Gun Le Gunnar Solsakjaar claimed that his Manchester United side were “unfortunate” in RB Leipzig and hit back at Mino Raiola over his comments about Paul Pogba.
Pogba’s agent, Raiola, spoke on the eve of the decisive fix at Leipzig – where United were knocked out of the Champions League after a 3-2 defeat – insisting he needed to leave the club in the summer transfer window.
The French midfielder was named on the German bench, but had a positive impact, as United slipped below point 0 to get almost one point, which would have been enough to qualify.
“The squad is OK – they’re a team and they stick together,” Solskjજેr said.
“As soon as Paul’s agent realizes this is a team game and we work together, better. Maybe this is the last thing I want to say about it. I don’t want to spend energy on it.”
When asked if Pogba is happy at the club, Solskware said: “You have to ask Paul. I’m not going to speak for him. Paul’s focus is to do his best for the team. He’s working hard in training.
“Now is not the time to discuss ins and outs at the club.”
Solskjair, who must prepare his team for the Manchester derby against City on Saturday, said live on Sky Sports that his team was not doing well at night but was unlucky in the end not to deliver the game at -3- at Red Bull. Arena.
He said BT Sport: “There was great spirit and a comeback but we did it too late. You can’t give the team a 3-0 lead.
“I thought we were unlucky towards the end. Character and effort were there.
“We weren’t good enough. We had a good start in the difficult group but the big turn was the defeat against Istanbul. That’s where we lost points.
“You can’t be sorry for yourself. We have to focus on Saturday.”
Solsakzer: I take responsibility
Marcus Rash Shefford is dissected with the departure of Man Utd
Solsker admitted he took responsibility for one night, at which point he admitted his side “never walked”.
United Bose said: “We did not perform well as a team and it is always the manager’s responsibility to keep everyone ready.
“We knew they would come to us, we knew they would put a cross in the box and unfortunately we conceded two goals and we never went.
“In previous games [this season] When we conceded the first goal, we played very well.
“Today we didn’t get there until they scored another goal. Suddenly then we started playing again.
Saturday 12 December 5:00 pm
Kick at 5:30 p.m.
“We probably had a chance at 1-0 – Mason (Greenwood) had a good chance there – but after 2-0 we started playing.
“The second half was more or less traffic and they had a chance, they managed to score.
“So, 3-0 will be difficult, but they all gave everything, very good character, effort. I can’t blame anyone and we were close to getting a third.
“It would have been some achievement against a good team like Leipzig.
“It just didn’t work out for us. It’s been a difficult season, difficult circumstances this year and of course we were there for him and the character and efforts I can’t blame.”
‘Ole it went very wrong’
1:03
Sky Sports’ Paul Merson at Soccer Special:
“This is Manchester United. They need to be in the Champions League, not football on Thursday night.
“That result didn’t look good for Solescare tonight.
“If Leipzig had won 3-0, you would have come away and said, ‘Leipzig is a better team, they have played better.’ But when he changed it, he came back to 3-2 and could have easily gone 3–3, it just shows you that he got it terribly, terribly wrong at the beginning of the game.
“There’s no disrespect to Southampton and West Ham, sometimes you can give them a goal start, but you can’t give these teams a head-start of two or three goals in Europe. You’re going to be caught out and they’re going to be caught out. Would have lost better than West Ham, as there are plenty of games left in the Premier League.
“In my opinion, the biggest team in the world is out of the Champions League.”
Total coffee specialist. Hardcore reader. Incurable music scholar. Web guru. Freelance troublemaker. Problem solver. Travel trailblazer.
