Manchester United needs to strengthen squad depth, says Solskjaer

Cologne, Aug. 17 (IANS): Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has said the team needs to strengthen its squad depth ahead of next season after being knocked out of the Europa League.

“They (the players) need to keep improving, keep doing what they’ve done every single day and they’ve worked so hard, with the right attitude and mentality,” Solskjaer said as quoted by Sky Sports.

“We need to strengthen the squad depth because it’s going to be a long season. We’re going to keep pushing and keep demanding more of the players that we have, but still, we’re looking to improve and it’s a strange one. The league starts very quickly, but then the (transfer) market is open for so long. So we’ve got to be both good, smart and clever.

“It’s only going to be a couple of weeks rest until we get going again. We have to dust ourselves down, make sure that we are ready and fresh to go,” he added.

United were beaten 1-2 at the semi-final stage for a third time this season, this time Sevilla ending their run with a come-from-behind victory.

They had the best possible start in Cologne when Bruno Fernandes converted from the spot inside nine minutes, but former Liverpool winger Suso levelled things up for Sevilla just before the half-an-hour mark and Luuk de Jong tapped home late on with some poor defending also to blame.

Speaking about the defeat, Solskjaer: “The result is very disappointing. We’re not devastated, but it’s one of those hard ones to take because you feel you played some fantastic stuff at times, created chances and just couldn’t get the goals that were, I felt, deserved at times. In different spells of the game, I thought we were absolutely excellent.

“We were on top for long spells, both first and second half, especially at the start of both halves. We created chances and should have scored, but I can’t fault the boys. “But we seem to let off at times because when we were on top, that’s the time to keep squeezing them. We let them play too much in periods and we definitely let him off the hook,” he added.