Now it’s time to get our mojo back, insists Ole
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer knows Manchester United need to rediscover their spark if they are to stop relentless Premier League leaders Manchester City extending their eye-watering advantage in today’s derby.
Having been knocked off top spot by Pep Guardiola’s men on January 26, their fortunes have contrasted to such an extent that the Red Devils sit 14 points behind their rivals heading to the Etihad Stadium.
United’s title challenge has been all but ended by winning just two of eight topflight matches during that period, with Wednesday’s lifeless 0-0 draw at Crystal Palace the latest frustrating result.
That underwhelming night did, though, see their unbeaten away league streak extend to 21 matches – a run that will be tested to the maximum by a City side who have won 21 successive games in all competitions.
“I don’t worry. I can only control what’s happening here at Man United and there’s so many differences between the clubs,” Solskjaer said. “If it’s the clubs you talk about, I can sit here and talk about a lot.
“At the moment they’re the only team ahead of us. Of course we want to try and claw back points and get closer to them.
“They’ve gone through a fantastic spell, great form, 21 wins. We’ve had 21 away games in the league unbeaten, so one record is going to be broken, so let’s see which one it is.”
It is likely to be City celebrating on derby day if United repeat their Selhurst Park performance given Solskjaer’s side looked tired and failed to impose themselves.
“When you get the results that you get, sometimes you tend to forget about the performances,” he said.
“Yeah, the West Brom game wasn’t the best quality, but we felt there’s improvement to be made on that one The Palace game, of course, if you compare that to last year’s game against Palace, not very dissimilar.
“When the opposition don’t make mistakes, like Palace never did, you have to earn the right with the quality and we just lacked a bit of that in the last few games.
“Still, we’ve gone 10 games unbeaten. Three weeks, four weeks ago we couldn’t defend, then we were really well attackingwise – that’s the narrative anyway.
“Now the narrative is that we can’t score a goal. It’s been a week without us scoring goals. It’s not long ago we played fantastic football against Sociedad, got good goals against Newcastle, Southampton. It’s sometimes margins, you know, in football.
“That little step back now, one day extra recovery before this derby. Hopefully we get our spark back.”
Pep Guardiola views United as a “real contender” for the title, but is viewing today’s derby as he would any other fixture for Manchester City. The City boss is well aware of what is at stake, but he insists he is not placing any extra importance on the game.
He said: “It’s just one game where the Premier League is 38 games.
“Of course they are a real contender, second in table. Everybody knows how important it is, but all we’re thinking of is the gameplan, to execute it as well as possible and try to win the game.
“They are so strong in all departments. Defensively and in midfield they have quality, then playmaker Bruno Fernandes and the people up front.
“But we are going to be ourselves. This is my target, our target – to do what we have done lately. Be ourselves.
“We know the quality they have. We accept every challenge and want to do a good game towinit.”