The Man Utd semi-final hoodoo isn't real - stop mentioning it

As Manchester United prepare to enter yet another semi-final under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, all the talk seems to be surrounding the fact they're yet to win one under the Norwegian.

Since taking over from Jose Mourinho in December 2018, the former Red Devils striker has led his side to two League Cup semi-finals, an FA Cup semi-final and the 2020 Europa League semi-final, but has yet to go one step further.

The first semi-final he reached was in the 2019/20 League Cup against Manchester City. The first leg at Old Trafford saw them get completely outplayed and overrun by Pep Guardiola's side, with Bernardo Silva, Riyad Mahrez and an Andreas Pereira own goal giving them a 3-0 lead before Marcus Rashford scored late on.

In the second leg, United were much better at the Etihad Stadium and took the lead through Nemanja Matic's fine drive, but when the Serb was sent off late on City were able to hold on and progress.

United then made it to the FA Cup semi-finals and were favourites against Frank Lampard's Chelsea side heading into the game. It was an even game up until David De Gea had an absolute howler as he let Olivier Giroud poke the ball beyond him in the first half, before completely messing up a routine save to allow Mason Mount to get on the scoresheet.

Antonio Rudiger added another at the near post to make it 3-0, and while Bruno Fernandes pulled one back from the penalty spot it wasn't enough.

Just a few weeks later against Sevilla in the Europa League they were favourites to get through to the final once again, but once again fell short. A double from Luuk De Jong cancelled out another Fernandes penalty as United crashed out to make it three semi-final failures in one season.

This term they crashed out of the League Cup to Man City again, this time in a one-legged encounter where John Stones and Fernandinho scored in a much more even game.

But it means that four consecutive semi-finals have passed that Solskjaer hasn't been able to navigate, and fans are worried. But they shouldn't be, because it simply isn't important or relevant.

Losing to Man City is nothing to be ashamed of, especially considering the position both clubs are in right now. It's not exactly rocket science to understand that City are the better team, with a better manager and better players. The most recent semi-final in January showed that, and it was the only difference on the night.

Losing to Chelsea isn't the worst thing in the world either, but it definitely doesn't help when your undisputed number one goalkeeper makes two howlers in the same game. That's not something Solskjaer can legislate for and when your players make errors like that against the better teams, it's almost always impossible to come back from.

The Sevilla game is the one that United fans should be most worried about, but it's not like they're a bad team. There were some defensive lapses during the game which allowed the opposition to score, but they also missed a lot of huge chances of their own to progress to the final.

On another day they win that game and get to the final, which it's worth remembering Sevilla triumphed in against Antonio Conte's much-fancied Inter side.

It's a new season, a new opponent and yet another semi-final for Solskjaer and United to navigate. This time they're clearly the better team, with the better players and are in the driver's seat when it comes to form.

But if they do go out it won't be because of a semi-final hoodoo, it will simply be because they've underperformed. Again.