If the size of the job he faced at Manchester United wasn’t already clear to Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, then it certainly is now.His players slumped to their worst Premier League defeat of the season away at Everton on Sunday afternoon, four days after their elimination from the Champions League at the hands of Barcelona.Their shock 4-0 defeat at Goodison Park may have seriously dented their chances of securing a top-four finish. If Chelsea defeat Burnley on Monday night, Maurizio Sarri’s men will move above Arsenal into fourth place, five points clear of United with only a few games left to play.Solskjaer, who is expected to overhaul the squad this summer, apologised to the United fans following Sunday’s abject display.“They're the only people with the badge on today who can hold their head high,” the Norwegian coach was quoted as saying by BBC Sport, “because we can't."

Some believe United are paying the price for not waiting until the end of the season before making a final decision on whether to give Solskjaer the job on a permanent basis.

However, there’s surely little he can do about certain players not giving it their all when on the pitch.

Former Tottenham and England midfielder Jermaine Jenas did some excellent analysis on Match of the Day 2 highlighting various United players’ poor work ethic against the Toffees.

“I was very disappointed with what I saw today,” he began. “The bonus for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is that I think he saw this coming – that's why he said what he had to say in the week, highlighting a couple of players. He's noticed that within certain performances they are not doing enough.

“And today was almost like the tip of the iceberg. They were shocking from minute one.”

His first section showed Romelu Lukaku, Marcus Rashford, Chris Smalling and Victor Lindelof not doing enough to win back possession for their team.

Jenas continued: “The reaction in the intensity from the players after that cross is all half-hearted, jogging. It’s like ‘I’m going to half-press’. Do you want to win the header? No. Is anyone there for the second-ball? Is anyone going to track back and stop this situation that we’re in now? It’s a four v four at the start of the game - where is the intensity in the team?”

He then analysed Sigurdsson’s goal, which didn’t make for good viewing for either Nemanja Matic or Diogo Dalot, in particular.

“For the goal, I can only see one player really trying to get back: Phil Jones. He’s the only player out of everybody,” Jenas said.

“Matic here, you can tell by his body language. He has to get Gylfi Sigurdsson down the line. Now, Dalot, you are a centre-half, so stay there [to his right, covering the space] and take responsibility. Cover Matic if he goes down the left, if not, get out there and block that shot. You need to get in Sigurdsson’s face. Watch him: he just drifts away!”

So, so poor.

In another segment, Jenas highlighted more lack of effort from Rashford and Lindelof.

“Pairings, you’ve got Lindelof on the left-hand side, Rashford on the right-hand side. You’ve got [Lucas] Digne here and Bernardo inside them - that’s their pairing, they’re working together. [Digne and Bernardo] are playing one-twos - Rashford, do you want to get back? Lindelof, do you want to get out to the cross? They’re jogging, nobody’s bothered. “

Manchester Evening News journalist Samuel Luckhurst was at the game and was in complete agreement with Jenas about Rashford, whose performances have gone off the boil in recent weeks.

Jenas, now focusing on United’s midfielders, added: “The midfield typified everything for me. [Scott] McTominay came on and gave it a bit of a go, he comes flying out to press. [Paul] Pogba, that’s a half-hearted press. Matic, do you want to come out and help the midfield or are you going to stay in there?

“If you want to stay in there and help the back-four then fair enough but do it - and do it properly - because Sigurdsson, the main man for Everton, is on your left shoulder. You’re not picking him up, you’ve switched off, one ball kills the lot - straight through the heart of your midfield. Again, really poor response and you’re one-v-one against Chris Smalling.”

A dreadful day for United, then, and Jenas believes many of Solskjaer’s players need a “reality check”.

“From organisation, from work ethic, you can break it down whatever way you want… that is not a team that is going for Champions League,” he concluded.

“I think he's got a mixture of players that have got their eye on leaving Manchester United and a mixture of players that are not good enough to play for Manchester United.

“And that is the problem. In his XI today, I saw too many of those.

“The players that are actually putting in the effort, those are probably the players that, for me, feel grateful to be at Manchester United. And if they had more of those players today they probably wouldn't have had that type of result.

“But they've got too many who think they can move onto bigger and better. They need a reality check.”