Ole Gunnar Solskjaer

Ole's appraisal of a win to savour

Sunday 19 September 2021 16:53

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was delighted with United's performance in the 2-1 win against West Ham on Sunday afternoon.

He gave his verdict to MUTV and Sky Sports after the full-time whistle, talking about a string of controversial refereeing decisions, Jesse Lingard's winning goal and plenty more.

A DESERVING VICTORY
“We deserved to win. I think we created some big chances, we had pressure on them, should have had a few penalties, great response when they scored, good attitude, very good away performance in a difficult cauldron; the stadium is hard here!”

Match Report: West Ham 1 United 2

 Article

De Gea's injury-time penalty save and goals from Ronaldo and Lingard secure a dramatic win in London.

DELIGHTED FOR JESSE
“I'm so happy for him because you know it's ups and downs in football. He was low on Tuesday, now high again, he scored against Newcastle, you're up, you're down, you're up – but that's football. You have to live with it and Jesse has learned how to deal with ups and downs in football. You know, if you play for Man United you have to live with it, be able to handle that scrutiny. Don't worry about it because what we have to worry about is ourselves, what we do, what we say. We're a group, we're together, we work together, stick together through thick and thin. That's never going to be any different. This is a family. It was a great goal. Of course, he had a tough evening on Tuesday but he’s knuckled down and worked hard again. He’s been the same bright, positive lad and what a goal. A great pass by Nemanja, a good turn by Jesse and a great goal.”

TWO CLEAR PENALTIES NOT GIVEN
“I'm going to be careful with what I'm saying, but you've got to be wondering what's he's got to do to get a penalty. The first [obstruction by Coufal] and the third [tackle by Ogbonna] is 100 per cent nailed on. The one where he gets pulled back backstick [by Cresswell] is probably [not obvious], but it's still a foul, he gets pulled down in the box. It's frustrating but they've got to look at it. It's two clear penalties. I think they’re stonewall. You can’t even argue against them. The first one, he puts his foot out and Ronaldo runs straight and is fouled. The last one, Paul had a foul against him on Zouma when he didn’t touch him but he went over him. Why is Cristiano’s not? Hopefully it won’t be that he’s never going to get a penalty.”

WEST HAM'S PENALTY
“Even though it's from half a yard away and it's clipped up, Luke probably makes himself bigger which is probably their reasoning for giving the penalty. It's one of them: do they want the defenders to just have their arms behind the back? You can't defend properly then, can you?

“I’ve seen Mark Noble score so many penalties and that’s the decision – sometimes it goes for you, sometimes it goes against you. As I said last week, it’s always the outcome that determines the narrative. This time it turned out not to be the right call, but it’s just football.”

A GOOD PERFORMANCE
“Very happy with the performances – 11 corners, a few big chances that we missed. First 10-15 minutes of the second half I thought we pressed them really well, made them give the ball away five or six times in their own box more or less, and it's one of them, we can't get a counter-attack every time we have a corner. There was a few having to sprint back a couple of times.”

Ole: David showed who he is

 Article

Our manager was full of praise for David De Gea after his penalty heroics against the Hammers.

“We have to work better defensively, no doubt. In the first half, we were too easy to play through. We will work on it because there is no respite when you play football. I’ve spoken about how you can’t take rests when you defend. We dropped into a back six [for the goal] and there were too many spaces. We were too late to charge the ball. We’ve already sorted that and spoke about that at half-time. It was better in the second half and a great response, that was a big thing for me – how do you react when you go 1-0 down? It was a very, very good five minutes for us.”

PORTUGUESE LINK-UP
“The two of them [Ronaldo and Fernandes], of course, have to work together. They’ve played together for Portugal for a little while but, for me, those are top players. Ronaldo arrives in the box again – as he does.”

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