Nemanja Matic says Ole Gunnar Solskjaer will be the man responsible if Manchester United fail to challenge for the Premier League title this season.
United have won only one of their first four fixtures in 2019/20 and sit eighth in the table heading into the international break.
Matic made his first appearance of the campaign in Saturday's 1-1 draw with Southampton, when the Red Devils were unable to find a winner even after their opponents had been reduced to 10 men.
And the Serbia international believes Solskjaer will be to blame if United do not meet expectations this term.
"The coach must opt for the team that will fight for the title and if he doesn't win, he bears the responsibility," Matic told reporters ahead of Serbia's Euro 2020 qualifier against Portugal.
"I've been in football for a long time, I've played almost all the games for all the clubs in the last 10 years. In order for me to play, someone had to sit on the bench and accept that fact, and so do I now.
"In the first two or three games he picked the team without me," the midfielder added. "I work as hard as I can. We respect the decision, it's up to me to show him that he was wrong and to bring me back to where I belong.
"There's no problem. I told him I disagreed with him but that he had to decide the team."
United will welcome Brendan Rodgers's Leicester to Old Trafford on September 14.
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