Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.

'I wanted to show the manager I should be playing more'

Thursday 28 May 2020 18:00

Ole Gunnar's Solskjaer's four-goal haul against Nottingham Forest has been selected by fans as the latest winner of our Match Rewind poll.

Earlier this season, the United boss recalled his dramatic impact off the bench in the 8-1 victory at Nottingham Forest during our Treble-winning season.

Ole replaced Dwight Yorke in the second half with the Reds 4-1 ahead of former manager Ron Atkinson's Forest at the City Ground. He duly doubled the tally past Dave Beasant in the home goal with more evidence of his ruthless finishing.

At the back of his mind, he was merely sending a reminder of his talents to Alex Ferguson, as he explained to Stewart Gardner during a Google Hangout.

Video
Watch Ole discuss the four goals at Nottingham Forest.

"We had a fantastic squad, a fantastic team spirit and the hunger in the team was unbelievable," said Solskjaer. "Of course, with the quality of players [we had], some quality players had to start on the bench and stay on the bench.  

“I remember Jim Ryan telling me, when I was coming on: 'We're winning 4-1 so you don't need to do anything stupid or daft. Just keep the ball.' And those were the wise words.

“To be honest, the manager always used to say to us go and express yourselves, go and enjoy it. We were 4-1 up and had won the game anyway. For the opponents, 4-1 was close enough for them to have to have a go, and I knew there would be spaces for me to run into. Every time I was on the pitch, I wanted to show the manager I should be playing more."

In terms of the goals, he recalled: "The first one with Gary [Neville's cross], was a mishit. It could easily have gone wide. I hit it with my heel, more or less.

“The second one, I tried to chip it to the back stick for Coley, for him to score, but the keeper saves it and then it's just about smashing it. The third was a decent finish, I just put it in. It was a decent volley and I just hit it hard past him. And the last one fell at my feet and I scored them very, very often in the playground.

“That was the challenge. We had good players and you had to make a statement and had to surpass them and do something else to stake a claim, so you were more likely to be in the team the next game around."

Nottingham Forest 1-8 Manchester United Video

Nottingham Forest 1-8 Manchester United

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You can watch Ole at his very best from 19:00 BST this Thursday, when we'll be showing the full 90 minutes of the 8-1 win over Forest for free on the ManUtd.com homepage and our Official App.

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