Palace 0 United 2: Ole's press conference
TranscriptSee what Solskjaer said to the media after the Reds soared to victory over the Eagles...
Ole, a very tricky and tough game tonight. How would you assess the way they played? “You’re right, you don’t expect anything else from a Roy Hodgson team. They’re well organised, some very good individuals out there and you can see them enjoy themselves because they played against Man United with no pressure, they had nothing to lose and gave us a good game. We didn’t really get going, especially before half-time but in moments, we show what we can do and it’s great to watch when that tempo and the ball goes forward, the runs forward and the movement off the ball.” In terms of the second half, how impressed were you by that hunger to hunt down the ball and get that second goal that proved crucial? “Well it had to be better than the first half, as simple as that and they showed it. Especially after the drinks break, that’s the last 20, 25 minutes we played some controlled stuff but today was about getting three points again. We’re at that stage of the season and you don’t get extra points for how it looks.” Can I ask you about the performances of two players – Marcus Rashford and Tim Fosu-Mensah, who obviously hadn’t started for three years? “Yes, we can start with Timothy because it’s 16 months since the last game he played. He’s worked hard and I’m delighted for him. I know all about having injuries, knee injuries, and how great it must felt for him to be out there and he lasted the full game. He played as we wanted him to, he played really well. We knew it was going to be Townsend and Zaha, tricky players to play against and he did really well. Marcus is just enjoying himself, enjoying football, him and Anthony together link really well off each other. When I can see those boys with that body language as in smiling and being positive, I’m delighted.” Ole, you only made a couple of changes and you had ovviously named the same team for five games in a row before that. Are you confident that this small group you’re working with can keep going because you might have quite a few matches going into August if you keep winning games at this rate? “Yeah, we’re fine, we’re fit and the players are raring to go, wanting to play again. I want to sit out this one. We’ve got players on the bench desperate to join in but of course it was forced today because Luke and Brandon weren’t available but Timothy did great and Scotty has been fantastic so he took a shift for Nemanja so we’ve got enough players. We’ve had a chance over this period to take players off. We’ve been three goals up in many games after 60 minutes so we’ve been fortunate in that respect.” One more about Fosu-Mensah. Did you pick him for his know-how against Zaha and Townsend, rather than Dalot who has already played this season? “Well I’ve seen him in training and I’ve seen him before obviously. And with his pace and his physicality and his attributes, we think he deserved to play this game. He proved it and he showed it. Of course, he’s going to feel it tomorrow but I’m delighted for him.”