Dimitar Berbatov believes there is still a belief within the players for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer as the Manchester United clings to his job.
Liverpool inflicted upon United one of their worst ever results, a 5-0 home defeat coming a little over a year after Tottenham ran out 6-1 winners and a decade and a day after a Man City triumphed by the same result.
Despite Solskjaer's status within the club for his exploits as a player and sporadic high point as a manager, Berbatov feels that the dressing room remains the Norweigan's safe place - but could the players turn, then his time will be up.
"I still think the majority of the players at United still believe in Ole, the respect is too much," Berbatov told Betfair.
"When the manager is an ex-footballer and a legend, they have that respect and trust from the players. Only up to a certain point though, and if you lose that respect it's hard to get back but I still think Ole has a bit more until he reaches that point.
"Like back when I was playing, there are a lot of big players in the dressing room at United. Big egos, big mentalities and winning personalities. So, of course it's difficult for a manager to handle when you lose games 5-0 against your rivals."
Cristiano Ronaldo on deadline day made his return to the club 12 years after leaving for a then-world record fee, marking his comeback with a brace against Newcastle United and has played a key role in securing wins in both of United's last two Champions League games.
With the 36-year-old's experience, the Bulgarian expects Ronaldo to be vocal during the difficult parts, he added: "When you watch the game back you can see the frustration from Ronaldo, he was angry, desperate and disappointed with everything that was going on, he didn't expect a thrashing. I bet he had a lot to say at half-time and after the game.
"When you have players of Ronaldo's stature in the team, they can have an honest conversation, and I hope they did, and strong words if they have to.
"Sometimes the manager will step back, and leave the players to talk it out, say what they want to each other so they can be free, and sometimes the manager may also get involved. In this case, I hope that Ole has shown them his disappointment and anger because at the end of the day he's the boss and he is taking the blame at the end of the day.
"He needs to be really strong with them. Sometimes, the team can have crisis talk, only the players coming together in the dressing room to have a chat, I remember we used to do that back in the day with Gary Neville, Giggsy, Scholsey, Rooney and Rio would initiate talks like this in the dressing room, we would sit and chat and talk through problems."
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