MAN UTD v LIVERPOOL PREVIEW
United’s stars have to stop playing it safe insists gaffer Ole
We have to be much more adventurous.. at this club you must take risks
MANCHESTER UNITED boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has told his stars they must start taking risks to haul themselves out of their crisis.
United head into tomorrow’s clash with arch rivals Liverpool in mid-table, already 15 points behind the Premier League leaders and just two points off the relegation zone.
Under Solskjaer the goals have dried up with United managing just 18 in 21 games since he was appointed on a permanent basis in March.
United have scored just five goals in their last eight games in all competitions, with Solskjaer accusing his players of playing it too safe.
Now the Old Trafford boss has urged his players to take the shackles off and play with more freedom.
Solskjaer said: “We need to create more chances because at the back we’ve looked solid.
“But we haven’t been adventurous enough, taking enough risks.
“If you watch the best teams, they take more risks with the ball, they make more runs in behind and that’s part of the process for the boys.
“When they’re losing confidence, maybe they want to play it a bit more safe but it’s not safety that does it here – at this club you do take risks.”
United’s goal return and creativity have been undermined by injuries to attacking players, including £89million club record signing Paul Pogba and striker Anthony Martial, who has not featured since August 24.
The decision to let Romelu Lukaku and Alexis Sanchez leave in the summer, without replacing them, has come back to bite United with the squad woefully thin against the backdrop of so many injuries.
But Solskjaer claims he had to offload Lukaku and Sanchez because the pair were a toxic influence on the squad – and detrimental to the vision and philosophy he is working towards. He added: “Listen, with the culture that we want to build, I had to make those decisions.
“We know we’ve made some decisions that maybe in the short-term would harm us, but we know in the longterm they will benefit us and that’s part of the plan. Of course, when you lose the majority of your front creativity that we started with, you’re going to struggle to create as many chances as you’d like.
“Against Newcastle we had 75 per cent of the possession but we weren’t able to carve out that opening.
“The pressing up high has been very good, all the attitude and desire has been very good, but not enough chances have been created and chances haven’t been taken. “Sometimes that is confidence, that’s human nature. You see players missing chances that they wouldn’t normally miss. “But it’s up to us to keep working and get the ball in between the posts because that goal never moves. That’s the easiest bit because you know where it is.” Despite United’s bleak start, Solskjaer claims he can see progress within his squad. He said: “At times last season, I didn’t feel they had the robustness or the mentality. “We’ve been working really hard on the physical robustness, conditioning. Of course we’ve had injuries but maybe that’s part of the process here.”
MANCHESTER UTD v LIVERPOOL TOMORROW, 4.30PM, LIVE ON SKY SPORTS