Caretaker manager has returned swagger and sense of purpose to United and his transformation of Lukaku and co is startling
“The game is all about confidence, like most other things in life,” Sir Alex Ferguson once said. “Without self-belief you won’t achieve anything.” If Manchester United are not full to the brim with confidence as they travel to Arsenal on Sunday it is hard to imagine when they ever will be. The only blot on Ole Gunnar Solskjær’s copybook since taking over from José Mourinho was the initial Champions League defeat by Paris Saint-Germain, and now that setback has been overcome against all expectation there is a case for arguing that United can still regard themselves undefeated under their new manager.
If that is a tad too generous what is unarguably true is that Solskjær is out on his own with nine straight away wins and a nice line in can-do optimism. Not even Ferguson’s mind games ever worked that well, and the debate over the permanent position has moved on from whether United ought to offer the job to the Norwegian to how they can possibly resist such an astonishingly successful audition.
Related: Solskjær believes Marcus Rashford can be a goal machine for United
(Before the weekend’s fixtures)
Related: Nurture and nature the keynotes as Solskjær displays complete knowhow | Barney Ronay
Continue reading...