Ole Gunnar Solskjaer paid tribute to Manchester United’s “hard work and patience”
as second-half goals from Romelu Lukaku and Marcus Rashford clinched a 2-0 victory away to Newcastle.
The Reds were kept at bay until Lukaku made an instant impact by scoring 38 seconds after coming on as a substitute, before Rashford found the net to confirm a fourth successive success under Solskjaer.
After the Game, Ole Gunnar had this to say to the Reporters:
“The performance was really professional. We were very solid to come here against a club like this, with the fans they’ve got, and I thought it was excellent, how the boys dealt with it — especially in the second half. In the first half, we kept them at bay for about 15 minutes but then made some mistakes and the crowd got going again. It’s always harder for you then. We never hit the heights that we can do, but still, I felt we were in control, kept plugging away.”
A WELCOME CLEAN SHEET
“We’ve had a clean sheet in every single game, apart from set-pieces! When you keep a clean sheet you’ve always got a chance to win a game because we’ve got quality going forward. To keep one of them is a bonus and it’s great.”
PRAISE FOR THE FORWARDS
“I felt it was time to bring Romelu and Alexis on. It was a great hit by Marcus. Rom did his job as a striker to be following in on the rebound. If you do that, you’ll get five or six goals [that way] every season. When you see big Rom running towards you as a goalkeeper, I think you’re going to move your hands away!”
GREAT ATTACKING OPTIONS
“You can play with two of them [Rashford and Lukaku], no problem. One can play on the right, or two through the middle. It gives me options.
TACTICAL APPROACH
“The team talk was about game management, especially keeping the crowd quiet. In the first 10-12 minutes we did that really well and kept them at bay but then we made one or two mistakes and the crowd got going. Suddenly, you’re under pressure and [Christian] Atsu got away down the left a couple of times. Phil [Jones] made a great block and tackle but, again, those were the moments you don’t want to have in front of a crowd at a club like this. But I thought the lads really got into the game again and the fans again were fantastic, as I said before.”
SQUAD STRENGTH
“Yeah, of course. It’s a squad game, it’s a team game and we know everyone’s going to play a part. Every single player here is going to have a say in us moving up the table and getting the results and performances that we need. Today, I thought the ones who started did really well. We were solid and then the strikers made the difference. These games, when you go to these places, when you’re getting a bit tired — that’s when your character comes out. That’s when your personality and your hunger to win games comes out. Everyone wants to win but you see these players, the character… they needed to win this game.”
MATCHING A RECORD
FOCUS ON FITNESS
FEELING THE LOVE