Jürgen Locadia proves his worth, Hart loses out to Heaton, Palace need reinforcements and Arsenal need a defenceAfter Ole Gunnar Solskjær rained praise down on Marcus Rashford, calling him the “catalyst” for Manchester United’s pressing game, Romelu Lukaku might wonder when he will next be given a start. Rashford scored and created Paul Pogba’s opener in the 4-1 win. Asked about Lukaku, who was a late, scoring replacement, Solskjær said: “At times he’s a good target man but if you tell him to be a target man he’ll never face the goal, today he was side on and he’s got the attributes of a top, top striker. We need to work on his fitness but I’m delighted even though he...
The stories Gary Neville and Robbie Savage tell of 1990s initiations can be seen as lads being lads but it is time the club admitted that in some case the culture damaged livesAs Gary Neville will be able to testify, making love to Clayton Blackmore in front of the entire Manchester United first team was not the most pleasurable experience of his years as an up-and-coming player in the club’s apprentice ranks.Not the real Clayton Blackmore, obviously. But the players who set up the game called “Shag Sunbed” – maybe you remember Blackmore’s all-year tan – did their best to make it authentic, sticking a life-size picture of him on the treatment table, slipping on some Barry White and then...
United played with a smile against Cardiff, and whatever happens dull football is unlikely to be the Norwegian’s undoingOle Gunnar Solskjær looked natty in club suit and tie as he posed for pre-game photographs, then he sat on the bench and had to wait precisely three minutes and three seconds to see the opening goal of his Manchester United tenure. The Norwegian pumped both fists after Cardiff’s wall could do nothing to stop Marcus Rashford’s swerving effort from flying past Neil Etheridge in the home goal, then hugged his No 2, Mike Phelan, as Michael Carrick watched alongside them. Television pictures cut to Ed Woodward, the executive vice‑chairman, grinning in the posh seats. If Solskjær’s brief is to return thrills-and-spills...
Manchester United are right to see the Spurs manager as their best option but whether he will say yes is far from certainThere is no question that Manchester United have identified the right man to fill the Old Trafford vacancy in Mauricio Pochettino; the Tottenham manager is an even more impressive candidate now than he was in 2016, when he was shortlisted as a replacement for Louis van Gaal but considered riskier than José Mourinho because of his lack of trophies.If that has come to be viewed as a blunder, then United are in a position to correct it, even if it ends up costing north of £40m and Pochettino would be leaving a better team and more stable club...
Manchester United’s new caretaker manager transformed the style of play at Molde, one of his former players revealsI still remember the day Ole Gunnar Solskjær was presented as our manager for the first time in 2011. To be honest, you felt a bit shocked and it was a bit of a “wow moment”. Obviously, we knew him very well from his playing career and knew what he had done with Manchester United’s reserves.The way he worked on the training pitch was a bit of a shock, too. In most parts of Norway, they have sworn by the so-called “Drillo football”, stemming from the 1990s and the success Egil “Drillo” Olsen had with the Norwegian national team. That style of football...