MANCHESTER – Interim manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was delighted with the overall performance of his Manchester United players and praised their work-rate after the encouraging 5-1 win at Cardiff City on Saturday.
Solskjaer, who spent 11 seasons at Old Trafford as a player, took charge of his first game since replacing the departing Jose Mourinho earlier this week and the caretaker boss hailed his full-backs for the role they played in the victory.
“We had a little session yesterday on the patterns of play and we wanted Ashley [Young] going forward and Luke [Shaw] to support Anthony [Martial], because he’s great one-against-one, and Ash on the right-hand side too. It worked great today,” Solskjaer told BT Sport.
He added: “The easiest thing in the world to work on is your work-rate, because it’s free. It’s just attitude and the application of the boys.
“Because of the occasion, they did maybe make a run or two more than normal, but when you’ve got players like Jesse [Lingard], Rash [Rashford] up top, they do run a lot!”
Meanwhile, the Norwegian is hoping to build on this victory but will look too far ahead.
“We take one game at a time now,” he said. “We’ve caught up eight, nine points before from teams and you’ve got to go one game at a time.
“We’ve got Huddersfield [on] Boxing Day. Let the boys enjoy tonight and then we’ll look forward.”
He noted: “You can’t do anything else than focus on the next training session and work on a few bits because there’s still work to be done.
“Me and Mick [Phelan] have come in with some ideas and we just want to keep plugging away, little by little.”
