‘WE’RE GUNNAR BOUNCE BACK...’ Ole tells Reds not to dwell on defeat
BRENNAN: GIVE DINHO PLAYER OF THE YEAR PRIZE
OLE Gunnar Solskjaer told the United players not to ‘feel sorry for themselves’ in the dressing room following their Champions League defeat by Paris Saint-Germain.
Solskjaer suffered defeat for the first time as United caretaker manager in his 12th match in charge, as Presnel Kimpembe and Kylian Mbappe struck within 15 minutes of the second-half to give PSG a 2-0 aggregate lead ahead of the round-of-16 second leg in three weeks.
Jesse Lingard and Anthony Martial succumbed to muscle injuries before the second-half and Solskjaer is unsure whether they will be available for the FA Cup fifth round tie at Chelsea on Monday – but warned United players if they do not move on from the PSG loss they will not play against Chelsea next week. “Don’t feel sorry for yourselves,” Solskjaer said when asked what he told the players in the wake of the PSG game.
“’This is something you’ve got to learn from, this was a level up from what we’re used to, they’re experienced, they bought some fouls, that’s just part of our learning’.
“Many of our players are very young, it was the first time Jesse and Marcus played a proper Champions League game at Old Trafford, so learn from that, look forward.
“We’ve got Chelsea and Liverpool in the next two games. So whoever feels sorry for themselves, they will not play against Chelsea, probably.”
Solskjaer also disputed the suggestion the PSG match could kill United’s momentum.
“No, not at all,” Solskjaer added. “Because at this club we bounce back, we have to bounce back.”
PSG EXPOSE THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE TWO TEAMS ASKED on the eve of this game how big a miss Neymar was going to be for Paris Saint-Germain, Thomas Tuchel turned the question on its head. How would United cope without Paul Pogba, or without Marcus Rashford, he asked, not unreasonably.
The German was half right, only United rely on so many first team players who are clearly superior to their stand-ins that he could have named another five or six players. He could have named Anthony Martial and Jesse Lingard.
Both went down injured in the closing stages of a first half that United had edged and both had to be replaced. Suddenly United were a different team. Shorn of two members of their own attacking triumvirate they were a different team. They lacked energy and pace in the second half and PSG sensed it.
DEFENSIVE PROBLEMS ATTENTION will inevitably focus on the two attacking injuries that cost United so dearly going forward, but the issues they have in defence were exposed by Paris Saint-Germain in the second half.
Nemanja Matic, excellent in the first half, was caught flat-footed as Presnel Kimpembe raced beyond him for the opener, while Eric Bailly and Victor Lindelof were beaten by Kylian Mbappe for the second.
Defending against Mbappe was an issue for United throughout.
Who partners Lindelof was Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s only real selection issue for this fixture and he went with Bailly, perhaps valuing his pace against the electric Mbappe.
As United sought to get back in the game their defence was exposed and it was only the heroics of David De Gea that kept them in the game.
THE POGBA PROBLEM THIS was a night Pogba had been waiting for. Benched for both legs of the Sevilla game last season, he was still to make his mark on a big Champions League occasion at United.
He spoke in the programme about how he’d been in the crowd in 2010 when United beat AC Milan 4-0 to overturn a 3-2 first leg deficit. He was no doubt dreaming of that kind of night. If only. There was one marauding run in the first half but aside from that he was on the fringes of this game, unable to dominate to the extent he had in the Premier League recently. As a result the frustrating grew. He was booked in the first half, more for a build-up of infringements, and then received his second booking late on, again for an unnecessary challenge.
It wasn’t the kind of influence he envisaged on this game.
DI MARIA DI Maria was often a passive presence in his 15 appearances at Old Trafford in a red shirt, but he showed he can get angry when Ashley Young unceremoniously nudged him into the fencing just before half-time. The Argentine received treatment and when he returned to the pitch he was booed (again), which seemed to fire him up.
Having been anonymous for the first half he returned with a point to prove, sending in the corner from which Pascal Kimpembe scored and looking to get on the ball and run at that United defence with every opportunity he had.