Pep Guardiola insists Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is strong enough to ride out the storm at Manchester United despite coming under increased pressure as a result of their Champions League exit in midweek. Manchester City boss Guardiola believes Solskjaer is the victim of the cycle of instant judgement in modern football, with his job the source of speculation ahead of Saturday’s Old Trafford derby. United’s exit at the group stages of the Champions League on Wednesday has added to the pressure Solskjaer was under at Old Trafford, but Guardiola insists that is part of the game now and that his counterpart across the city won’t be paying it too much attention.
Pep Guardiola said “We know it, that’s why we get a lot of salary!, It is important to know the value of Solskjaer is there, there is no doubt about this. I don’t have to give him support because he is strong enough and knows how this job works and when we win we are a genius and when we lose we have to be sacked. It happens at United and all the clubs around the world – this is the reality, [We prepare] thinking we’re going to face the best version of them, especially talk a lot about what we have to do, It’s not a knockout game, it is three more points – important of course because of the quality of the opponent but there are a lot of fixtures to come and we try to win our games.”
