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Football

28th Sep 2021

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer responds to Gary Neville’s criticism of Man United’s style

Callum Boyle

Solskjaer had his say after Neville questioned the manager’s ‘style’

Manchester United boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has responded to comments from Gary Neville which saw the Sky Sports pundit question United’s efficacy as a team unit.

Neville’s criticisms came during his self-titled podcast, on which he claimed United “don’t play well enough as a team” to win the Premier League and cited other title rivals Manchester City, Chelsea and Liverpool as more consistent, cohesive teams.

The former United full-back then went on to say that “at this moment in time I still see a group of individuals playing in moments, with some patterns and combinations at times, but still a team where some are pretty new together – Cristiano Ronaldo, Raphael Varane, Jadon Sancho – but they’ve got to come together as a team and start to define a style of play.”

After hearing what his former teammate had to say, Solskjaer then chose to respond to Neville, indicating that they had been working hard behind the scenes and that “Gary knows the DNA at the club and what we are trying to do.”

Following complaints about the way that United played at times during their defeat to Aston Villa, Solskjaer then went on to say: “Of course, you work on your style of play, patterns in possession and out. Attacked too fast maybe against Villa. We want to keep up and tempo up but maybe we did it too fast.”

United’s schedule leaves them with little time to work on the training ground as they gear up for their second Champions League group stage fixture against Villarreal on Wednesday evening.

Played at Old Trafford, the fixture is a repeat of last season’s Europa League Final, which saw the Spanish outfit win in a thrilling penalty shoot-out and they will travel to Manchester with intent on putting another dent in the home side’s Champions League knockout stage hopes.

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