Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer gave a scathing assessment of his team’s first-half display in Sunday’s 2-0 loss against Watford at Vicarage Road, stating the performance was similar to a testimonial.
The Red Devils went into the match aiming to keep the pressure on the Premier League’s top four and bounce back from an underwhelming draw against Merseyside club Everton in their previous game.
But the away team produced an insipid display, with two goals early in the second half doing the damage as the usually reliable Spanish goalkeeper David de Gea fumbled an Ismaila Sarr volley into the net, before English forward Troy Deeney converted a penalty to double Watford’s lead.
However, shock inclusion Paul Pogba at least provided some impetus for the Red Devils after his 64th-minute introduction, but the Frenchman was brought in a little too late, as the bottom of the table Watford held on to the first win under new manager Nigel Pearson.
Solskjaer was particularly unimpressed with United’s display before the second half began and explained that the first period looked as if though his team were playing for his testimonial, “In the first half, it could have easily been my testimonial, maybe it would have been a better atmosphere in my testimonial, to be fair.
The 46-year-old Norwegian explained the traits of the performance and stated that he was disappointed in his team, “It was very subdued, slow, no tempo, no urgency, any bit of encouragement their crowd got was when we gave them some set-plays and we gifted them two goals. I’m very disappointed and [before the match] we spoke about this and looking to be more positive, that we know we’ve started up something with the rebuild.”
