Man Utd boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer slammed for Odion Ighalo treatment

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has been accused of not giving Odion Ighalo a chance to shine at Manchester United.

The on-loan Shanghai Shenhua striker scored five times in eight games in the Europa League and FA Cup but struggled to nail down a regular spot in their Premier League side.

Ighalo was restricted to a bit-part role and never played more than 20 minutes in a game as Solskjaer’s men secured a top four spot.

The Nigerian’s deal at Old Trafford has been extended until the new year, and former Super Eagle Victor Ezeji has urged Solskjaer to give Ighalo the opportunity to impress.

He told Goal : “Every coach believes in his starting XI and to be very fair to Ighalo, the Covid situation did not help him, because if not for Covid, [Marcus] Rashford would still have been out until the end of the season.

“And when Rashford recovered, because of the belief Ole has in Rashford, he had to bring him back into the team.

“And then you can see that [Anthony] Martial was firing on all cylinders, same as [Mason] Greenwood, so there was no way Ole was going to drop any of those guys for Ighalo.

Manchester United are looking to plot their path back to the top. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has already brought in Donny van de Beek but Jadon Sancho remains Manchester United’s number one target.

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“But where I will fault Ole is that even when these guys are not meeting up in some games, I think he should have tried Ighalo.

“It wasn’t really nice that a player’s contract was renewed and you didn’t even allow him to play up to 20 minutes of any Premier League game. That is not encouraging. It makes a player lose all the confidence he has built over time.”