Manchester United has stated clearly that there is no beef between him and former United manager Luis Van Gaal after Van Gaal claimed that United play winning ‘park the bus’ football.
In a wide-ranging interview that covered his two years with United, Van Gaal suggested his successor Jose Mourinho adopted ‘park-the-bus tactics and played on the counter’ and that Solskjaer has adopted the same tactic, albeit more successfully.
Van Gaal branded Solskjaer‘s United as ‘defensive, counter-attacking football’.
Solskjaer secured his 15th win from 20 games as caretaker and permanent United manager on Saturday against Watford and Marcus Rashford’s opener was via a breakaway.
Watford were the superior side for the majority of their 2-1 reverse and United preyed on their visitors on the counter for much of the contest.
United’s standout victories under Solskjaer away at Tottenham, Arsenal, Chelsea and Paris Saint-Germain have all featured goals where they have swiftly turned defence into attack yet they have struggled to master a more controlled style in recent months.
Rather than question Van Gaal’s summary, Solskjaer is pleased many of the players he inherited played under the Dutchman.
“The foundation in any team is to play well without the ball,” Solskjaer said. “If you can do that you’ve got a great chance. If that’s high pressure, low pressure, medium, sometimes we have to vary that.
“I’m very happy and grateful I’ve inherited a team that’s been through [different managers]. Players here – most of them – they’ve had Mourinho, they’ve had Van Gaal, they’ve had [David] Moyes and Fergie so they’ve had a great education. They know both sides of the game.
“Louis van Gaal is entitled to his opinion. We’ve been looking at games. Some games we’ve pressed really high and won the ball up there and dominated. He’s probably talking more about the PSG game, which was a game that we had to defend really well in the circumstances and counter-attack.
“It’s about where you win the ball. You want to defend to win the ball to go forward. You have to win the ball to attack and for me there’s two ways. Can you attack quickly like we did today, why not? As long as your intention when you win the ball is to attack.”