Bournemouth: Ole Gunnar Solskjaer admitted Manchester United had taken a “step back” after their mini-revival came to a crashing halt as Josh King’s strike earned Bournemouth a 1-0 win in treacherous weather conditions on England’s south coast.
Solskjaer’s men had not won away from home since March until 10 days ago, but three consecutive wins on the road at Partizan Belgrade, Norwich and Chelsea to book a place in the League Cup quarter-finals in midweek hinted at a turning point for the Norwegian.
Instead, the failings that have characterised their season were back in evidence as a lack of goal threat and one moment of slack defending inflicted a fourth Premier League defeat in 11 games.”We have to win games like this. We are disappointed but when you come to places like this you have to take control of the game. We did not and we could not get the goal,” Solskjaer said.
“We were missing some quality at times. Maybe I should have started some others. I think we started the game well though so maybe that was not the case.”After their upturn in form lately, Solskjaer conceded he was expecting a better result as United try to get back in the race for a top four finish.
“You are always very down when you lose and considering the form we were in we were hoping to take the three points. It is a step back for us today, but we need to shake it off and go again,” he said.
“The first goal was always going to be important. Every time you concede a goal it is bad but we are disappointed with this. We had time to tackle on a couple of occasions.”We could not capitalise on the good start and a moment of magic won the game for them.”The visitors had started the brighter as both sides struggled to cope in the howling wind and rain.Daniel James whistled a long-range effort just wide, whilst Anthony Martial saw appeals for a penalty waved away. However, Bournemouth struck their decisive blow just before the break. (AFP)
