No holding back from Solskjaer here
Manchester United boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer jokingly said to a heckling fan that they “can abuse him after” following their win against Tottenham Hotspur.
It’s been a tough few weeks for the Norwegian who has been under severe pressure following a run of poor results, but a much-needed win on Saturday night eased the pressure ever so slightly on Solskjaer.
United were comfortable 3-0 winners in North London after goals from Cristiano Ronaldo, Edinson Cavani and Marcus Rashford helped the Red Devils secure an all-important win.
Solskjaer made the bold move of swapping to a three-at-the-back system which saw the return of Raphael Varane in the heart of the back three with Harry Maguire and Victor Lindelof either side.
Meanwhile, Ronaldo and Cavani played as a pair up top, complementing each other well and combining excellently for United’s second goal.
And after receiving plenty of criticism for recent performances, it was Solskjaer’s turn to get one back as he joked with a Spurs supporter during his post-match interview.
Whilst talking about the result, the Norwegian caught on to some comments made by a fan in the home end, before replying to him: “Can I do this interview and then you can abuse me after, eh?!”
https://twitter.com/MawuliUtd/status/1454544009620299784
Well played, to be fair. It was refreshing to see that despite all the negative press in recent weeks, Solskjaer can still come out with a smile on his face.
Meanwhile, during his interview with Sky Sports, Solskjaer explained the reasoning behind the change of formation for the game, revealing a team meeting sparked the decision.
He said: “The performance was really good from the start, it was really good from Tuesday morning, when we worked on something that we felt and hoped and thought was going to work, and it did.
“There is many things behind the tactics we used. One was solidity, we managed to get Raphael [Varane] slap bang in the middle of the back four because we needed a clean sheet.
“We needed to control the game with the ball and we did. We got Edinson and Cristiano to play together as a front two, and we got width from the wing-backs.
“If you change to a back three and you don’t get a result you are going to be scrutinised, but we felt it worked and the coaches have done a very good job to put that in place.”
Related links:
- Gary Neville sends warning to Jadon Sancho after slow start to Man Utd career
- Roy Keane dismantles ‘boring’ Tottenham with brutal analysis
- Ole Gunnar Solskjaer slams ‘unacceptable’ press lies about Paul Pogba
