Sir Alex Ferguson offers Ole Gunnar Solskjaer helping hand at United
Sir Alex Ferguson provided encouragement and a series of informal pep talks for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and the Manchester United manager’s staff at the training ground on Saturday.
“He paid us a visit,” said Solskjaer as he prepared his players for Wednesday night’s trip to face a Newcastle United side managed by one of Ferguson’s former rivals, Rafael Benítez. “Sir Alex Ferguson enjoyed his time at the training ground, we had a few nice chats and he encouraged us. He knows the staff I’ve got are Manchester United through and through. He knows we’re going to do whatever we can, up to the last second we’re here, for Manchester United, as best we can.”
Solskjaer has presided over three wins and the scoring of 12 goals since succeeding the sacked José Mourinho until the end of the season but the former Cardiff manager is happy to take advice from his old manager and mentor at Old Trafford as the Scot continues his recovery from the brain haemorrhage he suffered last spring.
“I keep Sir Alex Ferguson informed,” said the former United striker, who readily admits he feels “at home” back in his old Manchester habitat. “I don’t know about me being at ‘home at this level’ but I’m at home at this club. I’ve spent 15 years here [as player and junior coach] and it’s me. I’m comfortable in the environment. It’s up to you to rate me, if I’m up to the level, but I’m definitely enjoying my time back home.”
A fairly disastrous stint in charge of Cardiff in 2014 hardly highlighted Solskjaer’s potential as a future Manchester United manager but, in the short team at least, he is proving an ideal successor to the divisive, rather less tactically expansive Mourinho.
The only caveat is that so far Solskjaer has faced relatively low-ranking opponents in Cardiff, Huddersfield and Bournemouth and that his side are still to keep a clean sheet. “Of course we’ll get tougher tests,” he said. “For example, Newcastle on Wednesday. I never enjoyed going up there [as a player]. There was one game where we really enjoyed ourselves [and won 6-2] but that was more or less it. This is going to be a tough one.
“We need to keep clean sheets. We’ve conceded three goals from three set pieces. There’s loads we need to work on but we want to see ourselves attacking.”
Alexis Sánchez could enjoy a run out in the visiting frontline on Tyneside. “He’s been out for a month and we have to manage him but he’ll be involved, yes,” Solskjaer said. “He’s one of those characters who wants to play all the time, he’s champing at the bit.”
Solskjaer is optimistic his bold philosophy will suit the Chile and former Arsenal forward, who increasingly seemed a misfit under Mourinho. “I think he’s a player that would benefit from the interchanging, the rotation, the movement,” he said. “He’ll be an asset for us.”