Furious Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has heavily criticized the Premier League’s scheduling after his side’s 3-1 win at Everton on Saturday lunchtime, claiming his side “were set up to fail”.
United travelled to Istanbul Basaksehir for a Champions League group stage clash on Wednesday – a game they lost 2-1 – before having to face a refreshed Everton at Goodison Park in the weekend’s early kick-off.
And despite his team coming from behind to claim all three points, the Norwegian still hit out at what he called the “absolute joke” schedule his players were faced with after Luke Shaw (hamstring), Victor Lindelof (back) and Marcus Rashford (shoulder) all picked up injuries.
“How can you expect players to perform to the best of their ability when you send them out at 12.30pm? Absolute joke,” he said in his post-match press conference.
“A month ago we tried to move this game. What sense is there for us to play on a Saturday when we could play on the Sunday and there is an international break afterwards?
“I can’t say enough how hard these times are for everyone, not just footballers, and we want to see football with quality.
“Our players were set up to fail today with the schedule. I pushed my club to really fight the kick-off time on this one to give us at least half a chance, but it was quashed.