Solskjaer: Semi-finals are not good enough

Manchester United boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has demanded more from his players after reaching three semi-finals without converting the appearances into finals or silverware.

United went out to Chelsea in the FA Cup semi-finals where Frank Lampard’s side then went out to an eminently beatable Arsenal line-up at Arsenal.

The club also reached the semi-finals of the Carabao Cup but went out to Manchester City 3-2 on aggregate.

Solskjaer has been at United for a season and a half and is yet to win a trophy with the club as manager, although he won humploads of silverware with the club in his time as a player, and won the treble in 1999 which, if nothing else, was efficient.

United face Sevilla in the Europa League on Sunday in their third semi-final of the season, in Cologne, where the mini-tournament is being held.

Speaking to the United in-house television channel MUTV, the United manager said that his players could not keep falling at the penultimate hurdle.

‘Let’s see if we’ve developed throughout the season because we’ve had two semi-finals before,’ the United boss explained.

‘We want to go to the next step.

‘Semi-finals, that’s a good effort, decent but it’s not good enough. It’s not good enough for Man United still.

‘The team has been developing, getting more and more hungry.

‘Let’s make sure that hurt that we felt in both the other cups that we’ve gone out, that can be our maybe marginal difference. The difference that we want it more than them.’

United could face Inter Milan in the final, who have former United players Ashley Young, Alexis Sanchez and Romelu Lukaku in their squad. The Italian side will play Shakhtar Donetsk in their semi-final.

Manchester United won the Europa League for the first time, under Jose Mourinho, when they defeated Ajax in 2017.