Manchester United lost to local rivals Manchester City 2-0 over the weekend, plunging the club into further crisis after a string of poor results and equally poor performances. United surrendered to City meekly as Pep Guardiola's men dominated the match.
As domestic football enters the international break when players join their national sides, calls for the sacking of United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer are only getting louder.
United are currently sixth on the English Premier League table, nine points off league-leaders Chelsea with 11 rounds of matches played this season.
Whether United fire the Norwegian manager or not, fans and pundits strongly feel that he is on borrowed time at the club. Solskjaer is often criticised for his lack of a concrete plan to get his team of superstars to play as a cohesive unit.
While the United hierarchy has always maintained that Solskjaer, 48, will keep his job until the end of this season, their stance, and that of the players, seems to be slowly shifting.
According to Manchester Evening News, though the club is reluctant to remove Solskjaer at the moment, they are open to doing it if they find a long-term replacement. In other words, the club does not want to leave the team leaderless or under an interim manager.
The United board are also yet to be fully convinced that Solskjaer cannot salvage the season. The Athletic reports that he is expected to survive the international break, a time when underperforming club managers are sometimes removed.
Moreover, Italian manager Antonio Conte, who was a heavy favourite to take the United job, has been roped in by Tottenham Hotspurs. He was reportedly the only available manager that the United board were keen on signing.
Having lost six of their last 12 matches in all competitions, the United players are also getting frustrated with Solskjaer's tactics, or lack thereof. The Mail has said that United players are revolting against their boss not only for the bad results but also because they do not feel they are getting enough inputs from the head coach.
Cristiano Ronaldo and his Portuguese teammate Bruno Fernandes have reportedly voiced their concerns about the drop in standards at the club.
The players are also baffled by his treatment of Dutch midfielder Donny van de Beek, who was signed with much promise in 2020 but is rarely used by the manager. Van de Beek was a star of the Ajax team that he came from, but the error-prone Fred is preferred to him by the manager.
Solskjaer was appointed United manager in December 2018, following the exit of Jose Mourinho. In the 167 matches in charge of the team, he has a win record of 54.5 per cent and has not won any trophies.
