Gary Neville had a hilarious response to Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s bizarre explanation for Manchester United’s poor home form.
The Red Devils have been markedly worse on home soil compared to on the road this season, with all four of their Premier League defeats coming at Old Trafford.
They also lost a vital Champions League group-stage match to Paris Saint-Germain and were knocked out of the Carabao Cup by Manchester City at home.
Elsewhere, United have one foot in the Europa League semi-finals despite failing to beat Real Sociedad or AC Milan at Old Trafford.
Ahead of the visit of Granada on Thursday, Solskjaer raised eyebrows by claiming the red canvas covering seats in the stadium had contributed to United’s poor home form.
(Image: SKY SPORTS)
Solskjaer’s claim harked back to United’s infamous fixture at Southampton in 1996, when Sir Alex Ferguson ordered his side to change out of their grey kit at half-time.
Then-Red Devils boss Ferguson was convinced his players were struggling to spot one another in the bright sunshine on the south coast.
Neville – who started at The Dell that day – spotted the parallels between the two incidents and took to Twitter to write: “This is Ole’s Grey Shirt moment,” adding a crying-laughing emoji.
(Image: Shaun Botterill/Getty)
What do you make of Solskjaer’s claims? Have your say in the comments.
In his full explanation of his side’s poor form, Solskjaer said: “You’ll see a change now. If you see the banners round the club, it’s not red anymore. We’ve looked into this.
“There shouldn’t be any reason, really, but some of the players have mentioned 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.”
Solskjaer will hope the change of livery around Old Trafford spurs on his side to pick up their first home Europa League win this season as the Red Devils defend their 2-0 aggregate lead over Granada.
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