Solskjaer blames stadium wrap for Man Utd’s Old Trafford woes

LONDON: Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has made the bizarre claim that Manchester United’s inconsistent home form can be blamed on the red stadium wrap at Old Trafford.

In contrast to their sparkling away form, United’s four Premier League defeats this season have all come at home.

They also lost at Old Trafford against Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League and Manchester City in the League Cup semi-finals.

Speaking ahead of Granada’s visit to Manchester for the Europa League quarter-final second leg, United boss Solskjaer said a key reason for the poor home form is the red covering placed over seats while supporters are absent amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Solskjaer believes his players struggling to pick each other out for passes because United’s red shirts made them blend into the stadium background.

He expects an improvement now because United replaced the stadium wrap with black banners at the start of April, which read ‘United Against Racism’ as part of the club’s See Red anti-racism campaign.

“You’ll see a change now. If you see the banners round the club, it’s not red anymore. We’ve looked into this,” Solskjaer told reporters on Wednesday.

“There shouldn’t be any reason, really, but some of the players have mentioned that you know that split-second decision that you have to make, look over your shoulder if your team-mate’s there or not and the red shirt is on a red background just with the red seats.

“So we’ve of course tried to change that along with an anti-racism campaign so of course that was important that it wasn’t red anymore.

“Then again, there shouldn’t be any reason. But then again, if you’ve got a 4-0 advantage like we did against Sociedad you don’t really have to win that game. Nil-nil was a good result.