Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Manchester United may be on the brink of separation after the club’s humiliating loss at Vicarage Road on Saturday afternoon.

United were punished for their flimsy efforts and suffered their fifth defeat in the Premier League from their last seven matches.

This comes after a run of results that includes a 5-0 thrashing at home to Liverpool and a 2-0 defeat in the Manchester derby.

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Senior high-profile figures at the club fumed at the full-time whistle and felt let down after backing the Norwegian manager to turn things around, as per sources.

Similar to the Man City loss prior to the international break, United were embarrassed by Claudio Ranieri’s Watford and slumped down the league table to seventh.

After the Liverpool hammering, all the reports suggested Antonio Conte was waiting for United’s call but that never came. They passed up on that potential appointment and Tottenham Hotspur jumped on the opportunity to appoint the Italian.

The board backed Solskjaer to turn it around, but the club's form has since worsened. The league table since September 25 has them sat bottom.

Newcastle United, Norwich City and Aston Villa all parted ways with their managers before the international break and none of those teams lost on Saturday.

Steven Gerrard’s Villa rallied to beat Brighton & Hove Albion, Dean Smith’s Norwich made it two consecutive wins with a narrow victory over Southampton and Eddie Howe’s Newcastle fought hard to take a point at home against Brentford.

The issue surrounding the potential sacking of the manager is the lack of available options to succeed Solskjaer. Names like Brendan Rodgers, Mauricio Pochettino, Ralf Rangnick and Erik ten Hag have all been connected to the job, but they are all currently in management.

After only just coming off the back of the final international break of the calendar year, United’s schedule only intensifies as the festive period gets underway. They will compete in 11 games across the next 41 days which starts with a trip to Villarreal on Tuesday night followed by a visit to the league leaders, Chelsea next weekend.

United have fixtures they can’t afford to lose in the next month. The competition is favourable compared to what they have faced in the previous few weeks. After they welcome Arsenal to Old Trafford, they don’t face a team from the ‘big six’ until March.

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