OLE GUNNAR SOLSKJAER has blasted Premier League schedulers with Manchester United forced to play Saturday lunch time after a Champions League match on Wednesday night.
The Norwegian’s side needed a late Cristiano Ronaldo winner to beat Villarreal and will host Everton just three days later in the day’s early kick-off.
The same thing happened to United last season in November.
They returned from a 2-1 away defeat to Istanbul Basaksehir in Turkey on a Wednesday and had to play the Toffees at Goodison on the Saturday lunch time.
Solskjaer was fuming then and is just as angry now.
Speaking ahead of Rafa Benitez’s side’s visit, Solskjaer said: “We had no explanation, but it’s TV of course.
“There’s no common sense at all.
“We had the same scenario last season when we were in Turkey and came back and played (on Saturday lunchtime).
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“Us and Chelsea both played on Wednesday and could have easily played on Sunday while City-Liverpool could have been on Saturday.
“Common sense might not be so common.”
Leicester and West Ham both face similar turnarounds this week having played in the Europe League on Thursday.
The Foxes lost 1-0 at Legia Warsaw and travel to Crystal Palace at 2pm on Sunday.
And the Hammers made it two wins from two in their maiden Europa League group stage campaign with a 2-0 home win over Rapid Vienna.
‘NOT GOING TO GET CAUGHT OUT’
David Moyes’ men welcome Prem new boys Brentford to London Stadium on Sunday at 2pm also.
United actually beat the Toffees 3-1 in the game in question last season and Solskjaer has called on his players to produce the same again.
He added: “The boost and energy you get in the group after a win like this has to be built on.
“It’s a very very quick turnaround, Wednesday night and Saturday morning, but the players are not going to get caught out by it and we need to start as we finished on Wednesday night.”
His team had David De Gea’s heroics to thank for still being in Wednesday’s game.
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The Spaniard was outstanding in the first-half and couldn’t do anything as Paco Alcacer gave Villarreal a deserved lead eight minutes into the second-half.
Alex Telles’ stunning Paul Scholes-esque volley got the Reds on level terms.
Before Ronaldo stole the headlines with just seconds remaining to drill home the winner at the back post.
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Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
