Solskjaer Needs To Embrace Feel Good Factor & Tie Down Key Man United Stars

It’s three wins out of three for interim boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer at Manchester United, with AFC Bournemouth the latest side to taste defeat at the hands of United this month.

The Red Devils have scored twelve goals in those wins and the Norwegian has brought smiles back to the Man United faithful.

Ole has also brought back a ruthless attacking mentality back to Old Trafford and star players like Paul Pogba, Anthony Martial, Marcus Rashford and Jesse Lingard have all looked like top quality footballers again.

Now some will say The Cherries, Huddersfield Town and Cardiff City aren’t the hardest of opponents and that Solskjaer will have much tougher encounters to come and games against the likes of Manchester City, PSG, Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool will be the games that he gets judged on as a manager.

That might be very true but in fairness Jose Mourinho, during his last six months in charge of the club, struggled against similar teams as those that Ole has managed to put to the sword. The team are playing with a real swagger and with genuine happiness that Jose seemed to drain from them.

With that in mind, Manchester United’s board and their caretaker boss need to do their upmost at this current time to offer bumper deals to top players like David de Gea and young forward Martial.

At the end of November, The Guardian reported that United had triggered a clause in De Gea’s contract to keep the goalkeeper at the club until 2020. That news wasn’t really what the fans wanted to hear, they wanted to find out that David had signed a new longterm deal.

The goalie has so far hesitated in putting pen to paper on a better contract. It’s believed that the Spaniard wasn’t enjoying the stagnation that the club were in under Mourinho. Things have dramatically changed now and the team are playing with real belief. You just have to watch United play under Solskjaer to see that the team’s morale and spirit is high once again.

Maybe United can show De Gea that things are changing for the better and that they can build a title challenging squad under a new gaffer.

Martial had experienced a fair few run-ins with his former boss Mourinho. According to The Sun, the Portuguese coach verbally attacked the Frenchman for not coming straight back to preseason training after the birth of his child during the summer:

“He should be here, and he is not here.” 

Anthony also spent plenty of time on the sidelines under Jose. The former Chelsea and Real Madrid manager seemed to struggle to unleash Martial from his shackles and get the best out of him.

Under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Martial seems to be a starter as long as he’s fit. In his two appearances under the Norwegian, the French international has scored one and assisted for a teammate. Importantly he’s also not being asked to show as much defensive discipline as Mourinho asked from him.

The twenty-three year old currently leads Man Utd’s scoring charts with his eight Premier League strikes and he has the skill-set to be one of the world’s best attackers.

Now that he’s playing regularly and that United are playing attractive, fluid football it could be the ideal time to sit him down and give him the contract that he wants.

Oh and by the way, Marcus Rashford is only contracted till 2020. He’s thriving playing through the middle under the new gaffer and he’s another who is finally playing week in and week out. He’s also been superb under Solskjaer and the club should be pushing for him to put pen to paper on a new lucrative contract offer.

Ole knows that he needs to get positive results and get the Red Devils further up the table if he stands a chance of getting the manager’s job on a permanent basis.

Another thing that he’ll need to do is keep the best talent at the club. Very rarely under legendary boss Sir Alex Ferguson did they lose their best players, United need to create that aura again.

Speaking to The Evening Standard, the interim manager stated that the top players need to understand that playing for Man United is huge, that the grass isn’t greener elsewhere and that he’ll urge them to stay at Old Trafford:

“I know the club want them to sign because they are top quality players,”

“It’s down to the players but when you’re at Man Utd there isn’t a lot of greener grass on the other side.”

“You are at the best place. It’s the biggest club in the world.”

“For me, I would hope I can help or guide these players to maybe tip them over to thinking they want to stay at this club.”

If Ole Gunnar Solskjaer can tie players like David de Gea, Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial down to longer term deals then his success at Old Trafford will be classed as huge, even if it’s just for six months!

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