Ole Gunnar Solskjaer told the press this afternoon that the next step for his Manchester United team is to win a trophy.
There’s a golden opportunity to do that in the Europa League as Manchester United go into the second leg against LASK on Wednesday night with five away goals.
The boss provided a team update after revealing his 30-man squad for the remainder of the Europa League. He also confirmed plans for the team to stay in Germany for the rest of their time in the tournament.
“There has been a discussion to how tournament pans out,” Solskjaer said in his pre-match press conference, as quoted by the Manchester Evening News. “At the moment we are staying, so we will be staying in Germany.”
The Europa League is going to be excited because it’s been turned into a mini-tournament, but it will give Ole Gunnar Solskjaer different problems to get his training right because the Premier League kicks-off 2-3 weeks when this competition ends.
That’s not to say I don’t want United to go out and win the Europa League outright. I think it’s important they win it because it will give the team a valuable taste of success. I strong believe the FA Cup would’ve been ours if he performed better against Chelsea in the semi-final defeat.
When asked about the team, Solskjaer confirmed that Jesse Lingard would start. The midfielder was sat beside him for today’s virtual press conference.
He was also asked about Luke Shaw and Axel Tuanzebe who were both ruled out of the Europa League squad due to injuries.
“Axel started getting niggles and had to have an operation in his foot. He’ll be back early September. Same with Luke, should be ready for when the league season starts.
“Jesse will be starting tomorrow, but the team won’t be too different from LASK in March.”
Solskjaer added: “The players want to play, they don’t want a break. It is not easy to say ‘no, you’re resting.’ I hope the players need to win like I do. For me we go into the tournament with players wanting to win, and we won’t be giving them a break.”
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