Rudiger to return
OLE GUNNAR SOLSKJAER has to shoulder the blame for Manchester United’s spot-kick confusion.
I cannot understand how a manager can send two players – Paul Pogba and Marcus Rashford – on to a pitch with the mindset of one having to stand down as penalty taker in the heat of the moment. Solskjaer carries the can for this one. It makes no sense. A penalty taker has to be 100 per cent confident and you have to know in your mind, if you get one, that you are ready and mentally prepared. You are sending two players out who mentally don’t know who will actually take it. Pogba has now missed four spot-kicks in the last 12 months and Rashford has converted his last two. Solskjaer needs to stop tiptoeing around the issue and enforce some clarity on the situation. It is a huge club, but one that is also going through a sensitive time, and this is a moment for the manager to show his leadership qualities.
It is a strange scenario and not one you should be putting your players in. You should make a decision on who is taking penalties and stick with it.
It is a mistake from the manager’s point of view. However, it has become another bit of Pogba bashing and that is not right. Especially the racist abuse he has got since.
I respect anyone who takes a penalty. They put themselves on the line. They are in a pressurised situation.
Pogba is an even more pressurised situation because of the person he is. Some people want the Frenchman to fail. It is just the way it is, a natural instinct. They don’t like him to be successful.
I have never been around indecision like that. In my teams we had Alan Shearer or Robbie Keane. We always had a designated penalty taker.
For there to be two people having a discussion about who takes a penalty moments before they have to shoulder that pressure is a distraction that can lead to a miss.
In every other set-piece, coaches have clarity. There is a dossier in the dug-out saying who stands where, who marks who, who is taking responsibility in every area.
You are telling me at Manchester United there is no firm plan for the most decisive set-piece of them all?
That means the club’s two best penalty takers have to joust between themselves (right) about who gets the kick.
On Monday, the resulting miss at Wolves means they don’t go top.
I can imagine there were players on that pitch thinking, ‘Marcus, get that ball and keep doing what you’ve been doing for us.’
He scored last week. If I was on the pitch, I’d be saying, ‘Rash, get the ball, take the penalty.’ At Manchester City there was a situation with Sergio Aguero and Raheem Sterling when they beat West Ham 5-0.
I liked that Aguero put his foot down in the 86th minute and was able to say to Sterling, ‘You may be on a hat-trick, but I am the penalty taker at this club.’
If it was last minute in a Champions League final to win, we will see who steps up to take it then! I am pretty sure it would be Aguero.
Shearer was the best taker I’ve played with. He would not have been questioned.
He could have missed four on the run and he’d have taken the next penalty. You have confidence in your penalty taker until the point comes when he’s missed too many.
We had a situation at Spurs when Jermain Defoe had missed a few more than he should have. He was like, ‘Alright, let someone else take this one.’
This situation is not Pogba’s fault and not Rashford’s fault. It is Solskjaer’s fault. CHELSEA boss Frank Lampard has been handed a major boost, with Callum HudsonOdoi and Antonio Rudiger both moving closer to comebacks.
Defender Rudiger could even return at Norwich on Saturday.
Hudson-Odoi, who has been out since April after rupturing an Achilles tendon, returned to training with the first team yesterday and the winger hopes to return in three weeks.
But Italian full-back Davide Zappacosta looks to be on his way out of Stamford Bridge, joining Roma on loan for the season with a view to an eventual permanent transfer.