Solskjaer: You have to bounce back at this club
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer admits his Manchester United players have been feeling "down" after the midweek defeat to Paris Saint-Germain but he believes beating Chelsea in the Emirates FA Cup would be the perfect response.
The Reds lost for the first time in 12 games under caretaker manager Solskjaer when the French champions won 2-0 at Old Trafford in the first leg of our Champions League last-16 tie on Tuesday night.
United travel to Stamford Bridge on Monday evening for another tough assignment - a fifth-round Emirates FA Cup tie against the side we lost to in last season's final.
Speaking in his pre-match press conference on Friday afternoon, the Norwegian revealed he has been back to his homeland for a pre-planned visit this week and said the players must cast aside the PSG loss and be ready to go again.
“I’ve been back home actually, I’ve been to Norway,” Ole told reporters at the Aon Training Complex. “It was planned before [the PSG game] actually so it was nice to see the family. But it's a different feeling of course. I hate losing games and it seems like the boys hate losing games.
“They've been down of course but there's no point dwelling on it. There are big games against good teams coming up, so we need to dust ourselves down and get going again on Monday.”
When asked if a win on Monday night would be the perfect response to losing against PSG, Solskjaer said: “Yes, you have to bounce back at this club. You'll always have challenges, and away against Chelsea is one of the tougher challenges, so let's just make sure the next two or three days in training are good so we are ready for Monday.
“We know there was a spell against PSG - seven, eight, nine or 10 minutes - where we lost our way a bit. But apart from that, we weren't too bad defensively.”
Despite the disappointment against PSG, in which the Reds lost Jesse Lingard and Anthony Martial to injury, Ole insisted that one defeat and the absence of those attacking players will not alter the team’s approach.
“Well, you don't panic because you've lost a game or change everything, because it doesn't change the mindset at all,” he added.
“We need to keep working on the way we want to play football, the way we approach the games will always be in an attacking, positive mind.
“We want to go down to Chelsea and then play Liverpool here and still impose ourselves on those games. There are quite a few other teams who have injuries. So you adapt and you have to manage that.”
Reading this in our app? If not, you might miss some exclusive features not found on ManUtd.com. Download the Official App here.