Man Utd boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer addressed three dressing room concerns in Tottenham win
Spurs v Manchester United Match in Pictures
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Manchester United boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer successfully addressed three key issues which were reportedly causing dressing room friction before their trip to Tottenham on Saturday. The Norwegian bounced back from last weekend’s humiliation by Liverpool to hammer Spurs 3-0 away, relieving some of the speculation on his future.
Eyebrows were raised when Solskjaer reverted to a five-at-the-back system for the first time in over a year.
It took some time to get going, but after Cristiano Ronaldo opened the scoring with a stunning volley before half time, the Red Devils began to find their rhythm.
Edinson Cavani and Marcus Rashford added gloss to the score-line after the break, sealing a precious three points for their under-pressure boss.
Last weekend’s 5-0 mauling at the hands of Liverpool had asked serious questions of United, and despite Spurs’ poor showing, many of them were answered in north London.
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The nature of United’s victory also shook off three sources of reported dressing room animosity involving Jesse Lingard, Nemanja Matic, Donny van de Beek and Solskjaer’s tactical awareness.
According to ESPN, tactics were becoming a real bone of contention for the United squad after their attempts to press Liverpool were punished with a 5-0 thrashing.
On Saturday, however, Solskjaer showed his managerial awareness by switching to a bold new system and pulling off a resounding victory.
Fielding a side without wingers and a strike partnership with a combined age of 70 could have broken the United boss if it went wrong, but the 3-0 score-line tells its own story.
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The same report also states that Solskjaer’s reluctance to hand Lingard, Nemanja Matic and Van de Beek first-team opportunities was causing concern in the dressing room.
Although none of that trio started, Lingard and Matic were granted precious minutes from the bench at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Van de Beek was not so lucky, but that should not come as a surprise given how his stint at Old Trafford has gone thus far.
With three key issues addressed after last weekend’s shock result, Solskjaer and his players can presumably move forward into more tough fixtures with renewed belief.
“There’s many things behind the tactics that we used today,” said Solskjaer after the final whistle.
“One is solidity, we managed to get Raphael [Varane] right bang smack in the middle of that back [three] because we needed a clean sheet.
“We needed to control the game with the ball and we did.
“We got Edinson [Cavani] and Cristiano [Ronaldo] to play together as a front two, we got the width from the wing-backs and today we felt it was going to work.”
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