Boss pleased by lofty position

• zocoss

  9 Nov 10, 09:47

  Ole Gunnar Solskjaer set to quit Manchester United for Molde

  • Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in talks about manager's job in Norway
  • Former Manchester United striker could go in January

   

  

  Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has been at Manchester United for 14 years. Photograph: Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images

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  Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is in advanced talks to end his 14-year association with Manchester United and become manager of the Norwegian club Molde.

  Solskjaer, currently Sir Alex Ferguson's reserve-team manager, has turned down the job twice before and indicated earlier this season that he wanted to remain at Old Trafford but negotiations have reopened and there are reports in Norway of the 37-year-old flying into Molde on Tuesday.

  His representative, Jim Solbakken, spent today at the Aker Stadium talking to the Molde director, Tarje Nordstrand Jacobsen, with a view to the former United striker taking over in January.

  The club's chairman, Erik Berg, said tonight: "It's no secret we have worked intensely to get Ole Gunnar but we have not signed a contract yet. I can't guarantee a press conference next week but, to put it this way, I will be delighted to welcome you back."

• Rooney9

  10 Nov 10, 23:31

  

  Despite the all-consuming nature of this evening's Manchester derby, Sir Alex Ferguson is not losing sight of the bigger picture: catching Chelsea.

  The reigning Premier League champions have led the way throughout 2010/11 and, for all the talk of power shifts between the Red and Blue factions of Manchester, Sir Alex admits his side's main focus has to be reining in Carlo Ancelotti's side.

  When asked about the challenge of seeing off the inflated ambition of Roberto Mancini's side, Sir Alex retorted: "It's not as big a challenge as Chelsea. Excuse me, Chelsea won the league last season. That's our challenge. We have to chase Chelsea and we will.

  "If you don't recognise who won the league the year before, you're very foolish. It's not easy winning the league, even if it was only by a point. They still won the league and they're a very experienced, formidable side and anybody who finishes above Chelsea will win the league."

  Although ravaged by injuries and illness, United go into this evening's derby on the back of six consecutive wins. While the latest - Saturday's last-gasp triumph over Wolves - was far from vintage Reds, Sir Alex was delighted with his side's inexhaustible spirit.

  "I listened to the BBC's Match of the Day on Saturday night saying we were hopeless," he said. "We'd five world class players out of the team: Valencia, Nani, Owen, Berbatov and Giggs. We're playing with three players upfront with only 30 games between them, and we still won 2-1.

  "I thought our result on Saturday was a fantastic achievement given all the problems we had in the dressing room: Vida and Evra struggling really badly, Scholesy I couldn't use but I got 15 minutes out of him, and when he came on he was nothing like Scholesy, but the effect of being on the pitch made a difference, just through his presence.

  "So the achievement of ours on Saturday, with our young players, was an amazing achievement. That's what we've got to concentrate on: ourselves. It doesn't matter where the challenge comes from in football, you have to accept them."

• Rooney9

  14 Nov 10, 04:04

  Sir Alex bemoaned United’s slow start at Villa Park but was ultimately pleased with the team’s fighting spirit.
  
  The Reds conceded twice in quick succession midway through the second half and looked destined for a first defeat of the season before goals from Federico Macheda and Nemanja Vidic rescued a dramatic point.
  
  The draw was United's sixth from seven away games in the league this season, but Sir Alex admitted the result at Villa Park could have been much worse.
  
  “We could have lost six goals in the second half,” he said. “They hit the woodwork twice and their outside right, Marc Albrighton, has missed two great chances. We were all over the place, to be honest with you.
  
  “We waited too long to get intensity, that desire to win, into our game. It didn’t show until [we were 2-0 down].
  
  "With our club, though, you can never say there's no way back. I brought Kiko and Obertan on and they changed the game. They showed great life and adventure. I [took off my two strikers] but I could have taken 10 players off. We didn't perform well today."
  
  The Reds boss may not have been pleased with much of United’s performance but he was at pains to point out that Aston Villa deserve plenty of credit for taking a 2-0 lead.
  
  “I think the emotion with which Villa played kept them at a high boiling point. Tackles – some of them today were fair, some of them weren’t, but the referee allowed things to go – can sometimes make for a great game. And we saw a great game today.
  
  “You have to give great credit to Aston Villa for keeping that emotional aspect of their game up for the whole 90 minutes. They got stuck in, they tackled, they fought… and the crowd kept them going. All their young players, with their energy, made it a very difficult day for us.”
  
  As tough as Aston Villa made it for the Reds, United rallied from 2-0 down to draw 2-2. And while Sir Alex must have arrived at Villa Park eyeing victory, he admits he can’t be too disappointed with the draw given the uphill task United faced with only 10 minutes to play.

  Today was a different type of match than the previous ones [we’ve drawn]. We’re worried about the nature of how we lost those early points. But when you’re 2-0 down with 10 minutes to go and you get a point you have to be pleased."

• Rooney9

  21 Nov 10, 19:27

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  Sir Alex Ferguson feels his side are in the right place at the right time after results in Manchester, the Midlands and North London left United level on points with league leaders Chelsea.
  
  The boss is beginning to relish the prospect of facing Arsenal and Chelsea in back to back league games before Christmas, and who could blame him after hearing of the Gunners' 3-2 home loss to Tottenham and the Blues' away defeat to Birmingham on Saturday - the champions' second reverse in a row and their fourth of the league season overall.
  
  "We missed a lot of chances in the last 20 minutes against Wigan, we could have done our goal difference the power of good," Sir Alex told MUTV. "But while it wasn't a great performance, it was competent and if you'd asked me at the start of the day, would I have taken joint top spot at the end of it, I would have said yes.
  
  "It's been a good day for us, no question about that. This league is without doubt a high-quality league now. All the games you play are very difficult. You saw that last week when a young Aston Villa team came out and set about us. It was the same again today."
  
  Sir Alex also said "I'll take that" to the fair criticism that United are all but top of the league without playing particularly well.
  
  "I think we know ourselves that come the second half of the season we'll definitely get better," he said. "At this moment in the time, we just need to be in that bit at the top of the league. We're joint top with Chelsea now and we've got another home game next week against Blackburn. Then we're away to Blackpool and after that we've got the two big games against Arsenal at home, then Chelsea away."
  
  The boss felt his side weathered a physical storm against Wigan who were reduced to nine men just after the hour mark - rightly in his opinion.
  
  "I thought Wigan were very aggressive, a lot of really aggressive challenges tested the referee throughout the game," said Sir Alex. "In the first half we had a lot of free-kicks and Wigan put themselves about, there's no doubt about that.
  
  "The centre-back [Antolin Alcaraz, Wigan captain] made a few fouls in the first half and when you do that you ride your luck. It was a silly challenge on Darren Fletcher [for Alcaraz's second yellow card] because Darren was going back towards his own goal. The second [sending off] was clear. I thought the boy Rodallega was off the ground when he challenged [Rafael]. I need to see it again though, as I'm not sure."
  
  Sir Alex's main gripe with his own players' "competent" performance was that they didn't turn up the tempo or heat on the opposition until late in the game - a familiar pattern in the current campaign.
  
  "In the main we had a lot of the ball without really doing anything. What we're finding and what I'm thinking about is that we seem to be playing all our best football in the last 20 minutes of games. We need to get more quickness in our play in the first half of matches. I thought we were a wee bit slow in the build-up. We had control of the game, though, and when we have that, we're always capable of getting the goal we need."