This week has been an incredibly tough period for Manchester United and their manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.The Red Devils tasted defeat against Arsenal last weekend and then just a matter of days later, they lost in the Europa League.Their opposition? Istanbul Basaksehir, a team led by the 35-year-old Demba Ba.It was an embarrassing night not just for their shambolic defence, but also for the entire club.Thus, their meeting with Everton on Saturday was a must-win clash.Solskjaer was under fire and with Mauricio Pochettino reportedly contacted over becoming the next United boss, it looked as though time was running out for their head coach.Matters were made worse when the Toffees took the lead on Saturday afternoon. Aaron Wan-Bissaka failed to close down Bernard and he tucked away a nice tidy finish into the bottom corner.
However, Man United fought back and went 2-1 up heading towards the break courtesy of the effervescent Bruno Fernandes. Solskjaer's side then completed a 3-1 win in injury time as Edinson Cavani got on the scoresheet to score his first goal for his new club. After winning, you'd be forgiven for thinking that the Norwegian would be delighted. That was anything but the case, though. Interviewed by BT Sport's Des Kelly at full-time, he unleashed a scathing attack on the authorities - the video of which can be found here.
In full, Solskjaer said:
"We were set up to fail. The kick-off time set us up to fail. We have been to Turkey, played loads of games this season already, we got back Thursday morning and we are playing Saturday lunchtime, it's an absolute shambles.
"These boys deserve better. Luke Shaw has got injured because of it. It's a hamstring which might be a long one and Marcus Rashford might be struggling.
"The authorities set us up for fail, who is responsible? We've had enough of that. Players this season, in these times, a pandemic, mentally and physically it's draining. Let us play on a Sunday, there's an international break after this, it's a joke."
Wow. This is quite the assessment from the United boss, but it's hard to disagree with him at all.
The fact that United had to play less than 48 hours after their game in Istanbul is a major disadvantage, especially when you consider Arsenal's fixtures.
They played at the same time in north London on Thursday evening but don't play again until 7.15pm on Sunday.
In a season that followed such a short break, it's particularly baffling that the authorities didn't allow United more preparation time.