Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.

What Ole expects from the Blades

Wednesday 27 January 2021 09:00

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is hoping to see his Manchester United players continue where they left off at Old Trafford, when we take on Sheffield United on Wednesday night.

The boss spoke to MUTV's Mark Sullivan ahead of the Premier League clash as he reflected on Sunday's FA Cup victory over Liverpool, a performance he described as "physically, one of our top two or three games since I’ve come here."

The Blades are up next at Old Trafford as we look to maintain our excellent league form...

Ole on the Blades, Rashford and Lampard Video

Ole on the Blades, Rashford and Lampard

The boss discusses Wednesday's opponents, Marcus's fitness and Frank's Chelsea departure...

Firstly Ole, we know how much it means to the fans to beat Liverpool so you must be delighted for them?
“Yes. It was a fantastic end to the game and what a way to win it with the free-kick. Of course, we knew before the game that it was a match between two teams with quality and we had to play one of our better games to get a result. Physically, it was probably one of our top two or three games since I’ve come here and it was very positive in the way we lasted the whole 90 minutes plus.”

We saw Marcus Rashford go off towards the end. Is there any update on him?
“He should be fine. It was just a little niggle, but of course we have to be wary about these things. He was coming off as a precaution anyway, but he should be available.”

Are there any other knocks or niggles?
“There are always those because of the accumulation of games and that will always be a factor when we decide on when to play players and when to rotate. So there will be a few rotations again.”

There has been a lot of speculation about players possibly going out on loan – is there any update on those?
“Nothing has been confirmed yet. Me as a manager, I like to have my options open as well for players. We have a strong squad and the depth in the squad is great, so let’s see. There is still a week or so to go.”

What are you expecting from Sheffield United?
“Nothing other than what you always get against them. You get a hard game and you’ve got a team that is fighting for the manager. They’ve had a tough season this season, but you can still see that they’ve improved lately and they stay true to their principles and the manager’s principles. The tight game we had at Bramall Lane isn’t something we don’t expect now; it’ll be a similar type of game.”

Watch Ole’s press conference in full Video

Watch Ole’s press conference in full

The futures of Lingard and Williams, as well as the form of two forwards, were discussed in Tuesday’s media briefing…

That was a tough game wasn’t it…
“That’s what you expect in every Premier League game, especially when you see the players they’ve got. Some of them have got the real x-factor and you know you need to be on your toes concentrating for the full 90 minutes. Dean [Henderson] made a fantastic save towards the end to give us the points. It was a game in which we created chances and you could have felt more comfortable if we’d have scored one or two of them.”

Finally, the Premier League lost another manager this week – what are your thoughts on Frank Lampard’s leaving Chelsea?
“The one thing I know with Frank is that he won’t want any of us to feel sorry for him. It’s not for me to comment really too much on what happens at different clubs, but they had a dip of form and that’s probably the first dip they’ve had under Frank and they made that decision. I know I’ve had a few dips in form here at United, but we’ve had the long-term insight all the time. Apart from that, it’s always sad to see someone losing their job.”

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