Manchester United players have started a revolt against manager Ole Gunnar Solksjaer, according to a new report by Daily Mail sports.
According to the report Bruno Fernandes is among stars who feel they are not getting enough direction from Solskjaer and his coaching staff, while Cristiano Ronaldo is alarmed by the drop in standards at the club.
Man United wanted to keep Solksjaer at the club till the end of the season
but are now giving serious consideration to sacking him following reports of the player revolt after humiliating defeats to rivals Liverpool and Man City .
Solskjaer’s position is coming under intense scrutiny yet again after a dreadful run of six defeats in the last 12 games, culminating in the 2-0 loss to City at Old Trafford.
Excepts of the Daily mail report below;
The tame nature of United’s defeat has left Solskjaer once again fighting to keep his job after the club spent £135.6million on Ronaldo, Jadon Sancho and Raphael Varane in the summer to give him a squad as good as any in the top flight.
So far, there has been no appetite among the United hierarchy to sack Solskjaer having aligned themselves so closely with the Old Trafford legend and his task of restoring the club’s true values after succeeding Jose Mourinho and Louis van Gaal.
They resisted calls to axe Solskjaer and appoint Antonio Conte two weeks ago before the Italian joined Tottenham because he was seen as a short-term option and too confrontational.
However, action may be forced on Solskjaer’s bosses if they decide that the former Cardiff manager is no longer capable of stopping the slide.
Doubts are growing within a squad of players who seemed so tight-knit on a pre-season training camp in Scotland last summer, encouraging senior United figures that they would mount a strong title challenge.
It is understood that Fernandes is among the players who feel as though they aren’t being given a clear plan by Solskjaer and his overgrown backroom team, with others expressing concern that too many young coaches are learning on the job.
After failing so miserably to execute a pressing game against Liverpool, United changed to a more defensive 3-4-1-2 that doesn’t suit the club’s ambitions or the attacking squad he has assembled.
However, Solskjaer’s tactics were easily dismantled by Pep Guardiola who used his wide players, Phil Foden and Gabriel Jesus, to pin down United’s wing-backs. Solskjaer changed to a back four at half-time but the game was lost by then.
Ronaldo was well aware when he returned to United that times had changed in the 12 years he had been away, but the Portugal star is said to be shocked at just how far the standards have slipped.
His frustration boiled over again when he was booked for a cynical late challenge on Kevin De Bruyne, having escaped a red card against Liverpool when he hacked out at Curtis Jones.
There is also a feeling within the dressing room that Solskjaer shows favouritism to some players and is too soft on the squad.
Questions have been asked about whether United’s work-rate would be so poor if Guardiola or Jurgen Klopp were in charge.
Harry Maguire continues to be selected despite a catastrophic loss of form which sources believe started after playing for England at the Euros. Luke Shaw, too, hasn’t been the same player since the tournament.
Yet Van de Beek continues to be largely frozen out by Solskjaer who is also ignoring Jesse Lingard. There are fears that Sancho’s career is stagnating little more than three months after his £73million arrival from Dortmund.
The other United substitute on Saturday was Rashford, but it’s understood the England forward returned from the Champions League draw against Atalanta in Italy with flu symptoms and was sent home from training on Wednesday.
Rashford did not train on Thursday or Friday — and stayed away from the team hotel before the derby — but was deemed a better option than Lingard or Anthony Martial when he was sent on in the 67th minute.
