On The Ball | Manchester United’s solid season is in danger of stalling if they can’t find top gear again
- United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer says he is surprised how well his players have coped with this strangest of all seasons
- His players look to have run out of steam in recent weeks ahead of the Manchester derby this weekend
Be it a bank of fog or a wall, Manchester United have hit something which has slowed their progress. Top of the table in January, United are now 14 points behind City having won only two of their last nine league games. The pair meet on Sunday.
Goalless draws at Liverpool, Arsenal or Chelsea are credible rather than a crime but a stalemate at struggling West Brom or Palace is a concern, as is the soporific football.
United is not a club historically associated with boring, but the performance on Wednesday against a Crystal Palace team who’d already won at Old Trafford this season was as poor as those towards the end of Jose Mourinho or Louis van Gaal’s time at Old Trafford. That pair of celebrated managers had lost the majority of United fans long before they were dismissed.
United’s current away run started at Chelsea in February 2020, just before the lockdown and the cessation of matches. That was a surprise win at a ground at which United had an execrable record in previous years. After the game a smiling Ed Woodward, the leading executive, congratulated Solskjaer and said: “Marbella again!?”
