Former Aston Villa and Tottenham Hotspur right-back Alan Hutton has said that Manchester United are in need of an "elite manager" to help "galvanise" the team, amid their recent woes.
United suffered their fourth defeat in their last six Premier League matches last Saturday, going down 2-0 at the hands of cross-city rivals Manchester City, meaning manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is now under tremendous pressure to save his job.
Although United are not expected to sack the Norwegian yet, largely because they have no succession plan in place, his position is understood to be increasingly at risk.
The defeat to City was United's second successive defeat at Old Trafford to one of their rivals, with the 5-0 defeat to Liverpool just 13 days earlier meaning that they have now lost their last two home games in the Premier League by an aggregate score of 0-7.
With the pressure mounting, former Scotland international Hutton has urged United to turn a top-level manager to transform their fortunes and resolve their current issue of looking like a team of individuals, opposed to a collective unit.
"It’s a difficult situation. He’s been given that extra leeway because he’s a legend of the club," Hutton told Football Insider.
"I totally understand that, but if Man United are truly going to challenge for the top four – they need an elite manager.
"They need someone to galvanise the team. I’ve worked on a couple of their games this season, the Leicester game – they look like a team of individuals.
"They’re not pressing as one, they’re not an effective unit.
"It’s going to take someone big to come in and sort that out."
Although a growing number of United supporters have also been calling for a changing of the guard, there has been no clear front-runner for the job, with the likes of Leicester City manager Brendan Rodgers, Erik ten Hag of Ajax and former Real Madrid chief Zinedine Zidane amongst those most frequently being linked with the position.
Therefore, it is proving hard to predict who could succeed Solskjaer if he is given his marching orders.
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