Solskjaer identified the position of the full-backs as United’s major weakness
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer identified the full-backs as Manchester United’s major point of weakness even before he was appointed as the caretaker manager, claims club legend and Wales manager, Ryan Giggs.
The Norwegian has really turned things around at Old Trafford after taking over the reins from Jose Mourinho in December, winning six games on a trot across all competitions.
Giggs has revealed that Solskjaer identified the position of United’s full-backs as a point of weakness when the pair watched the Red Devils go down 1-0 to Juventus in the Champions League.
Players like Jesse Lingard, Marcus Rashford and most importantly, Paul Pogba, have come into their own under Solskjaer, with Man United scoring as many as 17 goals in their last six games.
When asked what Solskjaer has changed at United, Giggs said, ‘Well, reminding the players how good they are’.
‘It’s little tweaks. It’s like you see with golfers. Just a little tweak to the game that someone else on the outside might have seen. Ole’s been to a few games before he took over.
‘I was at a game next to him, and he was pointing out to me, ‘Look at the full-backs, they’re not high enough’. Things that we were used to, things that you associate with Man United teams.
‘OK you score two, we’ll score three’ and I think he’s brought, he’s instilled that back into them that we need to score goals, we need to attack and if we’re all higher up the pitch then it just poses the opposition that question. All of a sudden teams are going from, ‘Right it’s Man United, we’ve got a chance today’ to actually, ‘Oh yeah, we’ll be defending, we’ll be deeper’.
‘With the front players that United have got, not only the starting players but the ones coming off the bench, you’ve seen Sanchez, you’ve seen Lukaku now having an impact. It rivals any team within the Premier League the firepower that United have got.’
