Manchester United continue to slide down
the slippery slope of Premier League downfall with a 4-1 thrashing away at relegation-threatened
Watford that goalkeeper David de Gea described as “embarrassing” and “another
nightmare”.
“It was embarrassing, the way we played
today,” the Spaniard told BBC Sport. “The first half was very poor – it’s not
acceptable for this club and the level of players that we have. It’s another
nightmare. There’s been some difficulties but I don’t really know what to say.”
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“I have been in difficult moments with this
club but we are in a difficult situation – we don’t know what to do with the
ball, we are conceding a lot of goals. It’s a horrible moment. It’s easy to say
the manager and staff but the ones who are on the pitch are the players and
they’re the ones who have to score goals and fight on the pitch. We need to
look at ourselves one by one and give more for the club and the fans. It’s
difficult to say why there was a performance like this – I don’t know what to
say.”
The loss at the Vicarage Road on Saturday appears
to have been the final nail in the coffin for manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer with
the Red Devils winning just one of their last seven league games.
According to reports, the Manchester United
board have already decided to sack the Norwegian, with an official announcement
pending following approval from co-chairman Joel Glazer.
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The game was billed as a chance for former
United striker Solskjaer to get the club back to winning ways. Coming after the
international break also helped, as it took the limelight away from the spiralling
problems at Old Trafford.
However, another shoddy defensive showing saw
the visitors concede twice within the first half. Things could have been worse
for United, as de Gea saved a penalty and a header from Joshua King, who was unmarked at point-blank range, that should
have been converted.
Donny van de Beek came on in the second half
and halved the deficit, but captain Harry Maguire’s second bookable offence put
an already unlikely comeback further out of reach. Joao Pedro and Emmanuel Bonaventura rubbed salt in the United wounds with two goals in second half stoppage time.