WAKE-UP FOR FRANK

IF MANCHESTER United’s players find the same fighting spirit as Ole Gunnar Solskjaer then their triple assault on the FA Cup, Europa League and Premier League’s top four will go as planned.

Solskjaer, the striker nicknamed the ‘Baby-faced Assassin’ as a player, proved his instincts remain as sharp as ever last night with a clinical takedown of Frank Lampard and Jose Mourinho.

And just to illustrate that he understands where the real enemy resides, the United boss also sent a thinly-veiled reminder to Jurgen Klopp that big clubs should never sacrifice trophies.

Lampard and Mourinho were first in Solskjaer’s sights after the Chelsea boss accused United’s players of diving ahead of today’s FA Cup semi-final meeting with United at Wembley and the Tottenham boss suggested his former club were getting lucky with VAR decisions.

His message to Lampard was to dry his eyes and concentrate on playing the game.

Solskjaer said: “I’ve always believed in allowing referees to make the decisions and I am not going to be able to influence them by moaning and crying about it.

“There’s no point crying about a decision that goes against you.

“I will 100 per cent defend my players.

None of them try to con the referee, at all.

“If you have quick feet like Dan James, Marcus Rashford, Anthony

Martial or Mason Greenwood and you get tackled in or around the box, well some ankles could have been broken.

“I just want them to be protected. I trust the referees to do their job.

“I trust them not to be influenced because I also believe that moaning about them does not do you any favours.

“The standard of refereeing is great, a really high level. We just need to keep playing football and let refs do the refereeing.”