Ole Gunnar Solskjaer changing his tactics enabled Manchester United to beat Tottenham at Wembley according to Marcus Rashford.
United started with a front three of Rashford, Anthony Martial and Jesse Lingard for the 1-0 win against Mauricio Pochettino’s side but changed their usual formation.
In the previous games United have played with Rashford through the middle flanked by Martial and Lingard on the wings but Lingard played a deeper more central role against Tottenham which allowed the wide players more freedom on the wings.
rashford believes that United’s ability to switch their tactics for the game and come away with a win shows they have the ability to compete with the top teams in the league.
“We played a slightly different system, but against a team like this it was needed,” Rashford told Sky Sports.
“The other teams we have played have played pretty much the same system so today it was a different game and we played differently and the tactics changed but that is what we have to do to be one of the top teams, we have to adapt. And we keep pushing and improving.”
The team have just returned from a warm weather training camp in Dubai and Solskjaer explained how they spent the week working on the tactics which ultimately undid Tottenham.
“The plan was to go quickly and attack with pace, the goal was fantastically taken by Marcus. The defensive job Jesse does and the pass from Paul made the goal,” Solskjaer told Sky Sports.
“We worked on it for a week, we thought it would work and we have seen them and we thought it was going to be a good plan and it’s good we have different ways of playing against different teams and we showed we are ready to compete, second half we could have scored two or three ourselves so it wasn’t that one sided. Even though they put is really under pressure.
“The goal showed the plan worked, that’s why we put Anthony and Rash wide of Jesse, he can drop in then he is more of a link player, Rash and Anthony they are more direct towards goal and that’s why we had that plan and it worked today.”