United again
Solskjaer’s reign off to a flyer as club score five in league for first time since Ferguson’s final game Pogba thanks Mourinho for helping improve him Rooney says Norwegian is right man to spark United
Paul Pogba has addressed his difficult relationship with Jose Mourinho in the wake of his sacking this week, claiming that the former Manchester United manager had improved him as a player.
The France World Cup winner offered his own take on a week of drama at Old Trafford after playing his part in a 5-1 win over Cardiff City, the first game of the new Ole Gunnar Solskjaer caretaker regime.
The United midfielder, who made two assists in the game, told reporters that he wished to thank the Portuguese for what he had done at United.
“With Jose we won trophies. We worked. I want to thank him for that. Not everything went well but [some] things went well. We won trophies. He made me improve, as a person as well. I want to thank him for that. I’m sure all the players do.
“Now we’re looking at the next game, for the points we need. We are happy as well for the first game with the new manager to start like this. And the most important thing is to carry on like that.”
On a day when Jesse Lingard scored twice and there were goals from Marcus Rashford, Ander Herrera and Anthony Martial, even Wayne Rooney, a pundit for BT Sport, said that the “whole football club” had been struggling under Mourinho.
“Manchester United is a big part of my life. It was never nice watching what was going on. Once Ole got the job, I thought I’d send him a message of congratulations and my feelings of how it’s been and what I felt needs to change. First of all to get the lads enjoying playing football, that’s what the lads wanted. He’s [Ole] is definitely the guy to get them to do that.”
This was the first time United had scored five in the league since Sir Alex Ferguson’s final game in May 2013. Solskjaer said: “[We have] good players, very, very good players, talented players, today they’ve approached the game properly. One of the things I talked about is that a Manchester United team should never ever be outworked.”
This was a version of Manchester United that looked much closer to the ideal that they have of themselves and even Jose Mourinho, if he could watch, would have to admit that this was an evening when the country’s most successful club performed as they once did routinely.
For the first time since Sir Alex Ferguson bade farewell with that splendidly chaotic 5-5 draw against West Brom in May 2013, United scored five in a league game – a perfect start for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, even if Cardiff City were as listless as when he was their manager. As for United, they cannot sack a tyrant every week to get this kind of performance from their players and after the bounce of a famous manager dispatched mid-season, further strides will have to be made.
Even so this was a promising performance, one of sharp passing and sharp finishing, the goals spread around, including one each for Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial and two for Jesse Lingard, each of whom went in and out of favour with Mourinho so much it was hard to keep up. These are early days but they played as if liberated, and if their former manager was paying close attention he will no doubt have detected a certain joy in his old team.
Neil Warnock himself said that United would face much greater tests than his own side’s “Sunday League defending” and one can only presume that the likes of Tottenham Hotspur and Paris St-Germain in the new year will not stand off with quite so much respect as Cardiff. Solskjaer has certainly grasped the rhetoric of a United manager, telling his players to outwork the opposition but also to be unafraid of losing the ball – as long as they were prepared to win it back.
He pushed his full-backs up the pitch and his players were entrusted to pass the ball first time, not least in the build-up to their third goal on 41 minutes when Martial began and ended a quick-fire move involving Lingard and Paul Pogba. The United No6 was back, a show of faith from the man who once coached him as a junior, and while it was a Pogba performance of many of the old contradictions it included two assists and the winning of the free-kick from which Rashford scored.
Later Pogba insisted on a making a statement professing his debt to Mourinho, which might go some way to addressing the tension in that relationship but more pressing for United is where he will be played in the future. Solskjaer was vague in regard to the Frenchman’s best position, listing the many positions in which he believes Pogba can play – the problem being that Pogba often tries to play them all in the space of 90 minutes.
“Just work harder than them,” was what Solskjaer said he told his players. “Enjoy yourselves, pass it forward, run forward, if you lose the ball I don’t mind as long as you work to win it back.”
For this evening it certainly worked although it will be a different story in the weeks and months to come. That said, the four-game run that takes them to the FA Cup third round on Jan 5 looks promising on the face of in terms of the opposition they will face.
Beyond that they play Tottenham away on Jan 13 which will be significant for all sorts of reasons, not least the manager in the home dugout. This time, Solskjaer did not overcomplicate things, with late run-outs from the bench for Fred and Andreas Pereira, two of the more recently abandoned under the old regime.
There was a goal too for Ander Herrera, one of those who had found himself back in the team for final-days Mourinho-era United when no one was quiet sure where they stood. From the away end came encouragement and songs remembering Solskjaer’s achievements as a United player. It was the club’s first win away in the league since beating Bournemouth on Nov 3 and from the moment Rashford scored in the fourth minute it never really looked in doubt. His free-kick hit the net on 3min 2sec which meant that any plans Cardiff had of sitting back and frustrating United would have to be reviewed. At times they still deliberated.
Pogba is one of those who will often take half a dozen touches when a single one will do and then there are other occasions when he will play it first time to greater effect. A ball over the top on 39 minutes, flicked off the outside of his boot, was one such moment but most of the time it is not hard to see where the improvement would come.
Herrera scored the second, the ball rolled into his path by Pogba and the shot struck off the outside of his right foot, taking a touch off Greg Cunningham. United were in control when they conceded a penalty on 38 minutes, a strange one for Rashford who insisted he had controlled the ball with his chest, not the top of his arm. Michael Oliver, the referee, took the advice of his assistant and the penalty was dispatched past David De Gea by Victor Camarasa.
Within three minutes United had scored their best goal of three, a move initiated by Martial who gave the ball to Pogba and got it back from Lingard, letting Neil Etheridge go to ground before clipping the ball past the Cardiff goalkeeper. The visitors won a penalty in the 55th minute, Sol Bamba leaning into the back of Lingard for a decision that was disputed by Cardiff, who felt the ball was out of Lingard’s control.
The England forward dispatched that one and later ran on to Pogba’s through-ball in the final minute of the regulation 90 to beat Etheridge for a fifth time.
United had controlled 74 per cent of the possession and had 17 attempts on the Cardiff goal, which if nothing else, is a good start for their new manager.