Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)

OLE: I’LL KEEP THE FLAG FLYING

Solskjaer vows to make United’s home a huge fortress once again

- Manchester Utd v Huddersfie­ld BY JOHN CROSS

OLE GUNNAR SOLSKJAER has vowed to keep the Manchester United fans happy and singing his name at Old Trafford.

United have brought back the “20 legend” banner to mark the caretaker boss’s first game in charge against Huddersfie­ld today. Solskjaer said: “To see that banner is special. I just hope I’ll do a good enough job for them to keep singing my name.”

OLE GUNNAR SOLSKJAER has promised he will get Manchester United to enjoy playing at Old Trafford again.

The Reds’ home form this season under Jose Mourinho was disastrous.

In a stadium which used to be a fortress, they lost big games to Tottenham (below) and Juventus, drew with Crystal Palace and Wolves and crashed out of the League Cup to Derby (right). But while it appears playing in front of

their own fans has brought added pressure, Solskjaer urged his men to enjoy the moment.

Solskjaer, who will be taking charge of his first home game in his caretaker role, said: “Of course you try to keep your emotion in check because I’m there to do a job, I’ve got to be focused.

“It’s not easy, I don’t think it will be easy, but I’m looking forward to it and I think the boys are looking forward to playing at Old Trafford.

“That’s the key, we should be looking forward to playing there. I was there with Cardiff in a reserve team game once. But of course it will be special.”

Solskjaer – who was at the Reds for 11 years as a player – accepted Old Trafford can be an intimidati­ng arena, but believes the team should be able to cope.

“That comes when you sign for Man United,” he said. “You know you’re going to play in front of the best fans in the world. Confidence is not something you store in the fridge and pick out.

“You earn it by your performanc­es, by your training, how you feel. Hopefully this gave them a boost, so I’m happy and looking forward to Boxing Day. “You can never set the bar too high. They’re setting the standard. The players who play for this club have high standards to live up to.

Solskjaer’s first game at the helm was Saturday’s 5-1 win at Cardiff, and he added: “We want to look at this game.

“We’ll evaluate, look at a few clips and as I said earlier, we can play better, we can understand each other better.”

Solskjaer was famed for his heroics as supersub, his dramatic late goals and being a legend of the Sir Alex Ferguson reign.

But there was also playing with a swashbuckl­ing style and Solskjaer is determined to bring back United’s finest traditions of attacking football during his time in charge.

The Norwegian added: “The attacking philosophy is in the walls of Man United. That’s tradition, that’s history, that’s how we want to play. Today was a good reflection of what we want.

“They’ve not said anything about any handbrake but we spoke before the Cardiff game in the team meeting about how when we get one, we want to get two. When we get two, we want to get three. That’s the nature of this team, this club.

“You always go and attack. It’s not going to happen every game that you’re going to create chances like we did at Cardiff. You’ve got to try and do that.

“It worked at Cardiff. With the blistering pace we’ve got up front, they had to chase the game. I don’t think any team would like Rashford, Martial, Lingard, Pogba running at them.”

 ??  ??
 ??  ??
 ??  ??

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United Kingdom