Ronaldo on the ball against City

Ole demands a true United reply

Sunday 07 November 2021 07:00

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer wants Manchester United to clean their wounds and storm back after the international break, following the derby-day defeat to City.

The Reds’ squad will now go their separate ways around the globe for matches for their countries and return to domestic action in the Premier League against Watford in a fortnight.

Solskjaer admits the break may have come at an ideal time in the wake of the damaging 2-0 Old Trafford result against the Blues, but wants a response at Vicarage Road in true United style.

“Players are human beings and when you lose a game of football there is no better remedy than winning a game and getting your confidence by winning a game,” Solskjaer told the post-match press conference.

“Hopefully the ones who go away do that and for us it is all about Watford. We have to come out against Watford like a proper hurt animal and get back to what we know we can be and that is the only way to approach this and attack this situation.

“Yes the short answer is it [the break] has come at a good time for us.

Watch Ole’s press conference Video

Watch Ole’s press conference

The boss spoke to journalists after the final whistle at Old Trafford…

“As a group we have had a difficult spell and we’ve come through it but this was a big step backwards.”

United were beaten against our Manchester neighbours when Pep Guardiola’s side scored twice in front of the Stretford End in the 186th iteration of the derby.

Eric Bailly scored a seventh-minute own goal and then Bernardo Silva critically made it 2-0 just before the interval.

United were unable to recover in the second half and couldn’t build on the 3-0 league win at Tottenham last Saturday and the 2-2 Champions league draw with Atalanta in Italy in midweek.

But the boss knows what he is looking for when the squad gets back together at Watford.

“It is very disappointing and it feels like, after last week when we made a step or two forwards results wise, it is a big step backwards,” added Ole.

“Probably for me it is another well, it is a way of losing that we don’t like. When you lose a game against a good team you want to see a better Man Utd team than that.

“Of course when you concede the first goal as early as we did and in an unfortunate way it makes the game a lot more difficult. We needed to be a lot more aggressive.

“But we are playing against a very good team who made it hard for us to do that and when we had the ball they pressed us really well and we couldn’t get the angles we knew we had to get the quality to get the level we needed to be to win against good teams.

“It is about getting back to what we were starting to look like. We started to look like a proper team, on the front foot and a team that I liked. The Tottenham result was good but this was a big step back.”

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