'Everyone starts with a clean slate' – Ole Gunnar Solskjaer ready to kickstart Manchester United's season
The new Manchester United caretaker manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer promised his under-performing players that he would not judge them on their stuttering season so far and that all of them would be given a fresh chance to prove anew that they belonged at the club.
In his first interview since being appointed on Tuesday the Norwegian, a major fan favourite at Old Trafford, declared that he had ‘come home’ to United. In what was an upbeat interview Solskjaer made much of emphasising the quality of his squad and making clear that whatever had happened under Jose Mourinho would now be forgotten.
He said: “They will get a chance and everyone in the squad knows, ‘I will get a chance now’. Whatever has gone, whatever has happened, has happened. Everyone starts with a clean slate. We want players to perform, given the chance. You’ve got to start somewhere. Of course I’ve seen the last few games. You look at the merits. You pick a team now and you move on. They will all get a chance.”
United will lie sixth, 11 points outside the top four when they go to Cardiff City on Saturday to face Solskjaer’s former club. A six-time Premier League winner under Sir Alex Ferguson and the scorer of the winning goal in the 1999 Champions League final, Solskjaer said that despite United’s underwhelming start to the season they would set out to attack opposition and impose their own style on games.
He said: “I watch the Premier League. I’ve seen the teams, so I have I got a little bit of a view on them. But it’s not about not the opposition, it’s about us. It’s about Manchester United, it’s about our players knowing what they can do. We want to see them express themselves. Our main focus is on us, how we want the team to play. Then we will give them one or two details about the opposition.”
He played down the prospect of getting the job in the long-term when his temporary role ends at the last game of the season and he is expected to go back to Molde, who will be by then two months into the Norwegian domestic season. He also said that he rang assistant Mike Phelan when the latter was giving a coaching class at Burnley College to ask him to come back to the club where he was sacked by David Moyes in 2013. Solskjaer also played up the importance of the role that assistants Michael Carrick and Kieran McKenna would play.
As a major figure in United’s European history, Solskjaer emphasised the importance of the knockout last-16 Champions League tie with Paris St-Germain, when he said that his club could still play with confidence.
“The tie with PSG is a fantastic chance. It is under the lights at Old Trafford. The [club’s famous] manager [Sir Alex Ferguson] talked about those nights. Those are the nights that United come to the fore. I can’t wait for it. But we need to build a foundation in the games leading up to it.”
He added: “It's six months and I'm going to enjoy the ride. I'm back home, if you like, and it's about seeing the players, seeing the staff. It's about just being myself.”
