Solskjær asks players to ‘perform better’ after Palace debacle
English Premier League giants Manchester United’s manager Ole Gunnar Solskjær has asked his players to ‘perform better’ after suffering a shocking defeat in their season opener on Saturday.
Wilfried Zaha scored twice against his former club to hand Crystal Palace a 3-1 win at Old Trafford.
United finished last season on a 14-match unbeaten run in the Premier League to secure a third-place finish but on the evidence of their first game’s performance, they need far more than the solitary signing of Donny Van de Beek, who scored on his debut, to compete at the top of the table.
After the match, the Manchester-based club’s manager, while talking to the media, urged his players to perform better and not just hope for new signings to improve things.
“If you look at the players we have on the pitch and on the bench today, we need to look within first and know we have to perform better,” said Solskjaer. “We are always looking to improve if there is something out there available at the right price. But we can all look ourselves in the mirror today instead.”
Lack of match fitness
Solskjaer also blamed the lack of match fitness on the result and conceded that the deserving team emerged victorious.
“You can see we are short (of match fitness) and they deserved the points. They were sharper than us in the challenges,” he said. “You can’t be too surprised we are not at our best yet because this is the first game we’ve played since the middle of August. We have had a very short and strange pre-season. We need to improve and we need to improve quickly.”
Readmore