Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is always looking for a “spark” from his Manchester United players and, in the absence of any sign, he fired some fireworks at Brighton.
United lost at halftime for the fourth time this season at Old Trafford and in the previous three defeats. With ‘progress’ being the watchword at United, as they strive to improve on third place last season, beating Brighton was a progressive step.
Not that he felt that way. Brighton was one of the best teams United faced before the weekend’s victory and will be scratching their heads to see how it ended meaningless after two impressive performances against them six months apart.
United was not as lucky as it was at Amex in September and Mason Greenwood’s maturity continued with his winner. Greenwood may have been the only one that the ‘Hair Dryer’ was not turned on during the break.
Solskjaer was so audibly angry that he directed his anger at Luke Shaw, who had been impeccable for the past few months. The brusque Bruno Fernandes had some words chosen for his manager.
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In his interview with the broadcasters, Solskjaer said: “Sometimes, after the international breaks, it takes time and perhaps the fireworks have to be lit during the break”.
During the post-game interrogation about Zoom, Solskjaer added: “Hair dryer? Sometimes you just need to raise your voice, sometimes you stay calm and composed, it doesn’t really matter what I did today, what matters is that we get it half. time to talk about things.
“Sometimes it’s louder than other times. Sometimes you can really get your message across and speak slowly and not so loudly. It doesn’t really matter what I did today.”
“We did this a few times this season. We’re getting used to it, you really don’t want to be in a 1-0 position.
“It was a sloppy mistake in midfield [for Brighton’s goal] and then we didn’t stop the cross, we didn’t defend the cross, so we got to work and I think we did it so many times this season that the team didn’t panic.
“We have to create momentum, we have to move the ball faster, we move more in tune and the two goals we scored were good goals and we deserve to win the game in the end, I think.”