OLE GOES ON THE ATTACK
NEW BOSS TOLD PLAYERS TO ‘PLAY MORE FORWARD’ AHEAD OF HIS STUNNING DEBUT MATCH AT CARDIFF
OLE Gunnar Solskjaer told his players to ‘play more forward, to be more dangerous in attack, to run more and to compete with everything’ in the team meetings before United’s win against Cardiff, according to Nemanja Matic.
The Norwegian’s spell as interim manager got off to a dream start against his former club at the Cardiff City Stadium, with United running out 5-1 winners. It was the first time United scored five goals in a league game since Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement in 2013 and it was a confident and ruthless performance that would have been unimaginable just a week ago.
Following Jose Mourinho’s sacking on Tuesday, Kieran McKenna and Michael Carrick took charge of training before Solskjaer and Mike Phelan got to work two days later. And the new coaching team are making their mark. “He is only two days with us but we had a few meetings,” Matic told reporters after the win. “He said we need to play more forward, to be more dangerous in attack, to run more, to compete with everything and that’s exactly what we did and we are happy because of that.”
Matic was among those to put in, arguably, his best performance of the season following a series of below-par displays in recent weeks.
The Serbian has revealed he has spoken to Mourinho since his departure and although he did not want to disclose how his former manager is doing, he admitted the players need to take responsibility.
“This is football. In football, this happens. We know, also, it’s not only the manager’s fault that results are not good but this is football and we have to carry on and to fight for the club,” he added.
“I said after the Liverpool game we also needed to take responsibility and to do our best to play better and to win games.”
OLE Gunnar Solskjaer says he is prepared to play Paul Pogba in three different roles after his ‘excellent’ performance in Manchester United’s 5-1 dismantling of Cardiff.
Pogba provided assists for Ander Herrera and Jesse Lingard as United scored five in a Premier League game for the first time since Sir Alex Ferguson’s last match at West Brom in May 2013.
France international Pogba started two of Jose Mourinho’s last six United matches but was restored to the XI by Solskjaer, who gave Pogba his United Reserves debut in 2009.
United switched to a 4-3-3 at Cardiff, where Pogba was positioned on the left of a midfield trident and supplemented by Ander Herrera and Nemanja Matic.
Although that is Pogba’s preferred role, Solskjaer suggested the 25-yearold could switch to deeper and more advanced roles in the future.
“There’ll be different solutions to different problems that the teams cause us,” Solskjaer said. “But Paul is capable of playing as an eight, as a 10, as a six. So he’s got quality to play many positions and today I thought he did excellent.
Solskjaer spoke effusively about academy graduates Pogba, Lingard and Marcus Rashford on the eve of the match and Lingard struck twice while Rashford opened the scoring at Cardiff.
Anthony Martial, the other forward in United’s front three, was also on target and Solskjaer was delighted with how the forwards collaborated.
“Yes, they’ve progressed,” Solskjaer noted. “Jesse was a little kid. Today he’s a man.
“Paul is obviously a World Cup winner so they’ve progressed since I coached them and the link between them, the last goal when Paul slips Jesse through, was fantastic.
“I’m pleased with all of them, every single one of them, but of course it’s a threat [to have such players].
“When you’ve got Martial and Jesse Lingard down either side, Rashford up top with Paul supporting them, it’s exhilarating to watch and as long as we keep that standard up we’ll keep up picking points.
“When you’re a Man United player, you want the ball and that’s one of the things you say to them: ‘Go and get on the ball.’
“But in some periods we were too congested, four or five players on top of each. “So when we get to work a little bit with each other and understand that we can trust each other to do a job, then we can have a little bit more distance and we might even improve.”