Man Utd boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer sends Ed Woodward transfer demand after loss

Posted Sunday, September 20, 2020 by Express.co.uk

Manchester United suffered a disappointing 3-1 defeat to Crystal Palace in their opening Premier League game of the season.

Manchester United boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has challenged Ed Woodward to help bolster his "short" squad in the remaining few weeks of the summer transfer window following the defeat to Crystal Palace. United weren't at the races from the very first whistle as Palace took control of the game.

United's only summer signing so far, Donny van de Beek, only managed to make the bench as Solskjaer stuck with most of the squad which enjoyed an impressive second half of last season.

But they were a shadow of themselves for much of the game with Palace's goal rarely under threat.

Andros Townsend put Palace up early on and they held that lead heading into the break.

They doubled their lead midway through the second half in controversial circumstances before Van de Beek came off the bench to bring United back to within one.

Man Utd boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer sends Ed Woodward transfer demand after loss
Manchester United have been quiet in the transfer window (Image: GETTY)

But Wilfried Zaha bagged his second of the game late on to make sure of all three points for Palace.

Much of the talk in the build-up to the game was surrounding United's summer transfer activity, or moreso the lack of it.

It comes after a flurry of transfers at Liverpool and Tottenham while Chelsea have also strengthened with some big signings.

Manchester City have brought in a few players to bolster Pep Guardiola's squad, with United at risk of being left behind.

And Solskjaer admits the humiliating defeat to Palace proved his options were "short".

"You can see we are short and they deserved the points," Solskjaer said.

"They were sharper than us in challenges, tackles. We started off slowly and that had a knock-on effect for the rest of the game when they got the first goal.

"We had a long season last season and we didn't finish until August 16 and we have not had enough preparation time to be sharper. We've worked hard with the ones who've been here, there have been a few players away on internationals.

"I spoke to Roy [Hodgson] and he said they had four friendlies and this was their third competitive game, and it is a big difference to our one against Aston Villa last week.

"You have to make the most of the time you have got and we have already started playing catch-up, of course, and it showed.

"But we will improve quickly, hopefully quicker than we've seen today. Today was a performance that you don’t see very often from these players because these players are better than that.

"We can play so much better than today. If you look at the players we had on the pitch and on the bench and not here today, we have to look within first and look at ourselves and know we can perform better.

"But we are always looking to improve if there is something out there that is available at the right price. We always want to strengthen. But we can all look ourselves in the mirror, instead."