Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer feels there are still areas for improvement despite a 3-0 win over Sheffield United.
by Adam Marshall
The Reds earned the points with a hat-trick from Anthony Martial but the boss felt his team should have been further than two goals ahead at the break and he wants them to be more clinical.
Martial certainly looked sharp and he impressed Ole with his pressing, in addition to his form in front of goal.
GET THE JOB DONE QUICKER
“We played some fantastic football at times. We should have been out of sight earlier. That’s the one criticism that I can come with: that we don’t go into half-time with a 100 per cent feeling that this is finished. We played a very good second half as well, controlled it, dominated. When the opponent only has one shot on target all game, you know you’ve done some other stuff than playing well. We pressed well, we passed well and ran hard. But we need to score more goals early on, so we can rest.”
MARTIAL THE MAIN MAN
“I’m very pleased with Anthony’s development and he knows that we want him to do well and we work with him and the forwards all the time on finishing. Today, he got the rewards for the hard work he’s put in. His pressing goes unnoticed. I think, today, he was exceptional and, at Tottenham, the pressing he showed from the front was really good, so I’m very happy. The first goal was a vital one today and the way he turns and gets himself into a position to score from Marcus’s cross, I was very pleased with that one. Now he’s getting more and more into these positions. He had a great turn against Tottenham, which was a great save by [Hugo] Lloris, so Anthony is in good form.
FLOWING FOOTBALL
”[The third goal?] Oh, excellent. That’s Man United. It’s just too bad he can’t celebrate it with live people and live audiences, our supporters. We miss that and that’s probably one thing Anto will already remember from his first hat-trick here – that he couldn’t celebrate with our fans. It is strange but it’s fantastic what everyone has done and we’ll do our best until the fans are back here to give some entertainment on the TV. At times, it was very, very good football but, for me we still could have and should have scored more goals and put the game to bed before half-time. That’s always the worry when you go into half-time knowing you should have scored a few more goals. But the control and the way we pressed them and stopped them from playing was very good. So I’m very pleased with the performance but there is still more to come and we shouldn’t be 100 per cent happy.
POGBA-BRUNO COMBINATION
“Paul is still a bit away from his best form which is natural because that’s his first start since September and he’s been working hard, so hopefully there is more to come. I thought Bruno showed some quality in the game and it’s exciting to be working with talent like this.”
ANOTHER CLEAN SHEET
“It’s brilliant, and that’s what we were saying about the pressing. Pressing from the front, the strikers, the whole team is dialled in and we know we have to work hard to earn the win and earn the right to play football. If you defend well, you get most of the ball anyway so I’m very pleased with our defensive record.”
CHASING THE TOP FOUR
“I’ve never said fourth is our aim! We want to go third or fourth, but we have to focus on each game as it comes. There are two cups [the Europa League and Emirates FA Cup] there for us as well, so one game at a time and hopefully, by the end, we can have the points we need and maybe only have two teams in front of us.”
- culled from manutd.com
