Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has blamed Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp for the limited penalties awarded to Manchester United in recent times.
In recent years many Premier League club managers have been critical of the many penalties Manchester United receive. For almost three seasons running, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side have received the most amount of spot-kicks, including last season, where they were just one short of Leicester’s haul of 12.
The season before, the Old Trafford side were awarded a record 14 penalties, and many were critical of soft refereeing decisions favouring the Red Devils. Jurgen Klopp has been one of the managers, vocal in the media regarding this issue.
Last season, Klopp stated that United were awarded more penalties in two seasons than his side achieved during the German’s five and a half year reign. The statement was true, and the number of spot-kicks awarded to United have been astonishing.
However, Solskjaer has taken a swipe at Klopp, blaming him for the lower number of spot-kicks awarded to his side. The Manchester United manager stated, since the German commented on the subject, referees had become wary of giving his side penalties, even when they warranted one.
Pointing towards last weekend’s clash against West Ham as well as the Carabao Cup game earlier in the week, Solskjaer said United should have awarded at least three spot-kicks and got none. Ironically, the Hammers were awarded one in stoppage time for a Luke Shaw handball and Mark Noble missed his kick.
Solskjaer said, “We just have to hope we get what we deserve. We should have had three pens in the last two games [versus West Ham, on Sunday and Wednesday].
“There was a certain manager last year who was starting to worry about us getting penalties, and after that, it seems like the decisions are more difficult to give [to us]. Surely I’ve seen a big, big difference since then on. But we just have to leave it up to the refs and hope that they will make the right calls very soon.”
What the Manchester United manager says makes sense, but blaming the issue on Klopp seems unreasonable. However, with the season only five matchdays old, there’s still a long way to go, and at the end of it, we can conclude if Solskjaer was right on the German manager.
