Ole was taking notes way before he took over from Jose
OLE Gunnar Solskjaer told Ryan Giggs that the full-backs were not playing ‘high enough’ when the pair watched United before the Norwegian was appointed as the club’s interim manager.
Since becoming Molde’s manager in 2011, Solskjaer has been back to watch United on a number of occasions and he took in the 1-0 defeat to Juventus from the directors’ box in October.
Luke Shaw and Ashley Young were both starting that night and it has been noticeable how high Solskjaer likes the pair to play to give his side natural width in the final third.
Something Giggs touched upon when analysing what his friend and former team-mate has changed since replacing Jose Mourinho.
“Well, reminding the players how good they are,” the Wales boss said.
“It’s little tweaks. It’s like you see with golfers. Just a little tweak to the game. Ole’s been to a few games before he took over.
“I was at a game next to him, and he was pointing out to me, ‘Look at the full-backs, they’re not high enough’. Things that we were used to, things that you associate with Man United teams.
“I think he’s brought, he’s instilled that back into them that we need to score goals, we need to attack and if we’re all higher up the pitch then it just poses the opposition that question.
“With the front players that United have got, not only the starting players but the ones coming off the bench, you’ve seen Sanchez, you’ve seen Lukaku now having an impact. It rivals any team within the Premier League.”