Ole reacts to Bournemouth loss

Saturday 02 November 2019 15:30

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer couldn't fault his Manchester United players' energy and determination against Bournemouth, but the boss admitted the quality we needed was missing in front of goal.

The United boss spoke to MUTV and BT Sport after the 1-0 defeat at the Vitality Stadium on Saturday afternoon, and also addressed reporters in his pre-match press conference. This is what he had to say about the game...

Today’s performance

"We had a lack of quality at times in front of goal. I thought we started well and opened them up with Dan James down the side, but we couldn't get the important first goal. Then after 15 or 20 minutes, the game settled down and I thought they grew into it. It became a 50/50 match and you thought whoever would get the first goal would win this. They got it from a moment of magic by Josh. It was always going to be a difficult game down here and it wasn’t going to be a game with loads of goals in it because there are two good defensive teams.”

Solskjaer delivers his verdict on the defeat Video

Solskjaer delivers his verdict on the defeat

In our interview, Ole explains his opinion that United lacked quality at crucial times in the game...

Disappointing goal to concede

“Every time you concede a goal it’s a bad goal to give away. But it was just the build-up to it. First, it was [played] into Wilson. He can turn and lay it out to Josh but then we don’t screen him. We should have kept him facing the wrong way, but you have got to say well done to the kid because it is a quality goal."

Front four still developing

“I thought the front four looked promising but flattered to deceive a little bit today. It looked like we could create chances but we just didn’t have the last pass or the last finish and that’s something we need to improve on.”

Conditions of the match

“I don’t want to say it counts against us but [the weather] counted against a good game of football, but it’s the same for us and Bournemouth, so that’s absolutely no reason for us not having three points.”

We have to challenge

“It’s one of those things that if you want to be challenging for top four, you need to be winning games like this and I’m sure Bournemouth will say that they want to win the challenge, too. They want to win home games. So, for us, we’re disappointed. But then again we have a game on Thursday night against Partizan. We’ll be hoping to win that one so we can move on through [to the knock-out stages].”

Response is needed

“It’s a test of character when you come down to places like this, 1-0 down [at] half-time. I thought the response in the second half at least was we went for it and we didn’t stop trying. It was the lack of quality that couldn’t give us the point or three. You can't really say it’s one of those days because it has been too often now away from home. You have got to react; you have got to recover. We have two more games before the international break, we’ve got a chance on Thursday to qualify in Europe and then Brighton at home – so we need a response.”

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