Put Solskjaer out of his misery: Neil Humphreys
Decent man is losing dignity for not being right manager for Man United
End the suffering now. Put a good man, a dignified manager, out of his misery.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer cannot come back from this. Losing to Liverpool is acceptable. Losing 5-0 at home, in such an abject fashion, is not.
Manchester United must take stock and decide what their proud institution is going to be, a plodding franchise that retains the clout to open "entertainment centres" in China and make money for the Glazers - or an elite football team.
| MANCHESTER UNITED | LIVERPOOL |
| 0 | 5 |
| (Naby Keita 5, Diogo Jota 13, Mohamed Salah 38, 45+5, 50) |
The Red Devils are no longer an elite football team. For long periods against Liverpool this morning (Singapore time), they scarcely resembled a football team, lacking confidence, cohesion and anything vaguely resembling a tactical structure.
Solskjaer's preferred 4-2-3-1 suggested a defensive shape and quick, counter-pressing. United displayed neither. With a full house for the biggest fixture in world football for the first time since January 2020, the lack of speed and urgency was bewildering.
In the first half, the visitors raced into a 4-0 lead without coming close to - or even needing - their best.
Four defensive errors, four goals that saw forward players not tracking back, four blunders that overwhelmed Scott McTominay and Fred in midfield, United's performance - perhaps the worst first half seen at Old Trafford in a generation - was astonishingly inept.
But the mistakes were also tactical and managerial, clearly lacking spatial awareness and any real ambition to chase and harass Liverpool.
Mohamed Salah, utterly indefatigable, scored two in the first half and added a third in the second, but it was his relentless running that must put United, their players and their coaching staff to shame. He never stopped. Ever. The Red Devils barely got started.
Their gaps were so obvious, so easily exploited, that the Reds hunted in packs along their right flank, constantly targeting the isolated Luke Shaw and Harry Maguire, whose confidence appeared shot to pieces.
Naby Keita opened the scoring and Diogo Jota added a second, before Salah reminded Old Trafford what an elite footballer looks like, one that will not be heading to United any time soon, not under the current management and boardroom ethos.
An exquisite dink over David de Gea completed his hat-trick in just 50 minutes. In the stands, Reds legend Kenny Dalglish laughed. Sir Alex Ferguson looked haunted.
On social media, Liverpool fans pleaded with United to retain Solskjaer's services. They were not joking. For the anti-United brigade, the Norwegian is the gift that keeps on giving, an honest man that deserves better than this humiliating debacle.
So United's owners must decide the complexion of their cash cow now. Previously, there was no intention of making a regime change, leaving the status quo to drift along, propping up the Glazers' ATM, as long as there was Champions League football to bolster the brand.
Maybe, just maybe, they may consider the voices of those that will always matter most. At half-time and full-time, there was booing - relentless, outraged booing. They'd seen enough. Many left after the fifth Liverpool goal in the 50th minute.
Presumably, they want something more than a pointless, cash-generating exercise for their owners. At some point, United's fan base may be compelled to remind the Glazers where the real power still resides in the modern game.
As the game petered out, Cristiano Ronaldo's disallowed goal and Paul Pogba's red card for a disgraceful foul on Keita, which saw the Guinean stretchered off, summed up the wretched display.
Solskjaer's old teammates have long protected him in the TV studios, but in fairness to Gary Neville, he called this one weeks ago. The pundit reminded United followers that they hadn't faced anyone of note yet. Wait until Liverpool came along.
Well, they came. They saw. And they eviscerated.
And between now and early December, United must face everyone else in the traditional Big Six. The only question to ponder now is, how much worse does it need to get? Because it's never going to get any better than this.
MANCHESTER UNITED: De Gea, Wan-Bissaka, Lindelof, Maguire, Shaw, McTominay, Fred, Greenwood (Pogba 46), Fernandes (Cavani 62), Rashford (Dalot 62), Ronaldo
LIVERPOOL: Alisson, Alexander-Arnold, Konate, Van Dijk, Robertson, Keita (Oxlade-Chamberlain 64), Henderson, Milner (Jones 27), Salah, Firmino (Mane 77), Jota
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