Before Manchester United's 1-0 defeat to West Ham in the Carabao Cup on Wednesday night, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was praised for his squad selection.
United's manager made 11 changes to the team that faced the Hammers in Sunday's Premier League match at the London Stadium, with some fringe players given a chance to break into the Norwegian tactician's strongest starting XI.
The match saw the likes of Alex Telles, Diogo Dalot, Juan Mata and others handed an opportunity, players who have struggled for game time this season - and it showed.
United looked sluggish and off the pace, but are we being too harsh consdering their lack of minutes prior to the clash? Anyway, caveats aside, if we're judging them on their performances alone, they weren't great.
Left-back Telles - who started his first game since being injured in pre-season - put in a lacklustre performance and was at fault for the goal after failing to track the run of Ryan Fredericks.
Telles' career at United hasn't got off to the start many predicted, with the Brazil international living in the shadow of Luke Shaw who seems to have benefitted from the extra comeptition for a place in the team. He definitely needs to find his feet at the club soon if he's to have a future at Old Trafford.
Anthony Martial, who began the night as United's striker, failed to really have an impact on prceedings.
As we can see from this heat map, the Frenchman was too preoccupied with drifting into the left-hand channel, with Jadon Sancho subsequently forced to find space in other areas of the pitch. With Martial out wide and nobody leading the line, United struggled to convert the chances they created.
Solskjaer's side had 26 shots on goal against the Hammers and only six of them were on target - not the sort of accuracy needed if a team wants to challenge for silverware on multiple fronts.
It wasn't all doom and gloom as there were some impressive displays from those in a United shirt, with Jesse Lingard, Nemanja Matic and Donny van de Beek all showing they can be useful members of the squad moving forward.
In the case of Van de Beek, he needs his teammates to help him by making runs into the channels - he didn't really get that against the Hammers.
33-year-old Mata was far too static and he found the game passing him by at times. This meant United lacked firepower up top and this ultimately cost them their place in the Carabao Cup.
There was no real middle ground in terms of performance levels. Some players looked good, some players looked terrible.
Talk before the game was of the importance of cup competitions for Solskjaer because there's no doubt he needs to win a trophy. Indeed, the season is still young and there's a lot to play for, but the third round loss represents a missed opportunity.
The Carabao Cup was seen as a chance to finally notch some silverware as well as being used as a competition to help squad players sharpen up. Advancing to the latter stages of the competition could've helped boost morale as well as acting as a stepping stone to bigger and better things.
Consequently, a lot of the talk will now be focussed on the manager, which feels unfair consdering supporters were demanding he made changes for the West Ham game and that's exactly what he did - the problem is his players let him down.
Now United have lost, he's going to be criticised. You can't have it both ways.
However, Solskjaer will now know who can be trusted to perform when he needs some of his squad players to step up.
It's abundently clear that Solskjaer needs to win a trophy at United as he takes charge of his third full season as manager. The 2021/21 Carabao Cup is now no longer an option and that heaps further pressure on the boss.
United still have the FA Cup, Champions League and Premier League to play for, so it's important not to overreact too much, but the Carabao Cup will definitely have been earmarked as the most attainable of the four. Some of the players have let the team down.
There's no doubt in my mind that the Norwegian boss has been United's best manager since Sir Alex Ferguson and he's the one person most United fans really want to succeed. However, if he doesn't bring in a trophy this season with the players at his disposal, you have to fear the United board will take action, even though I don't believe he should go.
Having a big squad is vital if you want to fight on numerous fronts, but fringe players need to step up when called upon - United's didn't.
What do you think of United's squad depth? Follow our new United Fan Brands writer Omar Garrick on Twitter to get involved in the West Ham discussion and give us your thoughts on the matter in the comments section below.
