fred, in particular, had a day to forget, and it was remarkable that he stayed on the field for 84 minutes. The Brazilian midfielder was especially impressive during the first 25 minutes, in which the low light was a loose backward pass that allowed Kelechi Iheanacho to dodge Dean Henderson and score on an empty goal.
After Mason Greenwood ensured United entered the halftime level (the roughly taken end of the 19-year-old followed the clever Donny van de Beek dummy), Fred sat in the front row seven minutes into the game. break to watch Youri Tielemans convert Nemanja Matic before embarking on a strong run that ended with a strong shot in the bottom corner.
United made a quadruple change to chase the game, with Bruno Fernandes and Edinson Cavani among those to come, but Iheanacho put the tie on the bed with his second, a header from close range after Dean Henderson flapped on a free kick from the ground. left.
Fred is not a bad footballer, he was very good in the second half against Milan, but is he a potential league winner? He turned 28 earlier this month and, in nearly three seasons at United, has made more than 100 appearances, but the window for significant improvement has likely closed, especially for a player who relies on stamina rather than strength. outstanding technical skill.
Indeed, it is difficult to see how he would break into the Leicester squad ahead of Tielemans and Wilfred Ndidi, let alone the Manchester City or Bayern Munich midfielders. That’s the standard Solskjaer has set for himself and while he’s not the type to play the blame game, he must make decisions to take his team to the heights he enjoyed as a player with Sir Alex Ferguson.
“When we win, we win together and when we lose, we lose together,” Solskjaer said. “We are not pointing fingers and blaming. The second is a good goal from the boy, but maybe with a little energy we could have reached it and we would not have done it so easily in the middle. That has been one of our strengths, keeping Clean sheets and being tough, but we didn’t get a chance. “
Many of United’s players will represent their countries for the next two weeks, rather than get the rest that Solskjaer might feel they need, after which United will return to action in pursuit of Champions League qualification and the trophies that his coach has missed despite reaching the final rounds. of a cup competition several times.
“We have to focus on the Europa League and the Premier League,” Solskjaer said. “Yes, we would have liked to go to Wembley [in the FA Cup], but now all the focus is on the games we have. We are in a good position in the league and we want to keep improving. “
Second place in the league would allow Solskjaer to argue that progress has been made, regardless of what happens in the remaining rounds of the Europa League. Because that’s where the 48-year-old’s main ambition lies: Premier League glory is his goal, and his job during the summer is to decide which of his players are up to the task and who are not.
