If Sir Jim Ratcliffe and the gang need any advice on Manchester United players, they know who to call. Not Sir Alex Ferguson, but the best United manager after Ferguson. On Thursday, we got yet another confirmation that Solskjaer has very good flair.
The Manchester United players had been through two physically and mentally tough games against Liverpool and Arsenal. Southampton took advantage of this at Old Trafford, in what Ruben Amorim called “tougher than the previous two”. Manchester United played this time with the expectation of winning, it looked like we were going to get a repeat of Erik ten Hag’s rollercoaster ride, with a win against strong opposition, then a loss against weaker opposition.
Amad Diallo shook United out of this pattern with a hat-trick from the 82nd minute!
Before the game, the local newspaper in Manchester had highlighted Solskjaer’s prediction from 2021 about Amad Diallo as a rising star.
“Solskjaer was right. Amad needed time. United signed him as an 18-year-old with a view to the future. Nevertheless, he was ready for first-team play in the second half of last season, but ten Hag repeatedly overlooked him – both then and at the start of this season, wrote the Manchester Evening News.
Last week came the contract extension with Amad Diallo, the local newspaper points out that Solskjaer saw it coming.
“By tying him to the club until 2030, United are clearly showing that they plan to make him a key player, as Solskjaer predicted,” the newspaper wrote about Diallo’s contract extension.
On Wednesday, the 22-year-old hammered in a hat-trick for an extremely important win for Amorim and United. Ruben Amorim explains after the Southampton game that even Diallo’s presence on the pitch puts pressure on the opponents.
“He doesn’t always challenge the opponents, but they still have to take his qualities into account and he pushes the opponents into his own half and into his own box. Players with such qualities are incredibly important. We didn’t play a particularly good game, but that’s when we need performances like that,” the United manager said after the game.
Solskjaer saw it already in 2021.
