MANCHESTER UNITED should sack Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and replace him with Antonio Conte.
That is the view of former Aston Villa star Gabby Agbonlahor who has criticised the Norwegian’s decision making after United’s third defeat in four games.
After losing their Champions League opener at Young Boys, Solskjaer’s men scraped a fortunate win at West Ham – needing David De Gea to save Mark Noble’s late penalty to keep them 2-1 up.
But the Hammers got revenge just four days later by knocking United out the Carabao Cup with a 1-0 win at Old Trafford – their first victory there since 2007.
And it went from bad to worse on Saturday as Dean Smith’s Aston Villa rocked up at the Theatre of Dreams and nicked a 1-0 win.
In a quirky twist of fate – after the Noble incident – Bruno Fernandes blazed a stoppage time penalty over the bar which would have rescued a point but Agbonlahor pointed the finger at Solskjaer.
He told TalkSPORT: “I just don’t think Ole’s the man, if that was [Antonio] Conte he’d be like ‘OK [Cristiano] Ronaldo is on the penalty, if you don’t like it Fernandes come and sit with me’. Ole doesn’t have that pull.
“If I was Manchester United now, Chelsea did it with Lampard, got rid of a club legend and brought in [Thomas] Tuchel and look what happened.
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“Man Utd need to now take Ole out of it, give him a job on the board, bring in Conte and he will get the best out of these players.
“Even the decision during the games, [Harry] Maguire was limping for 10 minutes before he brought him off.
“You need a goal in the last 10 minutes and you bring on [Edinson] Cavani who hasn’t played any minutes this season.
“You’ve got [Jesse] Lingard there who scored a late winner against West Ham, you’ve got [Jadon] Sancho who you’ve bought for £70million sitting on the bench.
“I just think some of his decisions have been miles off it.
“I think United have to bite the bullet and get rid of him, bring in Conte who’s out there, [Zinedine] Zidane is out there, in order to get the best out of these players.”
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Conte is currently out of work having left Inter Milan after winning Serie A with the Italian giants last season.
He was recently linked with the Arsenal job if Mikel Arteta was sacked but reportedly snubbed the opportunity.
United host Villarreal on Wednesday – in a repeat of last season’s Europa League final – as the Reds look to get their Champions League campaign back on track.
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Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
