Another Defeat and More Questions for Manchester United

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Manchester United made a decent start to the 2021/22 season but recent results have been poor.

Trends show Manchester United have lost 3 of their last 4 matches in all competitions and it started with a 2-1 loss at Young Boys in the Champions League.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer struggled in the Champions League last season, with the loss at İstanbul Başakşehir one of the worst defensive performances from a Manchester United team in many years.

The defeat at Young Boys brought back memories of that night in the Turkish capital as Manchester United threw away a one goal lead, although they were down to ten men.

A last gap victory at West Ham United followed in the Premier League thanks to the individual brilliance of Jesse Lingard and David de Gea in the final stages of the game. However, a much changed Manchester United team lost 1-0 at home against the same opposition in the League Cup.

The defeat in the League Cup would have been forgotten had Manchester United defeated Aston Villa at home in the Premier League on the weekend. What followed was a disjointed performance as Aston Villa deserved to come away with a 1-0 win thanks to a late goal. Bruno Fernandes had a chance to equalise from the penalty spot but missed the opportunity.

The poor run of form has led to more questions about the future of Solskjaer as Manchester United manager. Many of the online forums are beginning to see fans turn against the Norwegian.

Not that they want the former striker out of the club completely, there is an acceptance that he has done some good things during his time as manager.

However, the display against Aston Villa was one of individuals rather than a cohesive team performance, which is worrying considering how long Solskjaer has been manager of the club.

There are some quality individual players at Old Trafford and allowing them to show off their individual ability is great but not if it comes at the cost of being a cohesive unit.

Being unpredictable in attack can cause the opposition problems but it does not work over the course of a season.

The majority of the top teams in the Premier League and Europe play with a system and the players perform in accordance with their role within that system. That does not seem to be the case at Manchester United.

Either the players are not listening to the instructions of the coaching staff in training or they are not being coached in a specific system to bring the best out of the group as a unit. Whichever it may be, it is not a good sign for the remainder of the season.

Cristiano Ronaldo did not have a single shot on target in 90 minutes at home against Aston Villa. If a single chance is not being created for a player of his ability, something is wrong and Solskjaer needs to fix it fast.