Sack race: Ole Gunnar Solskjaer odds-on after humiliating loss to Liverpool
Despite reports claiming that Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is safe for now, the Manchester United boss remains the 1/4 favourite to be the next Premier League manager to lose his job.
He was installed as the short price leader following their humiliating 5-0 home defeat to Liverpool on Sunday. The result, United's joint-second worst in the Premier League era, was their fifth defeat in their last nine games in all competitions.
Since the start of the season, the Red Devils have kept just one clean sheet, conceding 21 goals in 13 games.
Boos ring out at Old Trafford
Solskjaer was 1/3 to be the next Prem boss to leave his post at half-time with Liverpool winning 4-0 at the break.
By the 60th minute he'd slipped to 1/7 before finishing on 1/5 at the final whistle.
The size of the victory will send shockwaves across the football world, in 202 meetings United have never been this heavily beaten - or embarrassed - by their fiercest rivals.
Liverpool's supporters ironically chanted "Ole's at the wheel" as United's booed, while Sir Alex Ferguson was seen shaking his head in disbelief after the fifth goal.
It was a scene reminiscent of Jose Mourinho's last game in charge of the Old Trafford club, a 3-1 loss at Anfield in 2018.
And though United's board have previously come out to back Solskjaer, the markets suggest his days leading the 20-time Premier League winners are numbered.
Second Premier League Manager to Leave (via Sky Bet)
- Ole Gunnar Solskjaer - 1/4
- Daniel Farke - 9/2
- Dean Smith - 14/1
- Nuno Espirito Santo - 14/1
- Claudio Ranieri - 16/1
- Marcelo Bielsa - 25/1
Odds correct at 0955 BST (26/10/21)
Solskjaer's 'darkest day'
After the match a forlorn Solskjaer told Sky Sports it was, “the darkest day I’ve had leading these players.” He added: “We weren’t good enough, individually, as a team. You can’t give a team like Liverpool those chances and unfortunately we did.
“The whole performance wasn’t good enough, that’s for sure. We’ve created openings, they’ve had chances, they’ve been clinical, we didn’t take our chances early on and then the third goal is the one that decided the game.”
When asked if the match had put any doubt in his mind that he was the right man to be in charge at United, Solskjaer said: “No, I’ve come too far, we have come too far as a group, we’re too close to give up now.”
Should Ole go? Pundits react
Sky Sports commentator Martin Tyler called it a “day of shame” for Manchester United, to which Neville replied: “This is as bad as it gets, honestly.
"We’ve all lost football matches in a bad way. Sir Alex Ferguson once lost 6-1 against Manchester City, I lost a game away at Newcastle 5-0, it happens, but it’s the nature of the performance. They’ve capitulated.”
Neville added: “One clean sheet in 21 games, that at Wolves when to be fair Wolves should have scored three or four.
“It’s a massive problem and it’s putting Ole Gunnar Solskjaer under massive pressure.”
However, after the game he said: “If you lose a game against Liverpool 5-0 at home, you’re going to come under horrific pressure. I think the club will hold their nerve. I don’t think they have planned for a new manager in this season. I think they’ll sit with Ole to the end of the season.
“I know there will be a massive outcry from fans, from media, from everybody that Ole Gunnar Solskjaer should be sacked, and I can understand that after that game. That was a monstrously bad day.
“I think now might be the time for them (the owners) to communicate with the fans if they are going to back the manager over the next six to eight months, which I think they will.”
Jamie Carragher questioned Neville's assertion that United shouldn't go for a top manager because of what happened to Jose Mourinho. He said: "Is that right? All because of what happened in the past? So Manchester United shouldn’t look for the best manager in the world because of Mourinho?”
Neville responded by saying he wouldn’t appoint Antonio Conte. He said: “I might be wrong and they’ll bring him in tomorrow, and I’ll get behind him, but I don’t think he’s a fit. We’ve seen a coach with a specific style and it didn’t work here.
“I’m not saying there isn’t a manager who can come to Manchester United and do well, and one day if Ole isn’t here, I hope that happens.
“But today, I think it would be wrong to sack Solskjaer.”
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