UNITED Ole’s hoping week in City of Gold pays out
AFTER a ‘phenomenal’ week at Carrington and the most intense warm-up of the season, United froze when the referee’s whistle went at the Vitality Stadium back on November 3.
Playing their first game in six days, Jose Mourinho’s side were lucky to only be 1-0 down to Bournemouth after a quarter of an hour.
The visitors managed to turn it around, courtesy of an injury-time winner from Marcus Rashford, but Mourinho knew this was not a sustainable strategy.
Time and time again, the 55-yearold warned his players about racing out of the blocks and matching the intensity of the opposition, yet United often needed to go behind to play to their potential under Mourinho in 2018.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has not had that problem. United have not been in a losing position at any point during the Norwegian’s first five games in charge and the players have quickly responded to his instructions.
That is what makes United’s mini break in Dubai so intriguing ahead of Solskjaer’s biggest test against Spurs on Sunday. For the first time, Solskjaer has had an extended period to really put his stamp on this team after five games in two weeks.
In the City of Gold, Solskjaer has had the luxury of longer training sessions he can repeatedly stop in 28C sunshine and more time with the players in team meetings and video analysis briefings.
It is about putting a plan in place for the final five months of the season and the same mantra keeps rearing its head – how United can hurt the opposition rather than setting up with the opposition in mind. Solskjaer’s analysts will have prepared him about Spurs’ many strengths but his focus, as always, will be on how United’s attacking players can make the difference.
Given how much Jesse Lingard, Anthony Martial and Marcus Rashford relish playing on the front foot, Solskjaer will not see that as a risk.
For United’s interim manager, it is about maximising your own strengths.
Tellingly, the trio were gathered for an audience with Solskjaer at the Nad Al Sheba Complex earlier this week. Solskjaer has already left his mark on a number of United players but within minutes of his first game in the dugout against Cardiff, you could see how the switch had been flicked on that forward line.
Lingard, Rashford and Martial were all encouraged to drift and rotate into those central positions they love to play in, with Luke Shaw and Ashley Young bombing on and providing that natural width on the flanks.
It has worked a treat and, tellingly, United’s best performances have come with that attacking trio in the starting line-up – which was not the case against Newcastle and Reading.
Romelu Lukaku is hitting form again – only Paul Pogba has scored more goals for United since Solskjaer took charge – and it is easy to forget Alexis Sanchez was the difference the last time United played Spurs at Wembley.
But United look slicker and more balanced with the speed of Rashford, Martial and Lingard – something that could cause Spurs real problems on the break. All that productive work on the training ground might yet pay off in a game situation.