United suffering outside elite competition, says Solskjaer
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has admitted that Manchester United will “suffer” if they fail to qualify for the Champions League for a second successive season.
The United manager, who celebrated his 47th birthday yesterday, leads his side into tonight’s roundof-32 second-leg tie with Club Brugge still exploring two avenues for winning a place in Europe’s leading cub competition.
The tie, which stands at 1-1 after last week’s first game in Belgium, comes in the week that United have shown a drop of 19.3 per cent in revenues, following the announcement of their second-quarter financial results. Broadcast revenues dropped by £39million, 37.6 per cent, as a direct result of United not playing in the Champions League this season and the manager conceded that another absence would be damaging.
“We’re a big club, got good finances but the longer you’re out, the more you suffer,” said Solskjaer. “So, it’s an ambition to get back into the Champions League, for footballing reasons and financially it’ll help the club. We’ve got to focus on this competition, then the league on Sunday, then the FA Cup.”
Solskjaer’s predecessor, Jose Mourinho, unashamedly sacrificed United’s league performances by concentrating on the Europa League in 2017, a tactic that was vindicated when United beat Ajax in the final to qualify for the Champions League.
This season, however, United still have a strong chance of qualifying for the competition via their final Premier League placing, especially if rivals Manchester City’s Champions League ban is upheld, meaning the fifth-placed English team go through.
Solskjaer, however, is not at the point where he is prepared to commit to any one route. “We need to take one game at a time, both are possibles,” he said. “In a cup competition, you never know. It might be a bad day, you meet someone.
“So, one game at a time, take as many points as we can as you can’t rely on winning this. There are good teams in it, we need to get past Brugge.”
Apart from long-term absentees Marcus Rashford and Paul Pogba, and youngsters Axel Tuanzebe and Timothy Fosu-mensah, Solskjaer has a fully-fit squad from which to select, although it has been the introduction this month of new signing Bruno Fernandes that has given a much-needed injection of morale.
“We feel we’ve added some X-factor and quality with Bruno,” said Solskjaer. “He gives us that little bit of different flavour, he likes to play penetrative, forward passes, likes to take risks like a Man United player should do.
“His imagination is a couple of seconds ahead of many players. Bruno will only improve by coming to a stronger league, stronger opponents and stronger team-mates. We want to develop that X-factor. He’s impressed but we don’t want to put a limit on what he can do.”
Solskjaer will also be looking for left-back Luke Shaw to continue an impressive run of form since he returned to first-team action at the end of last year, with the defender revealing how he had coped with biting criticism, including from his own supporters. “I’ve had a lot of stick and if you come to United you need to take that,” said Shaw.