Manchester United manager, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, has attributed his team’s 2-1 defeat to Leicester City in the Premier League at the Old Trafford on Tuesday night to the tight games schedule which is ‘impossible for the players’.
Leicester City outscored United with Luke Thomas and Caglar Soyuncu’s 10th and 66th minutes goals respectively, while Mason Greenwood netted the home side’s consolation on 15 minutes. It was the Foxes’ first win at the Old Trafford in 23 years following their 1-0 feat in 1998.
United’s loss to Leicester meant that Manchester City were runaway 2020/2021 Premier League Champions on 80 points from 35 games, rendering the remaining fixtures inconsequential to their title ambition.
In his post match reaction, Solskjaer expressed his grouse against a fixture pile-up that is going against his team. The Tuesday’s Premier League game was Manchester United’s second of three games in five days.
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“It can’t be like this again. You can’t play Thursday, Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday – it is impossible,” Solskjaer told Manchester United website.
“So that’s the reason why we had to make these changes because it is unheard of. I say it again, if this game was tomorrow, no problem and if we have another game on Saturday. If you have two days in between, there is no problem but this is impossible for the players to perform at this level Thursday night, Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday. It is impossible.”
Solskjaer also appraised the performances to the two sides, blaming United’s slow start on lack of enough time to prepare well for the game.
“We started off a bit slow, as you might expect, because they have not had any time to prepare for the game. Maybe there were a couple of nerves but, after they scored, we had nothing to lose and I thought we played some very good stuff and I was pleased with it. We did not have too much time to prepare and we went into half-time quite pleased but then didn’t quite get out of the traps,” he stated.
“They [Leicester City] got a goal from a corner that was never a corner. It was a throw-in. So that is very disappointing for us. I thought we played well and could have got a point near the end. Maybe we should have created more in the second half but I am happy.”
