Former Manchester United defender Paul Parker believes that his former team were unfortunate against Sevilla in yesterday’s Europa League semi-final – and, indeed, played some fantastic football.
United’s season ended rather belatedly and still somewhat prematurely after the disappointing defeat in Germany last night – and, while there have been criticisms over the performance, Parker was keen to point out Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s team had put in a positive performance for much of the game.
“At the start of the second half, they were excellent, almost like the United of old,” Parker said exclusively on this week’s Talking Devils podcast. “They just needed one to go in and it would have gone on from there. It did show that they were lacking that clinical finisher.”
Still, Parker couldn’t avoid the topic of the defensive errors for the goals.
“You have to mention Lindelof and wonder about his positioning for the second goal,” he said. “It was poor. I just wonder if Wan-Bissaka was screaming at him or not. He should have been. When you’re doing a job as a defender, I always say you have to be a man and a half, but nobody was doing that. Everyone’s raging at Lindelof, and yes, you would do, but was Wan-Bissaka communicating or just leaving to Lindelof? I also felt Williams’ positioning was poor and he could have stopped crosses coming in. He is young but he was caught out. Hopefully he will improve, which he will need to if he’s going to become an international.”
The former United defender feels that for once, at the end of a long season, tiredness was a reason and not an excuse.
“There were tired legs last night,” he says. “I hate saying that as a rule, but they really were last night, and when Sevilla’s second goal went in, you could almost see the energy go from the United players. Their mental energy went. They couldn’t see a way they were going to get back into it after how they started the second half.”
Parker says in order for the club to move to the next level, Solskjaer needs to recruit players ready to make an instant impact : “United now need to go and get quality players, players who can come and make the step up immediately. Two great players instead of four also-rans.”
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