Solskjaer warns Manchester United not to be ‘conned’ by Tottenham
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has told Manchester United’s players to keep cool heads when they play Tottenham on Sunday as they look to avenge a 6-1 thrashing at the hands of José Mourinho’s side.
Anthony Martial was sent off in the 28th minute in the humiliating October defeat at Old Trafford after retaliating to an elbow from Érik Lamela with a push in the Argentinian’s face. Solskjaer says Martial was “conned” into reacting and he does not want to see a repeat in London as they look to put a club record-equalling defeat in the Premier League era firmly behind them.
“We didn’t look anything like [them] and we got conned into a red card and that’s something we have to be aware of,” the manager said. “We can’t react, because in games there’ll be situations you’ll be wound up; we’ve learnt from that.
“I think the players will remember that game with a lot of pain and their pride has been hurt. Pre-season was short … but we were so poor and I’m sure we’ll see some players wanting to prove we’re better than that.”
United have made huge strides since the loss in October, moving up to second in the Premier League. They also have one foot in the semi-finals of the Europa League after Thursday’s 2-0 quarter-final first-leg victory at Granada. But Solskjaer said there was plenty of room for improvement.
“We’ll never settle for second,” he said. “We have seen the heights and we know what this club is capable of. It’s taken time for us to be in this position and, hopefully, we can be better next season because this is below our ambitions.”
Solskjaer also said the forward Edinson Cavani, who arrived on a one-year deal in October, was undecided over his United future. “He’s still unsure what he wants to do next season, which I find fine. It’s not been an easy year, either for him or the rest of the world this season, so he still wants time to make his mind up.”