Ole Gunnar Solskjaer says he was blunt with his underperforming Manchester United players after they were ejected from the FA Cup by Wolves.
A listless United were deservedly beaten by Wolves at Molineux, where United managed two attempts on target against Wolves’ second-choice goalkeeper John Ruddy.
United had only lost one of Solskjaer’s first 17 games in charge but have now suffered two successive reverses that have knocked them down to fifth in the Premier League and denied them their best hope of silverware this term.
For the second time in the post-Sir Alex Ferguson era, United could go two successive seasons without a trophy and although Solskjaer was reluctant to specify exactly what he said to the United players in the dressing room he admitted he gave them a frank assessment.
“The truth,” Solskjaer said. “I told them, not you. But, of course, you can’t sit down and sulk too long. We’re disappointed, everybody is disappointed, but we’ve got to look forward and put behind the result today.
“We know we’ve played well against Arsenal last week didn’t get what we deserved. But today we got what we deserved because we never deserved to win this game.”
United have not lost their last two matches and a bad weekend could get worse if Chelsea beat Everton at Goodison Park on Sunday and knock United back down to sixth in the table. United won their first eight games under Solskjaer and their first meaningful defeat only came at Arsenal in their 18th match under the Norwegian, who disagreed momentum had dissipated.
“I think it’s something natural,” Solskjaer added. “You cannot perform to the top of your level every single time, it’s still against a good team, don’t forget that. Wolves have done really well against top teams, don’t take anything away from them, even though we under-performed.
“So I don’t think that’s part of it at all.”