Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer believes that his team’s bad home record might be due to the colour of the wraps over the empty seats at Old Trafford.
Manchester United have lost four times, drawing another three – amassing 27 points at home this season. Whereas they secured 36 points when on road, stretching their unbeaten run to 23 away fixtures.
United secured a final four clash against Roma, seeing off Granada 2-0 at home (4-0 aggregate) on Thursday through Edison Cavani’s early strike and an own goal by Jesus Vallejo in the 90 minute. But, before the match, the Norwegian was questioned about the difference between his side’s home and away form, to which he promptly announced that it might have something to do with the red seat wraps across the stadium.
“You’ll see a change now, if you see the banners around the club, it’s not red anymore,”
Solskjaer said.
Since the games resumed after lockdown last year, most Premier League clubs decided to cover all of their stadium seats with wraps or pictures and messages from the fans.
The Red Devils too joined the bandwagon and decorated the empty chairs with red wrappers and the aforementioned photos and messages of support from the United faithful.
But, it appears that this move has seriously affected player performance at the ‘Theatre of Dreams’.
“We’ve looked into this, there shouldn’t be a reason, really. But some of the players have mentioned that split-second decision you have to make where you look over your shoulder to see if your team-mate is there or not and the red shirt is on a red background with red seats. So, we’ve tried to change that along with the anti-racism campaign, that was important that it wasn’t red anymore.”
Solskjaer quoted.
Meanwhile, Clubs in lower tiers of English football have been asked to change the banners in their staidum, to anti-discriminatory messages, following the SEE RED anti-discrimination campaign which aims to combat racism. The seats will now be covered in black wraps with white lettering on them.
