Manchester United fans have not taken things lightly with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer for his decision to start Matteo Darmian, Ashley Young and Jesse Lingard in Wednesday's epic clash with Manchester City. While the Italian defender has been out with an injury for some time now, the English duo have delivered subpar performance in recent weeks, attracting strong criticisms from the Red Devils aficionados.
Ahead of the encounter that has the potential to determine the Premier League title winner as well as the final top-four standings, Solskjaer made five changes to the team that endured the 4-0 thrashing against Everton on Sunday. The rotation saw Young and Lingard - both non-starters during the trip to the Goodison Park - return to the starting line up at the expense of Phil Jones and Anthony Martial.
And in the red corner... #MUFC #MUNMCI
— Manchester United (@ManUtd) April 24, 2019
Matteo Darmian, who has not featured in a single Premier League match since January, was also handed a starting berth while Andreas Pereira and Luke Shaw also found themselves in contention for first 45 minutes.
Diogo Dalot, Marcos Rojo and Romelu Lukaku are the remaining trio who could not maintain their spot in the starting eleven. Below are the reactions of some fans discontent with Solskjaer's choices:
Martial, Lukaku, Matic, Dalot all dropped for poor performances vs Everton. Ashley Young and Jesse Lingard still start after a truly awful few months. If you're going to drop players, drop them all. You can't have favourites.
— The Man Utd Way (@TheManUtdWay) April 24, 2019
Back five with Ashely Young at CB and Lingard playing upfront in the derby pic.twitter.com/ZBsi9m88tB
— Tяυsτ №¹-Yahya™ (@RealistYahz) April 24, 2019
young and lingard pic.twitter.com/PT7moC17vF
— Ibrahim (@Fishtankoala) April 24, 2019
What exactly does Ole wants to achieve with this line up? Lingard and Ashley Young? Where will Darmian play from? Is it a 352? Lingard will just run like a fool for 90 minutes. How's Lukaku benched? Rashford will do the usual by missing setters. I hope Pogba starts from left.
— Prophet Chijioke. (@ProphetChijioke) April 24, 2019
One thing is very clear now; Ole doesn't have a clue. It's only him that can't see how terrible Young and Lingard are.
— Larule (@laruleMayor) April 24, 2019
I saw young , smalling , lingard ... u already know it's going to be a crappy game
— W (@itsOsiT) April 24, 2019
Our DNA passion manager said he wants to play fearless footbal but plays 5 atb at home,still plays Ashley Young and still plays Rashford and Lingard,who runs around like headless chickens. They have been in much worser forms than other players
— Khairul (@wintermeth) April 24, 2019