Manchester United 1 - 0 Watford: Solskjaer's post-match comments

Manchester United were 1-0 victors on Saturday evening as they scraped past Championship side Watford to progress to the fourth round of the Emirates FA Cup.

Manchester United 1 - 0 Watford: Solskjaer's post-match comments
tom-milo
By Tom Millington

Manchester United's hopes of silverware were boosted after a disappointing midweek as Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's men overcame a battling Watford side in the FA Cup.

Although The Red Devils didn't perform at their scintillating best, the game proved to be a relatively comfortable evening for the home side as Solskjaer gave minutes to a plethora of "squad players".

Captaining his boyhood club for the first time, Scott McTominay headed home in the fifth minute from Alex Telles' corner. 

Despite a positive start, United squandered opportunities but ultimately ground out the victory via a one goal margin.

  • Solskjaer's thoughts:

In response to the game being labelled scrappy, Solskjaer told MUTV:

"We're through, that's the main thing. We started the game really bright. I didn't expect us to start this well as it's a team who haven't really played together and haven't played for a while. After 15 or 20 minutes we stopped playing simple football, tried to complicate things and got counter attacked a few times."

When asked if McTominay should score more goals, the United boss said:

"We've said that to him so many times. He's strong, quick, can leap, and has good timing so he should get more goals. He's developing really nicely. I wanted to see how he took to getting the captain's armband and he did really well, he didn't shrink. He normally leads anyway but I just wanted to test him."

In response to being asked about lots of players getting minutes, the Norwegian responded:

"It's very important. We had a tough game midweek and have another tough game this midweek. Most of the teams have picked very strong sides because they have a week until the next game. I didn't have that luxury so it made sense to make certain changes.

"The staff are doing an amazing job in laying everything out for the players. They look after the players fantastically but the players look after themselves too. Don't forget that it's a hard time for everyone but getting home and recovering is now the main thing."

  • What's next for United?

Victory in the FA Cup has taken Ole's men one step closer to getting that first victory under Solskjaer that the red side of Manchester is so desperately craving.

The Reds travel to Turf Moor to take on Burnley in the Premier League on Tuesday evening before making their way to Anfield on Sunday for a top-of-the-table clash against arch rivals Liverpool.