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Ole's verdict on cup defeat

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was disappointed to see his Manchester United side go out of the Carabao Cup on Wednesday evening but encouraged by the way the Reds responded to a below-par start against West Ham.

The Hammers were 1-0 winners in the third-round meeting at Old Trafford, with Manuel Lanzini’s early strike being the decisive goal that knocked Solskjaer's men out of the competition.

The Reds dominated possession after that early blow and amassed 27 shots overall but couldn’t break down the visitors' strong resistance, as the Hammers held on for their first win at the Theatre of Dreams in over 14 years. 

The boss gave his reaction to MUTV and Sky Sports after the match, discussing our exit from the competition, Mason Greenwood’s eye-catching appearance from the bench and the atmosphere created by the 72,000-strong home crowd, among other topics…

Report: United 0 West Ham 1

SOME PLAYERS WILL BE STRONGER FOR US

“We've got to the semi-finals the last two years and it's a competition we've got tradition for to give players minutes because we need to think about the bigger picture. Today, we made that decision and some of them will definitely come out stronger for it because they've now got 90 minutes under the belt and are ready for the league and the Champions League, and the FA Cup when that starts.”


THE LADS RESPONDED TO A BELOW-PAR BEGINNING

“We had a poor start, then some good bits and then towards the end when we went gung ho, we opened ourselves up and of course they could have scored a few more. I thought the boys gave it a real good go, worked really hard and we ended up with 27 shots which is quite remarkable. Maybe you could see some players needing minutes but that's natural.”

OUR ATTACKING PLAY

“We didn’t create enough big chances, we built pressure, but we couldn’t [score]. We had a couple of big chances - Mason [Greenwood] came on, had a decent one. We built pressure but sometimes you know that pressure doesn’t come to anything.”
 
GREENWOOD MADE AN IMPRESSION

“Mason came on and made a positive impact, no doubt about it. He was fresh, sharp and could have got a goal, but it was too little, too late. In the last six or seven minutes of course, we’re going to go gung-ho and they could have scored a couple.”


THE OLD TRAFFORD ATMOSPHERE

“[It was] fantastic. Absolutely incredible. We have some new coaches coming in and they were asking this morning, ‘what do you reckon, how many fans - are we going to get 40, 50 [thousand]?’ No, I knew it would be close to full. No doubt about our fans, they are brilliant. They kept going and the atmosphere was brilliant.”

Solskjaer: My players gave it their allvideo

WE'LL KEEP GOING

“We’ve got lots of games and we'll just keep on doing what we’re doing and trying to get results. We’ve started the season okay, apart from we’re out of this cup which is not great, and we haven’t had a great result away in Europe. But we’ll be focused, we’ll be ready for Saturday.”

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