Ole's emotive message to his United players

The Reds struggled to respond to Saturday's Premier League defeat at Leicester City in the first half of the Champions League tie with Atalanta and trailed the Serie A side 2-0 at the break.

The pressure was on, as it always is with United, but the players delivered with a stirring comeback to win 3-2 and earn three precious Group F points.

When he was asked during a post-match interview if the players were playing for him, the boss told BT Sport: "Don't even start! Don't disrespect the players. They play for Man United and they know they're the luckiest men in the world.

"I said that to them. Tonight, they're the luckiest men in the world - the eleven plus the subs - because they're the ones that can play for Man United. And that's what so many millions of boys and girls want to do."

Once again, the value of the squad was shown with the impact made off the bench by the substitutes and it is this togetherness and positivity which can reap rewards as the season progresses.

Ole accepts he is also fortunate to have such talent at his disposal and he is drilling into them the importance of being ready to come off the bench and impress, something he often managed to do, of course, during his playing career.

“I have said many times that I am very lucky with the squad and depth of squad I have," he added in his press conference.

"It was a question of do you do them at half-time? But I didn’t feel we had to do them at half-time, make too many changes, it was about upping the quality. I thought we played well. The subs made a difference again and that is what we expect of them. That is what is expected of you when you are a Man United player. If you have 20 minutes, you put 90 minutes' work into those 20 minutes.”