Soccer

Solskjaer understands Pochettino link with Manchester United

Paul Pogba should be fit for crunch clash with Tottenham Hotspur at Wembley

Manchester United’s interim manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has had a 100 per cent start to his tenure. Photograph: Martin Rickett/PA Wire.

Thu Jan 10 2019 - 22:05

Ole Gunnar Solskjær accepts Mauricio Pochettino “has done a very good job” at Tottenham and understands why he is being linked with the permanent Manchester United manager’s role.

Solskjær has had a 100 per cent start as the United manager but third-placed Spurs will provided the toughest test of his three-week tenure at Wembley on Sunday.

“The speculation is there for a reason, because he’s done well. But it’s not my job to rate different managers. My focus is on me and my team,” Solskjær said.

United returned from their five-day training trip to Dubai on Thursday night. “We had four good days of training, so I think the boys enjoyed it. We put a few principles down and they worked hard and enjoyed working hard,” Solskjær said.

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Paul Pogba will be available for the match at Wembley. The midfielder sat out the FA Cup win against Reading after sustaining an injury to the back of his right leg following a challenge from Newcastle’s Jonjo Shelvey. He initially remained in Manchester for further treatment before joining his teammates in Dubai.

Solskjær said: “He looked OK towards the end there, so he’ll be fit. He did have some problems but he came through the last couple of sessions well.”

Marcos Rojo left the training camp early, because his injury is taking longer to heal than expected. The defender has made only three appearances this season and he has returned to Argentina to continue his recovery. The manager said: “How long will he be out for? How long is a piece of rope? For him it was mentally important to go away and come back fresh.”

Solskjær believes the best way to beat Tottenham is to attack them but accepts it will be hard against a team of their calibre.

“They are one of best in the league so we have to be aware of their strengths. But we need to attack teams, that is our strength – going forward, attacking. We have to,” he said.

“We are not going to get as many chances to attack against these as we had before so when we have the ball we have to be ready to play well with it and we have to use the whole pitch because Wembley is a decent size pitch as well.”

Asked how he plans to deal with Harry Kane, he replied: “He’s not bad is he? He never misses chances so let’s make sure he doesn’t get any against us.”

(Guardian service)

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