Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has been warned he will get sacked from Manchester United today if they suffer another crushing loss to rivals Manchester City.
The Norwegian boss is battling to save his job but will be in danger of being turfed out if City emulate Liverpool and inflict a heavy defeat on United.
Solskjaer was given extra time by The Glazers to try and turn United’s fortunes around after last month’s 5-0 trouncing against Liverpool.
The United boss responded by leading his side to a 3-0 victory over Tottenham before a late Cristiano Ronaldo goal helped them escape with a point against Atalanta in the Champions League midweek.
Today United take on their arch-rivals City knowing that a defeat could spell the end for Solskjaer.
United had endured a torrid start to the season and are already eight points off the pace and sat down in fifth after winning just five of their opening 10 Premier League games.
There had been hopes that United could challenge for the title this season after expensive signings Ronaldo, Jadon Sancho and Raphael Varane joined the club.
However, things have not gone to plan and former United striker Dimitar Berbatov fears Solskjaer’s position will become untenable if they suffer a heavy loss to City this afternoon.
Berbatov – who played 149 times for the Red Devils – told the Sun: “If United approach this City game the same as the Liverpool game, then it will be the same result.
“And if it is the same result and performance, that’s going to be too much for everybody.
“I hope and I don’t think it will be like that – otherwise it will be a double embarrassment and it would show Ole didn’t learn anything from Liverpool which shouldn’t be the case.
“They need to learn from that defeat and do everything in their power to play in a way that can win.”
United have been wholly reliant on Ronaldo, with the Portuguese superstar bailing them out on a number of occasions already this season.
And Berbatov has called on some of United’s other senior stars to step up and take some of the load off of Ronaldo.
“Ronaldo has been doing this throughout his career; covering his teammates from time to time when his team is not doing so well,” he added.
“But he cannot do this all the time. Sometimes other people need to pop up and say: ‘Take a rest – I will take it from here’.”