Solskjaer's verdict on FA Cup victory

The boss granted Scott McTominay the privilege of captaining the side for the very first time, and the midfielder delivered almost instantly by heading home the game's only goal in the fifth minute.

 

Solskjaer made nine changes to his starting line-up, with stiff Premier League trips to Burnley and Liverpool imminent, and was able to reflect on a positive evening when he caught up with club media and BT Sport after the match.

 

Read what he had to say about McTominay, Jesse Lingard's return and the injury suffered by Eric Bailly, plus much more, below...

“You're through and that's the main thing. We started really brightly. I didn't expect us to start this well, because it's a team that's not really played together and they've not really played for a while, and you expect them to grow into the game. Bu it was a really good start, and we created some chances and of course scored a goal.

“After about 20-25 minutes, maybe, we stopped playing simple football; we tried to complicate things and we got counter-attacked a few times. We started giving them the ball back easily, we tried to complicate it, maybe one or two men out of position and then suddenly they counter-attack and when you’ve got Andre Gray or Ismaila Sarr running at you, you’re always going to have the heart way up here.”

CAPTAIN MCTOMINAY

"He's developing really nicely. The leadership role as well – I wanted to see how he took to that captain's armband, and he did really well. He didn't shrink. He normally leads anyway, but then we just wanted to test him. We’ve always trusted our young men coming through and Scott’s one of them that we really believe has got the DNA of Man United in him, and he knows what it is to be a Man United player. Should he be scoring more goals? We've said that to him so many times! He's strong, he's quick, he can leap, [he has] good timing, so he should get more goals."

 

LINGARD'S RETURN

“He’s been out for a while, but Jesse started brightly as well and then, as you expect towards the end, he was a little bit tired, so I just put Nemanja [Matic] on just to secure the game there.”

HOPEFUL ON BAILLY

"There was no concussion. Apparently it was his neck, a sore neck, but he couldn't carry on so let's check on him tomorrow."

 

ROTATION WAS ESSENTIAL

"You know we had a tough game midweek. We have a tough game midweek coming, so we were the only team having both [midweek fixtures] before and after this game. You can see most of the teams have gone strong, picked very good strong sides, because they've got a week until their next game. I didn't have that luxury, so it was just common sense to make changes."

 

WE'LL BE READY FOR BURNLEY

"We'll have the boys ready again. Some of these [that played against Watford] will play probably, and there'll be a few new fresh legs as well that managed to get a rest tonight. The staff are doing an amazing job. They look after the players fantastically. But the players are looking after themselves as well. Don't forget that it's hard times for everyone, difficult times for everyone, but going home, recovering, getting ready for the next games is the main thing right now."