‘No team can win every game’ – Man Utd’s Matic calls for consistency following underwhelming start to 2020-21

Nemanja Matic has called for consistency following Manchester United‘s underwhelming start to the 2020-21 campaign, but added that “no team can win every game”.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side picked up the second-highest number of points in the Premier League post-lockdown, sealing a third-place finish and a return to the Champions League.

Some experts backed the Red Devils to significantly sorten the gap at the top of the table with Liverpool and Manchester City following that impressive run, having seen January signing Bruno Fernandes inspire an impressive turnaround in fortunes and lift the performance levels of the whole squad.

However, United suffered a surprise 3-1 defeat at home to Crystal Palace in their first game of the new season on September 19, which raised fresh doubts over their title-winning credentials.

An unconvincing 3-2 win away at Brighton the following week heaped more pressure on Solskjaer amid a lack of transfer activity at Old Trafford, with the likes of Liverpool, City, Chelsea and Arsenal all investing heavily to improve their squads.

Ahead of a crucial meeting with Tottenham at the Theatre of Dreams on Sunday, Matic has talked up the need for the Red Devils to embark on regular winning streaks in order to challenge for titles.

“I always like to say the team who is fighting for the title needs to have that run always of five or six games before you drop some points, that’s normal, no team can win every game,” the Serbian midfielder told United’s official website.

“We’ve already dropped some points at home in the first game so now we need to make a run of five or six games winning, winning, winning – because then we will have a chance to win some trophies. That’s exactly how we finished last season.

“We know what we did well and we have to practice that and try to repeat that again so we have more belief and more confidence to go into the next games.”

Matic also stressed the importance of defending as a team while outlining his main responsibilities in Solskjaer’s starting line up.

Pressed on United’s issues at the back after shipping five goals in their opening two fixtures, the 32-year-old added: “I think everybody has to defend. As I said, football is a team sport.

“When you concede a goal, not only does the goalkeeper and defenders concede it, everyone needs to take responsibility. And also when we score, everyone is involved.

“We have to start the action from the back – we defend together and we attack together.

“In my position, my job is more to help give the balance to the team, especially when we defend, and we will all take responsibility.”