Sir Alex Ferguson
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has admitted Manchester United have fallen behind Liverpool and are aware of the pressure of winning their next Premier League title before the Reds. Speaking at his pre-match press conference, the United boss admitted that his side are chasing Liverpool and already under pressure to close down the gap when quizzed about ensuring Ferguson’s hard work is not swiftly undone.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer said “It’s a massive rivalry because of the history of the two clubs. The amount of titles and trophies these two clubs have won and the history between us, the two cities and the football clubs. It’s a rivalry that you have to take up and hold your hand up and say that they are a very good club, a very good team. You have to make sure that you are better than them. The last four years they have been tremendous. We’re chasing them. We’ve chased the last four years and the results, we’ve been behind them. Now we’ve taken steps but the next step is to, again, be above them because we were above them last season. But that’s history and hopefully this season we can achieve something better. I expect us to improve in the next couple of months, definitely. Of course Cristiano (Ronaldo) has been here for a month, Jadon’s (Sancho) been here for two months. Marcus (Rashford) is just coming back, Edinson (Cavani) had a long run up to when he could join us, so I expect us to improve, definitely. It is exciting to have these types of players to work with and it is about finding the balance between width, how big we’re going to make the pitch, how Edinson and Cristiano, two of the best box players in world football. Then you’ve got exciting wingers, goalscorers and I’m sure we will improve. We have lost some points lately that we are not happy with but we are in the situation we are in and we have to take it from here and really get going. There is no time to lose because even though it is a long season the teams we are competing against are not going to give us too many options to catch them.”
The Norwegian’s former Red Devils manager Sir Alex Ferguson famously vowed to knock Liverpool off their perch as his side chased down the Reds’ total of 18 league titles, with the legendary Scot ultimately succeeding and leading United to their 20th crown in his final season before retirement in 2012/13. However, United have failed to be crowned champions of England since Ferguson’s retirement, with Liverpool’s 2019/20 success under Jurgen Klopp ensuring they are just one title behind their bitter rivals at the top of English football’s honours list. Solskjaer did lead United to a second-place finish above an injury-struck Liverpool last season, but, after an inconsistent start to the campaign, his side already trail the Reds by four points heading into Sunday’s match between the two sides at Old Trafford.
