Joe Cole has brutally summarised Manchester United under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer as "always 90 minutes away from a crisis" following their poor run of form as the pressure mounts on the Norwegian.
Starting with Kortney Hause's goal handing Aston Villa a rare Old Trafford win before defeats to Leicester and Liverpool followed with a draw against Everton in between.
Home form has been a talking point surrounding Manchester United as they struggle to make the advantage count and last Saturday's 2-0 defeat to Manchester City marked their third home defeat of the season and left them nine points off the title race after just 11 games.
Following the drubbing by Liverpool, Solskjaer was tipped to be the next manager sacked but the club maintained their faith, despite strong links with Antonio Conte, and was rewarded with a resounding 3-0 win against Tottenham - who then sacked Nuno Espirito Santo and hired the Italian.
However, defeat to Pep Guardiola's side once again saw the pressure mount up to leave Solskjaer in a precarious position during the international break.
"You have to feel for Ole in a certain way because he always seems to be 90 minutes away from a crisis. They are off it. They have backed him. We'd said this year will be the make or break year. They have to compete for silverware," Cole said, speaking to Coral.
“On their day they can beat anyone, Manchester United, they have quality, but they haven't addressed the balance in the midfield.
“I mean, all pundits talk about it but they haven't quite got hold of that area, Manchester City were so dominant in that area of the park. So until they do that, they won't compete for the league title. But the quality in attack means that on any given day, they can go and put four or five past anyone.
“So the cup competitions are where it is for Manchester United this year. I made my mind up on that, possibly about three or four weeks ago.
"Having watched them for the third or fourth time this year and I was like they don't seem as cohesive as Manchester City, Chelsea or Liverpool at the moment, so there is still work in progress.”
With a week left of the break, the players who didn't travel with their respective countries namely Jadon Sancho, Jesse Lingard, Marcus Rashford and Mason Greenwood will return to training after a week off, the latter two continued training with the U18s and U23s despite being allowed time off.
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