After Manchester United’s defeat at the hands of Young Boys to kick off their Champions League campaign, the focus was on Jesse Lingard due to his mistake late on handing the Swiss side their winning goal deep into injury time.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer came out to defend his player after the match, saying: “We’re humans, every footballer makes mistakes. With Jesse, no footballer likes making mistakes but it’s obviously part and parcel of the game. We’ll learn from it, he’ll learn from it. He’ll pick himself up and be ready to go on Sunday against West Ham.
“Of course we’ve lost the opportunity to get three points but we’ve got two home games next and got to focus on them two. Lack of concentration, make a mistake and you get punished. You get done. We did that last year in Europe.
“Today in the last seconds Jesse just wants to play it safe and just one misplaced pass and you’ve conceded a goal.”
Lingard then came out to apologise himself on Twitter, posting: “Last night hurt. Every time I pull on the shirt, I hope people understand what it means to me. I always go out wanting to do the best for the club, the team and the fans. I’m upset for my part in the defeat. Mistakes happen in football but we pick ourselves up and go again.”
It wasn’t exactly the best timing for a mistake from Lingard. The United academy product rejected a new contract last week, with the signing of Cristiano Ronaldo and Jadon Sancho likely to mean first team opportunities will be scarce for the attacking midfielder. He impressed on loan at West Ham last season and Solskjaer has stated his desire for Lingard to stay, but his form at United has been poor recently, leading to criticism from fans.
The defeat wasn’t all Lingard’s fault though. He may have accidentally set up the winning goal, yet he wasn’t even on the pitch when the equaliser went in.
Solskjaer had changed to a back five after Aaron Wan-Bissaka was sent off, bringing on Raphaël Varane and Diogo Dalot, yet even with a backline costing well over £100m, United were unable to protect their lead.
In this video we examine why exactly United’s defence were unable to stop Moumi Ngamaleu from scoring.
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