Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer believes his team can get a point against Southampton.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, the manager of Manchester United, has joined Jurgen Klopp in criticizing the way referees are interpreting new regulations this season.
The new season’s rules have been eased, with referees no longer penalizing “trivial things.”
“It’s like we’re going back 10 to 15 years,” Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp remarked.
Solskjaer concurred after Manchester United’s 1-1 draw with Southampton on Sunday, claiming the game had gone from “one extreme to the other.”
“If they follow that route, we’re going to get hurt,” the Norwegian predicted. “Hopefully, we’ll be able to find a happy medium.”
In the build-up to Southampton’s goal, Solskjaer’s team thought they should have been granted a free-kick for Jack Stephens’ tackle on Bruno Fernandes.
“It’s a foul,” says the referee. “He runs straight through Bruno, hip to hip, armpit to armpit, arm over him,” Solskjaer added.
“I’m not concerned, but we need to have a look at it because we can’t go from volleyball or basketball last year to rugby today.”
“I prefer the forgiving approach; it’s more men’s football, but it’s still a bad tackle.”
Solskjaer believes the loosened regulations are having a good effect on supporters.
“You can see early on with the supporters how flying into a few tackles gets the crowd going, and we did suffer a few tackles. If you like, that was part of their early thinking.”
Former England midfielder Jermaine Jenas stated on BBC Radio 5 live on Saturday that strong character coaches must support the rule change.
“Jurgen Klopp is the first person I’ve heard say he wants things to go back to the way they were, which is sad,” Jenas added.
“The referees have received a lot of heat in recent years for the way the game has gone with VAR and the way they officiate the game, and I believe they’ve handled it well.”
“We need strong personalities like Klopp to get behind it, but he clearly felt today’s game was too tough for his two centre-halves, and that’s his view.”
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