Solskjaer reacts to narrow West Brom success

Saturday 21 November 2020 23:41

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer declared himself "delighted" with Manchester United's 1-0 win over West Brom on Saturday night, and a first home league win of the season.

The Reds have won all three of their Premier League away games so far this season, but were without a home success in the competition until now.

A second-half penalty from Bruno Fernandes – converted at the second attempt, after Sam Johnstone’s initial save was ruled illegal by VAR – did the business for the Norwegian and his team, but Ole admitted the points pleased him much more than the performance.

Speaking to BT Sport and club media after the game, Solskjaer gave his views on another controversial afternoon for the VAR system and detailed how the international break had affected our preparations.

He also explained why it’s so important that United have now recorded consecutive Premier League wins for the first time this season…
Ole: We should have been comfortable Video

Ole: We should have been comfortable

The boss was pleased with three big points, but says United should have finished the game off earlier...

A VITAL FIRST HOME LEAGUE WIN
“Well it's important to get the first win at home. I think a lot has been said and written about it and I think you could see towards the end we were a bit edgy that we needed to hang on to this win. We could have, probably should have, scored a couple more goals to make it an easier finish. At 1-0 you're never sure and it's a tight call both ways.”

PREPARATIONS WERE DIFFICULT
“Yeah, definitely, after an international break, we said it in the dressing room after, it's difficult. We've not worked together and we've waited until this morning to get the prep for this game done. It's never easy, that, when everyone's been away for 10 days, so we're delighted with the points. Yes, we know we can do better but three points are three points and we've got a clean sheet.”

CONSISTENCY KEY
“The league this season is going to be ups and downs, and inconsistent, unpredictable. We've seen some results today as well and the league is not really settling. I read somewhere and Jose said that one win gets you up there and one defeat puts you close to the bottom. So it's very tight, it's very early on and points are more important than performances sometimes.”

PRAISE FOR SAM JOHNSTONE
“It's not easy when we keep giving other teams our good goalkeepers, when we've developed all these good players, and Sam had a fantastic game I think. I had him before I went back to Norway and to see him develop the way he has is great, but he doesn't have to do it so well against us!”
VAR CONFUSION
“I thought at the time, live, that it was a penalty. But when you look at the video, Bruno gets the ball first and I think the penalty that wasn't given to Villa at the end against Brighton was probably in the mind of the referee as well. So he gets the ball first and then maybe he touches him slightly but I think it's the right decision.”

WE HAVE TO PLAY BETTER
“It's always tense and it's fine margins. I'm delighted with the clean sheet and we could have made it more comfortable but the international breaks never help. We had everyone back yesterday but we didn't know the test results and hadn't had the COVID tests back before the session so all our prep was this morning. So it's not easy when you only have 20 minutes or half an hour prepping for this game. But we're ready now to go again on Tuesday. Three points, home win, no more talk about that but we need to keep consistent performances, better performances than this. We know that. If we want to move up the table, we have to play better.”

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