Manchester United boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer may be under fire for many reasons and a statistic has emerged showing another one to add to the list.
The legendary Norwegian is meant to be a brilliant man-manager but it appears he’s failing to do even that this season.
Our league minutes this season:
Despite leaving the club over two months ago, Dan James (126) still has more minutes for us than Eric Bailly (45), Alex Telles (18) and Donny van de Beek (17) combined. pic.twitter.com/1OumatiyaH
— UtdArena (@utdarena) November 8, 2021
The truth is Solskjaer can be a great communicator and friend to the players but at the end of the day, they’ll see right through it if they don’t get the minutes they feel they deserve.
Players will especially feel they deserve minutes if the ones starting aren’t performing and it’s safe to say that’s certainly the case with many of the United stars.
Donny van de Beek bit his tongue all last year in the hopes that something better would come around but that hasn’t proven the case.
There’s no chance he doesn’t feel he has more to offer if the likes of Fred and Scott McTominay are being sliced through every match.
Alex Telles would be looking at Luke Shaw’s performances and wondering how bad does it have to get before he’s trusted to take over.
Eric Bailly witnessed an out-of-form and unfit Harry Maguire start over him in what was certainly a blow to his own confidence.
It appears Solskjaer has fallen into the trap of his predecessors who refused to rotate because they felt they couldn’t trust their squad players.
Unfortunately this often meant their starters were prone to being overplayed and could easily become complacent because they felt they’d never be dropped barring serious injury.
There’s no doubt this is a major part of man-management and players can start to question their manager and his decisions when it results in the type of form fans are witnessing today.