Solskjaer reacts to Huddersfield draw

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer reflected on a frustrating day for Manchester United as our final away game of the season ended in a disappointing 1-1 draw against Huddersfield Town.

The Reds started brightly and took the lead on eight minutes through Scott McTominay's effort, but Isaac Mbenza ensured the hosts had a share of the spoils with his equaliser on the hour-mark, seconds after United had taken a corner at the other end of the pitch.

The draw means Solskjaer's men are now out of the running for a top-four place and after the game, the United boss gave his reaction to MUTV and to reporters at his post-match press conference...

NO CHAMPIONS LEAGUE IS A BIG BLOW
“We gave ourselves hope and belief that we could make it and we have had other results [go for us] but we’ve not been able to capitalise. It’s a big blow. Of course everyone is disappointed in the dressing room and you could say we lost the opportunity today for Champions League football, but that’s not the case, it’s been all through the season that it’s not been good enough. We haven’t been able to turn games to our advantage when we should have done, like today.”

WE GAVE THEM HOPE
“We should have capitalised on the good start we had, we should have won the game in the first half an hour to be fair. We created chances and when you go up 2-0 away from home that’s a different scenario but we couldn’t get the second goal. We gave them hope, we had some sloppy passes, some sloppy decisions and we stopped moving. And in the end they created chances and got the goal.”

FRUSTRATING TO CONCEDE FROM OUR OWN CORNER
“We’ve done that a few times this year. There are so many things we will improve on and can improve on. You should never concede goals from your own corners, we did it against Everton, we did it against Wolves and we’ve done it again today. We need to make sure we don’t make those individual errors.”

BIG SUMMER AHEAD
“We’ve talked about next season as in we need to start to rebuild and of course next season will be one without Champions League football - that’s a challenge in itself, playing on Thursdays. We’ll see how we cope with that. It’s a big summer.”

WE’VE BEEN INCONSISTENT
“Effort and attitude was not the problem. I can say that the players were running, they were trying. We just weren't good enough and of course it's disappointing. We should have, could have, played better but we didn't. They started creating chances suddenly. In the first half, you thought after half an hour they weren't close to our box once. We've been inconsistent throughout the season. We've had good periods, bad periods, and in games as well. Today we had some good periods, very bad periods and it's just caught up with us. It's a fair reflection probably, being sixth.

“We gave ourselves a chance to be in the Champions League, something that we didn't think was possible. We got so many opportunities to grab the third or fourth place, we weren't able to, so it's probably the right place to be for us, the Europa League next year. And if City don't win the FA Cup, we'll have a very early and bright start in the qualifiers for the Europa League and that might make it even more difficult.”

TIREDNESS HAS PLAYED A PART
“Well they're not letting me down, we're a team, we're a team together. We've been working really hard. It's been a tired team towards the end, I have to say. I heard Jurgen [Klopp] talking last week, saying they [Liverpool] are ready to go again and they have loads of energy. When you get good results, you get loads of energy. They're human beings. When you get bad results, you lose energy and start worrying and that's what's caught up with us towards the end here.”

USING THE EUROPA LEAGUE IN A POSITIVE WAY
“You can sometimes use the Europa League as something positive, as Chelsea and Arsenal have done this year, as we did a couple of years ago when we won the Europa League. I am an optimist by nature and I will make the most of it. The kids will get chances to play games, that's for sure. We'll have to make something positive out of it, no matter what.“

ALEXIS INJURY UPDATE
”It was an ankle injury. If he twisted his ankle or if he was stood upon, I don't know. I haven't seen him after.“