ADDICTED TO WINNING!
Solskjaer insists United have improved since last year’s defeat and wants his men…
AYEAR ago tomorrow, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer saw his team ripped apart in the first leg of the Carabao Cup semi-final by a rampant Manchester City at Old Trafford.
City were three up by half-time and 3- 1 victors on the night. Manchester United won the second leg 1-0 at the Etihad, but there was no way back. City went on to win this competition for the third year in a row.
It was the start of a depressing trend for a United side who also lost in the semi-finals of the FA Cup and Europa League to Chelsea and Sevilla last season. For Solskjaer, a serial winner in his playing days, that was hard to stomach. He believes United are better now. Better equipped to face City and with a better chance of reaching a final at last.
He will find out tonight when the two teams meet again at Old Trafford in what will be a onelegged affair this time. Solskjaer knows how important that first trophy and the ‘drug’ of success could be for his players. His message to them yesterday was clear — no excuses.
‘We want to go one step further,’ he said. ‘I speak from my own experience. When I won the first league at United, it becomes a drug celebrating with your teammates on the pitch with a trophy. It becomes a thing.
‘You become addicted to winning. You play to win trophies, even though when you get your hands on it you just move on to the next one. It gives you the hunger to get more. For this team, it would be a very big step.
‘We’ve improved immensely in a year since the last semi against City and even when we were in Europe in August. We are a better team now. We have added some players in our group who can give us that extra edge. But it’s not just learning to win semis. We’ve earned the right to feel we can go all the way with our performances. Hopefully we can make it one step further.’
United followed up their victory in the second leg by beating City 2-0 in the Premier League in March — the last game that was played in front of fans at Old Trafford. They go into this match in the rare position of sitting above their neighbours in the table after a drab League encounter ended goalless there last month.
Solskjaer encountered a different City in that game — a team happier to give up possession and rely on the counter-attack, which explains why they cancelled out a like-minded United. ‘I think Man City changed it a bit,’ he added. ‘They don’t concede as many goals and they have more counter-attacks themselves. ‘ They’ve made a decision to maybe drop back more than they used to. ‘We didn’t have the X-factor in the last game, maybe because they were a little bit more cagey. But there have been some fascinating games and I feel we’ve got closer and closer.’ In contrast to their rivals, City are familiar with the winning habit — particularly in the Carabao Cup. Pep Guardiola is bidding to reach his fourth straight final and has not been knocked out of this competition since losing to United 23 games ago in October 2016. Guardiola said yesterday: ‘ The team has won it three times in a row, semi-final for the fourth time in a row, so it means a lot. ‘If it were not important then we would drop it before this. It is the semi-final and we cannot expect it to be more difficult than with the rival we are going to face. But we have the desire to get to another final. It is a rivalry in the city and for many decades United were above Manchester City. ‘For us, we are incredibly proud and it is an honour for the last decade to be there with them and sometimes win — most of the times — and sometimes lose.’