THE LOWDOWN
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.”