Soccer

Solskjær hoping Manchester United can land ‘sucker punch’ on Manchester City

Manager wants his opponents to approach derby with arrogance and confidence

Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjær admits his the squad needs more depth and quality. Photograph: Stu Forster/Getty Images

Jamie Jackson
Fri Dec 6 2019 - 22:30

Ole Gunnar Solskjær hopes Manchester City will approach the derby with arrogance because this could allow Manchester United to land a "sucker punch".

United travel to the Etihad Stadium 11 points behind City but Solskjær is confident of his side's prospects. They have beaten Tottenham, Chelsea and Leicester, though the manager is not keen for this to strike fear into his opponents.

“We might not want them to be scared of us, we might want them to be arrogant and confident because you don’t have to shout the loudest to throw the sucker punch. It’s not about shouting the loudest, it’s about doing the talking on the pitch.”

Solskjær was adamant that United, the record 20-times English champions, remain a bigger club than City, who have won four Premier League titles in the last seven years and last season claimed an unprecedented domestic treble. He also rejected the notion that United cannot compete with City, which his predecessor, José Mourinho, has claimed.

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Challenge

“Don’t agree,” he said. “What are you going do? Are you going to give up? Not challenge them? That’s what we’ve got to get back to. You can’t argue that we’re [not] too far behind but it’s a chance for us now to challenge them and bridge that gap a little bit.”

Solskjær said the squad needed more depth and quality but suggested there may not be any more Galáctico-style signings in the mould of Romelu Lukaku, Paul Pogba, Ángel Di María and Radamel Falcao.

“Do I look like I’m going to spend hundreds of millions of pounds on players we’re not sure of? We need to rebuild, we need to change the culture.

“You want the culture with that hunger and selflessness that most of these players are showing. You’ve got the [Scott] McTominays and [Marcus] Rashfords and [Jesse] Lingards, the players that know what Man United is.”

– Guardian

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