Ole Gunnar Solskjaer says Manchester United's patchy home form is partly down to the fact his players were unable to see each other clearly due to the red stadium wrap at Old Trafford.
Tuesday marked 25 years to the day since Alex Ferguson famously ordered his players to change from their grey kit to a blue-and-white strip midway through a 3-1 loss at Southampton.
Solskjaer joined United the season after the Dell debacle and raised the issue of spotting players ahead of Thursday’s Europa League quarter-final second leg against Granada at an empty Old Trafford.
All four of this season’s Premier League defeats have come at home, while they suffered a key Champions League group loss to Paris St Germain there, along with the Carabao Cup semi-final defeat to Manchester City.
When that record was put to Solskjaer along with the fact United have yet to win a home Europa League game despite triumphing at Real Sociedad, AC Milan and Granada without conceding, he said: "You’ll see a change now.
"If you see the banners round the club, it’s not red anymore. We’ve looked into this.
"There shouldn’t be any reason, really, but some of the players have mentioned that split-second decision that you have to make, look over your shoulder if your team-mate’s there or not and the red shirt is on a red background just with the red seats.
"So we’ve of course tried to change that, along with an anti-racism campaign, so of course that was important that it wasn’t red anymore."
Striker Marcus Rashford is a doubt for tomorrow's game. The 23-year-old overcame injury concerns to open the scoring in last week's 2-0 first-leg win in Spain before being withdrawn in the 66th minute.
Rashford managed 72 minutes of Sunday’s 3-1 Premier League win at Tottenham but was absent from training on the eve of Thursday’s return fixture against Granada.
The club said: "Daniel James is fit, despite missing the win at Tottenham through injury, but Marcus Rashford had to sit out training on Wednesday and is, therefore, doubtful for the tie."
Anthony Martial and Phil Jones remain injured for a game that Eric Bailly will miss, despite returning from the Ivory Coast, where he had previously tested positive for Covid-19.
United captain Harry Maguire, midfielder Scott McTominay and left-back Luke Shaw are suspended after collecting bookings in Andalusia.
UEFA has handed United a €7,000 fine for picking up five yellow cards in the first leg win, while several players are walking a suspension tightrope ahead of the semi-finals.
United boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer said: "It’s never a positive thing to not have every player available, but we’ve got players ready to deputise and come into the team of course.
"It was (a booking) amnesty after this quarter-final so we hoped to get them through, but there were some easy yellow cards that the ref handed out. We’re ready to deal with that."
