Manchester United lost 2-1 to Turkish side Istanbul Basaksehir in a match that exposed Red Devil’s shambolic first-half defensive display.
Istanbul Basaksehir enjoyed a comfortable 2-0 lead over United for the better part of the first half, before Anthony Martial scored a late consoler.
United’s coach Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was hard-pressed to explain his side’s poor performance in the post-match press conference.
Solskjaer labelled Manchester United’s shock defeat “unforgivable”, the coach pointed out the team’s poor defense and inability to counter-press and win the ball back as the main reason for reason for the poor performance.
“The performance wasn’t good enough against a team that worked and ran. They hit us on the break a couple of times and scored two goals like you sometimes do in Europe when you don’t defend well enough. The first one we forget about the man up top and that’s unforgivable. The second one, we’re not very well organised to counter-press and win the ball back when we’re playing. So two tough goals to give away and then we didn’t have enough to come back second half,” Solskjaer told BT Sport.
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Speaking on United’s only goal which was scored by Anthony Martial, Solskjaer said that;
“We scored from a cross, a good goal by Anthony, and then you think 45 minutes to save something from the game but second half we threw everything at it but we couldn’t break them down.
“It’s not easy to be positive now. Of course it isn’t when you’ve just lost the way we did. But these players, they’re good players and we have a chance on Saturday morning to get going again.”
The Man United boss also spoke on his job security following Red Devil’s shock defeat to the Turkish side.
The Manchester United manager laughed off suggestions that his job was under threat after the poor show.
“I decline to comment on such a thing. Of course, it’s early on and opinions are out there all the time. You’ve got to stay strong. I’m employed by the club to do a job and I do that to the best of my ability with my staff,” Solskjaer said.
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