Valencia says players will not give up on top-four
UNITED captain Antonio Valencia has vowed the squad will not give up on trying to secure a top four place in the Premier League.
United are currently eight points off fourth position but supporters are feeling more positive about the season after a brilliant 5-1 win over Cardiff City on Saturday in Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s first game in charge.
Valencia did not make the squad for the trip to South Wales but posted on Instagram celebrating the victory.
Speaking to MUTV, he insisted that the players would not give up on the top four while it is still mathematically possible and assured fans that they would try to make them ‘happy’.
He said: “Nobody is giving up. You know there is half a season left to play so it’s all about working hard, battling and playing well.
“We know we have got the quality within the squad to be able to do that. It is all about being focused and the aim is still to get into those top four places.
“We also want to go as far as we can in the Champions League. Why not get to the final? Why not try to win the two cup competitions we are still involved in?”
Focus has now turned to the home game against Huddersfield at Old Trafford today and Valencia is looking forward to the occasion.
He added: “The main thing is to get everyone together at Old Trafford after Christmas and it is a great fact we don’t have to travel as it’s on our doorstep.
“Playing in front of our fans is always a special occasion.” OLE Gunnar Solskjaer insists it will be ‘special’ to see his banner back on the Stretford End during United’s visit of Huddersfield today.
United fans paid homage to Solskjaer during his player career with a banner that read ‘20LEGEND’ - a reference to his squad number and status.
The banner was unfurled in the away end in the 5-1 victory at Cardiff and a duplicate has been restored to the Stretford End in time for the Huddersfield game.
A United supporters group arranged for a David Moyes banner to be on display for his first home match in charge in 2013 that read ‘The Chosen One’ but Moyes was uncomfortable with its presence and privately admitted he would rather have earned one.
A Ryan Giggs banner reading ‘Tearing you apart since 1991’ stayed up for Giggs’s first match in caretaker charge against Norwich in April 2014 but neither Louis van Gaal nor Jose Mourinho were immortalised on the Stretford End.
Solskjaer was repeatedly serenaded by United supporters, who swapped his name for Mourinho’s The 20Legend banner hoisted aloft for Solskjaer at Cardiff in the ‘I’m Into Something Good’ chant, and chanted ‘Solskjaer’s Red Army’ at Cardiff.’
Unlike Moyes, Solskjaer has no qualms about seeing a banner in tribute to him at Old Trafford.
“They’re the best fans in the world,” Solskjaer said.
“Of course, I have my history at the club and to see that banner is special. I just hope in the next five months I’ll do a good enough job for them to keep singing my name.
“Of course, you try to keep your emotion in check,” Solskjaer added of managing at Old Trafford. “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 sitting next to Rene Meulensteen in a reserve team game once as a coach, second-half, and I was there with Cardiff. “But of course it will be special.” Solskjaer dismissed suggestions United have set the bar too high with their dismantling of Cardiff. Both of United’s remaining two games of 2018 are at home and the Norwegian is demanding lofty standards from the players against Huddersfield and Bournemouth.
“You can never set the bar too high,” Solskjaer stressed. “They’re setting the standard.
“The players who play for this club have high standards to live up to.
“Today, it’s not like they were outperforming themselves. We want to look at this game. We’ll evaluate, look at a few clips and as I said earlier we can better, we can understand each other better.
“They’ve not said anything about any handbrake but we spoke today 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. You’ve got to try and do that.
“Today, it worked. 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.”