THE VERDICT: NEWCASTLE 0 UNITED 2 Ole makes a big noise about silencing crowd
OLE Gunnar Solskjaer says he stressed the importance of gamemanagement in his team talk before United beat Newcastle.
The Reds boss has emulated Sir Matt Busby’s record of winning his first four league matches in charge after United overcame Newcastle 2-0 at St James’ Park.
Romelu Lukaku scored within 38 seconds of replacing Anthony Martial and Marcus Rashford settled the contest late on.
Caretaker coach Solskjaer said ahead of the fixture he rarely enjoyed playing at Newcastle, where he scored just once for United and started in their infamous 5-0 drubbing in 1996. The atmosphere was on Solskjaer’s mind as he addressed the United players in their pre-match team talk.
“The team talk was about gamemanagement,” Solskjaer explained. “And part of the game management is to keep the crowd quiet and I think the first 10 or 12 minutes we did really well, kept them at bay.
“But then we made one or two mistakes that got the crowd going and suddenly you’re under pressure. Phil (Jones) made a great block when he got back in and tackled again. “But those are the moments you don’t want to give a crowd and a club like this. I thought the lads got really into the game again and our fans, I’ve said it so many times, are the best in the
MARCUS Rashford has revealed Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has had an instant impact on helping him become more composed in front of goal.
The England international made it three goals in four Premier League appearances under the caretaker manager as he slotted home United’s second against Newcastle.
It was a cool and composed finish from the 21-year-old to secure all three points for the Reds and give the caretaker manager his fourth win in a row.
Solskjaer has already spoken about how he planned to help Rashford in front of goal and enable him to be more composed, and the forward explained his advice was already paying off. world.” United recorded their first clean sheet under Solskjaer and first since November 27 as Victor Lindelof produced another commanding display central defence alongside Jones.
“Clean sheet on set-pieces,” Solskjaer said, referring to United specifically conceding goals from set-plays.
“We’ve had clean sheets in all the other games as well, every single game has been a clean sheet from open play but we never conceded on set-pieces. But walking away with one of them doughnuts is great.” in
“I think working on composure is key,” Rashford said.
“We haven’t had chance to work on it properly yet, but just having those words around you it makes a difference and I want to improve and keep learning.”
Romalu Lukaku, who opened the scoring for United 38 seconds after coming off the bench at St James’ Park, also echoed Rashford’s comments that it was good to be coached by a striker.
“Totally different,” he said. “I think Marcus, Anthony and I are learning a lot from him, especially on the offensive side and he just tries to help us, to make us better, and win games – and so far so good.”
United’s four victories under Solskjaer have all come against bottom nine teams in the Premier League but United have closed the gap from 11 points down to six on fourthplaced Chelsea. Solskjaer concedes the toughest league challenge yet comes at Tottenham on January 13, but is pleased with United’s form.
He said: “We’ve played teams in the lower half of the table but these games need to be won, you can’t beat anyone else other than the team you’re playing but the performance today was really professional.”