Manchester United coach Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has blamed the protesting fans for their 4-2 defeat to rivals Liverpool at Old Trafford on Thursday.

United were forced to arrive at the match venue six hours earlier after their supporters had planned a repeat of the protests against club owners, the Glazer family, that forced the fixture to be postponed 11 days ago.

Speaking after the defeat, Solskjaer said: “The preparation has been different but we aren’t going to make an excuse with that.

“We prepare a certain way in every game but couldn’t do that today.

“It’s probably affected them (the players) a little it but none of the players have made an excuse of it.

“The players handled the situation well, none have been complaining and they just got on to it.

“There was no point losing energy over what you can’t control.”

Manchester United have now suffered back-to-back league losses after losing to Leicester City 2-1 on Tuesday.