Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has spoken out ahead of his side’s Premier League clash with Southampton on Monday night. The Red Devils go into the match aiming to make it 18 matches unbeaten across all competitions. Express Sport will now name the four highlights from his pre-match press conference.
On Mason Greenwood
Solskjaer has insisted Mason Greenwood won’t be burned out, with the United star scoring 16 goals across all competitions this season.
“At that age you’ve got so much energy, no fear, you just want to go and play football,” he said.
“If we had a day off he’d go and play football with his mates, I’m not worried about Mason this season, we just need to look after him in his whole career. He’s fantastic boy, he loves football and gets the result and rewards for his hard work.”
On whether Greenwood had exceeded expectations, he added: “Not really, we know what he’s capable of and always trusted him to be a part of this squad and chip in with performances and goals, we’ve seen it every day, I’ve seen it since I came to the club, he’s just a natural footballer and when you put natural good footballers with better footballers that gives him more opportunities to show his qualities.
“The club know what they’re doing when they’re educating players.”
On transfers
The United manager has admitted transfer plans are ‘up in the air’, saying: “Quite a lot of planning going on. When do we start the league? That is obviously determined by how far we go in Europe, so you can’t really decide on the training programme.
“There’s so many small decisions and of course sometimes transfers are out of our hands as well.
“If the team is going well, what do we need and what don’t we need? That is the way we’re working and you’ve got to plan for different scenarios.
“Uncertainty of dates, how much holiday can we give them and what will next season look like…it’s a little bit up in the air.”
On what’s to come
While United are on a fine run at present, Solskjaer has insisted there’s still plenty of work to do if they’re to become the superpower they once were.
“If we were challenging for the trophies maybe I would say so,” he said.
“But now it’s keep developing culture, keep doing right things, keep ticking one game off at a time.
“We’ve got to go one day at a time in the training ground environment and hopefully keep on pushing, every day is a chance to make or break that culture.”
On Marcus Rashford
Marcus Rashford has only scored one goal for United since the restart.
But Solskjaer has backed the England international, saying: “Very happy with him.
“Physically he’s coping well with the games, mixing up his game, making defenders think, runs in behind comes short, individual skills, Marcus has got all the attributes to be a top forward, you can see with our players he suddenly pops up on the right, left, and you want that rotation between them but also the discipline stick out wide and create the space for others.
“Sometimes you get an assist in my head when you’re creating space and making runs for others. We see it.”
