Manchester United vs Liverpool: Ole Gunnar Solskjaer delighted with players' reaction to spate of injuries
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer claimed almost everything that could have gone wrong went wrong for Manchester United in the bizarre first-half of their goalless draw with Liverpool.
United lost three players – Ander Herrera, Juan Mata and Jesse Lingard – to hamstring injuries before half time as Solskjaer was forced to use all three of his substitutions before the interval.
Marcus Rashford also suffered a knock to his ankle early on but played through the pain as it became clear that other injured team-mates could not continue.
Even so, Liverpool, who also lost Roberto Firmino to an ankle injury inside the first half hour, failed to capitalise on United’s misfortune and could only take a point at Old Trafford.
Solskjaer was delighted with the performance from his players, especially when considering the circumstances, and he could not help but curse their bad luck with injuries.
“I’d never seen the like of this before,” he said. ”Three hamstrings in the first half. Rashy was kicked, did his ankle straight away. We should have taken him off as well. We played with 10 and a half but the fans made up for it and Rashy’s attitude made up for it too.
“I was very impressed by my team today. The attitude and character we showed in adversity. Everything that could’ve gone wrong first half went wrong. Second half magnificant and the fans made up for Rashy’s injury and more.”
Solskjaer did not have any update on the prognosis for the three players forced off through injury but suggested that Rashford may struggle to be available for Wednesday’s trip to Crystal Palace.
“There were quite a few fouls on him and normally you’d take him off after five minutes. His ankle blew up and he wanted to run it off. Juan and Ander came off, so we couldn’t take the risk of bringing him off. I hope he’s not damaged himself too much.”
Asked if there was a risk he could not play against Palace, Solskjaer said: “Yeah, there is. I’ve not seen him after the game or after he’s had treatment. If he plays I’ll be maybe surprised.
“We might have to look at [why there were so many injuries] but it’s different players. I never thought Juan would be the type of player to get a hamstring injury. I said to him as well.
“But the physical work they’ve done – Ander, for example, has played every single minute – and I might want to play to a different way than what they’ve done before
“You can see all the stats have gone up regarding high intensity sprints, total distance. Maybe that’s taken it’s toll but we’ve got players to come in.”
