Ole hails super Reds' five-star display in Linz

Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was delighted with the professionalism and quality produced by his players under strange circumstances in Austria during the first leg of our Europa League last-16 tie.

During post-match interviews with MUTV and BT Sport, the United boss reflected on an excellent performance against LASK as the Reds ran out 5-0 winners in a game which was played behind closed doors due to coronavirus. This is what he had to say...

AN EXCELLENT 90 MINUTES
“You can say it was a professional but it was also a very good job. It wasn’t just being professional and efficient though, there were some quality football and quality finishes, some great build-up play and great through passes, runs and movements, I think we got more or less everything we asked from the boys. The whole 90 minutes from the whole team was excellent.”

HIGH-QUALITY GOALS
“You can look at all of them and say they’re high quality. The first one for Odion [Ighalo], who had some great touches and it was very nice to see Dan [James] back on form and confident. With Juan [Mata]’s goal, what a pass [from Fred] and Juan is composed. Then you have Mason [Greenwood], that’s just what he does, absolute quality. The keeper didn’t give him a lot to aim for so he had to go through both of the posts and I’m very happy for Andy [Pereira] to finish it off. Every goal was high quality and we should have had more.”

SKY-HIGH MORALE
“It’s great of course. We’re human beings and footballers with confidence will play and perform better than footballers without confidence, and we’ve got so many players with confidence because they’re doing well. They deserve to be confident and it’s harder and harder to pick an XI. We made a few changes today and some of the players really grabbed their opportunity and put pressure on the ones who have been playing most of the minutes.”

STRANGESETTING
“It’s the business end of the season and what was pleasing today was it was different circumstances. It was a weird atmosphere and the boys were so focused and created their own atmosphere in the game and I think the camaraderie and the team spirit was there to see. It’s not to recommend [football behind closed doors] but I have to praise the boys because they did fantastic.”

ANOTHER CLEAN SHEET
“In the second half, they had a couple of dangerous moments but we had some great blocks. In the first half as well, they had one chance but it was a great block by Eric [Bailly] so, of course, it’s not just the attackers that did well, I think the back four, with Sergio [Romero] back there guiding them, all did well.”

POGBA'S FUTURE?
“Paul's our player. He has two years left on his contract. A year plus the option of another. You can expect Paul to be here [next season], yeah.”

AN 11-MATCH UNBEATEN RUN
“It’s fantastic but we need to keep going. It’s a big game on Sunday, Tottenham away. It’s part of the reason we made a couple of changes. Changes are part of being a Man United player, you don’t play every game but you’re happy at the end if you win trophies. It’s not just about playing, it’s about winning and helping the team. If you play for 60, 70, 80 or 10 minutes you should be proud and have confidence.”