Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has blamed Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp for Manchester United’s recent run of unsuccessful penalty appeals.
The United manager claimed that his side should have had three clear penalties in league and cup games against West Ham this week.
And, ahead of Saturday’s clash with Aston Villa, he believes the problem dates back to January when Klopp publicly questioned the frequency of United penalty awards.
In the 27 league games since Klopp’s comment, United have been awarded five penalties, in comparison to the 10 they won in the same number of games before his outburst.
“We just have to hope that we get what we deserve, we should have had three penalties in the last two games,” Solskjaer said.
“I don’t know but there was a certain manager last year who was starting to worry about us getting penalties and after that it seems like the decisions are more difficult to give.
“Surely, I’ve seen a big, big difference since then on. We just have to leave it up to the refs and hopefully they will make the right calls very soon.”
Solskjaer’s words may yet attract the attention of the FA who have strict rules on managers talking about officials and can punish them for comments which are judged to “imply bias or attack their integrity.”
United were angered when Cristiano Ronaldo was denied three penalty appeals against West Ham on Sunday, two of which Solskjaer later insisted were legitimate even though VAR backed the on-field decisions.
“That’s quite an achievement actually, it’s quite an achievement,” Solskjaer said. “But we’ve got the feedback from the two West Ham league ones. The one in the cup is not VAR (by) anyone and anyone can make mistakes.
“As I said earlier on there has been a shift since concerns were raised by another manager on how many penalties we get.
“We get what we deserve, we keep on playing. I don’t think it’s my job to talk about the referees but of course we have to keep playing and you get the decisions you deserve.”
Is Solskjaer right?
Solskjaer certainly has the weight of statistics to help bear out his complaint.
From the start of the 2020-21 season, United were averaging one penalty every 2.8 games until Klopp spoke.
Since then the rate has dropped to one in every 5.2 games.
Solskjaer has also urged his side to shed their habit of going behind in games, a tendency which led to them being eliminated to an early West Ham goal in the Carabao Cup this week.
“We need to start games better, of course. I’ve sent a letter to the Premier League asking if we can start games 1-0 down, it’ll make things so much easier for us,” Solskjaer said.
“Joking apart it’s a big, big part of the game and we need to start better, we can’t expect to come back and win games as we have done fantastically in the last 12, 15 months but it’s going to catch up with us.
“It’s been looked and talked about and hopefully we can see a response.”
Meanwhile, Solskjaer has welcomed the news that United are willing to spearhead a move to bring safe standing back to football grounds with a trial period planned in the new year.
“I know we are supportive, we want to trial that,” he said. “ As long as the safety is in place, standing, for me, gives the atmosphere (chance to) build. When you stand up, you’re more passionate and emotional so I’m looking forward to that if everything goes to plan.”
from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/3ELRQEd
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