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January 24, 2020

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Solskjaer in firing line at United again

Source: AFP | 00:05 UTC+8 January 24, 2020 | Print Edition

Manchester United played out the final stages of Wednesday’s humiliating 0-2 defeat to Burnley in front of banks of empty seats, raising fresh questions over how long beleaguered boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer will survive.

The United teams that Solskjaer played in during the glory years of Alex Ferguson were famed for their great escapes but his young, jaded players are struggling to live up to the club’s swashbuckling traditions.

Solskjaer has now lost more English Premier League games than he has won since being handed the job on a permanent basis in March after an exhilarating three-month stint as caretaker boss.

His appointment increasingly looks a rash and misjudged decision by the club’s executive vice chairman Ed Woodward, who is blamed by many United supporters for the club’s malaise.

Those who stayed to the bitter end of Burnley’s first win at Old Trafford since 1962 did so to make their thoughts on Woodward and the club’s American owners, the Glazer family, clear as the atmosphere at Old Trafford turned toxic.

Former United defender Rio Ferdinand, an EPL and UEFA Champions League winner with the club, called on the Glazers to take action to stop the rot.

“Fans are walking out after 84 minutes. It’s an embarrassment. People at the top need to look and see this and make changes,” Ferdinand told BT Sport.

“The downward spiral in this short space of time, it’s only seven years, has been remarkable.”

Should Solskjaer be the fall guy for yet another disappointing season, he would be the fourth manager to come and go since Ferguson retired in 2013.

But a change in the dugout would not address the deeper-lying problems at the club, with repeated errors made in the transfer market.

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